Page 1 of Nightmare's Dance

Ember

My excitement warred with nerves as I stood in the dark backstage and rubbed rosin on my hands. The gritty powder dried my skin, made it stickier, and aided my grip. Which was good, because my hands were coated in sweat. This was far from my first performance, and it wouldn’t be my last, but I never quite got over the pre-performance jitters, no matter how many times I took to the air in front of an audience.

“Ember,” my partner Geraint said, his soft Irish lilt music to my ears as he came up behind me and put his hands on my arms. “You’re going to be fantastic, Spark.” He leaned over and kissed my neck. My skin goose-bumped at his soft touch, but my nerves settled at the familiar move.

I grinned up at him, appreciating the contact and admiring the way the skin crinkled around his stormy gray eyes when he smiled at me. “So are you, my knight.”

He planted a kiss on my forehead before taking the rosin from me. We had two acts in this show, the second, and the last. The announcer for the cabaret dinner theater we performed at four nights a week was just finishing his introduction for the first act, a new friend of mine and very talented lyrist, Casey Stoll.

This was not a family friendly performance, and Casey practically made love to her aerial hoop as she flowed through her routine. She made the skill and strength necessary to hang in the air and move fluidly from one pose to another in the metal lyra look effortless. The lighting and her costume added to the illusion of her sensual performance.

I’d seen the act so many times by this point, but I was still in awe of her abilities as I watched from the dark backstage area. She was truly giving it her all tonight on our last performance of the contract.

Geraint and I would be up next for our combined adagio and aerial straps routine. Taking a deep, calming breath, I leaned back for a moment into Geraint’s solid warmth. The faint musty odor of old sweat from the backstage area mingled with the familiar whiff of my knight’s personal aroma. He reminded me of the woods at home after a summer storm. Geraint was shirtless to best show off his muscles and wore white pants that fit him perfectly. That I managed not to trace the V his muscles made on his stomach had more to do with not wanting to smear rosin on him than it did with my self-control.

I wore a matching white leotard with panels that mimicked my skin tone to make it look like I wore a two-piece bikini. They were all blinged out to make us sparkle under the stage lighting. I loved the bling, and I’d spent more of my life in leotards than I had in street clothing, so the revealing costume was comfortable. It looked fantastic under the lights. Geraint was also used to being on display.

We’d danced and flown together since we were children, and never once had he dropped me in a performance—a secret nightmare of mine. It had been years since he’d dropped me in practice. I knew he’d always be there to catch me, and my own abilities were without question. There was nothing to worry about. Pushing away the butterflies in my stomach, I made sure I had rosin everywhere we needed extra grip.

The roar of the cheering crowd had me standing tall, though they applauded for my friend. Soon, their gasps of wonder and cries of enjoyment would be for me and my knight.

The announcer praised Casey and called out for Spark and her Knight, our stage names. Geraint kissed the top of my head and then we were up.

The lights dimmed, the first strains of our music sounded, and I scampered out onto the stage and struck a pose while Geraint took his spot just out of view. The light came up, shining on me and basically hiding the audience from my view behind the intensity.

Our story for this piece of choreography was a classic damsel in distress saved by her knight in shining armor. My moves showed my distress, and I poured as much emotion as I could into the act as I spun around and finally collapsed backward into a swoon.

But no! My savior caught me before I hit the ground. The audience gasped, not having seen Geraint creep out of the shadows until his arms wrapped around me, saving me from what would otherwise have been a hard fall to the stage. He had a nearly supernatural ability to remain unnoticed if he wished it, and we used it to our advantage on stage.

He lifted me, and the music paused dramatically while we stared at each other, me feigning shock, him not having to fake his adoration.

The next minutes were a sensual dance of two people getting to know each other, a dramatic upbeat to the music as we mimicked a first kiss, and then my knight lifted me into the air. I slipped my hands into the black straps suspended from the ceiling—cleverly hidden by the lighting and stage design until I took to the air.

I loved flying in the straps, in the silks, and even in harder apparatuses like the trapeze and the lyra. They might leave more bruises, but they all gave me flight, and I lived for time in the air.

Geraint spun me by my ankle as I supported myself by my arms, back arched as I half turned myself toward the ceiling, strap and arm going under my back to keep me in position. After holding the pose for a moment and reveling in the familiar bite of the strap on my skin and the pull of muscles in my shoulder, I flowed through the shapes while my knight spun me until I went up into an arch, his hands under my back. I freed one wrist from the straps and turned, releasing it into Geraint’s hand. My second favorite thing besides flying was having him in the air with me.

With a few steps, he took my hand and spun us in a wide circle as we showed the connection the knight and his lady formed as the music supported the story we created with soothing, sensual tones.

My knight released my hand, separating us, and the music picked up speed a little frantically. The lovers were separated! Would they ever find each other again? Our movements along with the music told our story. But yes, the lady and her knight found each other. The music became triumphant as we repeated our sensual dance, this time in the air. We entwined our arms, or our legs, or both as we flowed together from position to position, spinning and showing the love of the knight and his lady and the bond they formed through our dance.

Finally, I released the strap completely, spine arched as Geraint kept me from the ground with only an arm under my back.

Our spin slowed, and he lowered us both until we gracefully touched down. He lifted me above his head by the waist. Then he lowered me, as we finished our piece with another suggestive floor dance, until finally, we leaned away from each other, arms gripped together, counterbalancing, and sank to the ground. Once we laid flat on the stage the lights went down and the audience cheered.

As soon as it was dark, we got to our feet and hurried off stage so the next act could go on.

“Damn, you two are fire together.” Casey pulled me in for a hug, stopping me on our way to our dressing room. We had to change and make sure we touched up our makeup in time for the last act. It was our doubles silks routine.

“Casey, when are you going to marry that lyra?” I joked.

She laughed as she headed back to the stage to wait for her next piece, spinning LED poi. She said she preferred fire, but the venue couldn’t handle the requirements for actual flames, so LEDs it was. “Ferdie and I are going for a long engagement.” Ferdie was the name she’d given to her hoop.

We continued on our way.

“Geraint, that was perfect, as always,” I said once we were in our dressing room. A glorified closet where we could store our things and change our costumes. The smell of our sweat mingled pleasantly from the aroma of fine dining drifting in from the restaurant. I loved the way our scents mingled and complemented each other, as if accenting how we belonged together.

If we hadn’t had one last act, I would have pressed my lips to his and smeared our makeup all over our faces. Soon… Very soon I’d have my way with him in our apartment and then we’d be heading to one last private show our manager and rigger, Robby, had set up for us. After that, we had a summer at home teaching at my parents’ fitness camp for kids and teens.

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