I took a slow breath and when I reached the stage, Constantine bent, long arms reaching down and slender but strong hands wrapping around my waist. There was a charge of energy rushing through me at his touch, but he lifted me from the floor and onto the stage with no effort. Up close, his bone structure was even more unusual, cheekbones too high and jaw too broad. His grip was firm but not painful around my waist, and yet it was as if he'd fastened me in place by fierce pins and I would be unable to move on my own again until released.
"You're a pretty creature," Constantine said, and the words were carefully spoken and somehow didn't fit together.
"Thank you, sir," I answered, but I couldn't find my usual charm as those metallic eyes flicked over me.
I'd had sex with any number of unusual monsters during my time at the theater, some quite impossible to imagine the act with, but none had unsettled me like this demon. I wished Mr. Reddy hadn't warned me, but even so, I think I would've been nervous in Constantine's presence.
"There's no rehearsal today," Ronan said, and there was a beat of his wings as he leapt up to the stage, brushing my hair and pulling Constantine's gaze away.
But the demon's hands remained around my waist, and when I tried to move, they were as secure as an iron gate.
"Just making the introduction," Myra said, a little more easy and flippant now that Constantine's focus had been claimed by me. "But you're right—we start rehearsals tomorrow. Beth's act and…and Mr. Constantine will be the only new additions. I'll start the rest of the casting now."
"Come on, Hazelnut, let's plan Beth's bit," Ronan said, and out of the corner of my eye his outstretched hand hovered, waiting for Constantine to release me.
Over the tall demon's shoulder, I saw Nireas standing from his bench, all three eyes narrowed and glaring at us.
"I should like to speak to you, creature," Constantine said, his voice almost a whisper.
"Her name is Hazel," Nireas snapped.
Creature. Between the word and Constantine's focus, a little bubble of panic rose up in my throat. Did he know? Mr. Reddy wouldn't have told, surely. He relied on my disguise, on the human girl monsters paid to watch. And yet…
"Yes," I said, nodding and reaching trembling hands down to those immovable fingers.
His grip loosened immediately, and I released a breath I hadn't been holding, a wavering smile rising up to my lips.
"I'll show you your dressing room," I offered. "We can talk there."
A boot stepped forward at my side, and I shot Ronan a warning glance, my smile still fixed in place. His jaw was tight and his eyes were fixed to Constantine, but he didn't move as I led the demon back to the wings, ignoring the tall shadow of Nireas out of the corner of my other eye.
"She always gets the tricky ones, don't she?" one of the girls whispered on the stage.
"Can't say I mind this time," someone else answered.
"Did you travel far to join the company?" I asked, raising my voice over their whispers, not that I thought it would do much against a demon's hearing.
"Not very," Constantine said, his eyes still glittering in the dark. Not glowing like Hunter's or Ronan's, but catching every stray trace of light and reflecting it like a mirror, I realized.
"Are you nervous to be on stage?"
"No."
I licked my lips. He wasn't chatty, was he? There were only so many of my usual questions I could think to ask, when he seemed so disinclined to speaking.
But I would try again. "Why…why are you called the Gemini?"
"I will show you," he said. The stairs down were almost too narrow, but he held me fast to his side, our hips and shoulders rubbing as we stepped.
Why did you call me "creature"?I wanted to ask, but I was too afraid of the answer.
Everyone was together upstairs, except perhaps Mr. Reddy, so the hall was unnaturally quiet as I walked Constantine down to the dressing room reserved for guest acts. It was at the opposite end of the hallway as my own small room, and I was slightly relieved not to be taking him into my own space.
"We always tidy up for new guest acts," I said, reaching the doorway. It was one of the few rooms with an actual door rather than a charmed curtain, and I pushed it open.
The room was spacious, although we occasionally had to house guest acts elsewhere if they couldn't manage the stairs or were too large to accommodate backstage, but Constantine was one of the more innocuous monsters we'd hosted.
Still, it gave me chills as he shut the door behind us.
There was a lamp burning in the far corner, and two candles lit on a side table by the door, the warring light twisting our shadows on every wall. We stood facing a comfortably sized bed. I knew Mr. Reddy provided lodging for guest acts that needed it outside of the theater, but I was also very well familiar with why there was a bed in a dressing room. Guest acts were often popular with those of us who worked permanently at the theater. I wondered briefly how many would brave the room while Constantine was here.
"Turn around." There was an echo in his words.
Or so I thought until I turned, gasping slightly and blinking at the sight before me. I thought at first the candlelight was playing tricks on me, or my eyes were, as Constantine flickered and blurred. It was as if I was staring at a photograph where the subject had moved before the image was captured. Suddenly, there were two faces, turning in opposite directions on one neck, one red and one blue. Except neither of the faces were Constantine's.
Not all of it, at least.
I stumbled back as two faces became two figures, equally tall but unevenly matched. One was a deep, rich blue, those metallic eyes matching the shimmer of his skin, but his nose led to a disconcerting blank place where the mouth should've been. On the other figure, those glinting eyes were missing, but full lips remained on vibrant red skin. The strange collection of clothes also seemed to have been dispersed between the two figures, the red figure dressed in soft, draping fabrics, the blue one in sharply tailored wool.