Stars Rise

X. "Dance With Me"

Cristo tried to keep one eye on the boss, but everyone was watching them now as he harassed Nova and they would notice him checking on their host every ten seconds.

"I don't know how you know my name," said Nova, "or why you say it like you know me, but it's not funny." The irritation in her voice sounded so natural that for a second he wondered ... there was always the possibility that he had lost his mind, wasn't there? — but as she finished with, "I'm not playing your game," he began to slow clap.

She wasn't fooling him. But if he was being honest, he had no idea what her intentions were. It was impossible for her to be here. It was impossible for her to be a woman named Nova Dasilva. It was impossible that she had gone back in time further than him to establish a fake life here. It was impossible that she would lie to him and manipulate him and fight for any other cause than to change the outcome of the company election tomorrow.

"Dance with me," said Cristo.

"You're making me uncomfortable," she said, not loudly, but somehow she attracted a rescuer from all the way across the roof. Half of Justin Marius's face was hidden behind a white mask. "Is everything all right, Lady Dasilva?"

Glad for his own fox mask, Cristo interrupted her answer with his own performance. "Dasilva? I must have been mistaken after all. I'm so sorry. I thought you were someone else. Please allow me a dance, to atone for my rude behavior." Cristo extended a hand to her, needing desperately to make a quick exit.

Marius wasn't ready to leave Nova alone with him. He inserted his own hand to shake. "A pleasure to meet you, Mr..."

"Julian Somnare," Cristo gave as a fake name.

Then he went back to trying to get her to himself. "I'm really, really sorry."

XI. Aurelian Nova Dasilva

Nova couldn't say no after an apology like that . . . or she wasn't about to, because now she was dying of curiosity.

Julian Somnare was so full of shit.

Acting as if he knew her when she didn't know him? Now he says he made a mistake? That he had thought she was someone else? She forgot about anything and everything else and let him lead her to the dance floor.

She would get to the bottom of this. The other dancers opened up some wiggle room for them and Julian Somnare twirled her out onto the floor and took a single orienting rotation, hand perched familiarly at her waist, and remained in place once he got back to where he started, walking on the spot to the beat, looking beyond her over her shoulder. Odd.

So now she's not who he thought she was. That doesn't add up. One second he's talking about assassins at the party, and the next he wants to dance? As if I'm about to reward his bad behavior, she thought. Well, too late for that, but I'm going to get to the bottom of this. Don't know where to start. Who had he thought I was, what's he trying to say about assassins, and why would they want to talk to me? Why does he want to dance with me if he's got the wrong woman after all? Who's the woman he confused me with — and is that woman liaising with assassins? Start with something easy. "Who exactly are you, Mr. Somnare?"

He crouched down and drew close so his eyes were inches from hers, and Nova was startled to find that he had reverted to his previous delusion. "Listen, you have to drop the act," he whispered as if to a familiar confident. "If something went wrong, you can tell me. I know everyone's staring at us, but they won't hear. I don't think."

Every set of eyes nearby seemed to watch their dance.

"If you keep up the act, I won't know what to do, Nova," he said.

It hit her that he had used her name before. He knew her name. He actually knew her name. He really did think she was someone she wasn't. Delusional. He was insane. And when she didn't answer, he leaned away, still holding her eyes like they were best friends, and said, "I'd rather you told me what's going on, but if you're going to act like you don't know me, pretend to be someone else, then you leave me in such doubt as to the state of our master plan that I just might decide not to save Potestas's life after all. Maybe it's not a good idea. It could have, you know, unintended consequences."

"What do you mean, save his life?" Nova gripped his shoulders hard. "Save it from what?"

Julian didn't answer that. "This changes everything, doesn't it?" he said — to himself. "Do I save him or not?"

"Please—" she started.

"No, no, don't answer that question. I don't want to allot valuable cognitive resources toward puzzling out what you mean and whether you mean it because you're you and you're still on my side, or because you think you're not you, or because you've switched sides and you're leading me into a trap." The words meant little to Nova. What sides? A trap? All she wanted to know was if the boss was in danger. Despite the rambling, Julian acted like someone in control of his mind. His mannerisms cool and collected, his speech clear. Almost persuasive, if it weren't for the nonsensical content.

Nova tried to break in, but he spoke over her. "This whole 'Lady Dasilva' thing is a weird play, it seems like more trouble than it's worth, but what do I know? As long as you're 'Lady Dasilva,' I'm on my own. And now I have to watch over my shoulder so you can't stab me in the back."

"Of course you should save the boss's life," said Nova. From what went unasked this time. She ignored everything else he had to say because none of it seemed to mean anything. "Please, you can't let anything happen to him."

"I don't know," said Julian in a just-being-difficult tone inappropriate to the gravity of the situation.

"Ilan has been like a father to me," said Nova.

Julian nodded as if he believed her and at the same time gave her a look that managed to be sarcastic to say he didn't, but he would play along. Eyebrows raised, arms crossed, he laughed at her. "I need convincing," he said, "and there's only one person in the world I listen to, but apparently you are not her." He was joking. Who could joke about something like this?

What a lunatic. But that didn't mean Ilan wasn't in danger.

A/N Thank you for reading Stars Rise, a novel in the Constellations universe. This book will update often. Please stay tuned for the chapters to come, and if you like the story, you will love the short Constellations on my profile: When Inyanga Goes to Magicians College, Bay Works At the Cloud, and It Feels As If A Spell Has Been Placed Over Izara's Neighborhood.

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