Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston Page A

cupboard—”
    “ Winslow …”
    Kelley winced. Tyff only called her by her last name when she was genuinely pissed. “Could you maybe feed him some? Maybe you could entice him out of the tub!”
    “You are a craptastic roommate.”
    “I’ll be back as soon as rehearsal is over.”
    “Crap tas tic.”
    “I’ll owe you forever, Tyff—I promise!”
    “Do not say that. I didn’t hear that. La-la-la…” Tyff stuck her fingers in her ears and was still la-la-laing as Kelley crept out the front door and took off down the hall as fast as her sneakered feet would carry her.
    The last thing she heard as she reached the relative safety of the stairwell was Tyff’s outraged cry. “Is that my French bubble bath?!”
     
    By the time Kelley got to the theater, she wasn’t sure which was making her feel worse: her guilt over leaving Tyff in the lurch, or the restless sleep she’d gotten the night before. As the fairy dancers warmed up onstage, she sat in her dressing room with her head in her hands, fighting off a major headache.
    “Hey, kiddo.”
    Kelley looked up to see Mindi standing in the doorwaywith the corset for Titania’s costume in her hands. It’d had to be taken in rather drastically, and most of the lacing grommets had been replaced.
    “I had Wardrobe do the work on this last night—you should get used to wearing it. See? They added some lace trim to hide the alteration seams. What do you think?”
    “Oh, Mindi, it’s gorgeous!” Kelley ran a finger along the handiwork appreciatively. “It looks brand-new.” She glanced up into the older woman’s face, feeling suddenly guilty. “I guess this means Barbara’s really not coming back, huh?”
    “Frankly, hon, I think it’s better this way. You’re doing a bang-up job—well, at least, you will. You know. I mean it was only your first rehearsal, right?” Mindi shrugged. “And this role needed some new blood, if you ask me. Now let me see how this fits.”
    Mindi turned Kelley to face the mirror and wrapped the stiff, sparkling garment around her rib cage, holding the two ends together at the back.
    “Perfect.”
    Kelley smiled for the first time that day. Getting into costume was always one of the best parts of the whole process for her. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and could almost see a fairy queen lurking in there somewhere. Light glinted off the rhinestone detailing along the top hem and the embroidered front panel of the corset.
    “Hey, Mindi?” Kelley touched her necklace, which also sparkled in the mirrored reflection. “Do you think I can keepthis on for the show?”
    “What is that?” Mindi peered through the half-glasses perched on her nose. “Like a four-leaf clover or something?”
    “Yeah. The stones are green amber. My aunt gave it to me when I was a baby.” Kelley rolled her eyes a little, admitting, “It’s sort of a good-luck charm.”
    “Sure, hon,” Mindi said. “It’s pretty—the green goes with your costume. And as far as I’m concerned, this production can use all the luck it can beg, borrow, or steal!”
    “Thanks, Mindi.”
    “Don’t mention it. Now get your butt out there—you’re due onstage for your bower scene in five.”
    Grabbing her wings from the hook on the door, Kelley ran down the hallway, the exhaustion that had weighed her down all morning left behind in the dressing room.

VIII
    T he Avalon Grande turned out to be an old church converted into a theater, and it held more than one surprise for Sonny and Maddox. Aside from the fact that it was disconcerting to watch a bunch of mortals wandering around pretending they were nobles of the Faerie courts, it was substantially more disconcerting to discover that not all of the actors were, in fact, mortal. It was Maddox who noticed it.
    “Well now,” he murmured in a tone of voice that made Sonny turn and look. “There’s interesting for you.”
    “What? Where?” Sonny craned his neck to see what it was that Maddox had