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black suit shimmering like the night sky. “Theia, a pleasure to have you in our company once again.”
    His voice caused rolling shivers up and down my spine. “Who are you?”
    In response, he only smiled while his gaze roamed my body.
    “I saw you today … at school.”
    He cocked his head. “Did you, now? Would you like to dance?”
    He stepped towards me, and I instinctively moved back a step.
    “No.” I shook my head, and he laughed the way adults laugh when a child amuses them. Despite the chill in my bones, my skin flushed white-hot. “I don’t … dance. I don’t know how anyway.”
    “Then we shall teach you. You of all humans should be a wonderful dancer.”
    “Humans?”
    “Forgive me. I slipped, didn’t I?” He gave an exaggerated shrug. “Still, dancing will be natural to someone like you.”
    “What do you mean, someone like me?”
    “I’ve heard your violin, Theia. It sings like an angel in your hands.”
    Had he been to a concert? Had I seen him before, and that was why I dreamt about him before I met him? Though that explanation seemed safer than any others I’d conjured, I knew it wasn’t real. None of this would be explained by easy coincidence, and that knowledge made me shiver.
    I swallowed around the fear that had settled like a ball in my throat. “Playing music and dancing to music are two different talents … Haden.”
    He pretended he didn’t hear me say his name. “Nonsense. Two different instruments, perhaps.”
    “I’m not an instrument.”
    Haden stared at my lips until I felt them tingle. “You pluck music from your soul and feed it to your violin.”
    “But—”
    He circled me. The heat that trailed him wrapped around me like ribbons, as did his scent. I tried to place the spice but couldn’t name it.
    The second time around, I followed him. As if there were a Maypole between us, we circled slowly, our eyes locked.
    “Hold your arms out to the sides.” I did his bidding without thought. “Look into my eyes and move with me,” he commanded.
    He didn’t touch me like the other couples waltzing, yet he moved to the same steps they did, graceful and lithe. And I moved with him, tenuously at first. His eyes anchored my spirit to his, and my body followed along.
    Still without touching, we relaxed our arms and faced each other palm to palm as we moved into the throng. The energy between our hands sparked, charging the air around us and causing the hair on the back of my neck to rise.
    And I danced.
    The sensation of my spirit’s freedom should have overwhelmed me, undone me. But I danced. I didn’t care that I wore a white cotton nightgown at a formal boogeyman ball. I didn’t care that I danced with the devil. Instead of sensible fear, I rejoiced at the physical freedom I’d never known.
    And I fed the music to my body.
    It was not so different from when I lost myself in my songs, except that I felt it in more than my heart and head. My body felt so alive. I could feel the blood flowing through my veins, keeping rhythm with the percussion of the orchestra.
    The menacing connection between Haden and me strengthened. As long as I looked into his eyes, I knew exactly where his next step would take me. My heart stuttered briefly, and when it regained its rhythm I knew it had synced its beat to his.
    The expression on his face softened and appeared to me unguarded for the first time. “Did you feel that?” he whispered.
    “Yes,” I replied. How had I not seen how young he looked before? He was no older than me. And certainly not menacing.
    “Don’t.” His curt voice cut into me as if he’d just called me a name.
    “Don’t what?”
    “Don’t fall under.” He closed his eyes and turned his head away, breaking the link.
    I tumbled through darkness, awakening in my own bed with a stranger’s heart beating in my chest.
     
    Amelia had a plan.
    It was awful.
    We’d been sitting at our usual bench in the cafeteria. As per unspoken custom, I’d given my