266: Penny
The lights don’t come on all at once.
They bloom.
Soft gold spilling like dawn across the polished floor, delicate and slow, as if the stage is taking a breath before speaking. The hush in the room is total not the kind of silence that’s empty, but the kind that’s sacred. Electric. Expectant.
Luc is at my side. We’re both still as statues, just silhouettes waiting in the slanted light.
And then-
The first notes rise.
They unfurl from the orchestra like petals – slow, sweet, minor chords that climb like vines, aching toward something bigger. I feel it ripple across my skin. My lungs pull in air like it’s the first time
I’ve ever breathed.
And then we move.
Step.
Step.
Turn.
Lift.
Every motion is precise. Weightless. Like falling and flying at once.
I don’t feel my feet against the stage anymore. I don’t feel the pins digging into my scalp or the hard line of the bodice against my ribs. All I feel is this symphony of light and air and music, and the way my heart expands every time Luc’s hand meets mine in perfect sync.
We move together not just two dancers, but two halves of a single whole.
The story begins unfolding in arcs and spirals. The first pas de deux is breathless Luc lifting me into the air like I’m spun from moonlight, his hands firm at my waist, my legs cutting through the
air with elegance I can’t even feel. I don’t think about any of it.
I am it.
Somewhere in the crowd, someone exhales,
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Chapter 266: Penny
I don’t know who,
But I feel it like I’ve taken them with me.
The stage transforms around us.
In scene two, the lighting deepens – golden pools of warmth giving way to glacial blue. It paints across my arms, my cheekbones, my collarbones, as if the moonlight itself is dancing too. The solo is mine. Luc retreats into shadow, and I’m left in the center bare, exposed, and infinite.
I lift my arms and let the silence build.
One beat.
Two.
Three-
And then I leap.
The music explodes.
I spin into the phrase, arabesque melting into pirouette, pirouette into a dramatic fall to the floor – my chest to the stage, fingers splayed like they’re holding on to something invisible. My heart is pounding so loud I swear it’s echoing through the walls.
And then I rise again.
And again.
And again.
–
The music lifts, and so do I into a series of grand jetés that cross the full breadth of the stage. Each one more daring. More breathless. More mine.
By the final leap, I swear the whole world is holding its breath.
When I land, there’s silence.
Not because they aren’t moved but because they are.
It’s as if no one dares break the spell.
And then the applause comes.
Thunderous. Roaring. Alivé.
Chapter 266: Penny
Like they’ve all remembered how to breathe again and how to feet.
I don’t let myself look for anyone in the crowd, but in my bones, I know where he is. Front row. Watching me like I’m the sun.
And I am.
Tonight, I am.
Luc returns, and the pas de deux continues – aching, beautiful, like a love story built from the bones
of old stars. Our fingers brush, we mirror each other’s turns, his arm wraps around my waist and we
spin in the dim light like two souls tied together by silk threads and gravity.
This isn’t just ballet..
This is memory.
This is legacy.
This is everything.
By the time we reach the finale, my body is trembling – not from exhaustion, but from euphoria.
Luc lifts me one final time, my arms stretched above, toes pointed, chin raised toward the lights that burn like stars. And when he sets me down, and we both bow together –
I feel it.
That thing I was afraid wouldn’t come.
That click inside my chest.
Like a door opening.
Like the world whispering: Yes. This was worth it.
When the curtain falls, my lungs collapse with it.
And then I laugh.
A breathless, shaking, almost–disbelieving sound that fills the space between heartbeats.
Luc turns to me, eyes wide. “You were incredible.”
“So were you,” I whisper.
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Chapter 266. Penny
We’re both crying. Not loud. Not ugly. Just quietly. Joyfully, Gratefully.
The curtain rises again for bows, and we take each other’s hands.
When I step forward, alone, the applause crashes again wave after wave of it.
But I only look at one person.
Asher.
He’s on his feet.
And the look on his face?
It tells me I’ve flown higher than I ever thought I could.
–
I blink through the stage lights through the shimmer of sweat on my lashes and watch as flowers fly across the edge of the stage, tossed like confetti, like offerings. Roses, peonies, lilacs tied with ribbon. One bouquet hits my foot and tumbles forward. I kneel slowly, still trembling, and pick it up with both hands like it’s the most fragile thing in the world.
The noise is deafening now – the sound of joy, of awe, of pride. Flashes go off like fireflies in a storm. Cameras held up, people standing on chairs, voices calling my name. Screaming it.
“PENNY!”
My mom’s voice. Raw with emotion.
“Encore!” someone shouts.
“Queen of the gala!” another.
I spot Max throwing his hands up like he just won a sports final. Rooster’s clapping with both hands above his head like he’s at a rock concert. Even Luc, beside me, looks stunned and breathless.
But I don’t look at them for long.
Because I find him again.
He’s not clapping. Not yelling. Not standing on his chair.
He’s just smiling.
A real one.
Big and wide and bright and true.
Chapter 266: Penny
Brighter than I thought a man like him could even do.
Like the sun came down from the sky and decided it wanted to stay in his mouth.
And then-
He mouths it. Just three words. Slow and sure and burning into me like a brand.
I love you.
The air leaves my lungs.
And everything – the crowd, the applause, the lights, the ribbons and roses and fireworks bursting behind my ribs it all folds into that one moment.
That one look.
–
That one truth.
I think I smile back. I think I do more than that.
But I barely know who I am anymore.
Because the girl who walked onto this stage three hours ago?
She flew.
And the one walking off?
She belongs to the sky.
Chapter Comments
Ness C
oh my gosh my nerves! even I’m relieved she nailed it
Veronica Allen–Jones
It probably sounds silly, but this chapter made me cry the whole way through, with happiness and pride for Penny.
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