Chapter Text
Maestro escorted everyone to the exit, accepting thanks from the impressed and happy guests. When almost everyone had already left his estate, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a female silhouette walking slowly, as if reluctantly. The man turned his head to examine the guest. She was a girl in her mid-twenties with short curly hair and porcelain-colored skin. She looked small and fragile. Her body was decorated with a snow-white blouse with two unbuttoned buttons and a long black skirt.
The stranger looked at him with her blue eyes with a kind of sadness, as if she didn't want to find out from here. As if she wanted to stay here for at least another minute. When everyone had already left and the stranger was left alone with him, Maestro asked her:
— Why don't you leave?
The girl was in no hurry to answer, avoiding eye contact with him. The maestro could have shouted «HELLO», oh, oh, but he saw her shaking and flinching from the usual rustle. And so he just came closer. The brunette didn't move. But she looked up at him with her blue eyes.
— I'm not leaving because I don't want to. Is this answer enough? — the stranger answered quite boldly, looking at him unblinkingly.
Maestro was taken aback. But then he smiled with the corners of his lips. He didn't expect that such a seemingly quiet girl could be quite cocky and sharp-tongued.
— What's your name?
She answered very softly, almost in a whisper:
— Eva. Eva Everly.
The man couldn't help but smile gently.
— Eva... — he repeats her name, as if tasting it.
Eva continued to stand and stare at him, twisting the sleeve of her blouse with her slender fingers. It was as if she was planning something, or wanted to say something, but did not dare. He was waiting for a trick from her. After all, this Eva is probably not that simple. A minute ago she had answered him too boldly, and now she was standing there pretending that nothing had happened.
Maestro was already getting tired of this prolonged silence. He took another step towards her. They were only a few pitiful centimeters apart now. Eve took a step to the side. The man grinned.
— Do you want to play cat and mouse? — he asked quietly and calmly, but it was precisely in this calmness that the real danger lurked.
Everly burst out laughing, running off somewhere deeper into the manor. Her clear voice echoed through the hallway:
— Try to find me, Maestro!
Maestro clucks, but continues to smile contentedly.
— What a girl... But I like it!
Slamming the front door, the man teleported into the room where everything was happening. He glanced at the broken window from which the mayor had fallen, and couldn't help but chuckle in triumph.
— I'll leave this window broken as a memento of your senility and insanity, you nasty old man. — he smiled contentedly, remembering that moment.
He was pulled out of pleasant memories by the ringing laughter of a girl, heard somewhere from the back of the hall. The maestro turned his head and saw a silhouette in a black robe with a skeleton mask on his face. The brunette chuckled and began to creep up on Everly.
— You sly one! Did you think you could pull off this trick too? At least those boys did it quietly and unnoticeably, and didn't get caught so easily. I wonder what you were trying to achieve with that?
Approaching the prankster, the man did not hurry to pull off her mask. Eve stood motionless, only occasionally turning slightly to the side.
— What, you're not going to reveal yourself? I found you anyway, you prankster.
The brunette shook her head, which meant «no». Maestro reached for the mask and slowly began to take it off, enjoying this moment. But imagine his surprise when he finally took off the skull and the robe fell to the floor. There was no one there, and he was just tricked, fooled. Girlish laughter rang out from behind him.
— Gotcha, Maestro!
The man turned around. There was no one there. But just a second later, Eva appeared in front of him in all her glory, as if from nowhere. Maestro was surprised, to say the least, that Eva turned out to be not an ordinary girl from Normal Valley, but the same as him, with abilities that people don't consider normal. He couldn't hold back his sincere smile.
— And you were with them today all the time while I was showing the mayor who the real monster was, right? — his voice softened.
Eva nodded.
— Yes. I used to live here too, entertaining children and my peers. But that mayor and the citizens also came to my house without knocking and demanded to leave the city. And I was too young then, and I wasn't skilled enough in using my abilities to resist. I refused in every possible way, the children screamed and tried to protect me, because I was a friend to them. But then... — she trailed off and lowered her head, as if she were telling something shameful. After a few seconds of pause, Everly continued, but in a much quieter voice, as she had fifteen minutes ago at the exit, — They locked my parents and me in our small cozy house and set it on fire. My parents are magicians too, and we somehow survived. Although we managed to recover our bodies quickly, but... — she sobbed and, turning her back to him, tore her shirt and pulled it down, exposing her scarred back, — Look at this! Their fire left scars and disfigured me! They can't be removed that easily! Ordinary fire doesn't do that to someone like us, does it?..
Her voice broke into sobs. The maestro came even closer to her and began to examine the scars. Each of them looked like she was being cut up alive rather than burned. His finger almost weightlessly touched one of these scars. The girl shuddered.
— They have been with me for more than ten years, but they still hurt...
Her hands were also scarred, but they were almost invisible and very small. Apparently, it was his back that suffered the most. Eva continued to cry, shaking a little. And then Maestro hugged her, unable to see her crying anymore because of the nightmare she had experienced. They both understood what it was like when you were somehow different from ordinary people, and they made you look like an outcast and a threat to the whole world. Everly went limp in his arms and covered one of them with her own. The man nuzzled her blue-black curls, inhaling the scent of blackberries.
Eva felt calm around him. Even with those kids, she didn't feel that way. The maestro pressed his chest against her back closely. But it didn't feel like they were trying to burn her again. They were silent for a very long time. The hall was plunged into deathly silence, which was interrupted at one point by Eva's quiet voice.:
— But even after all that, we didn't leave our home. We stayed here, but we just started hiding so that everyone would think that they had kicked us out. Even when you saw them off and met me... They couldn't see or even feel my presence. I've disappeared for them forever. It's for you that I didn't stop hiding when they were already gone.
The brunette continued to listen to her, hugging the fragile-looking, but in fact very strong Eva Everly. They stood there for a very long time. Despite the fact that her top was bare, Maestro kept her warm. He had never met anyone like him before.
But, unfortunately, all good things tend to end quickly. Eva gently removes the man's hands from her and turns to him. The brunette tries to look only into her cornflower blue eyes and not let go of her naked breasts. Fortunately for him, the girl threw a blouse over her shoulders, which was already missing buttons, and wrapped it around her.
— I like you, Maestro. Do you mind if I visit you every day?
The brunette's cheeks turned pink from the unexpected confession. He turned away so that Eve couldn't see his embarrassment.
— What? Have you ever been told that? — she laughs, coming closer to the man to examine his face.
— That's right, never! And... what are you doing?
— What? I've never seen a blush on your face. And then such a chance came! It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, because you're usually as pale as a vampire. — she grinned at the end.
Maestro saw a sly and playful twinkle dancing in her cornflower blue eyes. She smirks, thinking that she has power over the situation and can easily tease him. He turns away from Eve and takes a step forward, giving her a taste of «victory». In order to advance on her in a second with a serious and slightly dangerous look and thereby push her against the wall.
A playful smile appeared on his face, and a dangerous light flashed in his eyes. And Everly herself wasn't exactly resisting. On the contrary, she liked the way their little game had turned. And she could try to escape or disappear eventually. But I wanted to feel vulnerable and unprotected right now.
Now, her back touched the wall. maestro placed his hands on either side of her head, trapping her. Their eyes were locked on each other. Eva runs her palm along the collar of his shirt, along his neck. The man's adam's apple twitches at her touch, and he swallows hard.
They stood like that for about a minute, until Maestro's patience ran out. On impulse, he covered the girl's lips with his own. The brunette had never kissed anyone before. There was no one with whom. Everly answered quickly enough, burying her hand in his shoulder-length curly, tarry hair. The man took his hands off the wall and began to wander them over the body of the guest, sometimes getting under her blouse. The temperature in the hall rose noticeably. It was getting harder to breathe. Reason was giving way to lust. Their bodies were asking for more than just a kiss.
Eva was trying to find at least some fasteners or buttons on Maestro's shirt. However, he removed her hands, not allowing her to undress herself. They had to pull away until the excitement covered them completely from head to toe. They were breathing heavily without breaking their eye contact. The man felt that his trousers were becoming incredibly tight.
But it didn't seem right for him to do this with a girl he had just met today. And after he found out her terrible backstory and kissed her, obeying only lust at that moment. The maestro took a step back, then a second. He tried not to look at Eva's exposed collarbones, chest, and stomach, so as not to change his mind. Everly stared at him, dazed.
— Where are you going? — there was genuine surprise in her voice.
Maestro turned away, fixing his brown eyes on the floor.
— I'm sorry, Eva, I can't do this... We barely know each other to move on to such a relationship. I don't want anything to happen... So fast. Yes, you and I are both not ordinary people, we can do things that others can't. But I don't want you and me to regret it later, especially you. And it's better to wait for that, if you and I keep in touch, of course.
When reason finally won out in this ruthless struggle, Eva nodded understandingly. Maestro was right—they didn't know each other well enough to get to know each other... such a deep connection between a man and a woman.
— You're right. It's better to wait.
And at that moment, a burning sensation appeared in my back. Everly hissed in pain, her legs buckling. Her family was calling her, which meant that she immediately had to leave Someplace Else Castle and return home. Maestro noticed this and immediately rushed to her.
— Eva, what's the matter with you?
The brunette held out her hand, not allowing him to come closer.
— It's all right. My family is calling me. I have to go home. I'll visit you again, Maestro.
And without saying anything else, she went to the massive doors. And before she left, the Maestro said after her:
— I like you too, Eva.
At this moment, she hides around the corner and uses her ability to remain invisible. Her heart is pounding like crazy, and her blood is pounding in my temples. She planned to just watch from the sidelines as Maestro punishes the mayor, and then talk to him, but not in any way... The Maestro had the same thoughts. But they both know that this evening won't be the end of it. After all, it was today that they started their little game, in which there are no winners.