#Chapter 57 – Performance

I exhale slowly, much of the tension leaving me as soon as I feel the coolness of the keys beneath my fingers. Because this, in so many ways, is…home. God, why have I waited so long? Why haven’t I been playing in my room? Because the boy is there, my wolf says, and you like to keep it a secret. She trots back and forth in my soul, her tail raised high as it always is when I get ready to play. She, too, loves the music. I smirk a little. He’s not just any boy, he’s our Anton, I murmur to her, taking a deep breath and straightening my back, my shoulders setting into the muscle memory of our pianist’s stance. Yes, she sighs, happy. We can play just for him sometime. Maybe. Maybe, I agree, shrugging a little. But then I close my eyes, not letting myself look to the right where hundreds of people are waiting and watching in silence. Not letting myself think about them, about anything but me, and my wolf, and the songs. Play the soft one, about the misty mountain covered in cl