I wait patiently in line, and when I finally reach her, I stand staring at those birds like they hold all the magic, and if I look at them long enough, they might give it to me. All of me buzzes with excitement.

Her smile is warm, reaching her angled brown eyes, even though I stand there without words.

“You were great,” I say, and wince. It hardly seems adequate.

“So were you.”

I start.

“You were onstage last night with Xander.” She brushes a strand of hair from her face, and the birds nestle farther into it.

“That was nothing.”

“It was something. Not everyone can hold their own with him.”

I follow her gaze across the room to the only guy with green hair. A brunette girl in a gold dress clings to his side.

My throat tightens in an unpleasant way.

“I don’t know,” I say. “It looks like assistants are an easy thing to come by for him.”

The girl laughs, soft but sharp as chimes. “True—but good assistants are hard to find.”

I twist the feather still pinched between my fingertips. The girl watches the movement, and I’m vaguely embarrassed to be holding on to it like some little kid saving a memento to tuck away in her diary, but I can’t let it go.

“He’d want you to go say hi,” the girl says.

I nod and take a step back from her, even though half of me wants to stay there and ask her a million questions about the strings behind her tricks. The other half of me wants to follow the string leading me back to Xander. He has more than one trick I need to figure out.

His smile widens as I stop in front of him. I may be imagining it, but gold-dress girl’s smile shrinks the smallest bit.

“You matched me,” he says.

“What?”

He waves a hand at my green tank and then points to his hair.

My face heats. He’s right—a perfect match.

My mouth opens and closes in a way that can’t be attractive while he watches my discomfort with what can only be described as delight.

“I wanted to be prepared in case you pulled me up onstage against my will again,” I finally say.

I try to sound snarky to cover up the lie. He catches it.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t raise your hand.” He leans in a little closer to me, like he’ll tell me a secret. The girl awkwardly follows so she can keep a hand on his arm. “Don’t pretend you didn’t love it up there.”

He stares intently at me, smile gone.

My face must be as hot as those green, smoldering curtains from the night before.

I swallow, and his eyes dip to my throat. I take a quick step back.

“You two know each other?” the girl asks.