Chapter 23: Posey’s Poses and Other Dangerous Distractions

Dante kept staring at the delivery photograph until Bell covered the date with a finger. Images could be altered and timestamps needed checking, which was sensible advice from a man whose bird was currently eating something that hadn’t existed a moment ago.

Miss Vale arranged closure of the theater pending inspection, with delivery records preserved and equipment untouched. The public demonstration was suspended, and ticket holders would receive a notice explaining that Dante had never agreed to appear.

By late afternoon, waiting had become the only useful thing nobody expected him to enjoy. Miss Vale suggested the yoga club he had promised to try, provided he observed from a chair instead of using his dressed hand to support his body.

Posey met him outside in a pale blue exercise top and leggings, blonde hair tied back with her ribbon. He tried remembering a compliment that wasn’t an invitation to be removed from university premises, eventually managing to ask whether she liked the class.

"I like how quiet everything feels afterward," she said, then caught him looking at the mat beneath her arm. "You don’t have to be good at it to stay, although Miss Vale notices if you pretend to sleep."

Anika arrived in fitted dark green and asked whether he had reserved the front row. He blamed the instructor, which lasted until she took the chair’s back and moved it away from the space Rhea needed for her tail.

"Sit here and behave," Anika told him, then waited for his answer with a smile that made obedience seem alarmingly interesting. He said he had only come for the breathing, and she replied that he would benefit from remembering to do some.

Rhea pushed dark hair away from her small wine-red horns while unrolling her mat. Her red tail held the far corner flat, prompting Dante to ask whether that counted as equipment assistance before he realized he was criticising a woman who had supervised his bathroom trips.

She offered to list the assistance he had required yesterday, and he withdrew the complaint. Posey’s laugh made him feel included rather than displayed, a small difference that changed how much he wanted to remain in the room.

Miss Vale greeted the members in exercise clothes beneath an open cardigan and began with ordinary breathing. Recognising tension mattered even when a spell could mask it, she explained, adjusting the session around her own healing wrists.

Warm air moved through the wall vents with a faint lavender smell from an enchanted filter. A sign offered allergy settings, and a student tapped it until the lavender became nothing, which impressed Dante more than another mysterious warning would have.

Anika passed him a towel before taking her place. He asked whether observers usually needed one, and she said a man working that hard to appear innocent might develop a sweat. Posey offered him her spare water bottle, somehow turning the same joke into a considerate question about whether he was comfortable. He liked them differently, which was inconvenient for a man whose experience of dating mostly involved characters with dialogue options and a reload button.

When Posey stretched overhead, he studied the ceiling with such determined innocence that Miss Vale asked whether the lights were troubling him. Anika said his concentration required maintenance, and Rhea advised breathing through his nose before he fainted for a completely different reason.

Someone knocked over a bottle during the next position, releasing a little enchanted mop from its cupboard. It chased the spill until Miss Vale caught the handle, returned it to the bucket and told it that enthusiasm wasn’t a cleaning qualification.

Posey stepped around the rescued bottle, lost her balance and caught Dante’s good shoulder. He steadied her with his uninjured hand, feeling her weight against his chest before her feet found the floor and her apology arrived near his ear.

His brain registered warmth, soft pressure and several reasons to apologize for enjoying an accident. Rhea checked his injured hand had stayed clear while Anika asked whether he needed water or a room with considerably less supervision.

"Water sounds cheaper," he said, and Posey laughed despite her pink cheeks. Once she stood safely, she touched his shoulder again to thank him, a deliberate small contact that mattered more than anything his imagination had added.

She offered to sit out, but Dante asked her to finish the class and save him a seat afterward. Posey checked he meant it, then left her water beside his. He could want her close without turning his injury into a reason she couldn’t enjoy herself.

Anika set her bottle beside his and rested her hand against the back of his neck, her thumb brushing his skin while she looked down at him. "Better answer," she murmured, and when he looked up, she kept her hand there instead of moving away.

"Watch mine too, since you’re being so useful," she added, nodding toward the bottles. Dante agreed before realizing he had no idea which one was hers, and her smile widened before she finally returned to her mat.

After class, Miss Vale told them Jett had eaten and begun arguing about discharge. Rhea confirmed the nurse was keeping him another night, adding that boredom was a complaint everyone preferred to the ones he had made yesterday.

Miss Vale’s phone buzzed as the others rolled up their mats. She checked the message and told Dante that Bell wanted him in his office to listen to a recording recovered from the speaking figure. Dante asked whether Posey and Anika could come too, because hearing someone else put words in his mouth was easier with them beside him.

Miss Vale led them down the hall to Bell’s office, where an officer waited beside a small player in an open case on the desk. Posey and Anika stayed beside Dante while Rhea stopped near the door, and Bell explained that the speaking figure itself remained secured at the theater.

Its control card held the same edited promises they had recovered from the laundry tablet. Bell showed Dante the disconnected network cable before explaining that they would hear copies, and Dante asked him to start with the words someone had used to make him sound willing.

Dante stopped Bell where the edit joined the promise to another sentence with the same intake of breath. In the full file he was addressing an imaginary army, not patients. Bell marked the cut beside the file name, and the officer requested that both versions be kept.

Miss Vale asked what else the cube had accessed, and Dante admitted it had displayed several unopened folders. Anika offered to arrange collection of his computer through Mom, avoiding another unnecessary trip while somebody was selling his face.

The officer took the player away after they finished, and Miss Vale walked them back to the studio to collect their bags. Posey reached the outer door first and picked up a leaflet someone had pushed underneath it, advertising the canceled show as a private assessment at the same theater on Wednesday.

A Kane crest appeared beside the supporters, with Jett named as a willing participant. Anika photographed the leaflet, handed the original to Miss Vale and called her father while Dante watched her lose every trace of the earlier teasing.

When he answered, she asked why his office had paid for the room where they found her brother strapped to a bed.