The Enchanter Heir

Chapter Forty-five

Showtime

It was just a dance. Don’t make more of it than it really was. The words echoed in Jonah’s head, each time cutting like a blade into flesh. Double-edged. Wounding the swordsman, too.

What was that seventies song . . . “Cruel to Be Kind”? They were in the small parlor they band was using for a green room, just off the conservatory. Rudy, Alison, and Natalie had already gone out front. Emma was still fussing with the tuning on the Studio G, her movements quick and angry, muttering under her breath. When she forced the tuning peg, the string snapped.

Jonah rested his hand on the fingerboard. “It’s fine,” he said. “Really, it is. You’ll see.”

“Of course it’s fine.” Emma sucked her finger where the string had cut it. “Who said it wasn’t?” She looked up, met his eyes, and quickly looked away. “Stay the hell out of my head!”

“I wish I could,” he said softly.

“I’m the one that needs to be able to get in your head, so I’d have a fighting chance.”

“No!” he said, drawing back. “Trust me. You don’t want to go there.”

“Probably not,” Emma said, threading the new string through the machine head.

“It’s not you, it’s—”

“If you tell me, ‘It’s not you, it’s me,’ I’m going to punch you, so don’t,” Emma warned.

“I just don’t want to hurt you more than I already have,”

Jonah said. “This—this happens . . . every time I—”

“Don’t make more of it than it really was,” Emma growled, turning his own weapon against him. “And don’t say you just want to be friends, because friends don’t tie friends into knots.” Jonah was all out of ideas. Everything he tried to say just made things worse.

After an awkward silence, Emma said, “Why don’t you go on out? I’ll be there in a minute.”

Jonah stood. “Just—just try and focus on the music,” he said. “That’s what I do. And we know that works . . . right?”

He picked up the Stratocaster, fastened the strap to the end pin, and walked through the door.

Natalie woke up the house with a rattle, bang, and crash. “I’m Natalie Diaz,” she said. “We are so glad to be here tonight. We’re Fault Tolerant, all the way from Cleveland, Ohio, and we call this one ‘A Tientas.’”

Jonah laid down the first few chords, and then Natalie came back in on drums, a pulse-pounding cadence that stirred the blood. These were Natalie’s lyrics, an in-your-face kind of love song. Natalie sang lead, while Jonah harmonized. Emma hung back a bit at first, her face a mask of concentration, till she found her footing. Gradually, she layered notes under and over Jonah’s guitar line, insinuated herself into the spaces Jonah left open for her. Sometimes he was lead dog, sometimes she was. Their guitar work laced together flawlessly. Well, pretty much.

It was straight-up rhythm and blues: two guitars, drums, a bass line, keyboards. No artificial ingredients, as Nat liked to say. Jonah’s Stratocaster came alive, delivering in a way it never had before. And the Studio G? That guitar was absolute magic in Emma’s hands.

Maybe that’s what your gift is, Emma. Building guitars that cast spells. Spellcasters.

When the set first began, Jonah kept his eyes cast downward, avoiding looking at the audience. During the guitar transitions, he stepped away from the mike and prowled around, unable to stay in one place. Energy seemed to bubble up inside him until he released it through his voice. Sweat dripped off his chin, plastered his hair to his forehead, ran down between his shoulder blades.

Finally, he dared look out, beyond the lights. He could see a mass of moving bodies, a collage of exotic colors. People dancing, people clapping or just swaying to the music.

Guitar transition. Jonah swung away from the voice mike, facing Emma. They were both in open G, the tuning allowing them to speak their minds through their instruments. She chewed on her lower lip, keeping her eyes on her fingers, a tiny frown between her brows.

Jonah lost his place, faltered, then had to scramble to get back in line. He could feel Natalie’s glare, like a red-hot poker between his shoulder blades.

More vocals coming. Jonah swiveled and walked back upstage to the microphone, turned, and faced the audience. Natalie’s voice curled around Jonah’s, sliding over and under, deep-throated and breathy, a rogue current in Jonah’s trickle of sound. Alison’s bass provided the heartbeat, spinning a web of connection between the band and the audience. Drawing them in.

When the song was over, the thousand invisible threads connecting the band members to one another, and to the audience, snapped. Jonah swayed, nearly fell. Sound backwashed over them, a mingling of applause, cheering, foot stomping.

Jonah was sweating, his clothing soaked through, droplets spotting the stone floor. He blotted his face with his sleeve, grabbed a bottle of water, and drained it.

“Thank you,” Natalie was saying to the audience. “Thank you so very much.”

Jonah looked back at Emma. “Emma,” he said, “sorry I stepped on you in that last—”

“Haven’t you heard? There’s no sorry in rock and roll,” Emma said, leaning down to adjust the balance on her amp.

“This next piece is called ‘Logjam Blues,’” Natalie announced.

This time Jonah sang lead. As promised.

They were a little rougher on “Logjam,” less practiced. Jonah totally blew one of the new transitions, but the audience didn’t seem to notice as Rudy’s moody keyboards took over.

As the song unraveled to a rather shaky end, Natalie said, “There’s lots more rock coming, but right now I’d like to take it down a notch. We call this one ‘I’ll Sit In,’ featuring Mr. Jonah Kinlock on lead vocals.”

This was Jonah’s signature piece—a Kinlock & Kinlock composition. Blues with a bit of country thrown in. Jonah set his guitar in its stand, lifted the stand mike out of its cradle, and walked to the front of the makeshift stage. Natalie began a soft cadence with brushes and Emma and Alison chimed in on guitar.

This time, Jonah sang directly to the audience.

If your lover ever leaves you,

And you’re lost in bleak despair,

When your hopes and dreams are shattered,

Call me, I’ll be there.

Rudy and Natalie piled in, harmonizing on the refrain.

If you’re here to play the blues, I’ll sit in.

When it comes to songs of heartbreak, I’ll fit in.

For emotional disaster

You know I am the master.

If you’re here to play the blues, I’ll sit in.

And Jonah was on his own again.

When you’re lost and out of options,

When you’ve made that big mistake,

When your friends forget your number

And your heart’s about to break.

He haunted the edge of the stage, stalking back and forth, casting his net of sound out into the audience. To his surprise, the energy ran both ways—from the audience as well as to it. They fed him, and he fed them.

If you need commiseration, call on me,

Any time of day or night, I’m free,

When your soul begins to bleed, I’ll be just what you need,

If you’re here to play the blues, I’ll sit in.

He turned, faced Emma, and sang directly to her.

Don’t look to me for love songs.

I just can’t harmonize.

There’ll be no sweet kisses in the dark,

I hope you realize.

He paused for three heartbeats, gazing at Emma.

But if you’re here to play the blues, I’ll sit in.

When it comes to songs of heartbreak, I’ll fit in.

A sad ending to your story? That’s when I’m in my glory.

If you’re here to play the blues, I’ll sit in.

The end of the song was greeted with applause and rather damp cheering. Emma blew her nose and carefully wiped mascara from under her eyes.

They worked their way through the rest of their set list. With ten minutes to go, Natalie said, “Before we wrap things up, I’d like to introduce the band.” She interjected a drum roll. “To my left, on keyboards and vocals, Mr. Rudy Severino!”

Rudy grinned and waved.

“On bass guitar, Ms. Alison Shaw!”

Alison executed a brief bass guitar riff, then bowed, doff ing her trademark bowler. “On guitar, all the way from Memphis, Lady Day, Miss Emma Lee!”

Emma curtsied awkwardly, looking eager to get offstage. “And, finally, Jonah Kinlock, on lead vocals and guitar.”

Natalie punctuated each of the introductions with a drum roll. “And I’m Natalie Diaz, on percussion. And now . . . in honor of our late lead guitarist, the immortal Mose Butterfield, a medley of his favorite guitar solos!”

Jonah kicked it off with Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower,” then Emma on Clapton’s “Crossroads,” Alison following with Jimmy Page’s “Stairway to Heaven,” Emma with B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.” Finally, everybody joined in on Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Pride and Joy,” with Rudy absolutely spectacular on keyboards.

They finished up with “Doomtime,” a cheery anthem about the end of days that had been a standard with the band for several years.

“That’s it for this set,” Natalie said. “We’ll be back again in an hour.”

People crowded in from all sides, asking questions, snapping photos, trying to get some face time with the band members.

“Too bad we don’t have that EP already,” Rudy muttered, with a pointed look at Jonah. “Or T-shirts.”

By the time Jonah unleashed his Strat and looked for Emma, she’d disappeared.