“Hi, Max,” she said quietly. She squeezed Logan’s arm at the same time. He wasn’t sure if the gesture meant she was nervous or appreciative. Damn this darkness.
“Toni’s under here too!” Max called to someone. “Reagan was looking for you,” Max said. “She thought you might want to ride up to the stage with her.”
“She’s riding me,” Logan said, his slip not the least Freudian. He’d meant it to sound sexual. Especially since now he knew how good she was at riding him. If they’d had more time, he’d have let her ride him all slow and sensually for hours. He couldn’t wait to sequester her in his hotel room.
“You’re way in the back, Lo,” Reagan said from the darkness on the other side of the stage. “She won’t get good footage back there.”
“Maybe I can ride with you next time, Reagan,” Toni said. “I’m not sure what to expect.”
Her tight grip on Logan’s forearm made him feel like she wanted his protection, and he was proud to offer it willingly.
“Stand behind me,” he said, “and hold on. Steve will go first. My platform jerks a bit when it first starts to rise, so brace yourself.” He was already used to the stage setup since they’d performed about a dozen shows with the new hydraulics. He’d almost fallen on his ass the first time he’d ridden the platform up to the stage.
“Okay,” Toni said, her voice small, her grip tight.
“About halfway up, we’ll be completely surrounded. Like we’re in a metal tunnel. So if you’re claustrophobic—”
“I’m not.”
He was. But just a little.
One of the stagehands appeared beside him with a flashlight so he could turn on Logan’s amp and connect his ear feed. “You’re live,” he said. He gave him an earplug for his other ear and even provided Toni with a pair.
“One minute,” he heard Mad Dog, their front of house sound engineer, say through his earpiece.
“One minute,” he whispered to Toni, who couldn’t hear Mad Dog’s raspy instructions.
Toni pressed her face into his shoulder. He could feel the trembling of her body behind him. “It’s okay,” he said, though she probably couldn’t hear him through the earplugs.
The stage shuddered as Steve banged out the intro of “Ovation” and his glowing blue platform began to rise at the rear of the stage. As the drum kit slowly rose into view, the crowd erupted into cheers that shook the arena. Logan patted Toni’s hip to remind her that they were next and tugged a guitar pick from the tape stuck to his stock. His fingers found his strings automatically. He started playing on his cue—filling the drum progression with the low tones of the bass intro—and braced his feet for the jolt he knew was coming as a door above him slid open and the platform he and Toni were standing on began the slow ascent to the stage. After the initial lurch, the ride was smooth and steady. Toni’s death grip on his arm loosened when she seemed to realize he needed that arm to play. To Logan’s right, Reagan’s platform was rising from the floor as well. The crowd watched in hushed awe.
Still beneath the stage, Max chanted the beginning of the song, his voice deep and raw with an edge unique to Exodus End.
Rise from the ashes.
Rise above it all.
There’s a sea of fists before you.
Demanding one final call.
It’s not over yet.
Though the curtain went down.
They want more.
More!
Stand before them.
Give it your all.
They own you.
What!
Own you.
It’s your ovation.
No!
Their ovation.
Give it to them.
Give it to them.
Give it to them nowwwwwwwwww.
The crowd sang along with Max, as did Logan. He couldn’t help but rock his body to the beat. Music lived inside him, and it was during concerts that he let it burst free.
There was a loud bang as flames and sparks announced Max’s platform shooting him out of the floor like a cannon. He leaped onto the stage and landed with what Logan had started referring to as the “cool stick-it landing.” Not as graceful as a gymnast’s, but a thousand times more metal. From his crouch, Max slowly rose to his full height, lifting his arm in the air to rouse the crowd as he carried the final note of the intro.
Dare’s rise to the stage was announced by the wail of his guitar. The crowd erupted once more as the powerhouse that was Darren Mills made his first appearance.
“Gets better every night, guys,” Mad Dog said into the feed. He