The audience gasps with excitement as I move across the stage. My fingers grasp the trapeze at just the right moment and they exhale their relief. I never worry whether I’ll make the distance.

I’m the girl who can fly. It goes against the laws of physics, and yet it’s the truth.

I can’t, like, flap my arms and fly off into the sunset, but I can defy gravity for a few seconds or so at a time. When I jump from one part of the set to the next, I move through the air in a fluid motion that makes people do a double take.

Before my feet hit the ground, I know I’ve got the job.

The biggest show in Vegas.

Applause consumes me and the house lights flicker on. The smile on the casting director, Mark’s, face confirms my suspicions.

Every eye in the room is on me as I take a bow. I nailed it. I feel it in my bones and feel it in the energy of the room. This is my moment to shine, and I don’t crumble under the pressure. Mom saw it clearly, in her crystal ball, that this stage would be mine.

And now, after several auditions, each one more demanding than the last as the casino brought in more and more investors to watch me soar across the stage, I’ve made my dream a reality.

After I exit the stage and go out to the house, Mark squeezes my shoulders, grinning. “You’re gonna make us millions.”

I feel heat rise to my cheeks as I absorb his compliment. My mother hates that I’m choosing this path, but this isn’t about her. This is about me. About my dreams coming true.

“So, what’s next?” I ask, my voice seeming so small in this massive auditorium.

“Next you meet your cast.”

* * *

Once dressed in my regular clothes–a simple blue sundress and flip-flops–I join Mark and a team from the casino in a conference room of the Spades Royale, the casino where I will be headlining.

Apparently, the hiring team has spent the last few weeks deciding on the cast that would perform with me.

“You hired them already? Are you sure we will work well together?” I ask. After signing the contract, I feel nervous suddenly at the prospect of working with a team. My own team. I never perform with other people. And shouldn’t I have at least had a trial run with the potential performers before the casino hired the entire cast?

“More than sure, Lark,” the theater director, Tanya, assures me. “These guys are perfect. One look at them and it was impossible to wait to offer them a contract. They signed this morning. If we hadn’t snatched them up, someone like Simon Cowell would have been here beating down their door by morning.”

“They’re that amazing?” I swallow, a little offended. Which is ridiculous, considering I just landed the job of a lifetime. “What makes these guys so special? Don’t tell me they fly, too?”

The people around the conference table chuckle, as if I’m some naive girl who hasn’t a clue.

Which would be a fair assessment. I may have grown up in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean I’ve experienced much. Mom makes sure of that. Even though I’m twenty-one, I still live with her, under her rules.

And she has a lot of them.

“You’ll have to see the guys perform for yourself,” Mark says, pulling me from my thoughts. “It’s gonna be great, Lark, I promise. But before you call your mom and tell her the good news, there are few things left to deal with. Meeting the guys and seeing your new place.”

“Oh, I know a hotel suite is a part of the contract, but I don’t want it. Not now, at least. You know how Mom is.”

Mark nods, knowing my mother better than most people. He was the first person to see my act in a third-rate hotel off the strip and to take a chance on me as a performer. He knows just how intense Mom can get, and how unhappy she was about me auditioning. She would rather keep me behind a locked door than on center stage.

“If you change your mind, just ask. Your mom doesn’t expect you to stay in her nest forever.”

“Maybe,” I say, but I twist my lips, doubting that. Mom has rules to keep me safe, and I know right now she’s probably placed a half-dozen protection spells on me. “But there’s really only one thing that matters right now if I want to make this show the best thing to ever come to Vegas. I want to meet my cast.”

“Figured you’d say that,” Mark says with a grin, rapping his knuckles on the conference table. The people at the table stand, congratulating me again, and we all head out toward the lobby.

The Spades Royale hotel is magnificent. It’s the most luxurious hotel on the strip, and the owner and his wife are Vegas royalty. Everyone knows Ace and Emmy–he wears black Armani suits and allegedly has old ties with the mob, and she’s like Victoria Beckham x 100. Classy, gorgeous, and a mother of three.

My mom has been giving Emmy tarot readings for years, and every time she stops by the house, I sigh longingly at the life she’s made for herself. She used to a waitress at the Spades Royale, and now she’s a Vegas princess with a gorgeous husband and the life fairy tales are made of.

Looking down at myself, I cringe at my basic... well, everything. I may have just signed a contract for the hottest ticket in Vegas, but I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do to fit into this world. I spent twenty-one years living by Mom’s rules. Never leave home after dark. Always look both ways. Keep the doors locked. Those are the more normal ones. The other ones, like, keep the attic window open, toss salt over your left shoulder when your arms ache, and never, ever go outside during a storm–those are the ones that remind me my mother is a witch.

As we leave the lobby and head toward the hotel suite of my new cast, I feel like her rules are outdated. Now, I have a job and a life. My future is an outstretched wing.

For years I went along with being her caged bird, knowing that deep down she wanted the best for me. And I for her. Some people are close to their moms–mine is like a sister to me. Still, no matter how close we’ve been, she’s always held the lock and the key.

As I walk into the room to meet my future fellow performers, I know with everything in me that I’m ready to be free.