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“What good is a possibility?”

“The vision of this possibility might save your life, Autumn. So they can be very good. I’ll let you think on my proposal.” She slipped from the bed and walked to the door. “Ladies.” She spoke with a nod of her head before exiting. I stared at Leslie for a few minutes.

“A b
aby,” she commented as she sat on the bed. I slowly sat up and smoothed the sundress.

“Where’s Aleksi?”

“The doctor made him leave
; he really loves you, you know.”

“And Tristan really loves you.” My words made her laugh.

“Tristan adores me, I’m not blind.”

“You should let him make you his servant.”

“I’ve been thinking about it…” She laid next to me on the bed. “I’ve only been dating him for a few
months, though. And they view it like marriage, apparently. You’re a literal immortal human being after the fourth, you’re an extension of your vampire. Their companion for the rest of their days… It’s kind of beautiful when you think of that level of love and devotion.” She glanced at me. “Speaking of love and devotion, I saw the look you gave me after Kendra was locked up.”

“I just…” I collapsed back into the pillows and listened to the muted loud speaker calling pages. “She was… our friend for so long. You’ve known her for
twenty-three years.” She shrugged again.

“She was never really my friend, Autumn; she was never yours either. She wasn’t fucking Dmitri for parts, she was fucking Dmitri to keep me in the
corp. Tristan showed me a folder last week, I received an offer from the Royal Ballet five years ago. I could have danced with Nikolai Zelenko. You know, before the coke, self-abuse, alcoholism and following downward spiral. So I kind of hope she dies in that fucking box.”

“You don’t really mean that.”

“I know she’s pregnant with Aleksi’s child, Autumn.
So you’re going to tell me that you’re not angry in the slightest over every last thing she put you two through. Not to mention the smile on her face when she lied to us all and said she had no clue. She knew about Aleksi before she met me and we met in pre-ballet. She tanked my career, Autumn. You might be able to forgive her, but I’m not that big of a person, I hope she fucking rots. If Tristan hadn’t seen me dance, I would end up retiring in three years or so never having danced a Pas de deux.”

I didn’t answer her with my words, I just shrugged
,
I couldn’t bring myself to be that cold about it. Knowing what Kendra did, I still didn’t think she deserved to be in that box. And what about the baby? If it wasn’t already dead, weren’t they just dooming it? How does Vampire pregnancy even work? My mind wandered to the vision I had of the little boy and I couldn’t help but to think about what Aleksi had told me. His only memories of his mother were of her long blonde hair and French songs. I thought for a moment, would my child only have clipped memories like that about me?
You’re being selfish.

“I’m sorry, Leslie. You’re right
, she does deserve it for what she did to you.” I forced a smile and let out a soft sigh. The truth was, in my mind no one deserved any of what happened that night.

Aleksi did take me home, but he didn’t stay with me. It was almost one am when I got through the door and he had a master class that morning with Leslie for their Grand Pas de Deux. He didn’t ask me about the vision and I didn’t offer. I did, however, take some sleeping pills and pass out to a blissfully dreamless sleep. I had enough of visions and dreams for a while.

The next day I couldn’t shake what Leslie
had said about Kendra holding her back. I could have easily pictured Leslie partnering with Nikolai Zelenko. Maybe if she had gone to England, he wouldn’t have spiraled out so hard. I remembered Leslie talking about it like it was the saddest thing ever. To her, there was no danseur more perfect than Zelenko. I admired the animalistic abandon and height he was capable of with his jumps. But he lacked the precision that Aleksi had, then again, most dancers did.

Other than dwelling on what could have been, I spent the day seated in my undies, binge watching television shows that I missed while in Britain. It was a very average summer day, the kind of average day that I missed. Well, aside from the texts.

[I’m sorry about yesterday, can I make it up to you?]
Aleksi texted me at noon, I couldn’t help to wonder who put him up to it. He hadn’t seen in an apologetic mood when he dropped me off, frankly he seemed a bit annoyed.
You hurt his feelings, what did you expect?

[I’ll see you tonight when I go to dinner with Leslie. No need to make it up to me, I’m fine.]
I returned and set my phone on the counter.

I didn’t look at my phone again until I was on my way out to meet Leslie for dinner at the diner. My hair was pulled back in a ponytail that brushed the middle of my back and I wore a pink tank top and jeans, with a short white jacket over it. I was dressed down, so down the only makeup I wore was a little bit of lip gloss and eyeliner.
Are you sure you want to leave the house like that?
Miss Manners interrogated me was I locked the door clutching my purse to me.

When I reached the block the theater was on, I checked my cell phone only to find out I was an hour early. Instead of heading to the diner I went into the back door of the theater and wound my way through the rehearsal studios. Piano music still drifted through the halls, everyone was busy rehearsing. I could even hear the faint taps of Garrett’s tap shoes. A few more moments passed and I decided to listen to each door to attempt to find Aleksi and Leslie.

It took a while, but I found them. They were in room E, which was a moderate sized room with space designated for chairs, almost like a mini amphitheater. I remembered Kendra telling me when they first joined the company, that it was the room they occasionally used for small-scale showcases. I lingered by the small sound blocking wall and watched them silently. I didn’t want to be rude and interrupt them.

They kept playing the music for the Pas de Deux over and over again. It always started off well. Then the tall, ginger vampire acting as the repetiteur—think coach—would sigh and rub his face, look at the clipboard, sigh again and gesture to the pianist for the piece to start over.

“And the lift. G
ood, Aleksi. Leslie, lighter on your feet, good… good. Stop! Stop! Stop!” The red-haired male yelled. Colette was there, she stood from one of the chairs and walked over to Aleksi.

“Watch,
” Colette chirped nodding to the pianist who started again. She and Aleksi flowed together like water—they were perfectly in sync. But from what I gathered, Aleksi was always the Knave, and Colette always Alice. The music stopped and Colette tugged on her leg warmers. “The trick is to trust him with the lifts. I know he’s very tall and there’s that moment when you think he’s going to drop you at the release, but he has it. For the first class this is really good, you’re a natural, Les. Just trust him.” Colette beamed at Leslie, who nodded and glanced nervously at Aleksi, who looked slightly annoyed. The red head gestured again and the music started once more. This time they made it through the entire thing and the red head clapped and Colette squealed with delight.

“Perfection as always, Aleksi. Leslie, you were breath-taking. You just have to loosen up. Alice is showing her feelings here, not
fright, or wonder, but love and lust. They’re fluid loose emotions and you cannot tense up during the lifts like that. Alice loves him, she wants him, and because she’s young she trusts him and fears losing him. She’s pleading for his life with this dance. Once more.” He nodded and the music started again.

They danced and Leslie stayed loose like was asked of her. Watching them dance was suddenly almost as good as watching Colette and Aleksi—only with a clear substitutions on Leslie’s part. Colette added a lot of technical flourishes that humans just weren’t capable of. But that aside it was very good, and even I clapped at the end.

“Aleksi, don’t be afraid to lean in closer for the near kiss. Other than that, you two are pretty much good for now. I love it wh
en you make my job easy, Aleksi,” the redhead continued as he glanced down at his clipboard once more. “I can’t believe Tristan is dancing again. I’m almost sad I’m not the White Rabbit, it was the last part I danced mor—” He stopped mid-word when he saw me. “Ah, the famous Autumn, we meet at last.”

“It’s good to meet you…” I trailed off and glanced at
Aleksi, who wiped himself off with a towel.

“I don’t expect you to know who I am, but I did see you at the Party.” His eyes darted over me and I glanced at
Colette, who walked up behind him and kissed his cheek.

“Evan likes to
stare, but he’s harmless… pissed about becoming a repetiteur for this production, but still harmless,” Colette chimed as she hung off of him. “He is a phenomenal White Rabbit—he does twitchy well. It was like the part was written for him, and once I saw him dance it I had to gobble him all up.” He kissed her temple and smirked at her, and in his eyes I saw a twinkle of real companionship and caring. He loved her, but I had the sinking suspicion that he didn’t mean that much to her, after all he wasn’t part of her ‘family’. “It’s going to be so odd to go in there and not have Tristan lording over me.” Colette scrunched her face and Evan leaned his head against hers.

“I’ll try to yell at you and throw the clipbo
ard around for nostalgia’s sake,” he gruffed out, half burying his face in her hair. She giggled, that sound was as always, light, airy and melodious.

“I’ll… I’ll… I’ll be out in ten,” Leslie panted as she left, leaving me in the room with Evan, Colette, and Aleksi. Suddenly the room felt a lot smaller.

“I think we might have been too hard on the little morsel
,” Evan breathed as he and Colette seemed to enjoy each other’s company.

“She’s tougher than she looks, talented too. It took weeks for me to trust Aleksi enough to go loose enough before the fish dive.” Colette sighed out. Aleksi stayed on the other side of the room.

“She hasn’t done anything that would make her think that I would drop her.” Aleksi smirked at
Colette, who scoffed. She was still hanging from Evan.

“That aside
, you should get used to dancing with her since everyone likes the idea of a romance between a vampire and a mortal…” Colette trailed off and flashed me a kind grin. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Aleksi, why are you all the way over there? Aren’t you going to greet Autumn?”

Aleksi shrugged at her words before turning on his heel and leaving out of the other door. With his
absence, the room felt much larger. Evan swallowed and set Colette down.

“I’m going to head off.” Evan started in my direction before pausing and turning back to Colette. “I really enjoyed your company last night. I’ve missed
you, Letty,” he confessed before darting out of the door, with a quick, easy grace. Colette sighed, and those little shoulders hunched into a very unbecoming stance.

“Boyfriend?” I asked raising a brow, remembering her being a threesome with Tristan and Leslie.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She smirked and walked over to me. “You need to apologize to Aleksi. He’s doing that mopey thing
he does when he doesn’t want to admit he has feelings that can get hurt—just like the rest of us.”

“I…” I sat down in one of the chairs and leaned my head back. “After, what happened to Margot…” My voice faded.

“I know. Unlike my loving brother, I can empathize, and in this situation sympathize. I remember the first time I saw a servant’s execution. Unlike you, I didn’t have someone to cover my eyes for me. Elizabeta made me and Aleksi watch while Vlad slit some poor boy’s throat. The worst part was the vampire didn’t even seem fazed by it. I remember distinctly that he shrugged at Vlad and didn’t even sneer. I think he said something like he’d just mark someone else. I was still pretending to be mortal at the time, and I still loved my human friends. So it took me months to get over it. Aleksi shrugged it off and didn’t seem to be bothered by it, but Aleksi is so internal. Like now, I bet no one else but us knows that something is bothering him.”

“Why can’t things come easily.” I sighed slowly pulling myself out of the chair.

“Because a life that’s worth living isn’t easy…” She trailed off. “Speaking of interesting hard lives. Have you heard of Nikolai Zelenko?” I couldn’t help but to furrow my brow. Was it coincidence?
Do you really think its coincidence? You’re the Seer, and you’ve had your first taste of clairvoyancy.

“Yeah, Leslie was a huge fan before… well…” I fell silent because I couldn’t find a polite way to say what happened.

“He’s petitioned us, can you believe it? I’m trying to get the petition, but I think Tristan is going to give it to Aleksi.”

“You’re going to turn him?”

“If he passes the interviews. Though
, I honestly don’t know if he will pass the interview… or if I really want to deal with another fussy Russian. One is enough.”

The door creaked and in walked Leslie, she looked more like me than I did at that moment. She wore a long white linen maxi dress with flowers printed on the skirt. Her lipstick was bright red—like mine usually was—and she wore eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow
. Is today opposite day?
I smoothed my ponytail and let out a soft sigh.

“Autumn! Aleksi and Tristan are meeting us at Dire so we gotta go. Tout suite, my dear.” Leslie called into the room, leaving me to sigh and rub my forehead. I wasn’t dressed for Dire, I was dressed for the diner. Colette blinked and tilted her head to the side.

“It’s Aleksi’s birthday,
” She whispered and I immediately felt like an ass. “The whole company is going to be there.” I gapped at Colette, mainly because I hadn’t been invited, and I had kind of been acting like a total and complete ass to Aleksi all day.
It would serve you right if he left you again. You’ve been a very shitty servant.