I feel free, Alek… I want to be yours. I choose you. I love you, Alek… I’m going to rehearsal now…
The world narrowed to a single, brutal point, every part of me focused on that one little word.
Rehearsal.
“No,” I breathed, the word tearing out of me like stitches on a wound. “Fuck.No.”
I clicked the call button, my heart pounding in my chest with every long second without an answer. The phone rang and rang and rang, haunting me with the silence in between. Finally, I heard a click, and my body loosened.
Until I heard the words, “Hi, you’ve reached Eva. I can’t come to the phone right now?—”
I called her again, but the same thing happened again. And again. And the texts I fired off went unread and unanswered, too.
“No,” I snarled, already running for the door. “Pick up, solnyshka.”
I didn’t remember getting to the car. Didn’t remember Nikolai sliding into the passenger seat, his face as determined as mine. Didn’t remember starting the car and whipping out of the spot in front of my building. All I knew was the sound of my own heartbeat drowning out everything else as I tore through the city like a bat out of hell.
My mind could only think of one thing. Her name repeated like a prayer to a god I didn’t fully trust to keep her alive.
Eva.
Eva.
Eva.
Eva.
Eva.
I blew through the streets, ignoring every red light, every vehicle in my way. My fingers were repeatedly pressing the call button by Eva’s name, hoping she would pick up and reassure me that she was already.
But the dark feeling inside of me only grew stronger.
If something happened to her, I would never forgive myself. If I had seen her texts, I would have rushed over to the theater. I could have gotten her out myself. But I was sulking, tooconvinced that I had lost the girl that somehow managed to sneak past every one of my walls.
I could smell the smoke from three blocks away. Black. Thick.Wrong.
It covered the air like a blanket, making it impossible to see. I skidded the car to a stop and rolled down the window, coughing through the ash.
Sirens screamed, and police officers directed the crowd away from the burning building. In the distance, firefighters scrambled to the theater, which loomed ahead, its beautiful old stone blackened, bleeding smoke into the sky.
I growled under my breath before parking the car and ordering Nikolai to take care of it. I couldn’t fucking sit still while waiting for the news on whether Eva made it out okay. I had to be there amongst the chaos. I couldn’t rest until I knew she was in my arms again.
I sprinted to the front of the building and found a large group of ballerinas in sparkling costumes huddled together, their faces covered with soot. I scanned the group, praying that I found my petite girl among them. But she wasn’t there.
No.
No.
Where the fuck was she?
A hand wrapped around my wrist, and I turned, knowing I was wearing a murderous expression, only to find a sobbing Mia in front of me. Mascara ran down the front of her cheeks, and her bun was disheveled. The fury that someone was stopping me slowly leeched out as my hope restarted. Maybe Mia knew where Eva was. Maybe she was coming to bring me to her.
And then she opened her mouth, and the hope inside me died.
“A-Alek,” she sobbed. “It’s Eva. No one knows where she is. She was on the stage with Raphael, and he said they got separated. You have to f-find her. I-I know you will.”
Everything in me snapped to attention. She was still inside the fucking theater.
