Page 27 of Malice in e minor

“I also think you said you don’t fuck students and I seem to recall me saying I’m not fucking someone who could have my career in their hands.”

Topher immediately backed off and took his elbows off the piano.

“We did say that, didn’t we?”

Maybe we were being stupid. He was exactly my type, and I wasn’t opposed to one-night stands or torrid affairs with the wrong man. He seemed attracted to me too. Still, there were still people who didn’t think the video was why I was here. I heard at least one whisper I was here because I fucked Faustus. I didn’t need anyone thinking Topher got me in front of someone because I slept with him.

Which was a pity.

“In another life, I think we would have had some really hot sex if we didn’t have a really messy relationship.”

“Girl, you have no idea how messy it would have been. We would have been epic in another life. Think about something for me? We aren’t going to happen because I can make a career happen for you. Your viral video helps, but you’re going to want to think about the kind of career you want to have and start moving your pieces now.

“Do your own thing and make more videos or collaborate with the Immortal Nightmare boys, but half of making it is talent and the other half is marketing. Figure out your marketing before someone else does. Something tells me you like being a nameless face in a group, but you’d be happier playing things you wrote yourself. Make friends, Harlowe Lopez, and then collaborate and make beautiful art with them,” Topher said, disappearing.

Topher was right, and he saw me. I was actually doing this and a stranger in the subway believed in me enough to give me the tools to do it. I could play in an orchestra and do weddings and events the rest of my life and be content. But that secret part of my soul wanted to get up in front of a packed audience and play things I wrote.

I could quite easily do that by inserting myself into a relationship that seemed deeply enmeshed and seemed slightly unhinged when outsiders tried to involve themselves.

I didn’t particularly want to do that, even though it would be amazing to just make music with them. My current living space was small like my apartment, but it didn’t have ugly walls I couldn’t do anything about.

You weren’t going to catch me dead asking Orion Hart to write music with me, but I could make videos and try to build on the viral fame Gadreel decided to bring me.

Stubborn women and temperamental men were my weakness. I could never go there with Harlowe Lopez because I couldn’t keep her. I needed to go check in with the three I wanted to keep, but couldn’t.

They hated me now. They thought all of this was my fault, but I didn’t make them do anything. I didn’t even seek them out, something they liked to forget. Everything that happened to them wasn’t my fault. In fact, none of it was.

But this could all be over soon if everyone could get their heads out their arses and we could convince one beautifully stubborn woman to just do what she was good at.

They didn’t notice when I entered their dorm room. They never did. They’d know when I wanted them to know. Azriel was agitated about something. He usually was, but it was generally safer when it was him instead of Misha.

They were going to be pissed when I made myself known. They always were. Best to figure out what else they were pissed at before I walked into it because it was always something.

“Tell me about Leif,” Azriel demanded. “What does he want with Harlowe?”

Azriel was stupid possessive. He was like that about me once, but it all went arse up like it always did. After Misha, I decided not to get attached to them anymore. Then I met Harlowe. I was also interested in what Leif wanted with Harlowe. I was pretty sure I knew since I knew all the students, but I wanted to hear Misha say it.

“Leif wants to be a choreographer, even though he’s an amazing dancer. Every ballerina wants to dance Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, but there’s no dual role like that for men. Matthew Bourne has already done Swan Lake with all male swans, so Leif can’t do that.

“Jekyll and Hyde is already a ballet, but it uses two dancers for the main role and it’s presented as a fever dream of the author. It also uses classics as the score. Leif wants to do it with one dancer playing both parts with original music for his thesis.

“He’s already asked me to dance the lead, and I was super excited to accept, but he hasn’t found anyone to write the score. He won’t ask Orion and won’t let me ask him because he’s terrified of you two and he thinks you’re too famous to say yes. He saw Harlowe’s video first and wanted to find her to see if she would compose the score. Then, she walked through the front door a few days later. He’s been showing the video to people who think she cheated or did something gross to get in. He’s helping, so be nice to him.”

That wasn’t anything I didn’t know. Leif was a good guy with a ton of talent. He didn’t deserve Azriel getting feral all over him. Especially since, as far as I knew, he’d never even spoken to Harlowe, and she was resistant to working with them. Misha was just about the only one who could call the rabid dogs off, so Leif should be safe.

“And that girl, Arabelle?”

Who? I knew everyone here. There was no one named Arabelle. Of course, Azriel called people by the wrong name all the time, usually to their face, because he cared about his people and that was it. I wasn’t the only person who was confused because Orion and Misha both asked.

“Arabelle, you know? The one who can’t tune her violin.”

“Isobel? You know her name is Isobel because I complain about her all the time. You’ve only been hearing Klaus’s tantrums because of her since we started rehearsing together, but I’ve been dealing with it all semester. The only reason she’s here is because her daddy’s loaded and the only reason she’s in orchestra is that there weren’t a lot of violin players who auditioned. When one left, Klaus didn’t have a choice. Why? And what does that have to do with Leif? Because you generally have a point.”

Azriel did, and he usually got there, eventually. He’d just never explain it or whatever wild plot he was about to unleash until he had all the facts. Azriel was wild and chaotic, but he was also very calculating.

“I think I know some of it,” Misha said. “Leif is sexy, hilarious, and talented. He’s generally a good guy all around. He’s also asexual and aromantic. I think he’s more excited about getting to eat a giant bowl of cheesy Alfredo with garlic bread at the end of the season than he is about dating. Most of the dancers get that. They just want to be his friend and dance in his ballets.”

Now that I knew we were dealing with Isobel, I got why Azriel asked about her after Leif, but still not why he was asking in general. Leif had let Isobel down gently at first and then basically explained there was zero chance of him ever being with her like that a little more firmly.