Serenity's POV
I am back in my apartment when the sky finally gives up the last of its color. The city outside my windows is bruised purple and gold, streetlights blinking awake one by one like sentries taking their posts. The performance is tonight. Not tomorrow. Not some safe distance away where I can pretend the announcement hasn’t already altered the terrain. Tonight, while the applause is still echoing through the territory, while Celestine’s pregnancy is still fresh enough to be weaponized.
The air in the room is stagnant, smelling of old sheet music and the metallic tang of the coming rain. I walk over to my piano, the silhouette of the grand instrument stretching across the floorboards like a sleeping predator. I run my fingers along the mahogany lid, feeling the cool, polished s
