Okay, so I'm back from that unexpected hiatus. Finally. I won't bore you with reasons why it took so long to update, I'll just say that I've caught up on my stories and have found inspiration again.

Disclaimer: Vampire Academy belongs to Richelle Mead.

All of us went out for lunch, which stretched into dinner. Lissa had booked out one of the bars at Court for the whole afternoon, so with food, drink and music, the time seemed to pass quickly. Adrian and Abe both got a little drunk, much to everyone's amusement. Even Sydney and Janine smiled at the 2 Moroi talking animatedly about whether they preferred Rolex or Omega watches. Adrian favoured the Rolex, which Abe said fitted his party-boy tastes; "A Omega has quality and class- not that you'd understand".
To that, Adrian's brilliant reply was, "If you're such a badass, why don't you just get a Bond watch?"
This caused Abe to effectively win the argument, as James Bond actually wore an Omega Seamaster.
As for me, I wasn't really sure how someone could have such strong opinions on watches. Didn't everyone just use their phone to check the time anyway?

It was as I was thinking this that I remembered that Aleks and I had an appointment scheduled with Rhonda in half an hour.

"Mom, I was going to take Aleks to meet Ambrose and Rhonda at 6:00. It won't take long; we'll be back in time for dessert."

"Of course you will. I don't think you've missed dessert in your life."

"Except when you steal it!" I quipped, before leading Aleks away to the sound of everyone's laughter and mom's irritated huff.

As we entered the spa building, the receptionist looked up. "Oh, Anastasia. Rhonda said to go straight in; she finished up with her last client early."

"Thanks Gemma."

As we walked the familiar hallway, Aleks seemed to become a little nervous. I cast him a sideways glance. "What's the matter?" He didn't reply. "Scared of what she might reveal?" I teased.

Aleks looked at me then, and laughed quietly. "Yeah, something like that."

"Aw, don't worry. If there was anything interesting, I'd have already seen it," I said, winking. "This is it."

I knocked once on the red & gold door before turning the handle and pushing it open. Rhonda would know I was here anyway.

As we stepped into the room, I heard Aleks draw in a breath behind me. The room generally had that effect on people- my mom once described it as 'like walking into someone's heart'. Everything was red, and the hundreds of cushions, silk draperies of silk and velvet wallpaper gave the effect that the walls could move, flex and close in on you. There was an almost palpable lifeforce, to me at least, and these lines of power led directly to the woman sitting in the middle of the floor, on a mountain of cushions.

"Hi Rhonda." I greeted the woman, and a smile spread across the Moroi's slightly olive-tinted face.

"Anastasia, a pleasure as always. And who have you brought?" She asked, black eyes twinkling like the gold jewellery hanging from every available orifice. If Abe and Rhonda simultaneously decided to sell all their jewellery, the price of gold would drop through the floor due to the sudden abundance of the metal available on the market.

"This is Aleksandr, a friend from Russia." I said, and Aleks greeted her with a nod. He seemed slightly awed by her presence, which was a little strange, since he was used to Yeva. Maybe it was the way she was dressed all in black, matching her eyes and hair, or the unmistakable gypsy vibe emanating from her. Yeva naturally looked (and sometimes acted), like a Halloween-type witch whilst I liked to think I was pretty normal, but we both kept the vedma vibe on the down low, whilst Rhonda ramped it up. That had to be it.

Rhonda smiled wider. "Privet, Aleksandr." She gestured to the velvet cushions in front of her. "Please, take a seat."

We sat down cross legged on the floor as Rhonda drew a pack of cards from behind her back. I briefly wondered if Rhonda would ever stop sitting on the floor and move onto the couch. She was in her early 60s, but I doubted age would ever force her to abandon her seat on the floor.

Rhonda scrutinised the 2 of us for a moment, before beginning to shuffle the cards, focussing on Aleks.
"There is much to be learned" ,she said ominously, before handing him the deck. "Cut it please." After he did so, she removed one card from the top of the deck and handed it to him, before re-shuffling and dealing 3 cards, laying them out in the cushion-free space on the red carpet.

The Tarot car in Aleks' hand was Strength. It showed a woman riding a lion, holding up a burning heart, with lines connecting it to both the sun and the moon. As I looked at the picture, a strange chill ran through me, followed by a flash of heat. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but I didn't have much time to contemplate the meaning before Rhonda began to read the remaining 3 cards.

The Chariot, Temperance and the High Priestess were lined up in front of us, both the first 2 were upside down. That made me uneasy- inverted cards were rarely good.

Rhonda ran her forefinger over the Chariot.

"The damage caused by tragedy and loss of control over your life is intensified by personal flaws. The continuation of outdated traditions combines with poor judgement," she tapped Temperance, "leading to conflicts of interest and disagreements. Trying to combine too many elements in a short time causes volatility, which if not controlled, could result in you losing something which you take for granted." Rhonda's voice had taken on a resonating quality, and both Aleks and I were listening intently as she pointed to the High Priestess. "You must allow these events to strip away your ignorance of true feelings, and through secret knowledge and the influence of a woman, the truth will be revealed."

There was silence for a few seconds and Aleks and I both glanced at each other, before turning to look at Rhonda. After a moment, she laughed.
"Don't look so serious, children. Now, Anastasia, your turn."

After collecting Aleks' cards back in, she shuffled and I cut them, taking a card as she spread out 3 others.

The card in my hand was the Knight of Cups. It showed a knight in armour riding a white horse, crossing a river in some kind of desert.

The 3 cards in front of me were the Wheel of Fortune, the Moon, and the Star. All were the right way up.

"Change is in progress, within you and around you. But the wheel is turning, always turning. The circle must be completed, or the balance shall be interrupted." She pointed to the moon. "Psychic abilities offer a window into the future, but stagnation and a change of heart cloud judgement." Finally, she indicated the star. "You must see the light in the darkness, and lead the way when the path is unclear. Only then will your true power guide you through your destiny, on which the fate of our world rests."

I tightened my fingers around the card in my hand, processing what had just been said. The 'change' part was familiar; I had got that much from my dreams and the strange messages before I went back to school. But clearly my spidey-senses had been slacking a bit if I had missed the rest. Hopefully they'd be back in time to give me night-vision for the 'darkness ahead'.

Suddenly Rhonda laughed. "Don't worry, Anastasia. The cards' message is rarely what it seems to be, and the future is not written in stone. It has not been written at all- that is up to you." She directed the rest at both of us. "My sight allows me to see beyond the cards, and thought the future is blurry, I know that there is something great ahead of you. Use your gifts wisely, but do not use sight of who you are. That is my warning."

Rhonda scooped the cards up off the floor, shuffling them again. I went to hand her back the Knight of Cups that was still in my palm, but she shook her head. I was confused, until she pulled the Strength card out of the deck, giving it to Aleks.

"Just in case you need a reminder." She said with a wry smile.

"Thank you," Aleks said quietly, before standing up to leave. I followed him to the door, glancing back to nod at Rhonda before opening it. She was now holding a crystal ball in her hands, and as she turned it over in her fingers, if caught the light, splitting it into a rainbow spectrum which danced across the red walls. Rhonda gave me a long, knowing look, and rotated the ball again.

'The wheel is turning' echoed through my head, as though whispered by the wind through the mist. I shivered involuntarily, before shutting the door on the Romany Moroi.

Aleks and I walked in silence back to Royal housing, arms brushing. The slight pressure warmed me in the cold night air.

Before we reached the palace, I turned off the path, steering Aleks with me. "I need coffee. And a donut."

Aleks laughed. "Don't you have any at home?"

"Nope; I finished the last of the good stuff this morning. I was hoping that if I didn't draw attention to the fact it was gone until after Sydney had been there, I could blame it on her." Plus, I wanted to talk to him about what had happened with Rhonda without any of my family eavesdropping. Mom was the worst for that, but at least you knew it she'd heard something- she wouldn't be able to keep it to herself.

I led Aleks to the small coffee shop next door to he royal housing. I preferred this cafe to the one in the main commercial building, it was smaller and more personal, and the Moroi mostly avoided it. That was always a bonus. Moroi were known for their gossip, and I had always been the theme of some of their whispers. One of the perks of being me.

"Caramel latte and a..."

"Black coffee, please."

We got a table at the back if the cafe whilst waiting for our drinks to be served. The waiter brought the to us a minute later, and I grinned when I saw who it was.

"Hey Ambrose, we've just been to see your Aunt."

"Ah, that'd explain why you're both sitting there looking so perplexed. My aunt often has that effect on people. I guess getting into people's hearts and minds means messing with them too. Occupational hazard."

"Hey, watch the dig."

"Sorry," he said with a blinding smile.

Though in his mid-thirties, Ambrose was still strikingly good-looking. But despite his carefree, free-spirit persona, there was a sadness to him that always ran beneath the surface. Mom had told me he had once been involved with the last Queen, in more than one way, and that her death had truly upset him. He'd taken a job as a barista to supplement his work as a masseuse after he'd lost the money gained from his... Arrangement with Tatiana. Not that she had paid him directly for his services, mom assured me, but she'd paid for his rent and ensured that he always had enough to be comfortable.

But despite the fact that I liked Ambrose and his banter, right now, he was interrupting my talk with Aleks.

Thankfully, the Moroi barista shouted from behind the row of coffee machines that he needed to 'stop socialising and start serving."

"I'll see you soon. Enjoy the coffee" Ambrose said, grumbling as be turned to head back behind the counter. Something he said must have offended one of the old Moroi women queuing for drinks, as she glared at him whilst ordering her cup of chai.

"Right, where were we before we got interrupted?"

"Using the pretends of getting coffee so we could talk about the tarot reading without everyone giving their input?"

"Okay, you got me. But do you really want to go hang around with everyone after that? I'm speaking for myself here, but that was pretty intense. And this is coming from someone used to receiving psychic intuition."

"It was a little... intense. Did she really get all that from the cards?"

I shook my head. "Not exactly. The cards just provide a sort of medium for her to work through. The whereas a fraud fortune teller would probably give pretty much the same information to everyone who draws that particular set of cards, Rhonda could get the same cards for 2 people and give 2 totally different fortunes. She gets the finer interpretations behind the cards from her gift."

"I see..." He said, but didn't really sound too confident. He dropped it though, and moved onto another question. "How accurate are her readings? Because I'm not really sure what mine was about."

I laughed at that. "Join the club. Most of the time, the reading she gives are really obscure. Ours were actually pretty clear compared to some of them. But that's part of it, I guess. If we were told exactly what was going to happen, it probably wouldn't actually happen. There were definitely things that sounded like they'd be better to avoid."

"Hm". Aleks was deep in thought, no doubt trying to decide Rhonda's cryptic message. "Conflicts and disagreements would be nice to avoid. And did she call me ignorant?" The look of disbelief on his face was almost comical.

"Yeah, she did."

"That's unfair, I think-"

"That 'arrogant' would be a better word?"

He raised one eyebrow, and I had to fight back a smile. He was only succeeding in showing exactly how arrogant he could be. And when I came to his knowledge of my feelings for him, he was totally, obliviously ignorant of anything.

"Okay, so maybe a little. But I still think she was being unfair."

"If you insist. What did she mean by things getting out of control and tragedy? That was about the past, so you must have an idea of what she was talking about."

Aleks shrugged. "The my team lost the football last week, that could be it."

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. Half-truths or, shutting down completely, were his covers when he was uncomfortable or hiding something, but it wouldn't cut it with me.

"I don't know, maybe the loss of control was about leaving Russia and coming here on such short notice. That was all sort of out of my hands. That would like with the 'changes' in your fortune. That was pretty intense as well."

"Mm." I pushed a packet of sugar around the table. "I guess so, but it's more than that. I keep getting... Messages, visions about change too. It's something bigger than that; something that hasn't finished- or hasn't even started yet. As for the destiny thing, Yeva said as much." I dropped my voice into a low, raspy tone. "'You have been given your gifts for a reason, Anastasia. You must learn to use them, you have a responsibility to do so.'"

Aleks laughed at my impression of Yeva. "See, you're the important one here. I'm just the sidekick."

I snorted. "Something really must be wrong- no way would you let yourself be referred to as a sidekick."

He smirked. "I'd be the sidekick that gets to date all the hot girls whilst the hero is out saving the world, then gets their own spinoff series which becomes more popular than the original."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course you would. But you'd have to put up with wearing the tights for a couple of seasons first."

This seemed to put Aleks off the idea a bit, and he flicked the packet of sugar at me just as my phone beeped. Deflecting the sugar, I checked the message and sighed. "We should probably be getting back. Our flight leaves in 3 hours and everyone's going to be pissed if I hold it up again."

"Especially the Moroi you'll be forcing to fly when the sun is the strongest." He added.

We'd be flying out at about 8:30, arriving at St. Vladimir's around 11:00. This way we'd get to spend as much time here as possible, but be back at our dorms by curfew with minimal exposure to the sun.

I finished the last drops of my coffee, and Aleks went ahead and opened the door for me. He smiled sweetly and I felt something flutter in my chest. I realised that he hadn't actually told me his theory about what the 'tragedy' was, but didn't want to ruin the moment by bringing it up again. It obviously wasn't important, or if it was, it wouldn't be good to push him on it. That was something I'd learned with Aleks- he'd tell me when he was ready.

Hopefully, I wouldn't have to wait too long.

When we got on the plane back to St. Vladimir's, we were all exhausted. I didn't need Sophia to help me sleep.

I sat next to Aleks, and as my eyelids grey heavy, so did my head. As I drifted off to sleep, I let my head fall onto Aleks' shoulder. He shifted in his seat, turning his body towards mine, and putting an arm around me, holding me close to him. I felt his cheek rest on my head, and could have sworn I felt his lips press into my hair.

But I might have just been dreaming.

Hope you enjoyed that Anya x Aleks fluff, because when Rhonda's predictions never end too well!

Please leave a review on your way out :)