Chapter one

I've never been a person who had much patience. It had happened often enough where I'd acted before I even thought about the consequences. No, patience was not the Rose-Hathaway-style at all.

So it wasn't really surprising that I couldn't sit here waiting, waiting for my trial to come. Yeah, a trial, a real trial, like I was some criminal.

I'll tell you right away that I'm not. But there has been a lot evidence that I murdered the Moroi queen, Tatiana Ivashkov, with my silver stake. A Moroi was a vampire who didn't kill for blood and was mortal. Back to the evidence; first, my fingerprints were on the stake (not surprisingly, I mean it was my stake). Second, my stake had been found in the queen's heart. Third, the stake I described and the stake in the queen's heart were exactly the same, though I didn't say that in Court. I just said they looked a lot like each other and it could possibly be mine.

There was a lot of evidence that I'd killed The Majesty, only I didn't. The question was, who did?

Since I wasn't allowed to leave the jail, I had plenty of time to come up with theories. My first thought was Victor Dashkov. He was sort of my soul-enemy. Victor had been a Moroi prince (the oldest member of the family is always called prince or princess) and he'd kidnapped my best friend Lissa.

Lissa is a Moroi too. Moroi specialised in one of the five elements: fire, water, air, earth or spirit. Spirit is the most rare element, and this was the element Lissa had been specialised in. Just like my boyfriend Adrian Ivashkov. Yes, Ivashkov, just like the queen. The queen had been his great-aunt. I'll come back to Adrian later.

As a spirit-user, Lissa had an amazing gift of using compulsion. She could make Moroi and Dhampirs do what she wanted them to do. Dhampirs are half human and half Moroi.

Dhampirs were physically stronger and faster then Moroi. They were perfect guardians for Moroi, against the Strigoi.

Strigoi were the evil kind of vampires, the undead ones who are strong, really fast, and soulless. There are two ways to turn Strigoi. If a Moroi is drinking the blood of a victim and kills the victim while doing so, the Moroi is turned Strigoi. This was if a Moroi had chosen for eternal life.

The other way to turn Strigoi is unwillingly. If a Strigoi drank blood of a Moroi, Dhampir, or human and make them drink Strigoi blood in return, the victim would be immortal.

Although Strigoi are immortal, there are still three ways to kill them: setting them on fire is one of them. The other is piercing a silver stake (which has been blessed by the four elements) through their heart. The last one is decapitation.

Compulsion wasn't rare, though compulsion on Moroi and Dhampirs was. Lissa could though, as could Adrian, because they were both spirit-users.

However, using compulsion wasn't the most shocking thing, Lissa also could heal people. If that wasn't confusing enough, she could bring people, or animals, back from the death.

That's what she had done with me, when both she and I were involved in a car crash her parents and brother were in too. Not knowingly, she did bring me back from the death and that made me 'shadow-kissed.'

We also had a physical bond since then, I could feel what she was feeling. Our bond had developed and she could send thoughts to me through the bond. It often bugged me, because I couldn't send something back. At first, her strong emotions pushed me into her head, but now I could slip into her head (and out of it) when I wanted to. This way I could live the world as Princess Vasilisa Dragomir.

Yes, Lissa was a princess, since both her parents and brother did die in the car crash, she was the only Dragomir left and that made her the princess.

Back to my theory about Victor Dashkov. He had kidnapped Lissa before, because he knew about her gift to heal people. Victor had been ill, he had a illness called Sandovsky's Syndrome. He had want her to heal him, but of course, she said no. Another Moroi, specialised in air, had abused Lissa by taking away the air or smother her with it. It had felt like it had happen to me, too.

Victor Dashkov had to be in Court and it was decided he had to go to jail for the rest of his life. Lissa and I were both relieved, since he had tried to kill us both.

A few weeks ago, though, we had done something we would never even think about before. We had freed Victor, because his brother had information of turning Strigoi back to who they used to be.

Remember when I talked about a silver stake being made with the four elements? Well, if you added spirit to it, the fifth element, and then stake a Strigoi, it turned to what it had been before turning Strigoi (Moroi, Dhampir or human).

After we heard Victor's brother's, Robert's, story, we had been distracted by Strigoi and Victor and Robert escaped. We had lost them. Knowing what he'd done in the past, he had much connections. He would probably do everything to get me or Lissa in trouble. Really, I couldn't think about someone else making me main suspect for killing the queen.

Robert's story was just a theory though, a theory I did hear off in Russia. A few months ago, there were Strigoi at St. Vladimir's Academy, the academy were Moroi learned about magic (learned about, not learning how to use it in a fight, that was forbidden) and politics while Dhampirs were being trained to become guardians. Lissa and I had walked off two years ago, so since I was far behind in my training, I had to get a personal instructor, Dimitri.

Thinking about Dimitri now was crucifying. Dimitri and I had a connection since we first met. He was tall, muscled and was a school's guardian, which meant he was a Dhampir. His hair was dark and long and because of his high and appearance, people often called him a god.

Dimitri and I, we tried to ignore what was happening between us. He understood me like no one did, not even Lissa. Sometimes it was like we were thinking about something at the same time. We knew, however, we couldn't be together. He was seven years older than me and we were both supposed to be Lissa's guardians after graduation. Dimitri once told me he couldn't protect her, because he would want to protect me first if there was danger. This made the whole thing even more complicated, but we had times we couldn't resist, even though we knew it couldn't be something. Before the Strigoi were at campus, he and I did have sex in a cabin, hidden in the wood. We agreed we couldn't be apart from each other and he said he shouldn't be Lissa's guardian anymore, so we could be together after graduation.

Sometimes it's hard to believe how heaven can be hell in one instant. Just when we headed back to campus, Strigoi were everywhere.

After the fight, the Strigoi had taken both Dhampirs and Moroi into a cave. With my friend's help, Mason, a ghost, (side-effect of being shadow-kissed, I could see ghosts) we discovered where they were hiding and we took off to rescue the captured Moroi and Dhampirs.

It was a relieve to all of us, but then heaven turned into hell again. Dimitri was taken by Strigoi. Later that day we did learn his body was gone, which meant the Strigoi had taken him with them as a Dhampir to feed on, or he'd been forced to turn Strigoi.

The last thing had happened and I remembered a conversation we did have earlier, about rather being that dead then turned Strigoi.

I owed him that and I had been making myself a promise. A promise about piercing my stake through his heart. I had failed though and I was captured, he had done terrible things to me, though at those moments they weren't that horrible. He had bitten me, and Strigoi biting you did release a lot of endorphins. I had managed out to get free though and since then he had stalked me by sending letters. It was basically about him having to kill me, since I rejected his offers to become a Strigoi myself.

The theory about turning Strigoi back to who they used to be hadn't been just a theory, it had happened. A spirit-user had to add spirit as a fifth element in the stake and then pierce a Strigoi's heart with it. Lissa had managed to do this to Dimitri, with some help of her ex-boyfriend Christian, a fire-user.

Dimitri, a Strigoi, turned back to a Dhampir. It wasn't possible, but it really did happen. The next hours I was dying to see him, but only Lissa was allowed to visit his jail. Ironically, he had been in the jail I am in right now. Dimitri had asked for her only and had asked certainly not to take me with her. He didn't want to see me.

Lissa had asked why and I had slipped into her head to live like I was there. He didn't want to see me because of what he had done to me. In his opinion, he couldn't be forgiven for what he had done.

Me, as stubborn as Rose Hathaway was, had managed to visit him anyway. He had broken my heart just there and then. Saying love fades and his had, telling me he couldn't love me anymore.

After that and a few times we did met, several guardians came for me in the cafeteria. Dimitri had been protective over me, the one he said he didn't love anymore. It had confused me a lot. What even more confused me was those guardians accusing me off murdering queen Tatiana.

That's pretty much how I ended up here, in the jail Dimitri did sit for days. Waiting, as patiently as I could, for my trial.