A/N: Hey everyone! Welcome back to any readers of my previous stories, and welcome to any new ones! As promised, here is the sequel to my previous story, 'Broken Bond'! If you haven't read that one yet, I highly suggest you do otherwise this one will not make much sense!

For those who have read 'Broken Bond,' just to re-cap the story ended with Rose finding out that she had been bonded to Avery. Lissa also bonded with Christian to save his life, and it is still unclear how Sydney and Adrian managed to escape from the Alchemists, and how Jackie Terwilliger, Eddie, Jill and Angeline got to Court. The first couple of chapters of this story will explain all these things in more detail :)

Anyway, I think that's all I need to say for now! I hope you all enjoy the sequel! :D

Chapter One

I COULDN'T REMEMBER THE LAST time I'd had a normal night's sleep. It was currently 5:30 in the evening, which was early morning for the Moroi, and I'd only managed to get three hours of scattered sleep. I didn't have to be up for another two hours, but knowing that I wouldn't be able to force myself back to sleep, I decided a hot shower was a better idea.

I sighed with relief as the steaming hot water trickled down my tense body. I took my time washing my long, dark hair and then just stood under the water until it turned cold. I began to shiver, but I forced myself to stay under the water for another few minutes, hoping the freezing temperature would be enough to wake me up. It wasn't.

I had only been bonded to Avery for a month, but the past four weeks had been torture.
Every time I closed my eyes, I was pulled into Avery's twisted mind. She was constantly using Spirit, and while I was able to block her out most of the time when I was awake, I was yet to discover a way to keep her out when I was asleep.

Sonja's and Oksana's trick of charming pieces of silver to supress the darkness had worked in the beginning, but Avery was using such a high magnitude of Spirit that it didn't take the darkness long to break through. Even Sydney and Jackie had tried to use some of their magic on me, but nothing so far had worked.

Every hour of every day I could feel my mind slowly tearing itself apart. My mood was erratic and often vicious, causing me to offend everyone on a daily basis. I was hurting my friends- I could see it in their eyes-but they never admitted it. Every time I had an outburst, they all told me they understood, and that they were just worried. But I knew things couldn't continue to go on like this. I needed to find a way to break the bond with Avery, and I needed to do it before I lost my mind.

Hopping out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around my shaking body and headed out of the room. All Guardians who served the Queen lived in small studio apartments that were located on the lower levels of her living quarters. And it was definitely an improvement from my tiny room back at the academy. Here I got my own private bathroom, and even my own flat screen TV and plush couch…

I stopped in my tracks as I noticed a tall figure sitting on the edge of my bed.

Dimitri.

His eyes locked with mine, and then trailed down the length of my half-naked body, and I had to remind myself to breathe again. I forced my legs to start moving, and walked right past him like I hadn't even realised he was here. I stopped at my closet and slid the door open. I grabbed a pair of jeans and a top at random and threw them on the bed next to Dimitri, who raised his eyebrows at me.

"Really? You're just going to ignore me?"

I shrugged as I opened my bedside draws and grabbed out some underwear and my favourite black bra.

"I'm not in the mood for another one of your interventions Comrade," I muttered.

"Well, I wouldn't call them interventions, but that's not why I'm here."

I stopped moving around and faced Dimitri, who had a look on his face that I hadn't seen in a while.

Desire.

During the briefing we'd had after I'd woken up in hospital, I had learnt why Zoe had been at Court in the first place. It turned out that Avery had charmed a silver necklace to disguise Zoe to look exactly like me. Out of everything, this was the news Dimitri had feared telling me about the most. He felt so guilty about having not realised it was me instantly, that he expected me to feel betrayed and furious with him, but I wasn't. I knew how powerful Spirit was. After all, I was the one who had had it used against them to reveal vital information- information that had almost gotten my friends and a group of innocent people killed.

But even though I had forgiven him, Dimitri was having a harder time. He had been by my side this entire time, but he was holding back physically, believing that he didn't deserve me in that way. But I had other thoughts about that.

Smirking, I dropped my towel and gestured in front of me.

"Then please, enlighten me as to why you're here."

My smile grew as I saw his eyes widen and his mouth part. But, he stayed where he was.

"I'm here because Jill, Eddie and Angeline are going to be leaving soon. I thought you might want to say goodbye," he stated, keeping his eyes focused on mine.

I frowned.

"When did this all happen?"

"It was only decided last night, but only a few people know about their departure for security reasons."

I knew Jill was going to be leaving Court again, but hadn't been sure when that was going to be. We had been waiting on a new safe location to be confirmed, since they weren't able to go back to Palm Springs. With all that had happened with the Alchemists, the Vote hadn't taken place, and had to be pushed back until they could sort out all the new drama that had unfolded. This meant that Jill's life was still on the line, and that she would have to go back into hiding.

On the positive side, majority of the Royal Council had complete faith in Lissa and her ruling, and had apologised profusely for not believing her in the first place. Everyone looked to her for advice about the dilemma with the Alchemists, so when she requested that Sydney and Jackie stay here in Court- explaining that they would be able to help them win this fight- no-one objected. And while it was true that they would help us figure out the Alchemist's plans, the real reason why they were staying at Court was to keep them safe. Sydney's kind was after her, while our own kind was after Jill. To describe their situation as complicated would be a major understatement.

"I hate this," I mumbled as I started to put my clothes on. "Jill shouldn't have to leave again, Sydney shouldn't have to be in the middle of a war between her kind and ours, and life just should not be this complicated!"

Dimitri's arms wrapped around my waist, and I leaned my back into him as I tried to calm down.

"Shhh… just breathe Roza, just breathe." His soft voice tickled the back of my neck.

I turned around and pressed my head against his chest. Listening to the beating of his heart always helped keep the darkness at bay.

When my breathing had returned to normal, I pulled back so I could face Dimitri. The only clothes I had managed to get on was my black bra and underwear, and I knew by his heavy breathing that Dimitri was very much aware of this too.

"So when exactly are they leaving?"

"In 45 minutes," he breathed.

I reached up and stroked the side of his face. His eyes slid shut, and I tilted my head to press my lips against his. His grip tightened around my waist as he deepened the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he lifted me up and placed me gently on the bed.

Dimitri hovered above me, and I could see the guilt start to return to his eyes.

"No, you need to stop this," I said softly. "Seeing you punish yourself like this is hurting me more than anything else ever could."

"But-"

I grabbed his shirt and pulled him down, covering his mouth with my own. I ripped his duster off, and slipped his shirt over his head with speed I didn't think I had the energy for. But I needed him, and I thought he needed me too until he pushed himself away and off the bed.

"I'm sorry, I just can't…"

And then it clicked.

"Why? Because you feel guilty, or because you can't tell whether this is really me?" I hissed.

I grabbed my clothes from the ground and hastily threw them on. I avoided his gaze as I brushed passed him and headed for the door. It was clear now why he had been on edge ever since we had returned to Court. He'd been burned once with Zoe, and now he was too scared to let his guard down in case something like that ever happened again.

I could feel the darkness building inside me, and I knew that if I stayed I would say something to Dimitri that I would regret. I was pissed with him, but Spirit would take my anger to a whole new level and I didn't want Dimitri to be on the other end of that.

I reached for the door handle, but my path was blocked.

"Wait Rose, just listen," he pleaded, placing his hands on my shoulders. "You're right, I've been keeping my distance. But it has nothing to do with Zoe…"

My heart pounded rapidly in my chest as I tried to subdue darkness.

"Then what's going on? Cause I can't keep doing this Comrade."

I looked up to see concern fill his eyes- the same concern I now knew I had been mistaking for guilt.

"Being bonded to Avery has sent all your emotions into a spiral. You've been fighting back the side effects of Spirit every moment of every day, and I didn't want to add to that," he breathed.

"What are you talking about? How could you possibly add to it? If anything, you're exactly what I need!"

"All couples have disagreements Rose, and we're no different. But Spirit's darkness would escalate that anger and frustration, greatening the impact it's already got on you. I hate seeing you in pain, and I want to do everything in my power to lessen it. Right now you need positivity in your life, and for things to be uncomplicated."

"Uncomplicated? Things were uncomplicated until you started talking about all this bull shit! And as for the positivity in my life, you are my positivity! How can you still not realise that you're what keeps me grounded?" The words that left my mouth tasted like acid, and I knew from the horror in Dimitri's expression that they had hurt. "But you clearly know what's best, you always have right? So if you think keeping your distance from me is the best way to go, then fine! I'll even help you out by leaving right now!"

"Rose! Wait!"

I rushed out the door and down the building's stairs. Dimitri did not follow.

I wasn't sure how long I'd been walking for, all I knew was that I needed to keep moving and busy myself from the thoughts that were racing through my mind. The sun had almost disappeared behind the mountains, but there was still enough of it left to leave patches of light scattered across the footpath. I was so distracted by the beauty of the lights that I didn't realise that the path had ended and almost fell face first into a fountain. Well, I guess "a fountain" wasn't enough to do it justice. It was huge- easily the size of basketball court, and was made out of a smoothed white marbled stone. In the middle was a sculpture of a shield with the royal crest and a list of all the royal families- it was also made out of the same stone the base of the fountain had been created with. On both sides of the shield, water playfully sprayed out of the sculpture, causing ripples to form on the surface of the water.

I had learnt at school that humans had the tradition of throwing coins into fountains for good luck, but we had a different tradition. Instead of coins, we used stones. And we didn't throw in the stones for our own good fortune, we did it for others. Moroi and Dhampir who lived at Court would carve the names of their loved ones onto the stones, say a prayer and then throw it into the fountain. The sinking sun illuminated the bottom of the fountain, revealing hundreds, maybe even thousands, of stones.

Mesmerised, I glided my fingers across the top of the water. The water cooled my burning hot skin, but not my mood.

He doesn't love you anymore. You're crazy, and no-one wants to have a crazy person for a girlfriend.

No!

He says his worried about you, that he wants the best for you. But he's lying.

Stop it!

I crumbled to my knees, and let my body slump against the fountain.

I needed the voices to stop. I needed the darkness to stop.

And I knew from Lissa that there was a way to do that…

Leaning forward, I reached into the water and grabbed a stone that had a jagged edge. My body begun to shake as I brought the sharp object down to my skin. I rested the point of the stone at the top of my wrist. I froze.

Do it.

A/N: Oh no.. the darkness has already started to take over, and it's only been a month! How's Rose going to figure this one out?
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Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend!