Sensing my resignation, the man stepped forward, turning his attention to Lissa. His face was calm. He swept her a bow and managed to look graceful doing it, which surprised me considering his height.

"My name is Dimitri Belikov," he said. I could hear a faint Russian accent. "I've come to take you back to St. Vladimir's Academy, Princess"…..

"Oh, bullshit!" I exclaimed. I stepped up to this mountain of a guardian and swung my first. I knew that there was no way I could take him on; but my protective instincts against Lissa over-rided any resignation I felt before. With a simple movement, he deflected my punch and threw my arm back. Unfortunately my balance was affected because of the blood loss so my footing wasn't as sure as it should have been. The ground came rushing up to meet me in a blurry haze. I knocked my head against the bitchumen, hard. I was lying on the cold ground when Lissa came into focus.

"Are you okay?" she shrieked. Her hands reached out toward me like she was going to heal me like she healed that raven two years ago.

"No" I replied and passed out.

FIVE YEARS LATER

"Ugh" I groaned as I woke up out of my sleepy haze.

"Rose?" someone familiar called out my name and for some reason it was filled with relief.

"Who's asking?" I opened my eyes to find myself back in an all too familiar place. The St. Vladimir's infirmary. How the hell did I land myself here?

"Oh, thank God! I'd thought you'd never wake up" I turned my head to see who my sympathiser was to find—

"Christian?" What the hell was he doing here at my bedside?

"Who else would it be?" he asked , his voice gravelly.

"Uhm, Dimitri for one. Maybe Lissa but definitely not you"

"Who the hell is Dimitri? And I thought we agreed years ago not to talk about Lissa. Rose, are you okay?" His voice was filled with worry and concern. For me.

"Christian? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" Now confusion filled his eyes.

"Like you're about to jump up and hug me. Look, I know we're friends and all but I could go without a hug from you" Hurt filled his eyes.

"Rose, what are you talking about? What do you mean we're just friends? Have the past four years meant nothing to you?" he wasn't raising his voice but everything was getting more intense.

"The past four years? What the hell are you talking about?" I was utterly confused by this point

"I guess they were right then" he scoffed.

"You mum. Lissa. The school. They said we wouldn't last long together. Although, they were surprised we made it this far" his eyes sparkled among the hurt.

"Wait, back up. What do you mean 'last long together'?"

"Rose, if you wanted to break up, all you had to do was say something" he shrugged.

I started laughing when he said this.

"That's funny" I wiped away a tear of laughter "Christian; you do know the definition of 'break up' right? We would have had to have been together to break up" I scoffed.

"We have been together. For the last four years"

My jaw dropped.

"Rose, what's wrong with you?"

"Either this is a really whacked up dream or I've woken up somewhere I wasn't meant to because I'm pretty sure in the past four years I've only dater Dimitri, Adrian and Mason. Not you" Technically I wasn't really going out with Mason when he died but I wasn't worried about technicalities at this time.

"Mason? Your friend, Mason Ashford? Yeah, you guys went out for a bit, before we went out. You guys decided you weren't right for each other. Who are these other two? Adrian and Dimitri? You mentioned Dimitri before"

"Are you actually being serious? Dimitri. Dimitri Belikov? You know, my boyfriend and your guardian? Any of this ringing a bell?" I asked.

"No. Who is the other guy, Adrian?" Boy, he was curious.

"Don't tell me you don't know Adrian? Adrian Ivashkov? A spirit user the same as Lissa. The guy you were jealous of when we were all at St. Vlad's because him and Liss were privately tutoring each other"

He shook his head.

"Where the hell have I woken up?" I yelled to myself. "Wacko land?"

"Ah, Rose. I see you're awake" No way. It was Dr. Olendzki.

"Uh, yeah I'm awake. What are you doing here?" She laughed at this.

"Rose, I work here. Have done for several years. Now, are you feeling okay" she pulled out several medical charts.

"Physically, I'm fine. Mentally, I'm confused as all hell"

"Why would that be?" she wrote something down.

"Because I go to sleep at the court beside Dimitri in a normal bed and wake up here, in the infirmary with sparky over here at my bedside claiming that we've been together for the past four years. He doesn't know who Dimitri or Adrian is. He doesn't want to talk about Lissa. I'm guessing you don't know who Jill is either?" I turned to him.

"Who?" he asked

"Great. So that means Lissa's never got elected queen. I hope it was Ariana Szelsky"

"No, Tatiana is still the queen" Christian said. He was looking back between me and Dr. Olendzki.

"So Tasha never killed her?" I asked,

"My aunt Tasha? Why on Earth would she do that?" Christian looked bewildered.

"Because Tatiana lowered the age law" I looked at them like they were both stupid.

"Come on! Seriously, what the hell is going on? Both of you are acting like everything in the past five years have never happened!" I shouted.

"Hathaway? Are you actually awake? What's with all the shouting?" Oh no. I knew that voice. It was all too familiar. The one and only Mason Ashford stepped into the room. I'm pretty sure at that point all the colour from my face just vanished,

"What's wrong Hathaway? You look like you've just seen a ghost?" he joked.

"I think I just have" I said back.