Chapter 2
We started for your journey to the court with Lissa, Christian, Dimitri and me in one car. Dimitri was at the wheel and I sat next to him. Somewhere on the road my eyes fell on his hand, close to his wrist, where I could see a dark bruise along with some streaks of blood. How did I not notice this before?
"What's that comrade?", I said pointing towards his wrist.
"We got in a brawl with some strigoi earlier this morning", He replied in his calm and soothing voice.
"What?" Lissa and I shouted at the same time.
"We were leaving for the road when three strigoi attacked us. They didn't really do any damages; Just a few little bruises. Thank god I have such kickass guardians."Christian replied.
"We might have gotten some serious wounds if not for Christian."Dimitri said.
"What do you…."
Christian answered my question by crafting some flames burning from the tips of his fingers.
Another strigoi attack. My mind was again swirling with concern for Lissa. I was always scared of the dangers looming over Lissa's life after the bond vanished. Her becoming the queen did not help matters. She had excellent safety yet there were many unspoken dangers in her life. It reminded me about the attack which took place a few months back. Lissa's half sister, Jill, had almost died in it. Actually, there is no almost. She did die but Adrian, another spirit user like Lissa (who also happened to be my ex boyfriend), had saved her. This is how she and Adrian started to share a bond just like Lissa and I did.
Now, the attacks on royals had become much frequent. What made matters worse was the fact that being the queen had got along a lot of anonymous enemies in Lissa's life. She recently passed the law which allowed the moroi to fight along with the guardians and many moroi resented it. This meant she was not safe even around the moroi.
"It's alright, Roza" Dimitri said as he placed his hand over mine. He had guessed my thoughts as always. His soft voice and warm hands were comforting but I knew that he was just as stressed as me.
We reached the court in about an hour and Dimitri and I joined the other guardians for our duties. The royal court was a city in itself and had strict security and strong wards for safety. As a result the guardians did not always follow their moroi but were often recruited to guard at the different gates and events.
Dimitri and I were given the charge of the north gate and were vigilant at our duties when I saw a car arriving at the gate. I went closer and was about to interrogate the passengers when my eyes fell over the person at the wheel.
Janine Hathaway, my mother, had arrived.