A/N: I hate when writers hold their own story ransom. I will not do that. However, I do love to hear what my readers think, good or bad. I have a very exciting amount of readers that have subscribed to my story, but I would still love the comments from the silent majority of you who are reading this but keeping your opinions to yourself. My readers and commenters make my day :) So please let me know what you think.
The worst part about making Christian and Mikhail break into guardian records was that I had no idea what was going on. Ok, the worst part was that I was risking Mikhail's job and his status with the guardians, and Christian's…what? He didn't really have a reputation to uphold. But if he were to get caught breaking into guardian records for me, it wouldn't help to get the Ozera's the respect they deserved as one of the twelve royal families.
But it was frustrating, not knowing what was going on. If it had been Lissa, I could have just slipped into her head and it would have been just like being there myself. Being shadow kissed had it's perks. Of course, the side effects were not always so pleasant.
I would have been fine if I had just waited on my bed for Mikhail and Christian's return, even if I didn't have any clue what was going on. But instead, I tuned into Lissa's head to see where she was. If I had known where she was, I probably would not have gone into her mind in the first place. But as it was, I was already there and she was at court. Or rather, in the courtroom.
I focused my eyes on what Lissa could see, and noticed it was the empty chair to the side of the courtroom; It was the chair that would be filled by a Dragomir, Lissa, to be exact, had it not been for the quorom. Because Lissa had no other family, she could not take her rightful place in the jury. Archaic laws and actions were golden among the Moroi, as I had found out at the Death Watch. The only way for Lissa to gain that spot on council and fulfill her birthright was to prove that there was another living Dragomir somewhere.
But Lissa was not thinking about that, because she did not know that. Instead, Lissa was thinking of her family. She thought about them often, but she had become quite successful at blocking out the pain that those memories brought her. She used to have nightmares about the wreck…the smell of burning rubber where the tires marked the pavement, the sound of the car crunching as if it were a toy. I almost wanted to pull out of Lissa's mind right then and there, because the memories were just too awful. I had died that night, along with the rest of Lissa's family. Lissa's spirit had brought me back. And however silly it was, I would always feel some guilt at being the one that Lissa brought back.
Had Lissa's father been around, he would have been the person to fill that twelfth chair. As it was, the chair was empty. So was the one next to it, one which had a higher back and sat back a little further than the rest. That was where the queen would sit in most occasions, as most Moroi rulings were presided over by the monarch. A judge had been appointed because the queen wasn't present. If she were, there would be no cause for this…what was this? A hearing? A meeting? Whatever it was, the judge from my hearing-I only knew her as Paula, as that was what Abe had called her-stood at the front of the room.
Lissa forced all the thoughts of death from her mind, thinking how unfair it was that I was not there. After all, this meeting was about me.
When Lissa made that thought known to me, anything I was feeling turned to rage. There was a blind fury building up within me, I could feel it burning away in my heart. I was surprised Lissa could not feel it, even though I knew the bond only served to make her feelings known to me, not the other way around. The judge called everyone to attention and silence descended upon the people in the court.
"We convene today to make the decision on whether the case of Rosemarie Hathaway will go to trial." My fury only began to smolder as she spoke. She was providing me with something to stoke the fire, and it was working. "Today is an open court session. Everybody here will have a chance to make their opinion known, if they so wish." Everybody except me.
I realized that Lissa had come to the trial with Adrian. And on her other side…Dimitri. I was beginning to feel worried that this was going to become a casual thing. Adrian and Dimitri together was a weird concept, and I still couldn't get used to the idea of Dimitri wanting to be with Lissa so much. Whatever had happened when she had destroyed the strigoi in him had caused a bond to form between them. It was nothing like the bond Lissa and I shared, as Strigoi were not dead so they could not become shadow kissed. It was just a deep emotional attachment between them; Dimitri was grateful that she had saved him.
Adrian put a hand on Lissa's shoulder. Lissa recognized what it meant. It was a symbol of his faith in her, of his trust in her strength. She knew what she had to do. I had spent forever protecting her, and now Lissa knew it was time to return the favor. She would stand up for me now, giving a voice to somebody who was unjustly being excluded from this event. She gave Dimitri a swift glance, to which he nodded, a very small gesture. Lissa stood up regally, and all the eyes in the room turned to rest upon her.
The judge nodded at her too, as if she had known Lissa was going to stand up and kick off the comments. As a royal, when Lissa spoke, people listened. But as the last Dragomir, people had a healthy respect for what she had to say. Her friendship with me was sure to be cause for speculation of a bias, which is certainly the truth. She had known me since kindergarten; Hell, she had not just known me, she had been my sister ever since then. "If it pleases the court, your honor, I would like to begin the proceedings."
"You may begin, Princess." The judge said serenely.
I could feel the panic in Lissa, even though I knew she was putting up a calm front. She was terrified that she would botch something up, or say the wrong thing. She was terrified that what she would say would be what would condemn me. But my faith in Lissa was as strong as ever. I only wished I could be there to see her do this, rather than experience it through her.
"Rose and I ran away in our sophomore year," She began, a slight smile on her face. There was a low murmur in the crowd; They'd all known about that of course. When the last Dragomir went missing it was not an occasion for calm. "And upon our return to St. Vladimir's, she had a trial of sorts, in which the headmistress was going to determine her future at the academy. During that time, nobody considered what I had to say, or how I had played a part in that. They gave Rose a chance to stay in the school, on probationary terms, provided she go through extensive extra training to cover what she had missed in class. And Rose did excellent. She graduated as the best guardian in her class."
I thought of Eddie. If I had been with Lissa, I would have contested that remark. Eddie had proven himself to be the best, at least in my eyes, when we were in Las Vegas. He had Dimitri cornered within minutes, something that it had taken me a long while to do. Eddie was able to see the strigoi as they were, rather than for the people they used to be, something that marked my weaknesses. And if I hadn't messed Eddie up, he would have staked Dimitri and received another molnija mark on his neck. I was grateful, though, that I hadn't allowed him to stake Dimitri.
"But last year Rose left again, shortly before we were due to graduate. She had a mission in mind." I felt tense as I thought of what Lissa was about to say. "Rose went all the way to Russia to hunt down a strigoi."
That caused a little bit of discontent to grow among the moroi in the court. Dhampirs leaving school, and subsequently their guardian duties, was a disrespectful thing. In Russia, they had referred to it as being unpromised, and the rogue group of people I had met who hunted strigoi had had a very unsavory reputation.
Lissa let the court say what they would for a few moments, before calling attention back to herself. "Rose did not leave to hunt down just any strigoi. She left in search of one strigoi…her former instructor, who had mentioned in a lesson that death was a better fate than living as a strigoi. True to her values, Rose went to Russia to free Guardian Dimitri Belikov from walking the world a strigoi. And when she came back, she was permitted to rejoin her class in training. And so she proved herself an excellent guardian."
"It sounds to me that Miss Hathaway has had her fair share of chances." Somebody spoke. Lissa followed the voice with a look of utmost composure to where Anthony Badica sat in his chair, looking smug. Lissa smiled at him sweetly, as if he had paid me nothing short of a compliment.
"Oh, but there's more." I felt cold as Lissa spoke. Surely she was not going to mention Las Vegas. I don't know where she was going with this, but it seemed that bringing up my mistakes was unsurprisingly not making the court feel very partial to me, as Anthony had demonstrated. "Just weeks ago, Rose and I left court, as I'm sure all of you know. We went to Las Vegas. You all must remember, as that was the very same weekend Victor Dashkov escaped from prison."
I felt terror beginning to coil up inside me, replacing the fury I had felt. She was perilously close to insinuating that we had broken Victor Dashkov out of prison. If the court got wind of that, it would lead to all sorts of wild speculation that I had freed Victor to assist me in killing the queen.
"When we returned, Rose was punished, as she always is. Dhampirs receive the brunt of the punishment, even if a moroi has caused their own damage. Funny how we make our own beds, and then the dhampir have to lay in them." She let that wash over the court for a moment, and there were a few gasps at her indignant remarks. "It was her punishment that prevented her from going to Lehigh when I made a trip for my eighteenth birthday with Priscilla Voda. In that very same trip, my party was attacked by strigoi. Priscilla Voda perished that night, as well as many of our very valuable, respectable guardians. I stand before this court in all honesty and tell you that if Rosemarie Hathaway had not been punished, she would have been there that night and prevented the massacre that occurred. In the absence of the queen, and as I am eighteen and am legally allowed to make my own choices, I appoint Rosemarie Hathaway to be my sanctioned guardian."
I was just as shocked by her words as the rest of the court. They all began to speak at once, in outrage and confusion and even in wonder. The effects of spirit must have really gotten to her though, because she was surely crazy. Nobody would ever let me be a guardian now.
"That is not allowed!" Nathan Ivashkov sat on the royal court now, as the queen had been an Ivashkov. In her absence somebody from the family had to speak for them. As the oldest, it was his right. It was Nathan who had yelled the objection, punctuating it with a slam of his fist into the table before him. Perhaps he got confused and began to think himself the judge.
"In all of our archaic laws, I have not found the tiniest indication that a royal Moroi may not choose their guardian. My safety is my concern, and mine alone. Who I choose as my guardian is also of my own choosing. Before, I took into consideration the requests of the queen. Being that one of my guardians was killed, I invoke my right to appoint someone else to be my guardian. Rose is my guardian and shall be treated as such until a time in which somebody can prove to me that this is not allowed."
The judge nodded, her face blank. She did not betray her emotions, for I could not tell what she thought of this. Lissa was dying to know what the judge was going to say too. "I have never heard of any evidence that this is not allowed. Rosemarie Hathaway will be your guardian, pending any laws have not been over-looked. However, it still stands to reason that if Rosemarie Hathaway has killed the queen, that she must be tried. If she is convicted of high treason, the punishment is execution." Lissa had known that of course. She was very well-informed on the workings of the politics of the Moroi.
"I do understand, your honor. But until the trial, I need my guardian to protect me. While I remain on the grounds of this court, I am allowed to have my guardian at my side."
Outrage erupted in the masses. But I was too shocked by what Lissa was saying to pay attention to the audience. She could not be right. It was too good to be true.
The judge calmed the frenzy with a few swift bangs of her gavel. "On what grounds do you think that a suspect in a high-profile murder should be allowed to walk free until her trial?" The judge sounded panicked, like she knew what Lissa was about to say. Lissa tried to hide her smile.
"On the grounds of Kinkade Versus The Royal Court, 1983."
