When I woke up the next morning, it was to someone beating on my door. There were two problems with this scenario. One, it was earlier than I get up on training days, and two, it was Saturday… It was my day to sleep in, and someone was ruining it for me.
"Go away, I'm sleeping." I groaned, pulling the blankets over my head.
"Rose, open the door." Dimitri's voice said, no mistaking it for anyone else. I rolled out of bed, and stumbled my way to the door, unlocking it. I turned and walked away.
"Come in." I said, collapsing back onto my bed.
"Get up, and get dressed."
"I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but its Saturday, and also three o' clock."
"I'm very aware of what time it is, but if you want to make it to the academy while they're all awake, we have to go now." He said, his Russian accent lacing through his voice. I sat straight up out of my bed.
"I'm sorry… what?"
"I made a promise to you… I intended to keep it." He said.
"But after last night… I didn't think-." He shook his head.
"I didn't either, but I legitimately felt bad about leaving you here when I promised. I'm not sorry, because you could have been hurt, but… I'm going to make it up to you now." He said.
"Why didn't you say anything last night when I was blowing up at you?" I asked him.
"I didn't decide until this morning." He admitted. I met his eyes. "So, get dressed and meet me out front." I just stared, kind of confused and a little disoriented. I was going to see Lissa. He was actually taking me to the academy. "Are you okay?" He snapped me out of my trance.
"Yeah… I'm-. I'm getting ready now." I said, jumping up. He nodded, and walked out, closing the door behind him. I didn't miss the final glance he threw me before the door closed behind him. I grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, slipping them on. I did my make-up, and ran a brush through my hair, before running downstairs and out the front door. He smiled when I slammed it behind me.
"You ready?" I nodded. "I think that's the quickest I've ever seen you get ready for anything."
"Because I want to do this. I don't want to train in the mornings." I explained. As we started towards the van, I glanced back at the estate. "Do the other guardians know what you're doing today?"
"No… and they don't need to know."
"But if it's-." I started, but he cut me off, unlocking my door for me.
"I'm head guardian. I can do what I feel is right here, and this is it. I don't follow their orders, they follow mine." He said, simply. I just nodded as I got in. He walked around the other side of the van, and got into the driver's seat. As he backed out, and started for the gates, I saw Landon looking out the window. I quickly averted my gaze back out the windshield.
"How are they going to feel about you bringing me back to the academy?" I asked.
"They'll have to deal. I'll be with you, to keep you under control and all, so it shouldn't be that big of a thing." He told me.
"They kicked me out for a reason though. They're probably going to give you hell about bringing me back, even if it is for a short amount of time. They think I 'corrupt their students and the peace of their campus.' They can all bite me." I told him. He smiled slightly.
"I'll take the heat for bringing you back. You won't."
"You're willing to do that?" I asked. He just nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. He finally reached forward and turned on the radio. I watched as he scanned through the stations, until finally he stopped. As the music filled the van, I realized that it was old western music. I gagged. "You're kidding right? This is what you listen to?"
"Yes… Do you have a problem with it?" He asked. I nodded.
"Yeah, the fact that it came out like a hundred years before I was born."
"Your exaggerating a little, don't you think?" He asked me. I rolled my eyes.
"Can't you change it to something that came out after I was born?" I asked, looking at him. He finally nodded.
"Sure." He said. I watched as he flipped through the channels, and landed on a more modern country station. I groaned and sat back in my chair.
"This is going to be a long ride." I muttered. This caused him to chuckle. I was glad he found amusement in this torture.
"Are you going to be able to find Lissa when we get there?" He asked.
"I'm sure." I told him. It was Saturday, so she wouldn't be in class, but I knew even if she wasn't in her room, I'd be able to find her very easily. When we got to the academy, the Guardians permitted Dimitri and I entrance, and we parked. It was strange being back here. I hated this place more than anything, but because Lissa was here, I'd always known I'd be back. I wouldn't ever be able to just leave her. As we walked into the office, I watched as Kirova jumped up.
"Guardian Belikov, what are you doing?" She asked, her voice hard as if she were reprimanding a student.
"I've brought Rose here to see Vasilisa."
"That was the sole reason she was kicked out, Belikov. I do not understand why you've brought her back." She barked.
"Kirova, calm down. Don't get your panties in a wad, jeez. I'm only here for a visit."
"No… I will not have this on my campus." She said, motioning to me. "She's a corruption to my students and to the peace here on campus. I will not allow it. We don't need this here a day after an attack."
"I will be with her, headmistress Kirova. I will not allow her to corrupt anything while she's here. She needs to see Vasilisa, and then I'll take her back to the estate, and we'll be out of your hair." Dimitri said, keeping his voice calm and smooth. Kirova glared at us for a short while, before finally giving in.
"You have until curfew on this campus… After that, you are to be off and not to return, do you understand?" She asked, looking at me. I saluted her like an army soldier saluting their general. She rolled her eyes.
"Thanks." I said, before walking out. Dimitri trailed out after me, shaking his head.
"No wonder she doesn't like you."
"What? You either get used to my attitude and the way I am, or you hate me. She chose to hate me… like I care." I said, starting for the dining hall, where I knew she was.
"Where are we going?"
"Dining hall... She's eating breakfast." It was then I realized I'd let him in on too much. He raised an eyebrow, so I thought up a quick lie. I looked at my watch, and shrugged. "She always ate at this time. It was part of her routine." He bought it, but still regarded me suspiciously. The moment I opened the doors of the dining hall, every head snapped up and looked at me. Once again, I was the center of attention. I started into the room, until Lissa stepped out into the walk way.
"Rose."
"Hey Liss." I said. She started running, and jumped into my arms. I laughed as I spun her around. "God, I've missed you." I could feel the question in her head. What was I doing here? "I knew you needed me, so I came to visit."
"Kirova let you."
"She had no choice… I had Dimitri to back me up." I said, motioning to the tall, Russian Mauler standing behind me. Dimitri bowed slightly.
"Princess."
"Please, call me Lissa." She said. He just nodded. The eyes of the entire student body never left us.
"It's impolite to stare." I snapped loudly. Every one of them turned around. I smiled as I averted my attention back to Lissa.
"Come on, let's get out of here." I told her, taking her hand. We started for the door when a boy I recognized stepped forward.
"Hey Rose." He said. I smiled.
"Mason." I hugged him. "How are you?"
"I'm good. Things aren't the same without you around here, Hathaway."
"Oh, I know. You'll just have to deal with how boring the place is now." I told him. He chuckled and Dimitri shook his head.
"I guess I will. How's training?" He asked.
"It's…. it's training. What can I say?" I said, glancing at Dimitri. He rolled his eyes. "Alright, well we have to go. I'll see you around Mason." I told him.
"Will you?"
"Ehh… It's a slim chance, but it'll give you something to look forward too if you do." I said, smirking at him as I walked away. Once we were outside, I heard the question form in Lissa's head. "You wanna head back to your room?" She just nodded. When we reached the girls dorm, with Dimitri following, Lissa unlocked her door and walked in.
"Can I talk to Rose… alone?" Lissa asked Dimitri. He looked at me.
"Can I trust you?"
"Do you think we're going to try and escape again?" I asked him.
"Rose!" He said, letting me know he meant business.
"Yes, you can trust me." I promised. He met my eyes for a second, before nodding.
"Alright." He said. "I'll wait out here." I just nodded as I shut the door.
"Why are you really here?"
"I knew you needed me. I felt how much you missed me, and knew I needed to see you." I told her. I then grabbed a hold of her wrist, and pulled her sleeves up, looking at them. They were worse than they were before. I'd never seen so many scars on one person, even a guardian. "What did I tell you about this?" I demanded.
"I know, but you were gone, and I needed you. The distance isn't good for me, Rose. It's driving me insane." She told me. I nodded.
"I know, Lissa… I know, but you've got to stop this. You're going to hurt yourself."
"But when I need it, it feels so good. It's like everything that's bottled up in me, just floats away." She explained. I nodded. I remembered the relief she'd felt when I'd been in her head that night.
"I know, but it doesn't make it right. What if you cut to deep, what if you die? What then? I can't save you like you save me, and I cannot lose you, Lissa." I snapped at her.
"I know, I know."
"No… You don't understand. I'll have nothing left if something happens to you. You've got to stop this. Find a new way to cope… something, anything other than this." I told her.
"There is nothing else." She said. I grabbed her face.
"If you take yourself away from me, Lissa… I'm holding you personally responsible." I told her. She laid her hands over mine, and shook her head.
"I can't believe they took you away from me. If they understood what it was really doing to me." She said, tears leaking down her face.
"We will make it through this. We will survive, Lissa. We always survive… remember that."
"You seem so sure." She whispered, wiping her eyes.
"Because I am. I wouldn't have left had I doubted that. I would have snuck back, kidnapped you and we would have run again. I have faith that we'll pull through this." I told her. She just nodded.
"What would I do without you?" She murmured. We both knew the answer to that, so it went unspoken. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her for a moment.
"So, how is training and stuff at that place?"
"It's… its coming along, I guess. I kind of stay to myself there." I admitted.
"You don't have any friends there?"
"I have one, but I kind of punched him in the eye the other day, so I'm not exactly sure how much he likes me anymore." I admitted. It was then I remembered him trying to calm me down after Dimitri left me last night.
"Rose!"
"It was an accident… He scared me." I told her. She giggled. There was a knock on the door, so I called to come in. Dimitri stood there for a second, looking back and forth between Lissa and me before letting his eyes fall on me.
"Rose, can I talk to you alone for a second?" He asked. I nodded.
"Sure, is everything okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine. I just wanna speak to you for a second." He said. I nodded and stood up.
"I'll be back." I told Lissa, before following him out of Lissa's room and downstairs, outside. When we finally stopped walking, I narrowed my eyes. "Something is wrong."
"No… Nothing's wrong." He said, shaking his head.
"Then what is it?"
"I know why you needed to see Lissa now, Rose." He told me. I felt my heart sink. There was no way he could know. How could he have figured it out?
"What? What are you talking about?" I asked.
"You're bonded, Rose." He said, so sure of himself.
"How do you? What? How do you know?" I asked, running my hands through my hair. I couldn't believe he knew. No one knew, and he'd known it the first time he saw us together. Was it really that obvious?
"I had a feeling when we first arrived, and you knew exactly where she was, and the way she stepped out of the crowd to find you. Then, I might have been listening a little to your conversation from the other side of the door." He admitted.
"You were listening to our conversation!" I yelled. "How dare you!"
"I'm sorry. It was wrong, and I know… but I needed to know things like this about you. I can help you both, Rose. You have to trust-." I shook my head.
"No… How am I supposed to trust you when you were eavesdropping on my conversation, Dimitri? If you had suspicions you should have asked me."
"You would have lied to me, and you know it. You would have never told me." He said. We stood at a stalemate, and I had no idea what to do. He was right… I never would have told him on my own. I would never trust anyone with that information, and now… it was public knowledge. I just stared at him.
"I'm going back to her." I snapped, turning from him and starting back to her dorm.
"Rose, wait-."
"I have nothing more to say to you." I said, walking away from him. I walked back inside, and upstairs into Lissa's room, slamming the door, and locking it behind me.
"Dimitri knows." I murmured.
"What?" She asked.
"He knows we're bonded."
"What? How?" She demanded. I shook my head.
"He guessed for himself, but he was listening in on our conversation earlier and figured it out."
"He was eavesdropping?" I just nodded.
"What are we going to do, Lissa? Someone knows. What if he tells someone? What if they find out about what you can do? What if they try and take you away from here?" I murmured, pacing.
"Rose, we have to get out of here." She said. I shook my head.
"We can't. Dimitri's right outside and there's no way to escape this time. We're stuck, and royally fucked."
"Rose, what are we-." I shook my head.
"I don't know." I whispered. I sat down on her bed. "We'll have to find our way through it, because we're stuck this time. There's nowhere to run."
"I'm scared." She said.
"I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." I promised.
"But how are you going to protect me while you're there and I'm here." She said.
"I'll figure it out." I said. "I will not let anything happen to you. If it gets bad, I'll find a way to get you out of here, but for now… we need to stay where we are, and just go on about our lives as normal as possible." I told her. We talked for a little while longer, before Dimitri knocked.
"It's almost curfew, Rose. It's time to go." He called through the door. I sighed, and glared at the direction his voice came from. I hugged Lissa tight.
"I love you, Lissa. I'll know if you need me. Just stay strong, and please… be safe."
"I'll do my best." She said.
"That's all I ask." I hugged her again, and took a deep breath before walking out and past Dimitri, never once looking at him. I walked out to the van, and stood at the door, waiting for him to come back from the office. When he finally arrived, he unlocked my door. I started to open it, when he put an arm in front of me.
"You have to talk to me at some point." He told me. I said nothing. I stepped back, and crossed my arms. "Are you really going to act like a five year old, and ignore me?" I remained silent. He sighed and walked to the other side of the van and got in. I got in the passenger's seat, and situated myself to where I wasn't facing him. As he pulled out of the gates, he sighed. The tension in the van was thick and could have been cut with a knife. Lissa and I's bond wasn't something I ever intended on telling him, or anyone for that matter. It wasn't anyone else's concern but ours, and he had no business snooping, and listening to our conversation. It was low and so unlike him. Finally, after about five minutes of dead silence, he spoke.
"Rose, I'm sorry." He finally said. I said nothing. I continued to stare out the window, watching as we drove farther and farther away from Lissa. "Please, say something."
"I have nothing to say to you." I muttered, never looking at him.
"Rose, I said I'm sorry. What more do you want?"
"What you did was wrong, and low. You shouldn't have been eavesdropping, Dimitri. You didn't need to know. It's not any of your concern." I snapped at him.
"It's your concern, and since I'm your mentor, and you are my responsibility, it makes it my concern." He said.
"You didn't need to know. Lissa and I have kept it under wraps, but you've obviously ruined that now." I told him. "Who are you going to tell? Kirova? Alberta? They'll take her away from the academy. They'll treat her like some kind of laboratory rat." I shook my head as I thought about it.
"I didn't tell anyone, and I don't plan on it."
"What?" I asked, turning to look at him. I hadn't heard right.
"Rose, the way I went about finding out was wrong, yes… but even if you had told me, I wouldn't say anything to anyone."
"You're serious." I said.
"I'm a guardian, Rose. I'm a man of honor. I wouldn't lie to you about something like this. I understand you and Lissa's reasoning for wanting to keep it under wraps." He told me. I nodded.
"Thank you." I said, turning to stare back out the window. I missed her already. I hated being away from her. The van fell silent again for awhile, before Dimitri spoke again.
"Rose? Can I ask you something?" He said.
"Sure." I said, not really sure what he was about to ask.
"If your bonded to Lissa… that means that you've… you've died before… correct?" He asked me. I continued staring out the window, remembering that night.
"I have." I whispered.
"Do you mind if I asked what happened?" He asked me.
"It was late…. The road was wet that night. Eric was driving. We were coming back from dinner, when something ran out into the road. He swerved, and that's all I remember. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital with a bloody Lissa sitting next to me." I told him.
"She healed you." He stated.
"It's the only way I could have lived. I've watched her heal other things… animals. I convinced her that it was bad for her, and she needed to stop. I convinced her that it was dangerous that people knew." I told him. I found myself opening up to him now that he knew. I wasn't sure why, but I felt I could trust him… even though I didn't want to.
"Is that why you took her from the academy?"
"I was scared someone would find out. I was scared they'd take her away from me." I told him. "I wasn't taking that chance. We would have been fine, had they not found us. We would have survived on our own; like we did for the two months we were gone."
"I don't doubt that." He told me. I turned to him.
"I would have given my life for her."
"I know you would have. I know you will. That's what'll make you a good guardian. You're passionate. You love her. She's your best friend, and it's obvious that you'd never let anything happen to her. The people at the academy are blind if they don't see that." He told me.
"I'm scared they're not going to let me be her guardian. I have to be her guardian. I'm the only one who can protect her like she needs, the only one that will ever really be able to take care of her." I explained.
"Being a princess, and a royal, she'll need that kind of protection. I think that's protection only a guardian like you would be able to give her." He said. I nodded. The van was silent once again, until we got back to the estate. When we got out, and started towards the door.
"Don't tell anyone where we went today. I'll deal with the guardians, but the other novices don't need to know." He told me. I nodded.
"I won't say anything." I promised. "Hey Dimitri?" He turned back to me, and I stood there for a second. I wasn't sure how he'd react, but I didn't care. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight. "Thank you so much for today, for taking me to see her. I needed that." He wrapped his arms around me as well, holding me for a moment before letting go.
"You're welcome. You do realize, I expect to see more out of you now at training?"
"I do. If you're actual going to start training me." I snapped playfully.
"Get some sleep, Rose. You're going to need it in the morning." He said. The statement was just asking for a witty, Rose Hathaway quip, but I let it slide.
"Goodnight Dimitri."
"Goodnight, Rose." He said, smiling slightly before I turned and walked inside, heading upstairs, and cuddling in bed.
