Thanks for the reviews for last chapter! Seems like Lily has become quite a popular character, especially with future Dimitri around :)
Selinsgrove was barely more than an assortment of a few streets, quickly merging into rural farmland. I recognized it from Ava's and my previous visit, mainly because it was so small that we had landed in pretty much the same area I had walked through with Ava a long time ago. It had been daytime then, because we hadn't dared venture out in the night. This time though, Strigoi were the least of our worries. In fact, I think all three of us had rather battle a few hundred Strigoi for the rest of the night instead of doing what we were doing.
I led my mom and dad along a winding dirt road that went out of the populated area, out into the fields that were filled with moonlight and the nightly sounds of crickets and wind. The path had stuck in my brain, even though I had only been here one single time. We passed a farmhouse with brightly lit windows, another one that was all dark. The darkness grew thicker; there were no more streetlamps here, and no more warm yellow light shining out of windows behind which families were going after their peaceful lives. Far ahead, another dark building was barely visible through the darkening of a darkness that was already so dark as to perfectly describe our thoughts. Interrupting the perfect black, like a knife cutting through blood and skin, was a wavering dot of light, watery like Robert's eyes.
"He has a thing for abandoned buildings, doesn't he?" grumbled Rose. Clearly, she wasn't giving herself any time for brooding.
"He does seem to have a weakness for spooky haunts," Dimitri agreed.
"Robert Doru is the spooky haunt," Rose countered lightly.
We stood still, watching the dark house with the one illuminated window.
"Do we just barge in?" I asked, not quite able to match their bantering tone.
"We have to do what he least expects," Dimitri mused. "What does he not expect?"
"For someone other than Rose to come barging in," I said. That much I was sure of.
"Anton." The forced lightness was falling off Rose like a dropped cloak. "Are you saying-"
"I'll try to distract him long enough so that you and Dimitri can grab Lissa and run. As soon as she's outside, I'll try to get away, but the main thing is to get Lissa out and to keep her safe. Everything else doesn't matter."
Rose looked like she wanted to say something, but it was Dimitri who spoke up, his voice unusually sharp: "That's not how we're going to go about this. We might have agreed that we're ready to lose everything, but that doesn't mean we're just going to throw it all away. So, no, Anton – everything else does not not matter. We are going to fight for our lives and yours, too, Anton."
He started walking again, and I barely caught what he said next: "I'll do it."
I had to suppress a groan. So stubborn! And they wondered where I got it from! "That's not going to be very helpful," I called after him. He stopped.
"Robert knows what you mean to Rose. He might try to capture you as well, to gain more leverage."
"But I'm still—"
"Also, your potential as a diversion is much smaller than mine. My involvement puzzles him. He doesn't know who I am, so he'll be distracted trying to figure out why I'm there."
"But like I said, we're not going to—"
"Look, Dad," I exploded. "I know it goes against your guts to jeopardize someone else when you could protect them instead, but in this situation, it simply doesn't make any sense! It doesn't make any sense to try to protect me while endangering yourselves! My life is tied to yours, it is impossible to save me if one of you dies!"
They stood and stared at me. It only occurred to me after a few seconds of heavy breathing that this might be because I had said 'Dad' so naturally. Then I saw the hard glint in Rose's eyes, and wondered whether she resented me never having called her Mom.
"Well," said Rose, trying and failing to keep her voice neutral. "In that case… at least try not to die before we do."
It was as good a permission to go risk my neck as ever I'd get. For a moment, I lingered, torn between wanting a goodbye, and wanting to live. I could have neither of these things, because to live would mean to see die and to say goodbye would mean giving up on life.
I started off towards the house by myself, leaving the dark silhouettes of my mom and dad behind me.
The closer I came to the house, the more the light seemed to dim. It had appeared like a bright beacon from afar, but from up close, it was no more than a diffuse glow. It bathed the barely recognizable garden path in a deceptively warm gold, and put the dilapidated front door in even darker shadows.
By the look of the door, it would either crumble to dust at my touch or creak loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood. I laid my hand on the doorknob and allowed myself one last breath, before giving it a determined push and trying my best not to jump upon discovering that it, indeed, made a racket to compete with Lily blowing her nose.
I left the door wide open. Rose and Dimitri would do better with stealth on their side.
Once inside, I looked for the stairs, cursing Robert's shrewdness in picking an upstairs room – I hadn't been able reach a window, so I'd been unable to spy from outside. I discovered a staircase in the back, plunged in even deeper darkness now my eyes had grown accustomed to what little light had penetrated into the garden. I paused for a few seconds, letting my eyes adjust, then started up the stairs in as light a footfall as I could manage. The steps were stone, and in contrast to the door, they allowed me to proceed absolutely noiselessly.
The first floor landing was painted with stripes of light coming through the cracks in the door up ahead. There was a low shuffling sound, and I imagined Robert pacing around the room victoriously.
Resigning to the fact that now was the time to shed stealth, I decided for a bold entrance. After a second of steeling myself, I gathered speed and ran, crossing the short landing in a few steps, and almost took the door with me as I threw myself against it. It wasn't locked; it opened easily, spilling me inside into the light, releasing me into the too-bright room with surprising readiness.
I blinked over the skip in my heartbeat. The room was large, much larger than I would have expected in an old house like this, and I felt lost in it. I didn't spot Robert immediately; thoughts rose up as I searched for him, frantically, trying to locate the threat – it was a trap, he wasn't here, he'd hoodwinked us once again – then I found him in the far corner, standing lazily against the wall, his drab brown and grey clothes making him blend into the equally drab, moldy-grey wall.
Much more prominent, though, tied to a chair in the center of the room, was Lissa. She was sitting very upright and still; her blond hair was ruffled and sticking out of a cloth tied around her head in a manner that suggested a struggle had accompanied the process of blindfolding her. Of course Robert would have done that – most spirit tricks required eye contact, be it compulsion or telekinesis. Robbed of her sight, Lissa was virtually powerless.
Involuntarily, my eyes lingered for a moment on the blindfold. It was red and had a pattern of crossed swords on it – it looked like something a little kid would wear to play pirate. The absurd image of Robert standing in a toy store, carefully choosing a scarf for Lissa as if he wanted to make her a present popped up in my mind.
As my mind raced on – would she be able to free herself if I could get her blindfold off? – Robert disengaged himself from the wall and sauntered a few steps towards me.
"You," he said, in a wondering tone. "Why are you here?"
"That is pretty obvious, isn't it?" I said. If I wasn't so likely to die today, I might have been proud of how calm I sounded.
"Well, now you mention it," Robert said with a glance at Lissa, "In a way it is. In a way, it isn't. Who are you?" He changed track so casually – as if he was asking a new classmate for his name - that he caught me completely off-guard.
"I… what do you… What?"
"I want to understand," he said. "Why you fight for her."
Distraction, I reminded myself. Rose and Dimitri would come barging in here every minute now. I should be distracting him and not the other way around. I had to take Robert's mind off things, off Lissa.
"We all fight for her," Lissa said, suddenly, her voice unwavering and defiant. "Because we love her."
No, Lissa, no. She had to be quiet. I had to draw his attention away from her.
"Why are you so interested?" I blurted, saying the first thing that came to mind. I took a few steps forward. There was a flash of a sly grin on his face that could mean nothing good.
"Why is it you came for her?" he insisted. "Did you come in her stead?"
"Yes," I said, desperately. "Rose won't come. She knows… she knows Lissa would want her to live. And if there is no chance you'll let Lissa go anyway…"
He scoffed. "You're lying."
I took another step forwards, and collided with an invisible wall.
"You don't know her." My mouth worked on autopilot; meanwhile, I was thinking frantically. Of course he would shield himself – I should have thought of that. If the wall was still there when Dimitri and Rose made their move, it would be useless… I had to make him falter in his concentration – if he couldn't concentrate, and his control slipped in exactly the right moment…
Angry – anger would work. "You know nothing at all," I said with renewed vigor. "You don't even know why she killed your brother."
"Anton," Lissa said, a warning laced in her voice. "Don't-"
"You have no idea who your brother was," I continued, cutting her off. "What he did."
My plan seemed to work, at least where the anger was concerned. Robert charged towards me, blue eyes blazing. He stopped mere feet away from me, but still in a safe distance. I kept the tip of my toes pressed against the wall, so I would immediately know what his power wavered.
"I don't care," he hissed. "I loved my brother. No matter what he did, he did not deserve murder."
In spite of his rancor, he suddenly looked very tired. Very tired, and very old.
"Anton, be careful," Lissa cried from her chair. "He's not as demented as we thought, he could—"
This time, Robert cut her off. "That's right, I am no longer mad, aren't I?" As fast as it had flared, his temper settled again. "Grieving once took my sanity away, but grieving twice gave it back to me. Ever since he died, I used magic only when I had to. Then I discovered what your kind can do-" My kind, was it now? "-and practiced spirit when the baby was near. It cured my madness, and it strengthened me. But it did not cure my hatred. I have seen Rosemarie Hathaway slay my brother. I will have revenge."
His sudden calm had deflated me. Making him angry would be more difficult than I thought, after all.
"If your brother hadn't been stupid enough to attack Rose, then she wouldn't have had to defend herself," I said, earning an exasperated groan from Lissa. "It was as much his stupidity that killed him than Rose."
"Want to wash her image clean, do you?" He was unfazed. "Why do you love her?"
That question again.
"He was a monster," I continued, choosing to ignore it. "Did you never ask what cured him of his illness?" I desperately tried to remember every scrap of information that Lissa and Rose had ever given me about Victor's attempt to leech Lissa's spirit powers for healing.
"No," he said simply. "I didn't."
"I did," Lissa said. Her head was turned towards our voices. "I healed him. He made me."
Robert opened his mouth to counter, but then, he stopped. For the first time, he seemed perturbed.
"Why didn't he ask me to heal him?"
Lissa continued. "He could have asked me, too, Robert! I loved him once, he was family to me! I trusted him, and if I'd known I could heal him, I would have done it voluntarily! But instead, he chose to abduct me and force the healing out of me."
I stood frozen, listening. I could do no better than that, distraction-wise.
"But…" Confusion showed in Robert's wide blue eyes. "Why?"
"Because no one spirit user could have healed him permanently," Lissa explained. "Even healing him once made me pass out from exhaustion. Victor was terminally ill, and he would have needed to drain a spirit user time and time again if he wanted to stay healthy. He intended to keep my captive, forcing me to deplete my powers again and again, until there was nothing left of me. Robert, he… he was willing to let me waste away so that he could live!"
Robert stared; I could see him swallow, a sharp rise and fall of his jugular. He seemed lost for words. The invisible wall pressing against my foot gave way a little.
"He went to jail for it," I said when neither he nor Lissa spoke. "He went to Tarasov."
"But he got out," Robert whispered. "That was when he came to visit me again…"
Had it been the little house I had seen in the dream that Robert had lived in then? Had he welcomed his brother amongst the cluttered workbench and the untidy kitchen?
"He only visited you because he needed to make a deal," I ventured, desperately. The wall went from solid to almost gone, and back again. "He would just have forgotten about you, otherwise." I had no idea whether this was true, but it served its purpose. The wall caved in; my foot encountered no further resistance.
At exactly this moment, two dark shapes exploded through the windows. The clear, high sound of shattering glass rang out as their bodies seared through the panes, and they came down in a silvery rain of glittering shards. Ghostlike, they rose up in magically fluid motions and were across the room before Robert had even fully turned towards them.
A cry rose up, and I dashed forwards, but even while I collided with Robert and took him with me to the ground, the shards rose up from the ground and converged in a shimmering cloud on Lissa, who sat blind and helpless on her chair.
Everything froze. Dimitri and Rose, almost upon her, froze, tiny pieces of glass still falling from their forms. I froze, on the ground, mere inches away from Robert and yet hopelessly far away, because I could never stop him in time to stop those shards, hovering in the air like see-through butterflies, ready to bury themselves into the mother of my friend.
"Get… away… from me," Robert hissed through clenched teeth. Though he was on the ground with me, his sharp eyes were on everything in the room at once. Slowly, I edged away from him. Rose and Dimitri didn't move.
He got up. Silvery glass dusted his brown jacket. His army of deadly butterflies stood still in the air.
Then Lissa's small voice cut the silence. "What happened?" Her body was tensed; she was perched as much on the edge of her chair as her bonds would allow her. Still blindfolded, she was utterly unaware of the razor-sharp edges hovering inches from her throat.
"It's us, Liss," Rose uttered quietly, her calm voice at odds with the poised tension of her body.
"It is you," Robert said, coldly. "And even though I told you that you had no hope of saving your friend."
"You want me, Robert," Rose said. "You want me tortured and killed. You can have me. Here I am."
"Indeed, it seems that I do have everything you hold dear in this room," Robert drawled, slowly. His eyes raked over her and Dimitri, then came to rest on me. "Even though I do not know the reason for your attachment to this one."
Then he fixed his watery eyes back on Dimitri, and added maliciously: "You have brought me more than I ever wanted."
At this, Dimitri spoke. "You need someone to torture Rose with. You have me now. You can let the queen go and still have everything you need to torment Rose to the end of her life."
So blandly said. I could see the stab his words sent through me mirrored in Rose's eyes.
It was plain to see that the love entanglements were over Robert's head by now. He may have captured Lissa because he knew how much pain it would cause Rose to see her suffer. But he had not expected every one of us to be ready to suffer along with her.
"You mistake me for a cold-blooded killer," he growled. "I am not. I am no worse than what she is. I want no more for her than she did to me."
"Then take me," Dimitri replied, still a picture of serenity. "And let Lissa go."
"Why?"
"You healed Ava," I whispered. It dawned me then, the realization: that there might still be a real chance for my friend to live. "You didn't want her to get hurt."
The moment I'd said it, I realized it had been a mistake. Robert scowled. "You think I am weak because I didn't let the girl die? If you do, you are mistaken. I don't care how many of you die, anymore. You're all in with Rose. I told you to let it go, that I only wanted her to experience what she has done to me. Yet you persist in coming. It will be you own fault if you die."
"But Lissa," I stammered. This had to work, it just had to work. "Did she tell you? She's pregnant."
He gave no outward sign of distress, but still, I continued. "She's more than one person. There's a baby with her! You'd be killing her baby with her… And she never consented to being here."
His blue eyes turned to me, drilling into me. I felt myself go rigid with a sharp shock; he turned back to them, leaving me a living statue – I couldn't budge, only my eyes would move…
"If that's the case…" The glittering cloud of glass jerked, then hurtled through the air like a swarm of silvery fish. It skirted Rose, who was only a few feet away from Lissa, and gathered around Dimitri's head, exactly the way it had around Lissa's before.
There was no sound but our collective intake of breath. And Lissa's little whisper: "What's going on?"
Rose took a shuddering breath, but she didn't budge. "Let Lissa go, now."
"No," Robert said, simply. "I won't. Yet."
Rose closed her eyes. Just for one brief moment. "For what it's worth," she said. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
I struggled against my bonds; it was like moving through drying concrete.
"I didn't want – I didn't want to – kill him. I – he attacked me. And I had so much of the spirit darkness…"
She didn't look at him – she seemed unable to meet his eyes, and it made her miss the sudden change in Robert's expression. His watery blue eyes took on a fire that they had never had before. His teeth clenched, and his mouth twisted into a snarl.
I was beginning to feel the tell-tale signs of magical exhaustion – Robert must be tapping into my magical enhancement powers quite liberally, and he must be doing it with eye-contact only, not with touch. Another spirit peculiarity, I guess.
"Are you saying," he growled in a tone so dangerous it finally made Rose look up. "Are you saying that my brother is to blame for what you did to him?"
"No," Rose said, her voice dropped to no more than a whisper. Yes, I thought. Victor had taunted and goaded Rose, had attacked her and he'd known that Rose was dangerous. He was to blame for his death just as much as Rose was.
"I think you can never be blamed for your death at the hands of another person."
But it had been self-defense! It wasn't like actual murder – it wasn't as if the victim could not be held accountable for his part of the proceedings. Defense wasn't like murder – Rose had never had the intention to kill!
Robert, instead of growing angrier, now went deadly calm. "Then why," he said through barely moving teeth, "did you kill him?"
"I wasn't being careful with him," Rose said. She was looking Robert straight into his fiery eyes. "He'd hurt my best friend. I hated him. When he attacked me, I defended myself with more strength than I needed to."
Whatever she had indented, it surely was not what happened now. The glass ceased floating around as a cloud; I felt a sharp tug to my strength as they seemed to implode, forming a glittering, see-through, but deadly sharp-edged sword. My vision went blurry with the added energy Robert took from me in order to do this.
"He didn't hurt the girl," Robert shrieked with an oddly high-pitched voice. "He didn't!"
Then I heard Rose's scream, "No!", and as my vision came back, the blade made for Lissa and was intercepted by the lightning-fast blur that was my mom jumping in front of the helplessly tied queen. Dimitri yelled, sprang forwards, and received a blast of energy into his chest so strong is sent him flying backwards. He collided head-first with the far wall and collapsed on the floor, where he lay unmoving.
Robert stood in the middle of the havoc he'd wreaked, breathing heavily and surveying the chaos. For one breathless moment, I got the impression that he was shocked at the sight of what he had done.
"Rose?" Lissa whimpered.
On the floor, at her feet, my mom lay with a bleeding gash running from her shoulder to the middle of her chest. The blade had sprung into shards once again when Robert's magic no longer held it together; a few were still imbedded in her skin.
"No," I croaked, finding my voice faint. I redoubled my struggles against my bonds, but they didn't waiver.
"Anton," Lissa was crying behind her blindfold. "Anton, what's going on?"
I wouldn't have been able to talk even if I'd known what words to form.
"It wasn't my brother. He didn't do a thing like this. He did none of it." Robert's voice held a shaky edge of desperation. He was still standing as if rooted to the spot.
"You didn't know your brother, Robert," Lissa said softly, her voice thick with tears I couldn't see. "Believe me, I've been tricked as well. I'm so sorry, Robert!" Weirdly enough, she sounded absolutely sincere. Robert raised his head at her, incredulous.
"Sorry?" he repeated in a whisper.
"I'm a spirit user like you, I know how hard it is to deal with the darkness! And Victor was the only family you had. Losing him must have been devastating for you. Just as losing Rose would be for me."
"Let me go to her," I said. I had eyes only for her, stirring feebly, blood seeping out of her wound with every weakening beat of her heart.
"Killing Rose won't help you," Lissa continued, her voice almost giving out.
"Let me go to her," I cried, dimly noting the desperation in my own voice. "Let me go! She's dying! Please, she's – let me be with her. Please…"
Robert's watery stare turned to me. The sight of his tears sent a jolt through me, but I didn't have it in me to pity him.
"Please," I whispered.
When his powers released me, I sank to my knees, wobbly from all the energy he had taken from me. I didn't waste a second in picking myself up, and staggered over to my dying mom. I dropped next to her, barely registering the glass shards that cut my legs.
My voice was even more unsteady than my legs. "Rose?"
I took her hand that was hovering over the bleeding gash as if trying to keep the blood in. Her eyes opened. A small smile formed on her lips.
"I'm so sorry, Anton," she whispered. "I had hoped against hope that you could survive this."
"It doesn't matter," I replied, forcing a smile of my own.
"Dimitri?"
"He's only knocked out."
"Will he be okay?" Her voice was growing fainter already.
"Eventually," I lied.
Lissa was sobbing noiselessly. It was torture to know that if only I could free her, Rose would be saved. But Robert would never allow it.
"Why?" It was him, sounding utterly desperate himself. "Why do you love her so much?"
It seemed like every second I spent not looking at her was a wasted one, but I pried my eyes from her to look at him. I didn't have the energy to display any hate. Instead, I showed him all my sadness as I caught his teary colorless eyes. "Because she is my mom."
That was all the attention I was going to give him. I turned back to Rose, who was breathing in short, shallow gasps. She still managed to smile, though.
"I'm so, so sorry," she said, barely audible. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," I said. And then, for the first time in earnest: "Mom. Mom, it's okay."
I desperately wished for one last hug, but I didn't dare move her. I could lose the last precious moment of her life.
"…hear that more often," she breathed.
A shadow was falling on her from above, and I leaned over her protectively, instinctively, but Robert was, as always, overpowering. I could do nothing as he bent down, and stretched out his hand. Rose's eyes met his without misgivings. He reached for her chest, and, surprisingly gently, put his fingers over her heart.
My first thought was that he wanted to show mercy and deal a quick death. My second was that he wanted to steal her last heartbeat away from me. Only then did I realize that none of that was true.
Robert was healing her.
Rose's hand returned my fierce grip gently; I met her eyes, briefly, before they drifted close with a sigh. But her chest was rising and falling steadily, and the gash in her flesh was closing; her blood-soaked shirt was still torn and bloody, but underneath, her skin knitted together under Robert's light but powerful touch.
A haze settled over everything but Rose and Robert and me. Things were happening outside of that haze; the door burst open; two figures stood there and froze on the spot when they saw what was happening; Lissa sat still on her chair turned prison, not daring to interfere; Dimitri lay where he had fallen, stirring feebly. And Rose, my beautiful mother who had been so ready to lay down her life for her friend, slowly returned from on the brink of death to the land of the living.
She lay there with her eyes closed, weakly pressing my hand against her cheek, no longer bleeding. Time seemed suspended as Robert lingered with his hand outstretched. At the door were Ava and Christian, who must have burst in only to see that they were too late, and then to wait paralyzed as the unthinkable happened. At the far wall, Dimitri sat up slowly, still stunned. Lissa no longer cried.
Robert's voice rang like church bells in the heavy silence. "I'm going to leave now."
He stood up. Turned, eyes still lingering on Rose, to make his way to the door. The way seemed to stretch infinitely as his steps sounded hollowly to accompany his surrender. He passed by Christian and Ava, who stepped back, mutely letting him pass, silently following him with their eyes. Robert looked twenty years older as he left; he looked as old as I had first known him, though for him, years had yet to pass until then. The last I saw was his hunched back, retreating, leaving us in a room full of blood, shards, and miraculously, unbelievably, very alive people.
Then, color and noise came back to the world.
Dimitri staggered over and dropped down by Rose's head. Lissa was swiftly freed by Christian, and fell into his arms still blindfolded. And Ava – Ava sat down next to me in the middle of the glass shards, and gently led me up the way of death and dying into the considerably more blissful reality again.
"You did it," she whispered. I felt her arms wrap around me, and found myself returning the hug with a pressure that threatened to suffocate her. Next to us, Dimitri was fretting over Rose, who reached up to him with a tired, but happy smile. "Roza," he repeated, "Roza, my Roza," as if to make sure it was still her.
Lissa, who had finally ripped the cloth off her eyes, perched down by Rose's side and frantically tried to make sense of all the destruction she had only heard, not seen; however, Rose was in good hands, being helped into a sitting position by Dimitri, so Lissa turned back to Christian. I was only half paying attention to everything going on, just bathing in the general glow of relief and happiness, and feeling safe beside Ava, but what Lissa said next served to focus my attention pretty quickly.
"Christian," she said decisively, facing him head-on. "Do you want to marry me?"
"Of course I do," he replied, slightly confused but without hesitation. "Whom else would I want to marry?"
I blinked. I saw Rose and Dimitri and Ava blink as well. Ava's eyebrows slowly rose up higher and higher during the short stretch of silence, which then Rose broke.
"That," she said weakly, "was the most unromantic response to a marriage proposal that ever was made."
"Oh," said Christian. Then: "That was a proposal?"
"I guess it was."
For a moment, he stared at her, openmouthed. A few months' worth of careful timing efforts seemed to war with a spreading grin as he found his voice again: "No fair! I was planning to propose for months, but you wouldn't find the time to properly listen!"
Dimitri, on the other hand, turned to Rose, and said, in a tone impossibly dry for someone who had just almost watched his girlfriend die: "There you go, they're engaged. Can we please get married, now, finally?"
Rose's smile turned much brighter and considerably more devious, and Lissa and Christian chuckled softly in their embrace.
"If you weren't engaged already, this would be the most unromantic proposal ever," Christian said, and then I noticed their voices growing fainter. Ava and I still had our arms around each other, and Ava's arms were the only thing that stayed with me, now, as my mom and dad, Lissa and Christian slowly faded, slipping away from me, and we ourselves faded, everything whitening out until nothing remained but a faint, silver thought that I couldn't quite grasp, but that had something to do with, don't forget them.
Don't want to disturb the mood... I hope there is a mood now...All I need to say is that I've been wanting to write that proposal scene forever! And - please review! Review, review, review! :-)