Disclaimer: We do not own Richelle Mead's world or characters.

Renee's POV:

The look on the guard's face when we drove up was absolutely priceless. He looked at us like we were angels come down to save the earth from some terrible peril. Or at least save his life.

From the looks of Ms. Terwilliger, standing beside him, we might have.

She was barely a foot away from the dhampir when we drove up, though they were on opposite sides of the gate. She stepped away when he and the other couple guardians started to open the it for us though.

We drove in and Eddie idled the car next to her. He looked at me through the rear view mirror. "You want to calm her down a little?"

She looked frantic. Somewhere between terrified and excited. And I didn't think I could do much.

I sighed. "Let me out."

Adrian had fallen asleep, but I left my drawing supplies with him. He seemed like he'd take care of them, and he was still holding his drawing tightly.

I struggled my way over Rose, earning some swears from her, and almost lurched out the open door.

"Renee!"

Here it was. Repercussions.

"I promised your mentor I would get you home by yesterday morning, and you left!"

"She didn't know?" Eddie piped up from the front seat. When I turned around, he was leaning back to see us.

"Shush."

Ms. Terwilliger surprised me then and hugged me. "You'll hear about this later. God, I was worried!" She turned to the still open door. "And there's someone -three someones- here for you guys."

I'd never seen so many people suddenly have the same expression. It was like that video with the cute puppies that all cocked their head to the side at the same time when the guy said, "You wanna go for a walk?" They were all synchronized puppies.

"Who?" Rose asked.

"It's a long story." Ms. Terwilliger waved her off. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Try going to the palace yourself."

"Fine! Wait..." Rose blinked. "What?"

Jill laughed. "I didn't think that worked on you, Rose!"

She harrumphed and slid down in her seat.

"C'mon," Christian said, "Just get back in."

"Actually," Ms. Terwilliger said, "She's coming with me. Did you get Adrian?"

Christian jabbed a thumb at the back seat. "He's asleep in a pile of colored pencils."

"Good. Help him in too. I'm sure your visitors will be happy."

Rose shut the door, done with the conversation. Jill put her window down. "You're coming to the palace, right?:

"Yeah," I said at the same time Ms. Terwilliger said, "We have a plane to catch."

I turned to her. "What? I can't leave!"

"You have to get back for school. And if you're here much longer, you'll be in even more danger."

"But now I need to make sure everything goes okay."

"Um," Jill cut in, "Just in case, bye. If not, I'll see in you in sec?" She gave me a shy smile. I nodded.

"You will. I'll be there."

They drove off.

"You will not," Ms. Terwilliger said.

"Then how will I get my sketch book back?" I matched her stance: crossed arms, feet shoulder length apart, eyes set right on eyes.

"I'll get it while you pack."

"I'm packed."

"Then go wait in the car."

"You're not my mentor."

I'd never rebelled. As a teen, the worst rebellion stage I'd gone through was drawing intensely detailed doodles instead of taking notes in class. Maybe I was a late bloomer or something.

"Renee."

"I have to stay here."

"They're okay now."

"We haven't found Sydney."

"We have. She's here."

I stopped. "What?"

"She and her two sisters showed up last night."

"Sydney has sisters?"

Ms. Terwilliger turned and started walking toward the lot where we had parked the car. I stayed put.

"Do you know how to get to the palace from here?" she asked.

I didn't. I followed her.

"I want to stay," I said. "At least for a little while. I don't even know who I saved!"

She stopped, sighed, and turned around. "That is exactly why we're leaving. You won't want to leave after you know everyone. We can't contact them again unless they come down. I'll miss them enough for both of us. Now, we need to get you back."

"Oh."

"Oh what?"

"Oh. I get it. You want to leave because they're here, and you're scared you won't be able to say goodbye."

"You're not safe here."

"I'm your excuse to leave early." I shook my head. "I'm not leaving."

She started walking toward the car again. I followed. When we got there, she opened the back door and held it open for me. I didn't move.

"Well?" she said.

Looking in, I realized I wouldn't have had to pack. She'd already loaded the car.

I went over to the open door and knelt one knee on the seat so I could reach my bag, pulled it out, and stepped away again.

"Thanks," I said.

I knew how to get to the palace from here.

.

I knew Adrian's drawing had been realistic, but I'd figured it was a bit off. The only difference between his drawing and the girl sitting with him now was that in his drawing, she was relaxed and happy. Now, she was stiff and cold.

When I'd walked in, it had been chaos. Everyone was still trying to figure out what was going on, and too many questions were being asked at a time.

Now, Lissa had managed to wrangle everyone basically by turning on what I assumed was that mad tone that Christian had jokingly warned me about when I first got here.

"Shut up for a second!" she'd barked. "We already had one mental breakdown. Do you want another one?"

"Who?" I asked.

"Sonya," she answered, her voice at a quieter level now. She wasn't looking at me when she said it though. She was watching the girl who I assumed was Sydney. Adrian was right to draw her in gold. She had gold hair, gold eyes, and a gold tattoo. I'd assumed it was because of her personality, but so far, all I'd seen was terror.

When Lissa had yelled, Sydney shrank into the taller girl's side. The taller girl pulled her close, protectively. They were on the couch together, now with Adrian laying across Sydney's lap. His torso ended at the armrest and his long legs flooded over the side.

Lissa had told us to sit, and we'd been sitting in silence while Christian whispered to her.

After what seemed like a long time, he sat.

"Sorry," Lissa said, calm again. "This is confusing enough without all this chaos. I got overwhelmed." She turned to Sydney. "I hope I didn't scare anyone."

Sydney stared at Adrian. He had woken up a little. His eyes were tired and glassy. But he was awake enough to know who was holding him, and he was twirling a strand of her hair. It was longer than in the drawing, I noticed.

"Okay," Rose said, leaning forward. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor. "Explain how you guys got here."

She was talking to Sydney mostly, but the taller girl answered. I expected that. Sydney and the smaller girl hadn't spoken since we got here. In fact, they looked equally terrified. I'd somehow ended up pressed against the wall beside the small one.

"Zoe called me. She knew where Sydney was going, said to meet her there."

Eddie was glaring at Zoe. He didn't seem like the glaring type. "Why did you help her?"

"They were hurting her. I mean, even I think they were being cruel..."

Sydney just kept her eyes trained on Adrian. Adrian was looking through her, not at her, but his hand had drifted to her chin now.

"What were they doing?" I asked.

Rose gave me "a look".

Sydney looked up at me. "It wasn't to me."

I jumped a little. I hadn't heard she or Adrian speak before. I was starting to think they weren't going to.

She looked back down at Adrian. "They hurt him. And that's worse."

Zoe looked disgusted. She was obviously trying to hide it, but she wasn't doing a very good job.

Carly put a hand on Sydney's shoulder. "Well, it's over now."

"If it was just the moroi," Zoe said, "I wouldn't have done anything. But I couldn't let them hurt you like that."

"So you were going to take me away and leave him?" Sydney said. Her voice was still quiet. But it had some bite.

Adrian, seeming kind of out of it, said, "I thought I drew your eyes right... but I can't- They're too perfect..."

Sydney glanced at him before looking at Lissa. "Is there an extra room? I'm tired... and Adrian's- well..."

Zoe snorted. I could guess she was playing fill in the blanks with that open ending.

Lissa nodded and looked to Dimitri, who was standing behind the big armchair. He went over and hauled Adrian up by the shoulders like he was a six year old and supported him by reaching his arm around Adrian's chest.

Sydney rose shakily and followed.

As soon as the door slipped shut, Sydney and Adrian both inside, Carly turned to Zoe. "You've been spending way too much time with Dad."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're completely insensitive!"

Jill stood. "Should we..."

Carly waved her off. "No, I just needed to make a point."

Jill sat.

"I'm not insensitive! I'm telling the truth."

I looked between them. Carly was giving her the look of a disappointed mother, and Zoe looked like the rebellious toddler.

"Come here," she said and stood.

"What?"

She was already disappearing into the kitchen. "Zoe," she warned.

Zoe scurried after her.

We were all silent for a second before Jill took a shaky breath and said, "Um, well I guess that worked... okay."

Eddie nodded. "They're both here."

"That was the goal," Rose agreed. She'd been surprisingly quiet throughout the conversation. Now, she said, "I knew the alchemists were bad, but I don't think I really knew until these past couple weeks.

The air was thick with dark chaos.

Sydney's POV:

Dimitri helped Adrian to the bed. My head felt sort of heavy but, at the same time, like it was hovering a little bit, bobbing like a weightless, fifty pound balloon. If I told Carly, I'm sure she'd say, "Well, have you eaten anything?" Well, no. I had that one bite of taco... that I spit out. And that sandwich a while back... how long ago was that? Between those two times, there had been half bowls of lukewarm oatmeal again. The other half, I slid to Adrian whenever he was there. He'd never wanted to accept it, but when I still did not eat it, he gave in.

Adrian stayed sitting up, bracing himself with both hands pressed palm-down into the mattress on either side of him.

Dimitri said, "I'll be in the other room," and he left us there.

I slipped off my shoes, alchemist distributed khaki colored flats, and crawled up beside him. "Lay back."

He laid down beside me, onto the pillow, and pulled me close.

It took barely seconds of staring each other in the eyes before we both leaned forward at the same time and started kissing.

We ran our hands up and down each other, getting used to the feeling of one another again. He pulled away when he reached my side.

Heaving, he said, "God, Sage... Sydney, you're- I've never seen you this thin before."

I knew this was a bad thing. I could tell by the worry dripping off each word like they were full and heavy sponges. But I couldn't help feel a little proud of this.

"I know."

He frowned. "You're doing it again, aren't you?"

"You're drinking again, aren't you?" I could smell it when they got me out only a couple weeks ago.

"That's different."

"How?"

"Yeah, alcohol will hurt me someday, but I've got to control spirit somehow. And- And I couldn't do the pills if I was going to help find you. But you? You have no gain here. And it can kill you. You're going to starve yourself."

"I'm not that bad," I defended.

He ran his hand from my belly button up to my chest, my shirt wrinkling under his finger. "I can count your ribs."

I shivered and pushed his hand away. "I'm thin. Not dead."

"And I'm crazy, not insane. Synonyms are great."

"There's a difference."

"With some people, yeah. But not with you, Sage."

I draped one arm over his side. "Can we talk about this later?"

"Sydney..."

"I don't think I can right now. All I can think about is you, and what they did to you."

All I could think about was him. Judging me.

I leaned forward and did the only think I knew would make me stop thinking. I kissed him.

And I undid the top button on his shirt.