Okay, I know I didn't give you guys a preview, but I figured if I was updating the next day, it wasn't really neccessary! Enjoy the chapter!

I don't own VA


The pain of a one-way bond was that Vasilisa was unable to tell me where Rose was. She was starting to be able to feel her emotions, but she couldn't slip into Rose's head as Rose could slip into hers.

The Princess also hadn't seen Rose in over three hours. This combination left me running around the Court, trying to find her.

But the Court was a big place. I hadn't even began to cover half of it. And if Rose was moving around, then this could be a very long search. The cafe, the interrogation room, and even the Church were empty, and I was quickly running out of places to look.

It's easy, Rose had said, when I had asked her about her bond with the Princess. It's like opening up your mind to her, pushing aside your own thoughts, and just letting her in.

I freeze outside of the church, letting the warmth of the rising sun heat my skin, warding off any cold. Open your mind to her. Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to imagine my thoughts evaporating from my mind, of my body disappearing and becoming part of Rose.

Hopelessness.

Emotions pour into my head, one by one, spreading from a small space in my brain to my whole body. Fear, shame, guilt, loneliness, self-hatred.

I can feel my heart ache in an internal compass, and I follow my feet, which have suddenly began to move at an alarming speed. As I turn down pathways and run past buildings, it occurs to me where I am going.

There is a small crowd against the wall of the dhampir dorms, everyone is facing away from me, their attention focused inwards. Despite the height of the rising sun in the sky, Moroi and Dhampirs alike are there, at least ten of them, not including Guardians that line the walls.

I easily slip through the crowd, pushing past the people in my way. A silver-haired man, whom I recognize as Nathan Ivashkov, stands with a hard, disapproving expression before...

Rose.

Her eyes are clenched close, her head tilted downwards, as if she's attempting to shut him out.

"-a danger to the Moroi! She should be sent away immediately!" he cries, motioning extensively to the moroi who surround him.

Rose's bottom lip quivers, and she squeezes her eyes even tighter, trying not to cry.

"You've killed our kind!" He turns to his fellow Moroi, seeming to ignore the Dhampirs. "What makes anyone think she'll hesitate to do it again?" Rose bites her lip, and a tear leaks from the corner of her eye.

That's it. Anger boils through me, a white hot rage.

"What about who she was before?" I call out, my voice booming against the brick wall. Rose's eyes fly open, and she meets my gaze. She expression is unreadable, but I can sense relief. And fear.

Nathan looks up, surprised, but then he smirks. "I think it's obvious," he sneers, turning back to the crowd for support. "That's she's changed."

"And I think it's obvious," I snap back. "That she's changed back. Look at her! What strigoi have you ever seen that can sit while the sun is rising? What strigoi have you seen that can enter the wards of the Court? What strigoi have you seen that doesn't have pale skin, or red eyes, or fangs?"

Nathan gapes, but the fast-thinking royal blood within him keeps him fighting back. The arrogance just fuels his mindless arguement. "What? You've suddenly become an expert on this situation now? How do we know that she's not still an ally to the strigoi?"

I scoff and cross my arms, instinctively walking over to stand between Rose and her threat. "No, I'm not an expert on this situation. But am I truely the only one here that thinks of this as a miracle?" I glance around at the stoic faces of the Guardians, and the Moroi, expressions ranging from hard to soft to undecided. "Why are we treating this girl as a monster? Why are we acting like this is something that should be ignored? We've changed history! And we're too caught up in ensuring that an innocent girl, who's sitting in the sun, trying to get some peace, isn't a strigoi!"

The crowd falls silent, clearly taking my words in. Nathan seems to be at a loss for words. And then he says something truely stupid.

"Well, how do you know what she was like before she changed? Maybe she was like the Ozeras."

I clench my jaw, staring at him in disbelief. The Ozeras, Christian's parents. He was suggesting that Rose wanted, still wants, to be strigoi, to have eternal life. "How do I know? I was her teacher. Her mentor. I spent hundreds hours training with her. Don't you think that I might have a clue of what kind of a person she was, she still is?"

His eyes narrow, and by the look on his face, I can tell he thinks that he has won.

"I've heard of you, Belikov. You want these people to believe what you say, even after you abandoned your Guardian duties and your charge to go on some ridiculous mission?"

I can feel the mood change from the crowd, from agreement to disgust. I sigh.

"Yes, I disappeared for several weeks. But I did it... for Rose," I admit, watching as Nathan's smirk falls at my statement. "I couldn't let her be that monster. I couldn't let her stay like that. She was such a strong person. She still is. So dedicated, so caring, and I couldn't bear to think of her living like that. So I left to find her. To kill her. To free her."

Pain settles in my stomach, and I try to refrain from showing this emotion. For once, Nathan doesn't seem like he is about to come up with anything any time soon. I run a hand through my hair, unsure of what to say now that I had made my point.

Luckily, one of the guardians that seems to be watching Rose steps up. "I think it's time to return to your rooms," he says, as if he is instructing students at the academy. But the crowd disperses, and Nathan gives me one last glare before departing.

With a nod of appreciation towards the guardian, I turn back to Rose. She is sitting on a wooden bench that is pressed against the brick wall. Tears fill her eyes, and she is shaking.

"Roza," I whisper, and gingerly sit down beside her. Although I expect her to pull away, stand up, distance herself, she just stares forward, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

"Why are you here?" she murmurs, still staring straight ahead, the sunlight shimmering on the moisture that coats her cheeks.

"I heard that they let you out," I confess, trying to catch her gaze.

She sighs and leans back against the bench, now watching her hands clasped in her lap. "I'm on probabtion," she explains wearily. "They should have just killed-"

"Don't talk like that!" I scold firmly. "Rose, don't ever say that! You're getting a second chance. You've been given a miracle, something that many people in this world would give anything for, and you're just going to throw it away?"

She finally turns to me, her eyes filling with anger and annoyance. "Stop it, okay? I don't need your Zen Life Lessons right now! I don't want this miracle! I just want people to leave me alone, not stare at me like I belong in a freakshow! I want to talk to Lissa without Guardians hovering over me to make sure I don't rip her throat out!I want to be with you without remembering when I drank from you like you were some sort of a feeder!"

I am taken aback, but push forward. I was never one for boundries when it came to Rose. "Rose, this is something entirely new, people don't know how to handle it, yet. They are just so amazed that you were changed back. Once they realize-"

"And what if they don't realize? What if I'm treated like a monster for the rest of my life? People avoid Christian, and he wasn't even a strigoi! You can't be seen with me, don't you get it? You're the Russian God, the badass Dimitri Belikov, and people are going to hate you if you're associated with me! I don't want that! I never asked for this! I don't want this! I don't want this life if this is what I'm going to go through!"

"Stop saying that!" I argue back. "Stop saying things like that! You don't want this life anymore? You've been given a second chance! We've been given a second chance!"

"There is no we, okay? We can't be together!"

Her words dug into my chest, stinging and throbbing. "Why?" I ask childishly. "Why, Rose? Because you... feel guilty? I love you, Rose. You think I'm worried about my reputation? I escaped the academy to find you! They put me on border patrol. I probably will never be able to guard a Moroi. And honestly, why would they want me? I will always put you first, Roza. Always."

Rose turns, her eyes not meeting mine. "It's not just that. I've changed. I can't love anymore, Dimitri. I'm incapable... I just can't. I can't be with you. I don't love you anymore."


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