I made a huge mistake by not saying what Dimitri was doing (or going) at the last chapter. I should have mentioned it all because the chap's title was actually "Truth Be Told," and my chapters are pretty much self-explanatory all in all. So, I'm sorry for your week-long (or longer) wait for the update, but I got school (and I failed one pop quiz in basic Geometry—which is quite drastic for my stable grades).

Enjoy :D

Chapter Thirty-five

Crouching Witch, Hidden Dragon

My sensei always said before that first words are supposed to be beheld, but now really wasn't the time to complicate myself by noticing—and listening, if possible—to other tell-tale signs of rumors that involved about a departing guardian. My heart squeezed until I could hardly breathe, and then it eased when someone touched my shoulder.

I shook my head, and looked at the person who was touching my shoulder. Lissa.

Her pale jade green eyes were filled with sorrow that made me want to reach out and comfort her. The glow that faintly outlined her head was hardly a glow anymore. It was dark, like snakes twisting their bodies.

"Rose," she said softly. "Have you heard?" she asked me, her tone stuck between being brave and meek.

I shrugged, totally indifferent. "Don't really know what I've heard. Tell me?"

She sat down in front of me, looking all regal and princess-like (which was very Lissa), and then just ruined everything by putting her elbows on the table and cupping her face with both her hands. "It's Guardian Belikov." she said in a quiet tone.

Not such a surprise…but what else? "What about him?" I asked.

I heard Lissa swallow loudly, and her eyes kind of pinched in the process. "He was supposed to be my guardian. And now he's leaving."

The empty smoothie glass in my hand broke into pieces with a noise. I looked at Lissa. "What?"

Lissa didn't bother to hide her amazement at how the glass broke, and then continued to her story. Lissa's lips quivered a little, only I could probably see that she was resisting tears. I wondered why. "I heard that he was leaving." she said in a rush. "That was all I heard, but I just know why this is all happening. I should have figured this out earlier." Lissa was closer to tears now, her eyes were shiny and her cheeks were flushed red.

I tried to relax on my seat, but it was impossible to. "You heard?" I tried to sound casual, but it came out tight and hard as granite. "You only heard? You know how people talk nowadays, Lissa."

Lissa looked at me, no hint of accusation in her eyes. "How about you, Rose? What do you think about him leaving? He's your mentor after all."

If I wasn't so tense, I should have sighed in relief. Lissa still didn't know about my relationship—or feelings, at least—with Dimitri. I knew that I should have confided her about it—I had been planning to—but now, with Dimitri leaving—leaving her—it was bad enough for Lissa. I was, now, far away from telling Lissa about my feelings (and his) for Dimitri—it would only make Lissa more determined to make him stay. Or rather make Lissa more desperate to let Dimitri stay.

"—promised them!" Lissa was saying. "And now, he agreed with the Queen that he'd rather—" Lissa stopped, words forming on her mouth, but no sound came out. She tightened her lips, and made wild motions with her hands. "—make babies with a woman he probably doesn't have feelings for!" the last words were a hiss. "I mean, c'mon! What's that?" Lissa's warm green eyes darkened and her face, if possible, changed.

"Make babies. Sex. Intercourse. Like how your mommy made such a vile thing like you?" said Lissa in a very low voice, it was almost masculine. Lissa smiled, her fangs appearing as broken tusks.

I resisted the urge to lean away from her. I knew where this was headed, but I wasn't prepared for Lissa. Lissa, my sweet Lissa. I didn't say a thing.

The creature in Lissa's body chuckled. "Oh, Rosemarie, Rosemarie, what a poor thing you are. Your mommy won't be so proud if she sees that you lack of—"

I made my move, making it swift and almost unstoppable. I threw the pieces of glass to Lissa's face, and then straight to the eyes. It was hard to focus your aim when it was your best friend's face you're throwing broken glasses at.

The creature in Lissa's body made a sound that sounded like a scream and a laugh. The creature in Lissa threw its head back, and got the glasses off with a laugh. The creature looked at me with Lissa's destroyed green eyes. And then, it slowly shifted from the green I've loved into the amber that was familiar in more ways than one.

"Oh, Rose, you're just like your mother. Impulsive and… young. Forever young!" she sang.

I growled incoherently, curling my fingers.

The amber eyes looked at me with amusement. "So ignorant." She said, wagging her index fingers at me. "Your mother has been such a good life-saver. Or rather life-bringer 'cause—"

I didn't let her continue. I jumped up and clawed at her, but she disappeared. Everything disappeared.

"Rose, wake up!" was what I heard in the darkness, and then the ocean…

A sting on my cheek helped me gain my wits. My eyes fluttered open and the first thing I saw was Lissa's worried expression and Mia's undone hair.

"You were screaming like a Scandinavian warrior ready to attack." I heard Mia's muffled voice. She peered at my face with a curious expression. "Like to tell us who you were going to kill in your dream?"

I scowled, and pushed both of them away from me. "I hope you both have brushed your teeth, because the air I'm breathing in doesn't smell right." I stood from where I was lying on the couch, and made a show of brushing off infinitesimal dusts on my tunic.

Mia put her hands on her hips and heaved a sigh. "We really should find a treat for you. This subscription is clashing with your sense of humor."

I stretched. "Proscription," I corrected her.

She rolled her eyes, and grumbled, "It might as well be a subscription." and stalked off to brush her teeth—or something similar.

I shook my head when the bathroom door was closed behind her. I was still shaken from the dream, and seeing Lissa right now isn't really what I call relief. Lissa was looking at me, expectant. I racked my brain for something to say, and ended up saying, "Subscription isn't even close to proscription. Prescription is." I know, that sounded utterly stupid, but what would I say? "Oh, hey, Lissa, I just dreamt that you were an evil creature trying to piss the hell out of me" wasn't quite an option.

Lissa surprised me by giggling. It was tinkly, like silver bells tinkling.

"Laugh all you want. I know I haven't showered, brushed my hair or teeth, either." I said.

Lissa stopped, and shook her head lightly. "It's not only your sense of humor gone." she started. "Also your common sense."

I raised a brow at her. "Oh, now, you're a doctor? Well, sorry, but I only prefer healers."

Lissa sighed, the sound was fond, but it held some air of despair. "I love you, you know that, right?" Lissa said slowly, and Mia came out with fresh clothes and she stank with perfume. My hand twitched to pinch my nose.

Mia raised both her hands, silently saying "I know, I know, I haven't showered," and strode to the sofa, lounging there while her hand played with her naturally wavy hair.

"Why so incredibly sappy today?" I asked them, jumping on my heels. I was getting restless, I needed a walk. Or a run. A really long and fast one.

"We need to tell you something, but we're sure that you wouldn't like it…so, we planned on giving you all the love we could muster up today." said Mia with sincerity.

I stiffened. As much as I wanted to run, my muscles just didn't work for a second or two, and then I was pacing around the room.

"Told you she wouldn't like it." whispered Mia.

I didn't bother telling them that I could hear them even if I was half a mile away from them. I was sure they knew that by heart already.

They didn't say anything for exactly ten seconds.

"What did you want to tell me?" I had managed to stop pacing by then, but it was a minute away before I start jumping—or running.

"Oh, it was just about…"

Not Dimitri, not Dimitri, I chanted over and over.

"…about Adrian."

I sighed in relief, not bothering to hide my overreacting side. "What about him?"

"Oh, he had news about Guardian Belikov going away. Said he quit campus work for a woman he loved." Blunt, very blunt. But blunt or not, it hurt like hell.

"I knew it." I almost snarled.

"Told you she wouldn't like it." I heard Mia whisper.

"We didn't have any choice. She would've heard from it sooner, and hearing them from other people would be worse." I heard Lissa say in a reasonable tone.

Those were what half my brain was hearing. The other part was way beyond pissed and confused. I didn't feel upset or sad—not right now, at least. My thoughts were a snarl of dark thoughts, and I tried to subdue them. He's a moron, were the words being repeated inside the other half of my brain. I agreed, Dimitri was a moron.

I knew quite well that Dimitri loved his job as a guardian. Hell, he was devoted to being one, even teaching a girl like me was a joy for him. He was so in on the Guardian Society with his skills, that he only needed at least one words to make a lower guardian to bend them to his will. And now he's leaving. That was only one part of that. He's leaving. For me.

"Leaving for a woman he adored!" I suddenly hated those words. He wouldn't—couldn't do this for me. Not on my watch. I was twisting the knob of the door before two seconds passed.

"Wait, wait, wait, Rose! Where the hell are you going?" Lissa and Mia were in front of me within a second. Moroi were really fast when they wanted to be.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to stop him from making such a fucking huge mistake!" I half-shouted. "Leaving for a woman he adored? Fuck that!" I almost spat on Lissa and Mia face for all it was worth.

I saw Mia's hand twitch, as if to check if there was saliva on her face.

Lissa, on the other hand, was looking kind of grim. The grimness was destroyed by her next words. "Say it, don't spray it."

My world turned beyond insane by then. A minute or two later, I was striding down the cruise's main deck toward Adrian's room. And then just stumbled upon scales. Literally.

"Whoopsie! I am sorry! Roza, is that you? Oh, it's Roza!" a familiar voice with that thick Hungarian accent said.

I glared at the scales before standing up. I took in Graceling's appearance. If possible, she looked more beautiful than before. And taller, too. About half an inch, I could tell. Her hair had grown a bit, too. She was wearing a knee-length dark green dress, and her smooth lightly tanned skin was blatantly glowed with scales. Er, dragon scales, that is.

"Dragon scales are slippery." Graceling said, more like to herself than me.

No shit, I said silently. "It seems like I only stumble upon you when I'm hunting for answers." I said.

Graceling's thoughtful look disappeared, and the jolly expression came back to her face. "You are looking for answers, yes?"

"Yeah, like, what's up with you and scales?"

Graceling's cheeks reddened a lovely color. "Oh, my Father calls them dragon hormones. He said that I am near my time to fully shift as one, that's why all these scales are…you know, showing." Graceling smiled, clearly proud. I felt good for her, too, which was a pretty miraculous thing, noting my pissed-off state.

"And I notice that you seem taller." I told her.

She brightened. "Oh, my Father, Mother, and even Brother think so, too!" What's with all the pronouns?

I nodded, hoping I was looking encouraging. "Listen, I've gotta go. I need to ask Adrian a ques—Graceling?" She had stopped moving. Her face was blank and turning pale. She was as immobile as a stone, too. I shook her shoulder. "Graceling?"

"She's having a Trance." The voice was pretty familiar. I didn't hear anyone come, but I was hard to startle.

I repressed a shudder when Drake came into view. His body guards were nowhere to be found. At least they're not with him for the moment. Maybe they were looking for Graceling.

"Yeah, I got that." I said, and stepped back, ready to bolt if Drake would decide to jump on me for (probably) putting his sister into eternal deep sleep. Drake stepped forward, his pupils black slits in the sea of emerald. My stomach clenched. It doesn't take fortune-teller to know what Drake was up to next. Hypothetically speaking.

"Listen, Drake, I wasn't trying to—"

"I have my patience, Peacekeeper. Mate or not, you are supposed to submit yourself to me. Every girl does." Drake practically growled.

Mate? What the—"Listen, asshole, I am not your fucking mate, and I am not going to submit myself to you. That's just—yuck!" Okay, that was overdoing it. Everybody knows that Drake—the absolutely Greek-gold-like gorgeous blond and green-eyed Drake—was far from having the expression "yuck." I, myself, should admit that he looked…well, handsome. More handsome than other guys. Of course, it was because of his dragon genes. Beauty, elegance, and danger are their middle names.

Drake's image shuddered and, for a second, I saw his true dragon form. His scales were variations of greens, and yellow-greens. His eyes were bigger, angrier. His face shifted into a dragon's muzzle and the golden mane of blond hair disappeared into a mass of green.

And then just like that, it all disappeared and Drake the wyvern appeared in front of me like he normally looked. If you could call extremely handsome normal.

"Nobody has ever dared address me as a hole in the arse." Drake looked—and sounded—almost thoughtful. "I wonder what the Americans mean when they say pain in the ass. In this case, I wish to say that mates are pain in the arse. I wonder how my father managed to live with my mother. You are quite as stubborn as she." And then all of the thoughtfulness disappeared. He looked at me with a glare.

"I have my patience, mate. I'll take you, whether you like it or not."

I shuddered. Not from his words, but from the bile that rose from my throat. It wasn't like I disliked Drake (he was hard to dislike, looking like that). It was just that his words had the opposite effect on me—unlike on most heroines on some romance novels I've read. Saying that Drake's words were erotic was far-fetched in my case.

"And I'll take myself to the mental nut-case hospital if I don't arrive to Czech Republic without another guy slobbering over me." A well applied hyperbole, I see.

Drake looked at me with half-lidded eyes. "I rest my case. I get it that you are not ready for me to bed you yet."

This time, I gagged. The bile rose higher, but I swallowed it down.

"I thought dragons prefer virgins." I said reasonably.

"And you are not?" he sounded surprised.

I snorted. "I'm proscribed, so I couldn't really call myself a virgin, right?"

"Virgins?" Graceling was out of her Trance now. She blinked and the color on her face came back. She looked like she was about to faint. Drake held her against him, supporting her weight. "Vat about verrjins?" Graceling's accent got thicker every time she spoke.

Thirty seconds later, Graceling swayed. Drake, being the responsible big brother he was, swung Graceling to his arms like a baby. Graceling was unconscious.

"Gaceling has been through a lot. Her body is ready to change, thus making her doubly tired. And her premonitions come in stronger than before." said Drake grimly, and I looked at Graceling…kind of sad. She was such a hyperactive kid, and now she was here in front of me, getting her zees.

"She has been trying to help you."

Guilt was probably plain on my face now.

"And you don't even appreciate enough to listen."

Ouch, that stung.

"But I am inclined to understand that women can be too stubborn at times. No, all the time." Drake said, and looked down at his sister's face as if she, too, was stubborn.

"I hate to part from you, but I have to tend my sister." he said, and then he was gone. Like that. Popped out of sight.

"Well." I said to myself when I felt clearly alone. "That was fun."

And all of a sudden, I wasn't alone. Footsteps echoed my way. I straightened my shoulders and put on an impassive face.

"Rose?" A moment too soon, I heard a woman call my name. I turned around to look at who called me, and was quite taken aback to see the gorgeous, but scarred Tasha Ozera. Her pale face practically glowed with happiness in the dark. Her pale pink lips (well, the unscarred part, that is) were turned up into a blissful smile. She looked like a woman who just had her wedding.

"Miss Ozera," I nodded in acknowledgment.

"Oh, please call me Tasha." she said and strode toward me.

I nodded again. "Tasha." I looked up into the night sky and wished it was day. I felt her stand beside me. Her hand brushed with mine.

"It's a beautiful starry night, isn't it?" she asked me.

"Yes, it is." I decided that relaxing around Tasha wasn't a bad thing. I relaxed. "It is." I said, more sincerely this time.

"You're Dimka's student, am I right?" she asked a while later. The nickname didn't startle me like the last time.

I nodded, not able to say anything.

"Oh. Have you heard that he was leaving for a woman?"

"A woman he loved?" it came out as barely a whisper.

"Yes. A woman he adored." she sounded dreamy.

"Yeah, I did. Why?"

"It's just that—" she stopped, and took a deep breath. Her speech wasn't clearly scripted, but she had thought a lot about talking to Dimitri's student—that was what was on her mind. I just caught a glimpse of it, but it said everything else.

I was beyond shocked.

"—I don't want you to think that I'm stealing him away from you. We've been together—" those were the only words I needed to hear. The only sound in my mind was the would-be screams of my probably victims of the world. And Kathy's sneer—I saw it. As clear as crystal. Those long, broken tusks glinted in nasty dark yellow.

"Rose?" Tasha's face was in front of me.

It's not her fault, I told myself.

It's Kathy's.

It's her doings.

As Kathy had said: I'd pay hell—literally—just to make you suffer like I did.

She was a girl of her words.

That's it for this chapter. Whoa! What a tiring chapter to make! I was really undecided to what I'd do about this, but finally! I just really had it in me to make something random not random. If you get what I mean, that is.

I'm mighty sleepy everyone. It's exactly ten here in PH.

Love lots,

Kate :D

Xx

P.S. There's been no time correcting my typos, grammars, and everything, so it's going to be not-so literary now. I'll update next week.