"So, Rosemarie, how has training with Guardian Belikov been?" Queen Tatiana asked as we sat in a less formal, but still way overdone, small dining room. We are on our dessert course of the meal and the rest has been spent mostly in silence, with awkward commentary on the four other dishes served to us in the last hour.

"It's been great, Dim—I mean Guardian Belikov is brilliant with everything involving being a guardian, he's taught me many things," I said with a smile as I took a spoonful of crème brulee. Thinking of other things he's taught me, I grinned wider. Perv, I thought to myself. I wish Dimitri was here but Tatiana had made him stay outside with the other guardians outside her door.

"Wonderful, yes he is very good at what he does," she said, sipping her dessert wine before moving on to her next question. "And what about your training with other Fire users? I've heard that Tasha Ozera is quite good as a trainer."

I want to cringe at Tasha's name, as our few training sessions together after the whole Dimitri being her new guardian fail were unbelievably awkward. Thankfully, the holidays were soon after so I didn't have to deal with her too much. "She's really smart and knows how to use Fire to her advantage. I've learned very much from her, and from my experience in the attack on the Academy."

Her eyebrows rose at the clear change in tone when talking about Dimitri to Tasha. She seemed to want to pry into the reasons for my dislike of Tasha but she changed the subject. "I'm sure you heard of the attack on the Badicas, a great loss," she said quietly and I nodded and agreed. "I hope you understand the changes to your guarding. Despite your… troublesome past, I do believe you are a great asset to the Moroi, Rosemarie. We want to keep you safe."

"I understand," I said as the staff took our plates and drinks.

"Shall we move to the sitting room?"

I nodded and we walked to the seating room where Adrian was already sitting, "Aunt Tatiana, I had no idea you were having company for dinner," he said with a smile. I felt no surprise from him and I felt that he knew I was going to be here. I smirked at him and sat beside him in the couch while Tatiana sat in an oversized chair across from us.

"I just wanted to catch up with Rosemarie, Adrian," she said with a small smile. "Seeing as she may be a part of our family in a few years."

I coughed and glared at Adrian, who took a deep breath. "We aren't dating, we're just bonded," he said with a sigh.

"What? That's preposterous, you two are always together," she said.

"We're just friends, Aunt Tatiana," he said with a small smile.

"But you let me tell everyone last night…" she said with a frown before throwing a pillow at him. "You idiot." Adrian laughed and tried to shield himself, failing. I can't help my chuckle. "Excuse my behavior Rose, if you had an idiotic nephew you would feel the same too," she said, fighting a smile.

"That's okay," I said and smacked Adrian playfully.

"Please forgive my assumptions that may have brought you both embarrassment, I did get a bit excited at the thought of having Adrian potentially marry you. Despite your past, I do believe you to be quite mature and very brave for all the things you have done, you're very good for him," she said and stood up, sighing quietly. "I must be going now, I have a late meeting to get to with some other royals. It was wonderful seeing you both, goodnight."

She walked out and I smacked Adrian on the head, "You idiot," I mimicked her accent and Adrian chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"Oh Rosemarie…" he said in her accent also as we walked out of the door and found Dimitri waiting as I laughed. He and Adrian nodded at each other and Dimitri led me to my room as I discussed the interesting dinner I had with Tatiana.

One Month Later

Dimitri and I have been training like crazy. I can now stake the training dummy without too much struggle. Obviously I don't have the strength of dhampirs, but with Dimitri's help, I've gotten pretty damn close. I can also keep up with Dimitri when running, which he makes me do two times a week—I still hate it. Tasha left the Academy when we returned from the holidays and she is now training older royals at the Court. Unfortunately, that left us Fire users without a trainer for two weeks.

To everyone's surprise, especially mine and Lissa's, Rhea showed up as our new trainer. I had completely forgotten about her specialization in Fire. She was going to be staying at the Academy until the end of the year, as Kirova was hoping to find a full-time replacement trainer for Fire.

Rhea was a great trainer, not just because she was like a mom to me, but because she was insanely good at using her Fire defensively. Even Christian, who thought very highly of his aunt, was impressed. Having Rhea around was great, as it meant frequent visits from Andre and Eric, which Lissa and I loved.

My training with Fire had definitely improved since the time I was forced to use it in the attack on the Academy. I was able to make bigger flames appear with less energy taken out of me and I learned which things were more flammable and easier to set on fire. My hopes were to use Fire as more of a distraction than a weapon, but I also needed to improve my training with stakes, which Dimitri had thankfully helped me succeed in during the past month.

It was now the middle of February, one month until my 18th birthday and also the week that we, the Moroi students, had novices assigned to us for their six-week-long Field Experience training. This training would include fake "Strigoi" attacks that would be acted out by Guardian teachers.

All the students of St. Vladimir's, Moroi and dhampirs alike, gathered into the gym where the novices would be getting their assignments.

"I really hope I get you, Rose," Mason said with a grin. "I mean, I would love to get Mia, but you're a royal, so it's much more likely that I'll get you."

There are only so many novices to the Moroi at St. Vlad's, so not all Moroi will get novices for the Field Experience, the royal Moroi are more likely to get a novice during these six weeks. It's kind of like training for the royal Moroi too, as royals are more likely to get a guardian in the real world, and royals need to learn to not get in the way if an attack ever happens. Although if Dimitri and I were attacked out in the real world, I would not only get in the way, I would most likely fight alongside him. Thanks to Tatiana's allowance of this, I think that in a few years, that would be the case for a lot of fighting Moroi.

Fifteen minutes later, Lissa's name was finally called by Alberta. "Vasilisa Dragomir, Mason Ashford." Mason smiled big, as did Lissa. Then it was my turn, "Rosemarie Hathaway, Eddie Castile." Mason and Eddie pounded fists as this meant they'd be spending time with each other and with Liss and I. Eddie patted me on the back with a smirk on his face and I couldn't help but return his smile. Christian wasn't too happy as he got Anthony Monaghan, a not-so-great novice who was known for being pretty stuck up since his dad was a guardian for the Ivashkovs, and he thought that because of this, he was instantly a badass. Unfortunately, he sucked as a guardian and he would never get a royal assignment.

The next morning, I woke up to Eddie and Dimitri both guarding my door, talking about different tactics. I grinned at them and punched Eddie playfully on the arm. "Looks like you have some competition on who's going to be my guardian, Belikov," I told Dimitri, smirking.

Eddie laughed and his cheeks flushed, "Yeah right, Rose. I have nothing on this guy."

I laughed at making Eddie blush and rolled my eyes, saying playfully, "He's not that great. I mean he just has more Strigoi kills than any guardian on campus, possibly in the state. Or country."

Eddie laughed, "Can I use your restroom before we head out to your classes?"

"Sure, go ahead," I opened my door and let him in before turning to Dimitri. He was trying to hide a smile, probably because of me joking about him.

"Oh Roza," he said quietly. "I will miss spending all this time with you, but it looks like when you're in classes, Eddie will be your only guardian. I'm going to be a part of the guardian teachers testing the novices, so I will only see you after your classes are done. Eddie will also be spending the night with you in your room, so our alone time may be cut short."

I nodded and hugged him, feeling him kiss my hair before stepping back. "I love you," I whispered as Eddie opened my door and stepped out. I saw Dimitri mouth it back before turning and walking towards the guardian offices.

Over the next two weeks, Eddie and I had gotten a lot closer. He had quickly become one of my best friends and I had also realized how great of a guardian he was going to be. We hadn't been "attacked" yet but he had joined in once when Christian and Anthony were being attacked and Anthony couldn't handle it. Eddie got bonus points and Anthony got a failing grade. While Christian was annoyed, I was proud of Eddie for doing so. Spending every night with him had also made me learn a lot about him and I was thankful for getting him as my novice guardian.

We were now on our third week of the Field Experience and we were on our way to Ancient Poetry when I saw someone jump down from a tree and run towards me. I screamed and Eddie was in motion. It was Alberta and she was fierce. She moved quickly and Eddie kept up with her almost effortlessly, within two minutes, she was staked. Students were watching and they cheered. Eddie was grinning wide, from ear to ear and he playfully bowed when someone else jumped down from the tree. Dimitri.

We made eye contact and I saw Dimitri's eyes glint with excitement. I gasped and Eddie turned quickly, swearing as he was the only novice who had been taken on two against one. I'm sure he was also swearing because he was about to face off against Dimitri. Dimitri was terrifying as a Strigoi. He was fast, faster than Alberta. Eddie was visibly panting and getting tired as he tried to match Dimitri's speed and force. Dimitri made a grab for Eddie's neck and Eddie quickly threw out an arm to hit and block him, which gave him the chance to grab Dimitri's arm and twist it, flinging Dimitri to the ground with some crazy adrenaline-fueled strength before Eddie pulled out his stake and stabbed Dimitri in the heart (which was thankfully covered by a bullet/stake-proof vest).

I screamed with happiness and pent up adrenaline at wanting to join in and clapped my hands as everyone began to cheer. Alberta was on the sidelines, grinning and clapping along with everyone else as Dimitri stood up and clapped Eddie on the back a couple times.

I hugged a sweat-covered Eddie and he hugged me back. "You were amazing! You kicked Dimitri's ass!" I said with a laugh, making Dimitri chuckle behind me as the crowd dissipated.

Eddie laughed breathlessly, "I wouldn't go that far, I'm pretty sure he kicked my ass and I just got lucky."

"No way, you did great," I said and smacked Dimitri playfully on the chest. "Maybe next time, comrade."

Dimitri grinned uncharacteristically (for in-public Dimitri), "Good job, Eddie. And we'll settle this in training, Rose."

I laughed, "I'm so scared."

When Eddie turned around to talk to Alberta, surely getting praise, Dimitri winked and smirked, "You should be."

I blushed and felt my stomach flutter at his way too sexy smirk. Eddie thankfully interrupted our eye-flirting and he smiled at me, his breath clearly more calm then before.

"You ready for class, Rose?" he asked and grabbed my backpack, which had fallen on the floor when the fight began.

"Let's go," I said with a nod and grabbed my backpack from him, turning around to stick my tongue out playfully at Dimitri. He laughed and turned around, walking back to the guardian offices where I'm sure they were going to plan a lot more attacks.