I never knew how to write a thrilling battle scene and instead wanted to focus on the 'why' of the battle. This chapter was going to be longer but I took a lot out for the next chapter (that should be up in a few short days). The next few chapters will talk more about some of the missing scenes of the battle. I decided to leave it out for now so the chapter wasn't all over the place. This chapter will mainly explore the changes that will begin to take place in their society. Thank you for being so patient with me.
Disclaimer- All characters belong to Richelle Mead.
We must have been fighting for hours.
It definitely felt like déjà vu.
Christian and I moved as a unit down the line of trees and when we couldn't find any more strigoi there, we went further into court to hunt.
If I thought my fighting skills had improved over the years, Christian's power over his fire magic had, too. He knew just the right amount to use without wearing himself out. If I wasn't in such a hurry to leave court, I would have asked him to come out hunting strigoi with me.
We must have killed over a hundred when there suddenly weren't any more left.
"The sun should be coming up soon," Christian noted. I wiped the sweat that had collected on my forehead. It wasn't until we slowed down did I realize how exhausted I felt.
"Have we really been fighting for that long?" I asked and he nodded.
"Can you use that wolf hearing to see if anyone else might need our help?" He asked and I tuned him out to pick up the sounds around me.
I couldn't hear anymore fighting,
"I don't think there's anymore left to fight."
"You're right," I heard a deep voice from behind me.
"Comrade!" Relief flooded me as I caught sight of him standing safe and sound in front of me. I threw myself at him and he instantly caught me. I melted into Dimitri, holding on tighter as my earlier conversation with Christian played over again in my head. How was I going to leave him?
"Are you hurt?" I asked pulling away and assessing him for any life-threatening injuries.
"No baby, I'm okay," he reassured me. There was a cut on his forehead that was bleeding, but upon further inspection, I could tell it wasn't deep. He also looked like he had taken a hit on his left leg, because he was favoring his right side more. All in all though, he still looked like a badass. "You two teamed up again," he asked looking over at Christian.
"What can I say, he's obsessed with me," I said, throwing my hair over my shoulder.
"Ha ha, you wish. You know I can't stay sitting when there's fighting going on Dimitri."
I waited for Dimitri to argue with him or lecture me on the importance of Moroi safety, but he did none of that. "If it wasn't for you two working together, we would have lost a lot more Moroi and guardian lives."
"Speaking of, how bad was the damage?" I was nervous to hear his answer. The fighting had gone on for a long time and I knew that we had underestimated how many strigoi were on their way to attack us.
A grave look crossed Dimitri's features, sobering me up instantly. "Worse than we anticipated, but it would've been absolutely deadly if you hadn't found that note and bought it to us in the first place.
"Right," I said nodding as I remembered that ominous note. "Written by the mysterious 'X."
"Who we have in custody as we speak."
"What?" Christian and I both exclaimed. "How?"
"I think you both should follow me," Dimitri said and turned in the direction of the prison.
XXXX
The three of us walked towards the building as Dimitri relayed everything that happened on his side of the battle.
"After you disappeared, Hans had read through different reports and figured out that we met in Russia," he said looking in my direction. "He almost became obsessed with it, trying to figure out how an 18-year old high school dropout managed to find the one person she was searching for when the country was crawling with strigoi. Eventually I told him just to get him off of my back. I told Hans that you tortured strigoi to find me."
"You tortured strigoi?" Christian chimed in. I couldn't tell if he was scared of the information or admiring me, but either way, it wasn't something I wanted to discuss.
"Not my proudest moments, but I did what I had to do to find Dimitri."
Dimitri shot me a pained look, but continued on with the story.
"Hans, or anyone else for that matter, had never heard of someone using strigoi to get information out of them and then actually letting them go. It was unheard of, but it made sense. When you bought the note in, it was written by someone named 'X.' Hans briefed all the guardians to be on a look out for anyone who seemed like the leader or who the other strigoi seemed to be deferring to. Not only did the guardians fighting on the frontlines have to make sure we didn't get killed, we also had to be careful that we didn't accidently kill the leader. It was difficult, but we actually managed to figure out who she was."
"She?" I asked surprised.
Dimitri nodded, "Yes, she was definitely the most powerful one out of the strigoi we took out. And we got lucky, because we heard another strigoi shout her name."
"What is it?"
"Xhex."
"Why does that name sound so familiar?" Christian asked.
"It doesn't sound familiar to me."
"That's because you never paid attention in any of your classes," Dimitri said and I shrugged. There was nothing I could do about that now.
"I'm sure you have heard of her, though. She was in the ranks of Artur and Galina, a legend of her time. But what stuck out the most from her was that she was a big advocate for Moroi fighting alongside dhampir. And I truly believe she would have been the one to bring that change into our world if she hadn't been turned."
What a damn shame. Another soul lost.
Dimitri's story came to a wrap just as the prison came into view.
"It seemed like her views from before stuck with her, but turned more radical and deadly once she turned strigoi. Hans has allowed me to be with him as he questions Xhex. And since you two took out the most strigoi tonight, I believe you should be there to listen to what she has to say."
A lot had changed since my time at the academy, some good and some bad. One of the positives in all the shit that had happened was that I was officially Dimitri's equal. He didn't have to shield me from certain things because I was still a student. I could be right next to him through everything and no one would question it.
"You guys can actually head out without me." Christian said stopping short. If we continued straight, we would be at our destination in no time, but just down the left of us was the church.
"You sure? This is probably going to be really interesting."
"I'm positive. All of the magic I used is starting to take its toll on me and I really just want to go and find Lissa." My heart warmed at his thoughtfulness for her and we quickly bid goodbye to one another.
"Is there anyone who's going to question her with us?"
Dimitri shrugged. "I'm sure Hans has guardians in there keeping watch over Xhex. I'm not kidding when I say she's powerful Rose. It took a handful of guardians just to get her into the cell."
Before stepping in the prison for the second time that day, I saw guardians already moving onto their next job. There were several taking the dead or injured to the infirmary. Others were on their way to tell the civilians of court that the battle seemed to be over. And I'm sure the alchemists had been contacted to come clean up the strigoi bodies.
These dhampirs just put their lives on the line fighting a deadly battle and instead of being allowed to rest or having the chance to kiss their loved ones, they had to move onto another task, completing another responsibility that fell onto them. I could bet that majority of the uninjured guardians who fought tonight wouldn't even have the chance to rest for another several hours. The way our world worked made me sick.
Dimitri held open the door and I followed him into the prison.
"Did you find Ethan," he asked and the hopeful tone in his voice made me feel overcome with guilt.
"No," I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I was too late. When I got there, I saw Mikhail hurt and I couldn't just leave him there."
"Don't worry about it Roza, we'll find him. You did the right thing." He said sincerely.
All I could do was hope that Ethan was still alive, so Dimitri and I could be the ones to kill him.
I knew that the prisoners had all escaped so there was only one occupant being held in the cell. There were three guardians standing outside while the remainder were inside of the cell with Hans and Xhex.
There were two guardians standing behind her, against the wall, while Hans stood in front of her.
Xhex was…gorgeous. I was struck instantly by how beautiful she looked. Her hair was cropped short and dark black, and her arms covered in tattoos. Any man or woman would kill to have her, if you could look past the fact that she was a murderous, bloodsucking monster.
This wasn't anything I had seen before. First, I had never seen such a formal interrogation of a strigoi take place. It was unheard of in our world. Second, Xhex wasn't behaving like any of the strigois I had 'interrogated' in Russia. Usually when I tortured strigoi to find out information on Dimitri, they would be screaming and thrashing, yelling obscenities so dirty, they would even make Abe blush. But not Xhex. She was expressionless, sitting so calmly and quietly, it rivaled Dimitri's stoicism.
"You wanted to be caught." The words left my mouth before I had the chance to stop them and for the first time since walking in, her expression gave way to one of surprise, which just as quickly changed to smugness.
"No point fighting it." Even her voice was smooth, with a hint of a Russian accent. "It was clear the moment my army attacked that you knew of our arrival."
"Why didn't you just turn around and leave."
"I'm not a coward."
"You sound pretty courageous for a strigoi."
She must have found what I said amusing, because she broke out in a chuckle filled with so much evil; it sent a shiver down my spine.
"Why attack Court?" Hans questioned. He must have gotten tired of the back and forth. Xhex kept her red, angry eyes on me as she answered him.
"Why not attack court? I came to relieve you of the shackles these royal fuckers have over you."
"You seem quite concerned over dhampir lives," Dimitri said to her.
"Don't act like you forgot what it felt like predatel'" Traitor. "You were free when you were one of us. Yet you choose to spend your short life as a slave for a society that doesn't care if you live or die!"
I felt Dimitri's hand brush against mine and I looked down to see him shaking with rage. She was getting to him. I quickly took a hold of his hand, trying to calm him down as best as I could.
"Dimitri here will tell you. Your memories don't just fade away when you get awakened. Everything you felt before comes to life. Before this gift was bestowed upon me, I fought everyone trying to get more rights for you dhampirs. I argued that these lazy Moroi should get off their royal asses and learn to fight for themselves, but no one listened and no one cared!" She sneered. "Once I was awakened, I knew nothing would ever change, especially with that bitch as queen. Tell me, how many of your people died tonight to protect her? How many lives are considered disposable all over the world, just because these royals need all the protection."
I mean she isn't wrong.On the outside, I may have been standing still listening to her speech, but on the inside, I was clinking an imaginary champagne glass, exclaiming 'hear, hear!'
Had our world really turned so bad that I was agreeing with a strigoi?
"How did you get past the wards?"
Xhex leaned back against her chair as much as she could, considering she was shackled from her shoulders all the way down to her feet. She smirked, taking her time in answering.
"Used compulsion on some of the guardians we found trying to sniff us out in town, then snapped their necks as soon as the wards were broken."
I had to control myself to not move forward and kill her in that moment. The absolute disregard for another life meant nothing to them. There was no loyalty in strigoi. It was one of the many things that set us apart from them. They had no compassion, no humanity left inside of them. Just pure evil.
"But some," she trailed off, enjoying how much we hung onto her every word. "Some guardians didn't need too much convincing."
"You're lying." I had never seen Hans look so angry before. "Don't fucking lie."
Xhex only laughed, and I knew everything out of her mouth was the truth.
"What do you dhampirs have to live for other than a short and shitty life? You're all disposable and that's all you'll ever be. What would you choose? An eternity on earth, living by your own rules with no Moroi to answer to, or remain a slave to a system that doesn't give a fuck if you live or you die. All I said was a few sweet words to some of your guardians and they jumped at the chance at freedom. The others who were too stupid to think for themselves, were compelled into helping me anyway."
"So you want a fucking medal for caring so much about our freedom," I asked her.
"All I want is to burn this whole society to the ground."
"But you didn't succeed," Hans spoke.
Xhex titled her head to the side, taking her time to stare at each of us. This had to be the creepiest encounter I had ever had with a strigoi. "Are you sure about that?" She finally said and I had to stop myself from taking a step back from her.
Whether Hans wanted to admit it or not, Xhex was right. I had been away from the life of court for three years and began to understand how unfair our whole system was. The royals got first pick of guardians, while poorer Morois were shit out of luck. In Russia, I made it my duty to protect everyone I could, whether they were Moroi, dhampir, or human. In my eyes, a life was a life.
And it seemed that the guardians at court were beginning to open their eyes to the unfairness and injustices we faced. Our own people were turning their backs on us, but could we blame them?
Queen Tatiana had to come up with a change in our society, because we were close to a revolution that would put this entire battle to shame.
XXXX
Xhex didn't utter a single word after that but she revealed more than enough. She had the chance to turn her army around and run once she found the guardians in town, but she still chose to attack, knowing we were waiting for her army's arrival. Xhex wanted to turn our world upside down and she succeeded. The actual fight might have been over, but I knew there was a long and messy battle within the walls of court that was just starting to begin.
Dimitri ushered me out of the cell. I knew without having to ask what was going to happen next. They would stake her and I was glad I didn't have to stay any longer to witness that.
All I wanted to do was strip out of my dirty and sweaty clothes, take a long shower, and fall asleep for the next three days.
Before we even made it down the hall, a guardian I had never seen before came over to Dimitri and I. "Belikov, I think you should come see this." He gestured for us to follow him to the opposite side of the hall, where another row of cells were located. "We found him hiding in the woods, just outside of the wards. We honestly would have missed him if the sun hadn't come up." The prisoner stopped in front of the cell and stepped aside, showing us Logan Moore. I couldn't hear or see anything around me. One second I was standing next to Dimitri, and the next, I had tore through the bars of the cell. Logan didn't have a chance to react before I hit him hard across the face.
"That's for murdering my wolves." I reeled back my other hand and punched him again. "And that's for helping your brother escape."
"Roza," Dimitri tried to pull me back, but not even he could stop me. Logan was barely conscious from my two hits. I grabbed his shirt and slammed him up against the wall of the cell.
"Where is he?" I whispered low, feeling an undeniable urge to kill him.
"Relax Rose," I heard from behind me.
When Logan, didn't answer, the anger only bubbled up more inside of me. Logan had been looking at me in fear, but it quickly turned to complete and utter terror. I felt a prickling feeling in my mouth, and knew the rage I felt had pushed my fangs out and knew without even having to look, that my eyes had turned red. "Tell me," I growled so loud, I was sure everyone in the building had heard me.
Logan started nodding, shaking so hard, I heard his teeth rattle. "Okay, okay, just please don't kill me." I took a deep, calming breath, and then released him, letting him fall into a crumple on the floor.
"Where is he?"
"I swear I have no idea. We were only together for a short while before he said we should split up. He didn't tell me where he was going. Just that he knew it was the end. That's all he said, I swear." Logan was rambling, but he was telling the truth.
"What happened to the other prisoners?" Dimitri stepped forward to ask.
"I…I'm not exactly sure. Some ran out of the prison with us. Others," he trailed off, looking between Dimitri and I in fear.
"Tell us," Dimitri said.
"Others took advantage of the incapacitated guards," he had the good graces to look down in shame. He allowed two of his fellow dhampirs to be used as blood bags by the moroi who escaped. "I doubt those prisoners made it very far. They were weak before turning. I'm sure they were killed as soon as guardians spotted them outside of the prison." I truly didn't care what had become of those Moroi turned strigoi; I only wanted information on Ethan.
"Let's go Dimitri." I didn't spare another glance at Logan. He was the prison's responsibility now.
Instead of walking towards the entrance of the prison, I went towards the information desk.
"Do you have any idea where he might have gone?" Dimitri asked hopefully.
"I think so. Logan said Ethan told him it was the end. I doubt he has any resources outside of the walls of the court. Maybe he's gotten tired of running from his fate."
There was only one way I'd actually be able to find Ethan now. I looked at the prisoner log they kept to see which cell he was located in. It was all the way down the hall, on the right. Identical to the one Dimitri had, yet it reeked to me. I walked to the center of the small cell, closed my eyes, and breathed in deep.
"Roza," Dimitri's gentle voice interrupted me. I ignored him, making sure the scent was imprinted into my brain, before opening my eyes. "What are you doing?"
"I need to find him Dimitri."
The only way to find Ethan now would be to shift.