Another chapter! I'm on fire.

Thank you so much to bucket13, .Love and Ex2See for the reviews! I'm so glad people are enjoying the book. Right now I'm thinking there are going to be about 37/38 chapters, so there's still a lot to come!


Seventeen

Rose

Christian and I sat at the back of the conference. It was the third day of the week-long event, and there was an excited murmur around the crowd today. We tried to pick up on some of the rumours, but people didn't want to talk to us. The most we got was "apparently there's going to be an exciting announcement today," which didn't tell us much of anything.

And then the Queen was taking the microphone. For the most part she'd just sat in the back and observed, clearly taking notes and re-evaluating who she liked and disliked among her Royal Court.

Now, though, she stood at the helm, and everyone paid attention. A hush settled over the room.

"Now, I know a lot of people have been asking why a conference like this has been called now, and why it has been called here, at St. Vladimir's."

There was a sinking feeling in my gut, and Christian stiffened beside me.

"There have been a number of threats levelled against this school, and in particular one of its students. It would appear Moira Ozera was not killed, and is still at large, gathering an army with which she plans to attack the school."

Whispers broke out across the crowd, and I found myself taking Christian's hand in mine when the first set of eyes found him out in the crowd. Most were focused on Tasha, who sat in the front row.

Lissa's eyes were among them. Shock radiated through the bond; she'd had no idea this was going to happen today either.

Christian tightened his hold on my hand, and we kept them between our bodies where no one could see.

"The threat is imminent, and we need a quick resolution about how to defend this school and its inhabitants. This is why I encourage you to begin seeing eye-to-eye and we can get to the real meaning of this conference, finding a defence plan for the children that currently occupy St. Vladimir's."

Her emphasis on children to jerk people back to the reality instead of gossip had its intended effect.

In the front row, Tasha was barely managing to restrain her rage. She'd obviously not known this was about to happen. In her lap she was furiously writing notes on something, and I guessed she was going to be the first person to stand up and follow the Queen's speech.

This was her time to capitalise on the shock and make people understand. I just didn't know what she was going to say to make it happen.

The Queen took her seat, and gestured to Tasha, who was up and at a microphone before anyone even had a chance to blink.

"I understand the fear that Moroi have when it comes to using offensive magic. You have families, you have people who care about, and you don't want to risk your necks when there are Guardians to do it for you. I understand that." It looked like it was physically painful for her to say the words, but she did it. "That doesn't mean that we can't be useful with our magic in the fight against Strigoi. Defensive magic exists, too. You can stand behind your line of Guardians and suffocate an oncoming Strigoi; you can stand behind your line of Guardians and destabilise a Strigoi before it can kill your Guardian and come straight for you." She took a moment to look around the room and meet eyes with people. "You can help your Guardians before they even go into battle."

Christian and I looked at each other, and suddenly we knew where this speech was going. "She can't," he whispered.

"She's going to," I muttered back, forcing myself to drop his hand. When everyone in the hall turned their attention to us in a minute, we definitely didn't need anyone saying that.

"A demonstration, I think," Tasha said, eyes finding ours. She had the decency to look apologetic. She'd only come up with this plan whilst the Queen was announcing her family's problem, so I guessed I couldn't find myself too angry with her. "Christian, Rose. Come to the front."

Liss's shock ran through the bond once more, and she watched us descend from the back of the stalls where we'd been trying to hide ourselves away. We just wanted to listen, not participate.

Forcing ourselves to our feet, we went down to the empty space in the middle of the hall. Every pair of eyes in there was watching us, including the Queen. Tasha didn't move from behind her spot at the microphone.

"My nephew is going to perform a piece of defensive magic that would help protect his Guardian from a Strigoi attack."

Christian and I stood opposite each other, and Tasha explained how it worked over the microphone as he took his hands in mine and we met each other's gaze. I tried to block Liss out as best I could. The second she'd seen us together her sadness had struck, but now we were all but holding hands in front of her, she was filled with such a strong anger and despair that I wanted to go and comfort her.

Wanted to go and lie to her that this was all part of the spell—as Tasha was stressing over loudspeaker—and that I didn't care about her ex-boyfriend so much it hurt sometimes.

Christian's performed the spell and I felt the magic seeping into me, the end of my fingertips tingled with a power I couldn't quite place. Then Christian dropped my hands, managing to control his flinch, knowing that showing he was in pain would deter the people watching.

Tasha grinned with satisfaction.

"Robert Lazar." She picked a man on the opposite side of the front row, who was one of her biggest opponents in the debating. "Touch her."

There was a murmuring around the crowd once more, and Robert scoffed. "Touch her?"

I walked over to him, to save him the stress of getting out of his seat, and held my hand out towards him.

He looked at me suspiciously, at the orange aura that surrounded me, and then touched my hand.

He went all out to grip it, and jerked backwards like he'd been shocked. Which, really, he had.

The murmuring from the crowd got louder. "What is that?" he demanded, cradling his hand.

"That is a spell that will protect a Dhampir from a Strigoi when touched. That effect is even stronger against Strigoi." I returned to Christian in the centre, and Liss had calmed down through the bond. It was amazement that took forefront, and she watched my glowing form in wonder. And then a stab of bitterness that her magic wasn't the kind that could do that.

"You can go and sit down now," Tasha said. "Thank you for the demonstration."

Christian and I all but scampered to the back of the room and barely listened to the rest of the debate. There were questions as to why Christian couldn't go around all the Dhampirs and perform the spell, about whether anyone but fire wielders could help.

In general, it was a positive discussion, though. Tasha had managed to turn the debate on its head. Her plan was obvious. Ease people into it with "defensive" magic, until she's secretly teaching them how to be offensive, and they realise how much they could help.

Christian sucked the magic out of me as soon as we sat down, and I didn't know what to say to him. "It was stronger again today," I told him. "You're getting better."

"Or maybe my need to protect you is getting stronger," he muttered in response, shutting his eyes for a second. "Come on, let's get out of here. I'm sick of hearing about all this stuff. I need a break. My Aunt's got it covered."

Liss saw us slip away, and I felt her make the decision to follow. "Liss is coming to speak to us," I told Christian as we exited the hall. "I don't know what about."

He sighed. "Okay. I guess we can wait here for her." He frowned. "She's not about to scream at you for holding my hand in public is she?"

My lip quirked. "She got over that pretty quickly when she saw why."

Liss turned the corner and was surprised to see us stood waiting for her. Eddie was trailing just behind her. She chuckled. "I guess I should have known you'd be able to feel my intentions through the bond. It's been so weird not seeing you for so long that I almost forget it exists." She turned to beam at Christian, though I could feel it was forced. "That was really impressive magic in there."

I could practically see the wheels in Christian's mind turning, wanting to know what she was after. "Thanks."

"Look, I know that we're maybe not on good terms right now. I haven't really spoken to you to find out, but I just want us to be friends. I mean, right now I feel like we all need all the friends we can get and, I don't know, I just don't want us to be on bad terms." Secretly she was hoping this would all lead them back into being together, but it was an honest intention, too. If she couldn't be with Christian, she didn't want to lose his friendship either.

"We're not on bad terms, as long as you don't want to be," Christian said. He wanted to do this without an audience, but Eddie and I had no choice but to stay with our charges. "Of course I'd like to be friends."

She beamed. "Okay, well, I'm glad. We should hang out, the four of us, at some point. I've been missing you guys so much."

And I'd been missing Liss too, in between my massive bouts of guilt. I'd kissed her ex-boyfriend that she was still very much in love with last night. I didn't have the right to miss spending time with her.

"Of course we can," he said, glancing at me for just a second. "You should come with us to visit Aunt Tasha. She misses you, too."

"I'd like that." Something inside Liss settled. I hadn't realised how terrified she was that Christian hated her; that he didn't even want to talk to her anymore. "Tonight?"

"Sure. I'll let you know what time we're heading out there."

Liss didn't want to overstay her welcome, but before she left she launched herself at me and wrapped me in a hug. "I've missed you Rose. I'll see you tonight and we can catch up, though, right?"

I hugged her back, tighter than I meant to, and she gave me a grin before her and Eddie disappeared. Eddie gave me a real smile, and I hoped he was getting over my revelation about Dimitri.

"You okay?" Christian asked when they were gone.

My chest was aching more than normal, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. "I'm fine. You?"

"Surprisingly, yes. I hadn't expected that."

"Me neither. But, I'm glad."

We stood there for a moment, taking in everything that had happened. "I want to go have another look at that book," Christian decided. "Fuck school work, learning the stuff in there is the most important thing right now. Especially if we can find more defensive spells to help my Aunt."

"Good idea," I agreed, as we headed back to the dorms. "You know we don't have to spend a lot of time with Liss if you don't want. She'd understand."

"I want to. She was my closest friend for months. I hadn't realised how much I was going to miss her, even if I didn't want to be with her anymore. If we can really be friends, I'd like that."

"She's still hoping you'll get back together," I felt the need to warn him. It wasn't an entirely innocent request.

"I figured. But about being friends, she means it?"

"Yeah, she'll settle with being friends if you really don't want to be together."

"Okay, well, good." He paused. "You don't… you don't mind, do you?"

I frowned. "Of course not."

"I just, I'm putting you in a bit of a shitty position."

"Not really. I want you and Liss to both be happy, if that means being friends then I'm all for it."

"I just don't want to make you feel guilty all the time."

"I already do, so don't worry about that." He nudged my shoulder with his, and I mustered a small smile. "It'll all be okay eventually," I decided. "It has to be, one way or another."

We reached his room and both moved to the bed, too exhausted to do anything else after the spectacle that had been made of us today. We didn't touch; that night after we'd fallen asleep together I'd resumed my bed on the floor and we hadn't spoken about it since. The same with the kiss.

Pretending that it hadn't happened—at least out loud—was in full effect.