Sorry for the long update wait! I have family visiting and it's been hectic.

The next chapter is the one you've all been waiting for, and it should be up in the next couple of days!


Twenty-Two

Christian

We all huddled together on the blustering runway as Lissa and Adrian said their goodbyes. Lissa was going around hugging everyone, whereas Adrian stood in front of Rose still begging her to get on the plane.

I grasped his arm, dragging him out of earshot for a minute. "Just give her a proper goodbye," I told him, meeting his gaze. "If something happens and you spent the last few minutes shouting at her you'll regret it." My voice was darker than I'd ever heard, and my foul mood must have been oozing out of me.

Adrian stared at me for a second, before nodding, going back and enveloping Rose in a hug.

I looked away from them, and suddenly Lissa was in front of me. "Stay safe," she said, hugging me tight.

"I'll do my best," I replied, smile forced.

She opened her mouth, but then closed it again, just giving my hand a squeeze before moving on to where Adrian was still holding Rose.

And then they were moving towards the plane and Rose was stood by my side, pressing her arm against mine. I felt the sting of tears behind my eyes and blinked them back. Rose was here, and she was staying here, and there was nothing I could do about it. I felt so hopeless it hurt.

Rose glanced up at me, then linked her arm through mine, hand clutching my forearm as discreetly as possible.

It didn't help like it should have done. I was practically shaking.

Lissa was sat in the window, and waved to us. I couldn't bring myself to wave back as the plane drove away from us towards the runway.

Aunt Tasha and Dimitri were talking, and Eddie was stood watching the plane leave. Rose stared up at me, more and more worry shining in her eyes as I continued to fall deeper into my circle of despair.

"Christian," she murmured. "It's fine. This is how it's meant to be, you know that."

"That doesn't make it okay," I replied. "I just—I don't know. I'll get over it in a few hours."

"We have to go and meet our students before that. Well, your students. We said we'd have a lesson with them tonight."

I dug the heel of my palm into my eyes and took a deep breath. "Yeah, I guess I did. Well, maybe it'll be a distraction."

"Try not to take out your anger on them," she teased, but the air was too heavy for it to work.

We turned to the other three, who were all standing in silence. Dimitri had his arm around my Aunt's shoulders, and Eddie was staring into the distance with a blank look on his face.

"We're going to go back to campus," Rose said, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the cold. I wanted to hold her, but couldn't. "Are you coming Eddie?"

He nodded. Aunt Tasha was giving me a worried glance, but I didn't have the motivation to go and tell her I was just fine. I'd talk to her tomorrow. We were going to have to start looking at what defensive spells we could teach people now the conference was over, and it was official that the Moroi of St. Vladimir's would be learning kind-of-offensive magic.

We said our goodbyes, and then the three of us were heading to our lesson. "Eddie, we're actually heading to one of those offensive magic lessons Christian's been giving. I thought you might want to see," Rose explained. "That and I want to spar. It's been way too long since I had a good fight." The Guardians dressed as Strigoi had barely targeted us during the field experience, and I could practically see Rose itching to get some exercise done.

I strode beside the pair in silence, mood still black, and visions of Rose's death plaguing my mind. Doing the protection spell had made them so easy to conjure and it was almost impossible to dismiss them. They were so real.

"It's going to be kind of weird with Liss being gone," Eddie admitted. "I'd gotten used to having constant company."

Rose and I were more than constant company for each other now. Every moment alone we spent in each other's arms. Just holding each other, or kissing, or fucking. We spent every night in bed together, naked, and it was the best I'd ever felt.

We were on a timer, of course, and that only made it more desperate. Even if we both survived through my mum's attack, we couldn't be together after that. There was Liss, and Rose couldn't betray her best friend.

Couldn't betray her any more than we already were, at least.

"Yeah, I can imagine. Well, we're always around," Rose said with a smile in his direction.

When we got to the lake, there were a lot more than the original ten people gathered. I narrowed my eyes at the group. My request that it needed to be kept quiet obviously hadn't been heeded.

"Shit," Rose muttered. "Please don't shout at them too much," she told me.

I scowled. "I'll do my best."

I strode to the front of the group, and the original ten were looking especially guilty. They'd nearly tripled in size. Rose and Eddie waited off on the side, and I could feel her eyes boring into me. "I thought I requested that this be kept between us," I warned, folding my arms, expression dark.

"We only told people we trusted," the original guy who'd approached me said, hands clasped together in front of himself. "We just want to be able to defend ourselves, to help. Please."

I ran a hand over my face and nodded. "If this is found out about, though, then it'll be forced to stop, you know that, right? This is why I'm asking you to keep it quiet."

"We understand. We only told people we absolutely trusted," he promised.

There were nods from the crowd, and I spotted a few people from my own year there. I got on with my teaching as best as I could. Rose and Eddie stayed off on the side, stretching and then sparring.

It was impossible not to let my gaze turn towards her as she fought, lithe body moving with a strength and grace I could never possess. I would have been content to just lean against a tree and admire her, but that wasn't an option.

The original ten had spread their lesson about the sphere around, and so it was time to move onto some more advanced stuff this lesson.

I focused on something that I figured would be applicable to all the elements again: focusing your magic at an object. We managed to find enough rocks and things like that for everyone. Air users could put enough pressure on a Strigoi's head that it would cause them pain; water users could drown a Strigoi like that; Earth users could blind the Strigoi by casing their faces in Earth; fire users could harm the Strigoi.

Everyone was a lot more enthusiastic about learning this technique than they had about the spheres, and I went around trying to explain how it felt to channel the magic in this specific spell to the people who were struggling.

All the while I couldn't help but look over to Rose and see her beat Eddie again and again.

At the end of the lesson, when I'd sent everyone away with the strict instruction that they couldn't keep adding people to the lessons, I went over to the tree that Rose was now sat leaning against, and collapsed down beside her.

Eddie was stood in front of us, panting hard.

"Feeling better?" Rose asked me.

"Actually, yes. Turns out teaching people is a pretty good distraction."

"How are they doing?" Eddie asked, managing to catch his breath. "Got anyone with real talent?"

"Yeah. They're all coming along really fast, to be honest. It's almost depressing how good everyone could have been if they'd been learning this stuff from the beginning."

"What's happening with the state sanctioned lessons?" Eddie took a seat opposite us, legs crossed. "I heard that was the resolution they came to."

"My Aunt and I are going to be teaching the adult Moroi in the school, since they're the ones who are going to be available to fight. Then, when the battle is over, whoever is left will start teaching the younger kids as part of the curriculum."

We all flinched at that, but there was nothing to be done about it. "At least they've decided to be proactive," Eddie supposed.

"Better late than never, for sure."

"Have you had any more letters?" he asked.

"No. My mum hasn't sent me anything for a few weeks now. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad sign, to be honest. I think I'm going to increase these lessons to every day. These kids need to be able to do something when Strigoi inevitably get through the defences and raid the school. They're good, they can help."

"Just don't wear yourself out," Rose murmured from my side, knees pulled up to her chest and head resting on them.

"Forever doubting my abilities," I teased.

Rose looked up at me with a small smile, but the fatigue was clear in her eyes.

"I guess we should go see my Aunt," I said, feeling the tiredness pulling at my own body. I just wanted to get into bed and curl up with Rose. "She wants to start coming up with these lesson plan things so that we can get started as soon as possible."

"Sure. You should come, Eddie," Rose told him. I nodded my agreement, forcing myself to my feet and offering Rose a hand up.

The three of us walked towards Tasha's cabin in comfortable silence. Rose looked like she was practically dragging herself.

When we were there, Rose and I took the couch. Eddie had slid onto the floor before I could tell him that we'd probably all fit on the couch if we squeezed. Dimitri and my Aunt took the table. She handed me some pieces of paper. "These are the ideas we've got so far. Give it to Rose and Eddie after you've had a look, see what they think."

"I don't know if I'm going to be much help," Eddie admitted. "I don't know anything about offensive magic."

"But you know about Guardians, and I need to know whether these things would be a help to you when you fight."

"Oh, okay," he agreed, perking up. Rose had told me that Eddie liked to feel useful.

Rose was sat with her head leant back against the couch, eyes shut. "I'm too tired to read. I'll get Christian to give me a rundown later."

"You should just sleep," I told her. "We're probably going to be a while."

She cracked one eye open to look at me. "You're sure?"

"Yeah, go for it."

Grabbing a pillow, she lay on the couch, her feet in my lap. I rested my hands on her calves and continued reading the sheet my Aunt had given me.

Just like when she'd been teaching me magic, she wanted to start with the sphere thing. I couldn't help but feel a little bit proud that I'd managed to at least do that right. "Just how offensive do you want to get in these lessons?" I asked her.

"These people don't want to be on the battlefield when the attack actually comes," she said with a scowl. "So as defensive as it gets, pretty much."

I bristled. "It'll serve them right when they get killed."

"It's too short a time to change people's prejudices," my Aunt said, looking at me disapprovingly. I was too tired and frustrated to keep my mouth in check right now, though.

"Honestly," Eddie cut in, looking over his sheet. "I'm not sure how useful any of this stuff is going to be. Booby trapping the perimeter sounds good in theory, but in the heat of battle Guardians aren't going to remember where they can and can't step. It might end up being more of a hindrance."

My Aunt sighed. "That's just about what Dimitri said, too," she admitted. "Other than the protection spell, I don't know how defensive magic is going to work unless they're willing to be there on the battlefield, even if it's in the background."

Rose shifted in her sleep, flipping onto her front and sinking further down the sofa, so the front of her thighs were resting against mine. Eddie raised an eyebrow at me, and I could only lift one shoulder in a half-shrug as I resisted the urge to properly cup her thighs with my hand, to feel her through the thin fabric of the yoga pants she was wearing. "Would they be willing to be inside the buildings, but at windows? There's a chance they could perform some magic to Strigoi who got too close to campus that way, right?" I asked.

Tasha started scribbling. "That's a good idea," she admitted. "And it's something they can practice before the actual event. We have plenty of windows, and lots of target dummies."

Eddie perked up. "That sounds good. And then they won't be in hardly any risk of danger."

I drummed my fingers against the flesh of Rose's thigh, trying to think of more ideas. "I don't really think it's worth the time to try and teach the protection spell," I said. "It requires more than just, I don't know, wanting it to work. Unless there's any Moroi who have close Guardian friends I think it would be a waste of time."

Tasha nodded. "True. I'll ask around and see if any of the Moroi are close to the Guardians, but otherwise, I think you're right."

Eddie frowned. "What do you mean? I thought it was just about channelling magic. That's what Tasha said in the debate."

She lifted a shoulder. "I may have dumbed it down a bit to help my cause. It's one of those spells that requires you to really mean it. You have to want deeply to protect the person you're casting the charm on."

I glanced down at Rose, her face scrunched up in sleep, and fought back the need to tighten my hand where it was resting on her thigh.

"It's draining," I told Eddie. "And difficult."

He looked to Rose, too, a frown on his face.

"I think they're going to let all the novices fight," Eddie said, running a hand through his sandy hair. "They're going to tell them they have the option, and obviously everyone will jump at the chance."

"It's pretty close to graduation," Dimitri said. "That's how they're going to reason it. Hopefully some people will be sensible enough to stay inside."

"There are some that can help, though. Like me and Rose."

"And we're going need all the help we can get," Aunt Tasha said. "Is anyone hungry?"

Eddie hesitated before admitting, "I'm starving."

"I'm going to cook something up. Rose will probably be hungry when she wakes up, right?" she looked to me.

"Probably. I can wake her up if you want to sit on the couch," I told Eddie. "It's really uncomfortable down there."

"Don't bother. I think she needs the rest, anyway. She looks exhausted. She's looking better than she did for a long time after Spokane, though." Eddie frowned at Rose, resting his head in his hand. "I should have done more to try and help, but I was trying to get through it myself and I thought that trying to help Rose might make it worse again for me."

"She's doing better." The nightmares had pretty much stopped for the both of us since we started sleeping together at night, and we hadn't partied since the beginning of the field experience.

I felt a bit bad talking about Rose whilst she was just there, but Eddie looked like he needed the reassurance.

"Yeah, I was surprised when I went to a party with Liss a couple of days ago and Rose wasn't there," Eddie joked.

Dimitri was watching her too, the guilt clear on his face. I wanted to say something that might make him feel better, but no words came to me.

"I never thought I'd end up being a sensible influence on someone," I replied.

"I think she's probably glad she got you in the field experience, really. Rose doesn't do well with sympathy, and it's just about Liss's forte."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I definitely get the Liss sympathy issue. That's why I didn't tell her about the notes from my mum for so long."

"Don't bitch about Liss," Rose mumbled from the other end of the couch, her voice thick with sleep. "It's mean."

"We're not bitching, we're discussing," I told her.

"Also I'm fine. Stop worrying all the time."

"Right, I'll just tell my brain to stop worrying in the future. I'm sure that'll work. Besides, you can hardly talk."

She cracked an eye open to glare at me, and I smiled innocently. "It smells like food," she said, turning over to look at the stove, where my Aunt was making spaghetti. "It smells like really good food." Then she seemed to realise were her legs were. "Oh, sorry for crushing you."

"Don't worry about it."

She finally managed to sit up, and squished into my side to make room for Eddie.

He groaned as he stood up and sat beside her. "I'm so glad you woke up," he said. "My bum is so numb."

We laughed through dinner, and then it was time to leave. It was past curfew, so Dimitri had to walk us home.

"I wish you'd stop feeling guilty, you know," Rose said to Dimitri as we walked back to campus.

"What do you mean?"

"Please, I could practically feel your guilty face when Eddie and Christian were talking about me. I'm glad you left. Even if it was a bit shit in the beginning, it was good, really. You know it's true."

He sighed. "You'd just seen your friend die. I should have waited and you know it. I took the coward's way out."

"Not true," she insisted. "What would have been the point in you helping me get over Mason, then leaving and throwing me back into sadness. At least with the double-whammy it was one blow, and I could get over them both together."

"That doesn't make me feel much better, to be honest."

She chuckled and linked her arm through his, just like she did when she wanted to cheer me up without being too touchy-feely. For some reason, watching them didn't make my jealousy spin out of control.

Probably because I knew that we were walking back to my room, where Rose would be getting into bed with me.

"Dimitri, you're the happiest I've ever seen you in my entire life. You're going to see your family in the summer. I couldn't resent that even if I tried."

"Are you happy, though, Roza?" he murmured, looking down at her.

Her smile was real, and she glanced at me for just a moment. "Actually, right now, I think I'm very happy."