I could hear the rumors begin to swirl around me. Over the past few days, they had become deafening.

I suppose my social situation wasn't helped by the fact that I had isolated myself, shrinking into the safety net of Ivan and his guardians from day one. No one knew exactly who I was, so they just made it up for themselves, and it didn't take complex understanding of Russian to know what they were saying. Maybe life would have been easier if I had never even studied the language, only relying on Dimitri to shelter me further.

Where did she come from, anyway?

She didn't even have a lick of training, why even try?

Belikov won't let her train with us because he has to go easy on her to even make her look good.

Of course, it all makes sense. Guardians Belikov only takes on FREAKS. The people who need special attention.

What potential does he even see in her?

More than I cared to admit, it was getting to me. Especially when it came from my fellow dhampir's mouths.

The social isolation of being away from everything that was familiar to me – food, language, friends – was starting to close in. My incident with Lissa had only been the tipping point.

Suddenly, I felt as though I couldn't breathe.

Sensing the shift, likely from the way I had come to a screeching halt in the hallway as we were making our way from training to dinner, Dimitri grabbed me by the shoulder. He threw open the door to an empty classroom off the hallway we'd just been walking through, all but shoving me into a chair.

"Is Lissa okay?" he demanded.

I nodded my head weakly, that much I could confirm. She was still fast asleep in Montana, would be for a few hours.

I, on the other hand, had to get myself under control. In some ways, the time difference was the root of all my problems – I really missed having someone to talk to. Lissa was getting along, for the most part, well with our friends back home, but I was here, isolated from all of my classmates and in a new culture to boot.

I had preferred the ease of just integrating myself into Ivan's group, something which the boys had encouraged even despite my feeling like a burden on them initially. While that had cushioned me from trying to create a whole new life, without much of a story to rely on as far as how I got here, it left me with a serious lack of a shoulder to cry on, or at least woe on.

Sure, I could talk to Viktoria, and she probably wanted nothing more than for me to take the leap into our friendship, but I had really been avoiding her since the event in practice. Surely, it's all she wanted to hear details on, but I was still processing a lot of what had happened, and the information I had gleamed from Ivan, for myself.

"Breathe, Roza," he instructed, repeating himself over and over, much like the mantra.

A few minutes of silence followed before I was sufficiently calm and he spoke again.

"Talk to me. You can talk to me."

I supposed I could, Dimitri was tough on training, because he wanted me to grow, but he was also understanding. And unlike Alexei, none of his advice came with biting, sarcastic remarks. He was genuine.

But I didn't know where to start when it came to my problems, even though we had worked through the root of most of them.

"I don't want to be the weak one in class anymore," I whispered. "I'm running away from any and all social interaction at this school the least you can do is teach me to fight, to really fight. Then people could stop spewing all this shit about me."

"It's all stupid teenage nonsense," he assured me. "You have to learn to stop listening to everyone's opinions-"

"Dimitri, you're not listening to me," I pressed, insistent.

Dimitri stared into my eyes for a few moments, maybe shocked at the way I had cut him off, as if verbally pushing him away. "Are you sure you're ready?"

It was such a simple question but I felt like crying under his gaze, under the seriousness of what he meant. But, no matter what people said, no matter my own reservations about my abilities, Lissa was worth it. And she was in trouble.

"Yes. I promise. Stop teaching me how to run from everything, I want to show that I can fight it."

In that moment, it was obvious what I was asking. I wasn't just asking Dimitri to train me physically for my future career. I was asking him to train me emotionally. To give me the tools to prove everyone wrong, just as my father and I had planned.

He nodded. "I'll train you, but every school thinks that they can prepare you for what's to come. But Strigoi are so fast and strong… well you can't even imagine. We can't stop the running or the conditioning, and to build the fighting on top of that, we need more training time. It'll take up most of your time, it'll distract you from homework, and you'll be tired. A lot. And-"

"It doesn't matter," I insisted, pushing his excuses aside. "If you tell me to do it, I'll do it."

Dimitri studied me, once again making me deeply conscious of his gaze. Once he seemed satisfied, he gave a sharp, definitive nod. "We'll start tomorrow."

Alexei strode into the room, mirroring a moment only days before. He must have come looking for us between leaving the sportzal and walking to dinner, and seen us in the class window of the door.

He dropped his gaze, as if to make sure we weren't holding hands again. We weren't. "Let's go love birds," he smirked, catching me completely off guard. "Dinner awaits."

In the dining room, once everyone had settled, Dimitri turned to Ivan.

"We may have to cut the language lessons shorter," he explained to his charge. "Rose and I are going to start expanding her training."

Ivan waved him off, "No problem. Rose has made considerable strides with her language over the past weeks. She may not even need you to translate for her much longer."

I scoffed and suddenly became aware that everyone's attention had turned towards me but Ivan continued.

"Are you going to start before or after the holiday?"

"What holiday?" I asked, unaware we had one coming up.

"Next week is Unity Day," Viktoria explained.

"What's that?"

"Oh, it's the best," she gushed. "We get the week off from school in celebration of a rebellion that drove the Polish occupation out of Moscow in 1612. It's like a mini fall break; we all go home and take family time, and there's a big feast."

She looked to me, as if I was supposed to rise up in excitement, but I didn't have a home to go to here. Even if I tried to visit Lissa, she wouldn't have school off, and the long journey for just a week wouldn't be worth it.

"I've arranged for you to come with us to Baia," Ivan interrupted. I swung my head to face him, awestruck.

I turned my gratitude on him. "That's so sweet, but I really can't force myself upon your families."

"Nonsense," he smiled. "We have a large cabin booked for all of us to stay in, yourself included, and we thought it would be a perfect opportunity for you to meet Mark and Oksana. We wouldn't want for you to be here alone, what with your dad on… business."

Alexei snorted from beside him and I suddenly felt like I was missing out on a joke.

"Can someone please explain to me what Abe actually does."

All of them, except for Viktoria who looked just as curious, paled in front of my eyes. Their eyes shifted between each other, as if begging, why don't you answer her, please?

Ivan, ever the diplomat, answered, "He's a businessman."

I considered taking that, but the look on Alexei's face told me otherwise. So I turned to him. "Do you have a better answer? Huh?"

"Well," he began, "Ivan isn't… wrong. But let's just say he has some… interesting methods for how he runs things."

"How so?" I asked, pushing forward and hoping Alexei's loose lips would prevail.

"Let's just say he's earned the nickname… Zmey."

"That's probably enough," Dimitri interjected.

Viktoria, however, gasped in understanding at Alexei's words. Suddenly, I became aware that the entire table may know my own father better than I do.

The look Dimitri shot his sister said no. They will not be discussing this further.

Already done with the meal, our table rose to leave, eager to avoid the topic at hand. Dimitri tried to do the same, following their lead, but I stalked after him, intent of seeing the conversation out to its very end.

As he exited the cafeteria, I grabbed onto his forearm, pulling him away from his attempts to escape with Ivan back to guest housing. His arm tightened under my grip, and I was acutely aware of just how strong he was.

"Comrade, you said I could talk to you. What does Zmey mean?"

As my translator, Dimitri was more than qualified to answer me.

He pinched his nose between his fingers, closing his eyes in frustration before answering. "Snake."

Shaking off the implications of his words, I reasoned with him. "Look, if people call my dad 'snake', it's probably in my best interest to know just why- especially when it seems like I may well have taken on a loaded last name."

Dimitri conceded to my logic, with an amendment, "People probably don't even know his real name in these parts. But what everyone said is true: your father is a businessman. It's just that he deals less in traditional or legitimate business… and more in secrets and favors."

I grasped for understanding, acknowledging that Ivan probably owed one of those aforementioned favors to Abe, considering their close connections and the fact he had all but leased Alexei for a week. Not to mention getting me the most qualified mentors in guardian history.

"So what does he have on someone like Ivan?"

"He's friends with me."

I was dumbstruck, but Dimitri continued, hushed despite the empty hallway. "Your father, many years ago, helped me dispose of someone."

Watching my eyes widen, he covered himself hastily, "Not a body. It's just that… my father was not the kindest man," he explained. "Dhampir communities are quite transient for Moroi men, but my father liked my mother, hence why there are so many of us. We're all full siblings."

That was rare.

"As I got older, I started realizing that he was visiting for more than just sex… or blood. He was using mama as his own personal punching bag," he said soberly.

"That's horrible," I said, almost reaching out to catch his hand like he had with me. Almost. "And she just let it happen."

"She did," he confirmed. "But it didn't."

"Tell me you beat his ass."

"When I got old enough, I decided to give it right back to him. I threw him out and your father made sure that he never came back."

"How old were you?"

"Thirteen."

"You beat your own father up at thirteen!?" I rolled back into my familiar habit of making light in a severe conversation. "And so the god was born."

Delightfully, he laughed, recognizing my classmates' nickname for him. When Dimitri laughed, it was like the entire world was shrouded in brightness. The same as when Lissa used her magic.

"That's all to say, that I think Ivan absorbed that debt for me. He became Abe's go-to guy when we graduated. He was the one who allowed us to travel to learn about magic, and Ivan was allowed to conduct his more legitimate business on the way."

"That was probably my doing," I mused. "Abe knew Lissa had specialized, despite it all. He just wanted to learn more about it."

He considered it for a second, then conceded. "I suppose you're right."

"And that's why he so easily inserted me into your lives."

"Regardless," Dimitri said quickly, before fizzling, as if he'd forgotten what he was going to say.

"Thanks for arranging for me to go home with you guys," I offer in his place. "I can really stay if it's too much-"

"Not at all." He pauses for a second before admitting, "Mama is looking forward to meeting you."