I was determined to find out more about Rose and her friendship with Lissa, so while on duty during the lunch hour, I stood at the wall nearest to them. Rose seemed more relaxed than yesterday. She was animatedly explaining something to Lissa; I was too far away to hear what exactly. Her back was turned to me, leaving me with the front view of Lissa. She was just as involved in the conversation, although a bit more reserved about gesturing, unlike Rose.

I tried paying attention to them without directly staring in their direction the whole time. I still noticed some strange moments, where it seemed as if Rose had responded to Lissa without her actually saying anything in the first place.

They passed near me on their way out. Lissa politely nodded my way, while Rose glared daggers into me. She looked as if she wanted to spit something my way, but held back for Lissa's sake.

My last classroom-guarding duty was in the gym - coincidently aligning with the senior's training class. While I wasn't the one teaching, I could still observe the skills of my future colleagues while standing next to the wall and guarding the gym with a couple of other guardians. The group of novices was mostly made up of male dhampirs, Rose being one of five girls in her year. She was currently sparring with her classmate, a freckled redhead. He was taller and larger than her, but she was much faster. She had already beat him two times. This was his all-or-nothing, a chance to be the overall winner anyway.

"C'mon, Ashford, keep up the pace!" called out their instructor, Guardian Emil, whom I'd met earlier.

"You got this, Mason" chimed in another Novice, Eddie Castle. Rose groaned as if to signify it wasn't fair, how nobody cheered her on. Not that she particularly needed any cheering; she was easily – and elegantly – dodging almost all of Mason's attacks, while getting in some of her own hits. She was clearly winning.

Mason finally managed to pin her down, but not for long, as she quickly slipped around and over him. She put all of her weight on his wrists, pinning him down.

"Time!" Emil yelled out. "Rose wins the round." Mason let out a groan while Rose got off him and offered him a hand. He accepted it and got up with her help.

"I feel like you aren't even trying anymore," he whined. She just shrugged.

"It's hard to be this good!" she teased, lightly punching his shoulder. "Ha-ha," he responded, massaging the sore spot she had just hit, but still flashing her a smile. Emil clapped his hands to get the novice's attention.

"All right, winners get to clean up this time." A chorus of prolonged groans and off-handed comments filled the room. "Oh, stop it. Losers, you are dismissed."

Rose said goodbye to her friends and reluctantly started putting away training mats near where I stood. She was mid-grab when she suddenly froze, staring through the space before her. I looked around, noticing that none of the guardians left paid attention to her. I stepped closer.

"Rose?" I softly asked. I kneeled on one knee before her. I put my hand on her shoulder and gently shook it, mirroring our first meeting. Her face was pulled in a grimace. "Rose?" l asked again. She shook her head, blinking rapidly before focusing her eyes on me. Her expression went from confused to shocked to annoyed in quick succession.

She swatted my hand off her shoulder.

"You again?" she asked with furrowed brows. I ignored her question.

"Are you alright?" I asked instead.

"Yes, I was just..." she looked around the gym. The last novice was just exiting the place. Emil was standing next to the main door. The other guardians had left. "Belikov. Is everything alright?" he asked from across the room.

I nodded. "Yes. No need to wait up; Novice Hathaway and I will finish up."

He shrugged. "Fine by me," he said and left.

Rose's stare was deadly. I think she expected me to berate her with more questions, but instead, I got up and continued where she left off, collecting mats, and storing them away. The basic clean-up business.

"You can trust me, you know?" I said, after putting away the last part of the equipment they used. She scoffed and gave me a dry laugh. "Trust you, huh? Why should I? Do you know who kidnapped Lissa?"

"Victor Dashkov," I answered. She shook her head.

"He ordered the kidnapping, yes. But the people who threw the bag over her head, bound her wrists and dragged her away, those people were guardians. All as respectable as you. Led by Spiridon what's-his-face, who was, by the way, assigned to her at the time. Only we didn't know he was secretly working for her amazing, loving uncle. You know how long it took me to convince Alberta it wasn't Strigoi who took her?" She continued before I could answer. "So, tell me please, oh mighty Dimitri Belikov. Why on Earth should I trust?"

I stayed silent for a bit, taking everything in. She was right. Her experience with corrupted guardians taught her to not trust those assigned to protect the person she loved the most. She took in my silence as a sign I won't respond. Shaking her head, she moved to walk away.

"Because I understand," I stated. She froze and faced me. I continued. "I know how it is to lose those close to you, those you swore to protect."

She studied me for a moment, her face betraying nothing that might've been going inside her head. "Why were you staring at us in the cafeteria?" she asked directly. I was taken aback. Her back had been turned to me the entire time they were eating. There was no way she could've noticed.

"I am Princess's guardian," I responded. It was only half a lie. Lissa was my responsibility, and her relationship with Rose was clearly more important than anybody had led on, along with this Spirit specialization. Rose moved her head to the side and gave me a tired look.

"Right," she responded, clearly unconvinced. I broke. "How do you know?"

She clenched her teeth, glancing around for a moment, making sure nobody was in the room with us. "Lissa and I share a bond."

"I've been told, but nobody has explained what that actually means."

She sighed. "We are... Connected. I can feel her emotions, stronger ones more, but even the weaker ones are always kind of there, at the back of my mind." She gestured to the back of her head, as to emphasize the point. "Whenever I'm doing a staring contest with the air, it usually means I'm in her head."

"In her head?" I asked.

"I don't really know how to explain it. It's how it sounds; I get sucked in and see things through her eyes. Sometimes it's random, sometimes it's because her emotions are particularly strong." She paused for a moment. "Sometimes I do it intentionally, either because I'm bored or curious. Or worried," she quickly added. I suppressed a grin.

"Which one was yesterday's? Strong emotions or curiosity?" I asked, intrigued. She let out a short laugh. "I was curious to see why Kirova called for her. Usually, I'm the one getting into trouble. So I snuck out between classes to get a look. That's when you found me."

"You didn't actually need to go to that building, did you?"

"Not really," she laughed more freely now. "But I was still going in the general direction." She suddenly stilled. She shook her head after staring through me for a moment. I didn't think I could get used to that. Her eyes focused back on me, but her expression hardened. She quickly spun around and began walking toward to door without looking back at me.

"Sorry, Comrade. Duty calls."

She left before I could respond.


After a couple of hours of an outdoor shift, I was finally free for a couple of hours. Guardians' commonplace was surprisingly busy, with a couple of my coworkers lounging on the hard couches, coffee cups in hand.

"Want a cup, Dimitri?" asked Yuri. "There's some left in the kitchen." I thanked him, poured myself some coffee and returned. I sat down next to him.

"Long day? I'm Celeste, by the way," said a female guardian, who was sitting on a loveseat opposite us.

"Nice to meet you," I responded and took a sip of my coffee. It was not as warm as I would have liked, but it was still better than nothing. Yuri teasingly jabbed my ribs with his elbow. "I heard you had an altercation with Rose today."

I looked around at the other guardians. Some of them were pretending not to care, but I was sure all of them were interested in what I had to say about this rumour.

"No, not really. I just gave her a hand with the clean-up. Nothing more," I explained. Stan scoffed from his chair.

"At least you had no problems with her today," he commented.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I had an inkling this had to do with the state in which Rose was when she left me, angry and on a mission. I just hoped she hadn't gotten herself into too much trouble.

"There were some issues with Lissa and a younger student. Rose got involved," Yuri piped up. I looked back at him, hoping for a further explanation. "Oh, it's a whole thing. Stan!"

The said man shook his head and leaned back into his seat.

"Basically, her Highness," he said sarcastically, "used to date another royal what's-his-face-"

"Drozgov boy, Aaron," interjected Misha, a guardian who was sharing a seat with Celeste.

"Yeah, yeah, him, whatever. Honestly, you could tell they wouldn't last long, but yeah, they broke up, he started dating another one, Mia, non-royal Moroi, junior. Lissa has something new with that Ozera boy, Christian-"

"What, really!?" cut in Yuri. I knew Christian, he was my friend's, Natasha's, nephew. He became her ward after his parents turned themselves into Strigoi - and were killed by their remaining guardians. He was a quiet type, prickly and full of sarcasm, a lot like Rose. Knowing his history, he had to become like that, thicker skinned, so no Strigoi comments could get his way. Quite a bright kid too, from what I knew.

"Yes, they are oddly adorable, whatever. Here comes the thing, Aaron has apparently been glancing at Lissa, or that's at least what Mia thinks. She's been pestering her for a while. Today, however, Rose lost her shit, as she does, and threatened her."

"So, she just defended her closest friend?" I asked. I felt like the word "threatened" was a bit much.

"Yes, but Rose could actually do things she threatens about," commented Yuri, sipping his coffee.

"And this Moroi couldn't?" I insisted. While they weren't as physically strong as dhampirs were, Moroi still controlled one of the elements. If one wanted, they could definitely inflict some damage, especially if fueled by teenage rage and some injustice they thought was happening to them.

"Not enough to do some lasting damage. Rose, on the other hand, has had breakdowns full of rage before," interjected Celeste.

"And what do you do when something like this happens?"

"Punish her? It's useless though, she'll never change. The only thing that's keeping her here, it's Dragomir's promise for her to be Lissa's guardian. Such a waste too. She wasn't always that bad." He trailed off, leaving us in silence. There laid the issue. I didn't think anybody ever actually talked to Rose about the situations she'd put herself in, whether it was for Lissa or her own hot-headedness - or a combination of both. Of course, it might have been her predisposition to go into things fists first, head second. But I was sure there was more to it. And I would do anything to find out what. Maybe it was my curiosity or the feeling of responsibility I had as Vasilisa's guardian. I had never guarded somebody besides Ivan. It was strange to be assigned to somebody who I hadn't known my entire life. Besides that, Rose was determined to become her other guardian, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. They were the same age; if Lissa wanted to study at a university after graduating high school, Rose could serve as her near guard and share classes with her. It would make our job much easier. But that was something to dwell on in the future. Instead, I turned back to the group I was currently with.

"So this is all you do here? Indulge in teenage drama?" I asked light-heartedly.

"Look, Belikov," began Stan, pointing at a television mounted on the wall. "That TV over there has been broken for close to two years now. Nobody knows how to fix it and the higher-ups think it's a waste of their poor little money to replace it. Besides that, we don't really have the time for any entertainment." He rested both his hand on each armrest and leaned forward in his chair. "And, in all honesty, their little dumb arguments are hilarious." He let himself fall back and laughed in earnest. I let out a low chuckle. In a way he was right. I couldn't remember the last time I indulged in gossip. I had a feeling there was much of it to pass here at the academy.

"This place has one of the highest levels of security in the country," added Celeste. "With all of the surveillance and, not to forget, charmed borders... We will manage, even if we indulge in some nonsensical drama every now and then."

"This "every now and then" seems to be happening more and more often," came a stern voice from behind us. As I turned in my seat, I noticed Head Guardian Alberta leaning on the doorframe with arms crossed before her chest. She focused her eyes on me. "Belikov. I trust your first day back on duty went well?"

I gave her a curt nod. "Good. You lot are still up for the day-light shift, so I suggest you get some rest before that." One by one, my colleagues and I got up from where we were sitting. Yuri let out a loud groan as he stretched his arms above his hands. He clapped me on my back. "The lead lady's command, my friend. I'll see you later." And with that, he followed others up the stairs.