EIGHT

Christian

Christian hugged Liss and gave her a peck on the lips, trying to keep his smile in check. Her mood was black, and the guilt was starting to sink in.

"Stay safe," she instructed.

"I will. Rose is coming with me, and a bunch of other novices, and a handful of guardians. Nothing is going to happen." They were flying out to Philadelphia for the open day, and Lissa was full of resentment. He was trying not to let it affect his own mood.

"And you're sure you want to go?"

"I'm going, I'm sorry Liss. It's only two days."

"But what if it turns into four years?"

"Even then, it'll only be during the day." He kissed her again, and then turned around to walk onto the tarmac, Rose by his side instead of trailing behind him for a change.

"How upset is she?" he asked her.

"Pretty bad, but she'll be fine. She's going to go and practice her magic with Adrian, it'll take her mind off things."

He always felt a flare of jealousy at the mention of him, but it was less severe than usual. "Good." He just wanted her to accept that he wasn't trying to put wedges in their relationship, but he couldn't do everything she was either. Not and retain his sanity, anyway.

They were flying out this afternoon and then staying the night. The open day was tomorrow, and they'd be making the long flight back in the evening.

He settled into his seat beside Rose, and sighed in relief. They were on their way. He shouldn't have felt excited by the idea of two days away from Liss, but every single time they spoke to each other at the moment it ended in an argument. For two days he was going to resist thinking about it. He wasn't going to let himself decide what he thought of the Uni of Pennsylvania based on what Liss would think about it. He was just going to go and take a look around, and see if he could imagine himself there.

"So," Rose said at his side. "What is it that you actually want to study?"

He lifted a shoulder. "I'm not really sure yet. The options that are relevant to Moroi life are kind of limited."

"Yeah, but so is how valuable a degree is when you're living a royal Moroi's life." She shrugged. "It's more about the prestige of having done it, isn't it?"

"Sure."

"So study whatever you think you'd enjoy."

He glanced away.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, I'd always assumed that when I left St. Vlad's I would be going to live among humans, so I'd always planned on doing something practical at college. Something that would give me a head start for a real job." The thought of it was still more appealing than it should have been. Just moving away and starting afresh, without any of the looks or the prejudice. Finding something he was really good at and spending his life doing that.

Not feeling obligated cast his eyes down and be extra polite because he was the outsider, the untrusted one whose bad genes might meant he became Strigoi any second. If it wasn't for Liss, that still would have been his plan.

"What was your plan?" She turned sideways in her seat slightly, resting her head against the back of her chair, and looked genuinely interested to hear the answer.

And he was happy to tell her. He'd never had this conversation with Liss because knowing that he still felt the draw of that life would have upset her, and only led to more arguments.

"I was going to move to Washington. That's where I'd decided. It's near Aunt Tasha, and Seattle is a huge city. I could just blend in. Not too much sunshine. I'd still never decided exactly what I was going to study, but I'd leaned towards Law, or languages. My Russian is good, and whenever I look into US human politics that seems like a valuable skill." He shrugged, "It was still a while off when I fell in love with Lissa. I hadn't nailed it all down."

"I really liked the North West. Portland was great. I'm sure Seattle would be similar." She almost looked nostalgic.

He'd talked to Liss about her time away from the Academy, but never Rose. Liss looked on it fondly, but she'd always been glad that they came back and she learned to understand what her magic was, and to retake her place in society.

"What about you?" he asked, not expecting her to give him a real answer. "Does the idea of going back to living among the humans appeal?"

"There was no expectation," she said, "It was just me and Liss living our lives, you know? But maybe it's just the fact Mason and Dimitri hadn't happened that I'm missing." For the first time of her mentioning Spokane, she didn't look like she might fall into a crisis. "I did like it though, when we were in Portland. I just felt… normal." She shrugged. "It sounds stupid, I know."

"No, it really doesn't." He still struggled with the mentality Rose had fallen into, that all that mattered was protecting Lissa at any cost. She'd already been like that, he had no doubt she would have always done whatever it took to protect Liss, but now she seemed to think that meant sacrificing having a personality to do it. "What would you study?"

"I'll study whatever Liss does."

"I know, but if you were choosing."

"History."

His lip quirked. "You've thought about it then?" he teased.

Her smile was weak. "You can't stop yourself thinking about it."

"You shouldn't have to," he muttered, looking out of the window at the Academy descending beneath them.

He refused to end their conversation on that note when there were six more hours of flying to go, though. "So, want to play I, Spy?"