Chapter 2

Ralf stood in my way, blocking the entrance to my dorm.

"Not now," I croaked, trying my best to find some human decency.

"It's a shame, isn't it? A shame about that whore Hath-"

He stopped talking then because he was out of air. More specifically because I was compelling him to believe he was suffocating.

You can't breathe again until you apologize. Apologize.

"I'm sorry–" he choked. "I'm…."

Look at me. You don't deserve to say her name.

"I don't–I don't deserve to say her–say her name." He panted, eyes wide and wild as he found himself unable to look away from me.

"Cousin," a smooth voice interrupted me, "Surely we could find something better to do."

The voice was tinged with command, with spirit. Adrian. For a moment I found his words to be reasonable. Surely, I could just let Ralf leave. He had apologized, after all. But Adrian had neglected to remember one key factor–I was infinitely more powerful than he was. His compulsion was as sloppy as his current attire.

"Lovely to see you, cousin. Drunk, are we?"

"Help–"

Bite your tongue.

The command must have been stronger than I realized, because Ralf started to cough up blood. He must have bitten the tip of his tongue clean off judging by the amount of blood dripping down his chin. Another cough, another splatter on the pavement. Mr. Nagy would have loved that one, shaped just like the flower motifs that used to cover the Slavic Art classroom. I giggled.

Cousin

"Are you trying to compel me, Adrian? We both know it's no competition," I snapped. He hadn't been sober since the guardians had returned from the caves, carrying stretchers of–I shut off the thought violently. Stretchers of nothing with nobody on them.

"Lissa–" he started, his voice rising in panic over the sounds of Ralf's spluttering.

"Don't! Don't pretend like you have any idea–any idea–how this feels. You have a family. You have parents. No bondmate. Don't start with me."

"Rose…it's not your fault, cousin." Adrian shot Ralf a particularly worried glance as the hacking turned into more of a gurgle noise. "If anything, it's that cradle-robber Belikov's–"

Don't spread lies and don't get in my way.

Adrian staggered backward, half-compulsed and half-surprised. He was still too drunk to fight me off.

"Cousin," he bowed mockingly and turned to leave, tripping slightly on the uneven stones.

"Adrian!" I cried out after him. He turned to look at me, bloodshot eyes meeting mine. Forget you saw me. Forget this happened.

His eyes glazed over at the force behind the command. He shook his head as if confused, then walked in the opposite direction towards the church. Good.

The effort it had taken to compel Adrian was much more than I had used on Ralf. I turned back to see whether he had been released from his compulsion when I noticed Ralf was no longer standing at all. He had collapsed, face down, a growing pool of blood creating a sick sort of halo around him. With shaking hands, I knelt down and touched the side of his neck. Nothing.

For a moment, I saw a new path. I could make the empty feeling stop. I could bring Ralf back. I could have a new bondmate to fill the empty space inside me. I reached out for Ralf's hand, gripping it tightly and trying to remember what I had done with Rose. I had thought of love and warmth and had felt a sort of pull. I closed my eyes and focused, trying to think of positive thoughts.

Instead, all that consumed my mind was how disgusted I was. How much blood was pooling out of his head. What a monster I was. This time was fundamentally different. I had done this. I had killed him. I hadn't really meant to, but it didn't matter. I killed him. And now, I was bringing him back from eternal rest to what? Be a replacement Rose? Did I really want to share my innermost thoughts and feelings with a boy who had called Rose a whore?

No. Absolutely not. I let go of his hand. I needed to leave. When horrible things had happened, Rose and I had left. We had snuck out of the Academy once and we could do it again. I needed to pack. Leaving Ralf face-down, I ran to my room.