"Rose!"

I barely moved at the sound of my name being called.

"Rose, get up," the voice hissed.

A moment later, I felt arms underneath me, pulling me to my feet. I blinked, finally recognizing Lissa in front of me.

"Come on," she said softly, helping me up to my room.

It wasn't until we reached my room that I realized that Adrian and Christian were there too, helping me up to the room. I shuffled into the room and immediately crawled under my sheets, curling up. The bed faintly smelled like Dimitri, the scent of his aftershave providing comfort until this morning hit me all over again.

I bolted upright, wanting, no, needing, my sheets changed immediately.

"Rose? What's happening?"

Lissa, Adrian, and Christian were still in the room, and Lissa was looking at me, the concern in her eyes almost as much as the concern that was pouring through the bond.

"I'm fine," I whispered.

I stumbled past them to drag new sheets out of my closet and attempted to start putting new sheets on the bed. It didn't take long for Adrian and Christian to take them out of my hands. They made quick work of the sheets, and I quickly crawled back into bed.

"Rose—"

"Don't! Just leave me alone."

I turned away, burying my head under my covers. A moment later, I heard my dorm door open and then shut again. I stayed under the covers and soon felt the bed dip as someone sat on the edge. I didn't need to peek out from under the covers to know that it was Lissa still in the room.

Silently, she crawled under the covers with me, and I scooted over a bit so that there was room for both of us on the bed.

"I'm here for you when you want to talk about it."


At some point, we both fell asleep and were awoken sometime later by someone banging at the door. Lissa answered the door, even though she wasn't supposed to be in my room past curfew.

"Princess Dragomir."

I sat up at the sound of Alberta's voice.

"Hi, Guardian Petrov," she said. "Is there something that I can help you with?"

"There's a couple of things, actually. You can start with why you're in Novice Hathaway's room after curfew – well after curfew."

"She needed my help," Lissa said simply.

"Oh? And does that help have anything to do with why she was trying to beat down Guardian Belikov's door yesterday morning?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Lissa beat me to it. "Yes. She had a bout of some spirit-induced darkness. I was helping her through it – since she gets it from me."

"Is this true, Novice Hathaway?" Alberta questioned from the door.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

Alberta glanced between the two of us before accepting Lissa's answer. "You're both expected in your classes today."

"Of course, Guardian Petrov," Lissa said sweetly. She shut the door and turned back to face me.

"Rose—"

"I'm in love with Dimitri," I whispered.

Lissa smiled slightly. "Rose, I already knew that. What's happened to make you this upset? I'll admit that I can't read him as well as I can read you, but I could have sworn that there was mutual love or at least attraction."

"Wait, you knew?"

"Of course, I knew," Lissa said. "I'm your best friend. You can't hide anything from me."

"I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner."

"You should've," Lissa said, "but that's not the point."

"We slept together the other night," I said. "After the game. And the next day, he had removed himself from my training and wouldn't open the door when I knew he was in there."

Lissa frowned. "Maybe he's just removing the conflict of interest as your mentor?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. Alberta pulled him aside after the game, and when we saw each other that night, he told me that she knew about us."

"But then why didn't he break it off then?"

I shrugged. "No fucking clue. Maybe he was just trying to see how long it would take to get me into his bed."

"Maybe you should ask him," Lissa suggested after a moment. "Figure out the truth instead of spiraling."

"He won't talk to me," I cried. "What do you think I was doing at his door?"

"Rose—"

"I just don't understand," I said.

"It doesn't seem like there's much information to be able to come to an understanding," Lissa said.

"Come on," Lissa said. "We don't want to be late."


I went to my classes that day in a haze. During lunch, I escaped back to my room, not wanting to be in the cafeteria surrounded by so many people. After the last class of the day ended, I was tempted to skip out on my extra training, but part of me couldn't resist going. I had to see if Dimitri was there. Had to see if yesterday was a fluke.

When I arrived at the gym, it was dark and empty. Dimitri wasn't in the gym, but neither was Emil. I turned to leave the gym and didn't pay attention as I kicked the door open. I had barely taken two steps outside of the gym before running directly into Dimitri.

Dimitri POV

Being with Roza in the cabin was like being in paradise. I hadn't meant to sleep with her, not after the conversation with Alberta. But seeing Rose in the cabin being so vulnerable in front of me, on the verge of begging for me, made it impossible to resist.

In the morning, I was awake early. It wasn't hard to find Emil and convince him to take on the training sessions with Rose in the mornings and the afternoons. After talking to him, I made my way to Alberta's office. I needed to put as much space between me and Rose as possible, at least from Alberta's perspective.

"Guardian Belikov," she said, barely glancing up. "What can I do for you?"

"I talked with Emil this morning, and he agreed to take on my training sessions with Rose," I said.

Alberta raised an eyebrow and cut me off before I could continue. "Do you not think you can train her anymore because of the situation?"

I kept my face free of any emotions. "No, I don't think training her would be an issue." I hated the next words that came out of my mouth, but I also knew that I would do and say anything to protect Roza. "But Rose is essentially a child, as you pointed out during our last conversation. She may not be able to fully comprehend the change. Though I also don't think she needs that much extra training anymore anyways."

Alberta sighed. "I'll have Emil evaluate her today for a second opinion. Your reasoning makes sense. I'll be making some changes to the duty schedule. You'll get an email shortly with your new shifts."

I nodded. "Thank you."

I left Alberta's office and went to the first class I was supposed to be standing in on. I wouldn't see Rose again until the following period when we were both supposed to be in Stan Alto's theory class.

Rose never showed up to Stan's class, and as I did rounds around campus that afternoon, I noticed that Rose hadn't attended any of her classes today. Vasilisa hadn't attended any either.

Alberta found me as my shift ended early the next morning.

"Belikov. Do you know why Hathaway was banging on your door yesterday morning?"

That was news to me. I kept the shock off of my face as I answered her. "No clue. I would suggest asking Novice Hathaway herself."

Alberta crossed her arms. "We're on our way to her room now to find out."

"Good," I said.

Alberta stared at me for a moment before dismissing me. I returned to my room, knowing that I couldn't follow Alberta, no matter how much I wanted to. I vowed that I would find Rose tomorrow, no matter what it took, and fell asleep.

It was nearing the end of the school day when I woke up. I dressed quickly, hoping that I would be able to find Rose after her training this afternoon. But Emil was in the staff lounge when I walked in.

"Belikov," he greeted. "Did you tell your girl that you were reassigned for her training?"

"My girl?"

"Hathaway," Emil said. "She ran out of training yesterday morning to go look for you."

"I hadn't had the chance to tell her," I said. "I'll go tell her now. Did you plan training for this afternoon?"

He shook his head. "I sent a note that the extra training sessions don't need to continue. Alberta cleared her from the extra training. I don't know if she got it, though."

"Thank you," I said. I started to leave the room before I turned back. "Why did you call Rose 'my girl'?"

Emil smiled. "She's usually seen attached at your hip from all of your training," he said. "Easier than calling her your protégé."

I hid a smile and walked out.

I made my way to the gym, making sure to not look like I was rushing to get there. I wasn't sure if Alberta was watching, but if so, I didn't want to cause any suspicions.

I swung open the first set of doors to the gym and quickly sidestepped to avoid running directly into Rose. She looked up at me, and I watched a flurry of emotions flash through her eyes before anger settled on her face.

"Fuck you," she snarled before shoving past me, leaving me standing there, flabbergasted.