I stood there, watching him walk away, dumbfounded for a moment. With a jolt, I ran after Dimitri, calling out his name. He wasn't running, per se, but he was definitely walking faster than normal.
"Dimitri," I pleaded. "Please. I love you."
That made him pause. Dimitri didn't turn around, but he stopped in his tracks, and I caught up to him.
"What happened?" I begged. "What's going on?"
"We can't be together," he said, his voice so soft that I nearly didn't hear him.
"Why not?" I demanded. "I already told you I'd rather be kicked out of the Academy than be without you."
"We can't," he said. "You wouldn't understand."
His words hit me harder than if he had slapped me. "I wouldn't understand? Are you fucking kidding me?"
"Rose—"
"No!" I yelled. "What was this then? Do I mean nothing to you?"
"Of course not. You mean everything to me."
I could hear the pain in his voice. "Then why? Whatever happened in there doesn't matter."
Dimitri sighed. "It matters more than you could ever imagine. Please, Rose. This has to end."
"But—"
"Rose! Stop," Dimitri snapped, finally turning around to face me. "You're making this harder than it has to be."
I took a step back. I didn't try to hide the tears streaming down my cheeks. At that moment, I wanted Dimitri to see, and to feel, every bit of pain I was feeling.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I—"
His gaze shifted, and his face went pale again. Dimitri shook his head and turned to walk away again without another word.
I watched him walk away this time, rooted to the concrete. There was an intense pain building in my chest, but I couldn't find it in myself to care. I turned around to see what had caught Dimitri's eye and saw my mother standing back by the guardian building. I didn't approach her and instead turned towards the dhampir dorms.
I was barely through my dorm door before the breakdown hit. The pain in my chest became unbearable, and I collapsed to the floor, leaning against the dorm door as my shoulders shook with my sobs.
I fell asleep there after some time, unable to find the will to drag myself to my bed. I don't know how long I was asleep against the door when a knock woke me up. I ignored it and finally pulled myself up off of the floor.
Rose, let me in.
I jolted as I heard Lissa speak in my head. I hadn't even realized that she was the one outside of my door even though I should have been able to through the bond. I glanced back towards the door before deciding to pretend that I wasn't in my room.
Rose, Lissa thought again. I could almost hear the exasperated tone. I know you're in there. Don't make me climb in through your window.
I almost laughed. Lissa probably wouldn't be able to make it to my third-floor room via the window, but I wouldn't put it against her to try. With a sigh, I turned and opened my door.
Lissa took one look at my face, and her face fell. She hurried into the room and shut the door behind her.
"Rose—"
I shook my head, not ready to talk about it. Lissa nodded and silently followed me to my bed. She climbed under the covers with me and held me in her arms as I started crying again. She soothed me, murmuring words that my brain was too exhausted to comprehend. It dawned on me later that our roles had switched at some point, and Lissa was playing the role of the protector. If it had been any other situation, I would have laughed.
I fell asleep again with Lissa holding me, comforting me, and wasn't surprised to find her still in my room when I woke up.
"How are you feeling?" Lissa asked softly when she realized that I was awake.
"Exhausted," I whispered. My throat hurt from crying most of yesterday, and I knew that if I looked in a mirror, my eyes would be bloodshot and swollen from crying too.
"What happened?" she said after a few moments.
"He's gone," I said. My voice sounded hollow.
I heard Lissa inhale sharply. "Gone?"
I nodded. "He left."
"Why?"
"Alberta saw us coming back from the cabin," I murmured. "They took him to the guardian building, and he was there for hours. When he came out, he walked away from me. I don't know what happened in there, but it wasn't good. My mom was there."
"Your mom?" Lissa repeated. "Why?"
I shrugged. "Alberta must have called her."
"It'll be okay, Rose," Lissa said. "Maybe he's just waiting until graduation to come back."
"Maybe," I whispered.
I didn't believe the words but still agreed with Lissa. Only time would tell if they were right.
The last weeks of the field experience flew by and the last few months of class followed quickly after, until the day of the field trials had arrived. The trials also passed in a blur, easier than I had expected, and my neck had a new tattoo by the end of the night.
Lissa was moving to Court at the end of the week and I was going with her, along with a handful of other newly graduated novices. At Court, we'd receive our official assignments, but both Lissa and I knew that I'd be assigned to her. Tatiana wanted to keep Lissa as her puppet, and that meant acquiescing to most of Lissa's requests.
I was proven right within days of being at Court and was officially assigned to Lissa as her guardian. Whenever she left Court, and when she started at Lehigh, she'd have another guardian assigned to her since Dimitri was gone.
It was impossible to think that he didn't know where I was. Lissa's future plans had been set in stone for months prior to him leaving the Academy. But yet, he didn't show up at Court, he didn't write, and all of my half-written letters to him had ended up in the fire.
Lissa's eighteenth birthday came and went, marked by a small celebration in Bethlehem, near Lehigh. She toured the campus, and I accompanied her as her near guard. If Lissa wasn't already in love with Lehigh, she definitely was after the trip.
We spent nearly every night together, much to Christian's annoyance. He didn't know about Dimitri; Lissa had never told him. But Lissa still stuck by my side as I struggled through getting over him and coming to the realization that Dimitri wasn't coming back. Graduation had come and gone, and my hope for Dimitri had come and gone with it.
A week after her birthday, Tatiana requested an appearance with Lissa. Alone. I sensed through the bond that she wanted me to watch, and so I jumped into her head, now second nature for me.
"Vasilisa," Tatiana greeted as she walked into the room.
"Your Majesty," Lissa said, curtsying.
"We need to talk about your Council seat," Tatiana said.
I could sense that Lissa was frowning. "My Council seat? I'm not eligible for it."
Tatiana's lips flattened into a straight line. "You are eligible, actually."
Lissa didn't say anything, waiting for Tatiana to continue.
"Fifteen years ago, your father had an affair, and the result was another daughter," Tatiana said tensely. "She may be illegitimate, but she carries enough Dragomir blood to carry the name and give you quorum."
Lissa opened her mouth to say something, before closing it again.
"I didn't want to have to tell you this way," Tatiana said, "but you deserve to know. You deserve to have your Council seat."
"Why now?" Lissa finally managed. "Why wasn't I told earlier? For the past two and half years, I've believed that all of my family was dead, aside from Rose."
Tatiana actually looked contrite. "It wasn't my idea to wait. As soon as I heard about your family's accident, I wanted to tell you. But it was previously agreed that his other daughter would only join the royal society on one condition. If, God forbid, one of Eric's children turned eighteen with no other family, they would come forward to give the child quorum. At the time the promise was made, nobody expected the accident to happen, but with so few Dragomirs left, it had to be made. Eric's mistress allowed no other concessions."
"Who is she? The daughter," Lissa questioned numbly. "Do I know her?"
Tatiana nodded. "She's a student at St. Vladimir's. She'll be here soon, and you'll be given the opportunity to connect."
Lissa sat on the chair across from Tatiana, finally needing to sit before she passed out. She took deep breaths, preparing herself for whoever was going to walk into the room next. Neither of us was prepared to see Jillian Mastrano walk through the doors fifteen minutes later.
The next year passed smoothly. Lissa attended Lehigh, as promised, and maintained straight A's throughout the academic year. I attended every class with her, and also maintained passing grades, though not ones as high as Lissa's. In her off time from the university, Lissa fulfilled her role on the royal Council and represented her family. When she wasn't doing that, she was spending time with Christian and getting to know Jill. Christian and Jill became fast friends and worked together at practicing offensive magic. Lissa would occasionally sit in on their sessions, and while she was still getting used to the idea of having a sister, she enjoyed the fact that Jill easily fit into the family that she had created.
A few days after Lissa's nineteenth birthday, Tatiana was killed in a Strigoi attack outside of Court. Half of the guardians with her had also been killed before the other half could kill the Strigoi and in the chaos, a Strigoi had managed to kill Tatiana.
Court was thrown into a panic until the Council could call order. Until a new monarch was elected, they were the complete governing body. Lissa was numb to the attack. She didn't say anything, but I could tell from the bond that she was replaying a story she had been told when she was younger. Her father's mother had been attacked by Strigoi and killed shortly before he had graduated from St. Vladimir's himself. The attack had brought the Dragomir numbers down to two people until he had met Lissa's mom and had Andre and Lissa. And then Jill.
Lissa tried to push the memory away and focus on the Council meeting. Today the Council was taking nominations for the new monarch. Each family was eligible to present a candidate, except for the Ivashkov family. It was also the time for it to be revealed whether Tatiana had named an heir, so to speak.
Each monarch had the ability to name someone they would like to see succeed them on the throne, but the person would still have to complete the testing and go through elections like every other candidate. There had been talk a few years ago that Tatiana was going to name Victor Dashkov as heir. That is until he kidnapped and tortured Lissa.
For whatever reason, Nathan Ivashkov was the master of ceremonies for the Council meeting, and he called the meeting to order. I met Lissa's eyes from across the room where I was standing guard and gave her a small smile.
Nathan held up a scroll at the front of the room. "Written in this scroll is the name of the late Queen's heir." He paused to unroll the scroll, and I could tell immediately that whatever name was written inside of it wasn't the name that he was expecting. "Queen Tatiana Ivashkov has named Princess Vasilisa Dragomir as her heir."
Lissa's emotions exploded within the bond as she struggled to keep a straight face. I wished that I would have been allowed up there to give her a hand to squeeze. The rest of the meeting flew by, with each family – except the Ivashkovs – nominating someone.
As soon as Lissa was free from the meeting and back in her suite, she lost it.
"Why wouldn't she tell me?" Lissa demanded.
Christian was sitting on the couch and wisely didn't say anything. We both knew that Lissa didn't want an answer, not from us. Meeting Christian's eyes, I slipped out of the room a few minutes later, leaving him to provide comfort to Lissa.
I wasn't surprised when Lissa was elected queen two weeks later. My guardian status was promoted to the royal guard as Lissa's guardian number tripled. Christian was also given two guardians as Lissa's significant other, and Jill was also assigned two guardians - one of whom was Eddie - despite being sixteen. As Lissa's only other family member, her safety was essential if Lissa didn't want to lose the throne.
Less than a month after Lissa was elected queen, assassins broke into a dinner Lissa was hosting in the palace. I was already sitting next to Lissa when they approached, not on duty for a night. Me being there as a guest and not a guardian didn't stop me from throwing my body in front of Lissa's, and I realized too late that they were going for Jill and not Lissa.
I watched helplessly as a knife plunged into Jill's chest, her eyes widening in shock and pain as blood stained the pale blue dress she had been wearing. Eddie was within reach of Jill when the knife found its home in her chest, and I watched his face crumple. Eddie couldn't stop his momentum and was dragging Jill's body to the ground a moment later.
Other guardians in the room quickly grabbed the assassins, and a moment later, I watched as Eddie reappeared from behind the table, shouting for help. I saw Adrian appear next to Eddie, and the reality of what happened instantly hit me. I was out of my chair and next to Jill, Eddie, and Adrian in a second. Other royal guards were pulling Lissa away, trying to get her to another place to ensure her safety.
"Go!" I shout to her.
"Save Jill," Lissa commanded. "Don't let my sister die."
I nodded once and turned back to Jill. Her eyes were open now, and I knew that if I moved her dress, I'd see the wound in her chest completely gone and healed. Adrian looked like he was seconds away from passing out, and I tugged him down so that if he did pass out, it wouldn't be as obvious.
"I have Jill," Eddie said. "You get Adrian."
I nodded, and we moved quickly. Eddie scooped Jill up in his arms and covered her body with his as he carried her away. Adrian and I were a little slower, with Adrian leaning on me for support.
Lissa was waiting in a secret chamber for us, along with Christian. Eddie and Jill went through the door first, and only then did Eddie set Jill down, checking for probably the hundredth time that she was okay. Adrian and I were right behind them, and I saw Lissa pull Jill into a hug, saw the tears on her cheeks. Lissa pulled Adrian into a hug a moment later.
"Thank you for saving her," I heard Lissa whisper to Adrian. "I can't lose any more family."
