Four days after her arrest, Rose was nearly out of her mind with boredom. After an initial interview with Hans Croft, where she denied anything to do with Tatiana's murder, the thrice-daily visits from her guards providing meals, a once-a-day trip to the shower, and Abe's fifteen-minute visit the day before, had been her only human contact.
"Three hundred and twelve," Rose announced, hearing a guard come in, presumably with her breakfast tray. Lying on her back on the cell's single bed, she didn't bother turning her head toward the bars.
"Three hundred and twelve what?" Abe asked.
"Ceiling tiles," Rose said, smiling at the sound of her father's voice. "I've counted them all."
Abe's eyes darted to the small polystyrene squares that formed the ceiling of Rose's cell as she swiveled on the vinyl-covered mattress and sat up to look at him. While the first twenty-four hours after her arrest had seen Rose panicked, that feeling had slowly ebbed, to be replaced by abject monotony.
"Thanks for coming to visit again. So far you're the only one." Rose struggled to keep recrimination from her voice, but it was hard to sound upbeat when she felt unjustly blamed and completely abandoned by everyone she knew!
"No one else has been allowed to," Abe explained. "I only got in yesterday because I'm your legal counsel. However, I've spoken with Croft, and the Guardian Council has agreed you can have visitors. I believe Lissa, Christian, Adrian, and Eddie are all planning to visit you today."
Rose nodded. It hadn't occurred to her that her friends weren't visiting because they couldn't, not because they didn't want to. In fact, she'd assumed they, like everyone else, believed she'd killed Tatiana.
"Do they…?" Rose struggled to find the words.
"All of them firmly believe you're innocent," Abe supplied, guessing what Rose was trying to ask.
"Even Adrian?"
"Especially Adrian. He has been visiting Guardian Headquarters every day, petitioning for them to consider other suspects. Lissa has been talking to the Royal Council, advocating the same. The problem is a lack of evidence. The Guardians who were on duty have been questioned several times, and no one saw anything."
"And since it was my stake, the assumption is it was me," Rose said, her voice quavering. "What's going to happen if I'm convicted?"
"You won't be," Abe replied, his voice ominous. "I won't let you."
"You said it yourself—the only piece of evidence points straight to me. No matter how good you are as a lawyer, there's no guarantee I'll get off."
"Ah kiz, you misunderstand me. You won't be convicted because there won't be a trial. Her Majesty's funeral is tomorrow, so while the good folk of Court are sending off our beloved former Monarch, there's going to be a jailbreak!"
Rose gaped at her father as he explained the steps he'd planned to secure her freedom. He carefully outlined what, and when, things were going to happen as Rose looked increasingly incredulous.
"Are you for real? Mom can't have agreed to this."
"Actually, part of it was her idea," Abe declared, decidedly smug. "She can't visit you, as we need her to be seen to have no part in this. Her being able to access intel is imperative to keeping you safe. However, she asked me to tell you she loves you very much and that she will contact you once it's safe to do so. Now, I won't be here when it all goes down. At the set time, I need you to take the mattress from your bed, crouch down in the far corner of the cell, and cover yourself with it. Pavel will blow out the corner wall, then get you into a car and take you out of Court. I'll be in touch as soon as I can."
"And then what?" Rose asked, completely bewildered by what her father was saying.
"You'll have to hide from the Moroi world, at least initially. I can easily make that happen. Then I intend to spend any resource I need to identify the actual killer and clear your name. Think of it as a bit of a holiday until I find the guilty person."
"That could take years," Rose remarked.
"Perhaps. Yet I won't rest until it happens."
"You're looking very serious," Tasha noted when Christian walked through the door of the Ozera townhouse at Court. While initially he'd brought his stuff from St. Vlad's there, now he'd reconciled with Lissa, he'd been spending the bulk of his time in the Dragomir home with her. Nonetheless, he tried to drop by and see his aunt every second or third day.
"We're going to visit Rose today," Christian replied, not looking forward to it. "We haven't been allowed to go before now." There was no need to explain to Tasha what had happened, as it seemed to be the only thing anyone at Court could talk about.
"Have you heard how she's going?"
Abe had sworn them to secrecy about his plan, and Zmey wasn't someone Christian wanted to disobey, so he kept his answer simple.
"Only her dad has been in to see her, and he says she's doing okay. Adrian said the Guardian and Royal Council won't even start preparing for her trial until we have a new Monarch, and that could be weeks."
"I still can't understand why she did something so reckless! Especially to her boyfriend's aunt!"
"Adrian and Rose broke up," Christian said, "although he doesn't think Rose did it."
"Who else had motive?" Tasha argued. "Rose is known to be unpredictable and passionate. She was heard threatening the Queen about the age decree, then the next thing Tatiana ends up dead thanks to Rose's stake in her chest. Looks pretty open and shut to me. I know you and Lissa are friends with her, but maybe there are parts of her personality you know nothing about?"
"It's possible," Christian conceded, still unconvinced. "What have you been doing? You haven't been around the last few times when I've stopped by."
"This and that. I keep meaning to drop by and visit Dimitri. I've only seen him twice since his restoration. Have you seen much of him?"
Other than his appearance at Lissa's house after Rose was arrested, and the clandestine meeting with Janine and Abe, Christian hadn't seen Belikov. By all accounts, he was holed up in his quarters, going out as little as possible except for his daily visit to church. Lissa made a point of visiting him for a few minutes each day, but she'd been spending most of her time trying to convince the Royal Council of Rose's innocence—not that they seemed in any way sympathetic to Lissa's pleas.
"Can't say I have," Christian admitted. "The whole Rose getting arrested really threw him. He fought the Guardians who came to take her."
"Well, we can't let him wallow," Tasha said, pursing her lips, an idea coming to mind. "He needs to socialize, and people need to see him accepted as a Dhampir again. Tatiana's funeral is tomorrow; I doubt anyone will feel like doing much after that. How about the day after, or the one after that, we have a dinner party here? You, me, Lissa, and Dimitri? It will do him good to get out and about with familiar people."
Christian couldn't tell Tasha he doubted Dimitri would be in a mood for doing anything, what with Rose about to leave their world, so rather than argue, he agreed to ask Lissa to set something up with her former Guardian.
"Maybe you could cook a Russian dish? Comfort food," Tasha suggested before wandering upstairs to her room to check out her closet. She had bought nothing new for a while, and a dinner party was a good excuse for a new shirt. Something sexy. After all, she wanted to look her best!
Rose was grateful Abe had warned her that her friends were aware of his plans to get her away from Court. It would have been too difficult for her to see them, otherwise, knowing it might be for the last time in a very long time, if ever. She wouldn't be entirely out of the loop since she could always 'visit' Lissa through the bond, and presumably Adrian could dream walk her if he chose to, but it was far from seeing her friends every day.
"Thanks for coming, Eddie. It's good to see a friendly face." The first visitor after Abe left, Eddie had arrived just after the guards collected Rose's breakfast tray.
"Nice setup you have here," Eddie joked, gesturing to the metal toilet and handbasin open to the cell and only separated from the corridor by bars. "I like the way you've decorated the place."
Rose smiled, bumping her shoulder against his affectionately as they sat side by side on the bed. "So, what's going on in the outside world? Does everyone think I did it?"
"Most of the Moroi do," Eddie admitted, grimacing. "And some Guardians. Adrian and Lissa have been telling everyone they think you're innocent. Me too."
"I'm not stupid, Eddie. If I was going to murder someone, I wouldn't use my own stake!"
"That's what Adrian and Lissa have been saying. It doesn't make any sense. If you'd used your everyday stake, no one would have had a clue. And you would have noticed it missing straight away! Hell… how many people even knew you possessed such a distinctive stake?"
Rose paused, considering Eddie's words. She'd never used the stake in public. A dozen people, tops, knew of its existence, significance, and how she'd come to have it. If Abe was right, and she knew the person who'd killed Tatiana, the list of suspects had suddenly got a lot shorter.
"Well, either way I'm here now…" Rose said, sighing, filing her thoughts away to share with Abe later. "Tell me what's going on with you. How's work? Croft got you doing anything better yet?" Just one more thing Rose felt bad about.
"Not exactly, although he's put me on the Moroi lost and found desk the last few days. You have no idea how many pretty young Moroi women lose their keys, purses, and one even lost her dog. I have to file reports for them."
"That sounds even more boring than being in here!"
"It would be, except I've scored a few phone numbers…"
Eddie stayed for half an hour, the maximum time allowed, hugging Rose hard when the guard announced the end of his visit.
"This is not goodbye, just bye for now," he whispered so the guard would not hear him, then a little louder, "I'll come see you again later in the week."
"Bring me something to read?" Rose asked, her eyes telling him she knew there would be no follow-up visit.
"You got it," Eddie said with a sad smile. As a novice, they taught you would lose friends — close friends — when you became a Guardian. They'd lost Mason before they even graduated, and now he was losing Rose. At least for now.
Eddie had barely left when Lissa and Christian arrived. While the guards had been happy for Rose to meet with Eddie in her cell alone, protocol demanded that they stay within sight and earshot while the Royal Princess and her boyfriend visited the criminal. As far as they were concerned, Rose had already killed the premier Royal Moroi—they weren't going to take any chances!
We'll have to be careful what we say, Lissa warned, directing her unspoken words to Rose through their bond while she hugged her best friend close.
"Hey Rose—we came as soon as we could," Christian said. "We know you didn't do it."
"I'm glad someone believes me," Rose replied, giving her guards the stink eye. While a couple of them were ok, most had not held back voicing their opinion about Rose and their thoughts about what they thought she'd done.
"Naturally we believe you," Lissa said, using her 'Royal' voice and regarding the nearby guards disdainfully, although her demeanor improved slightly when they brought two chairs for Christian and her to use.
"Well, obviously I have no goss to share... What's going on out there?" Rose asked as she slumped on her mattress. She'd rather die than admit it, but the only thing she wanted to hear about was how Dimitri was doing, yet she couldn't bring herself to ask Lissa directly.
"Everything has been weird," Christian volunteered, recognizing Lissa was struggling to comment. She spent every day with the other Royal Council members, unsuccessfully attempting to convince them that Rose was innocent. "The Royal families are already petitioning and putting forward new candidates for the throne."
Rose semi snorted. From everything Lissa had shared with her, the Moroi Royal Council were a bunch of self-interested shits who only cared for their own political and financial benefit. It stood to reason the families were already jockeying for advancement.
"Is there a front runner?" Rose asked, not particularly interested in the answer. Dhampir, and Guardians, would benefit little no matter who was their next monarch.
"Many people are suggesting Ariana Szelsky. She's already on the Council, and she's quite progressive…" Lissa voiced quietly. Progressive, when it came to Moroi politics, being a relative term. The fact Liss had mentioned it signified Ariana must be against the age decree.
"Lissa, I doubt Rose wants to hear about Moroi politics," Christian said. After all, Rose's reaction to the age decree, and her stake in Her Majesty's chest, was what had found Rose in her current predicament. So instead, Lissa filled Rose in about inconsequential matters happening at Court over the last few days.
"Have you seen Adrian?" Rose asked.
"Yes. He told us you broke up?"
"It wasn't fair to keep seeing him. Not when…" Rose didn't bother completing her sentence. Lissa, more than anyone, knew how much she still loved Dimitri. "Is he doing ok? I know he was close to his aunt."
"He's getting there," Christian replied, seeing no use in sharing with Rose that Adrian had not stopped drinking since her arrest. Lissa might not see it, but Christian recognized a broken heart when he saw one. "He said he'll try to come and see you today."
Rose nodded, wondering whether that would be a blessing or a curse. She loved Adrian, she honestly did, but not in the same way he loved her. It had been a kindness to let him go.
"And Dimitri?" she finally asked, her voice quivering only a little.
"Fighting the Guardians when you were arrested was a bit of a setback," Lissa replied. "It made some people worry. They increased his guard for the first day. He's been spending a lot of his time in his quarters or at church."
It made sense. Strigoi could not enter hallowed ground, so sitting in Court's church was the best way to prove he had been restored. However, Rose also knew that Dimitri had faith. She doubted he was there just for the sake of appearances. Hopefully, he'd let God help him with his feelings since his restoration, because he sure as hell hadn't let her.
"No word about him being reinstated as a Guardian?"
"Not yet. Guardian Headquarters has been a bit preoccupied with everything else. Are they treating you well? Is there anything I can get you?" Lissa asked, following up in her head, Are you ok? Will you have to go away for long?
"Something to do would be nice. Maybe a crossword or sudoku? I do not know how long I'll be in here for, so it will help to pass the time."
The three fell silent. There was so much to be said, yet they could not risk being overheard.
I'm going to miss you so much! Once you're settled, maybe we could have a scheduled check-in? Like once a week? I know I won't be able to hear you, but I could keep you up to date on what's happening here?
"I'll bring you a sudoku book," Lissa offered out loud for the sake of their witnesses.
"Thanks. I'd like that," Rose replied, responding to Lissa's unspoken offer. "It would mean so much to me."
"Anything you need," Lissa responded, standing from her seat and moving to sit on the prison bed beside Rose, pulling her into a tight embrace.
"It will hurt, but tell me about him?" Rose whispered to her oldest friend as the two clung to one another. "I need to know he is ok. I get he no longer wants me, but I still love him, Liss, I think I always will. Please take care of him, and when the time is right, let him know I forgive him. No. Not that. Let him know there is nothing to forgive. The man I met in Russia wasn't him. He didn't choose to be turned, and what he did after wasn't his fault."
Not for the first time, Lissa wondered exactly what had occurred between Rose and Dimitri in Russia. She'd heard enough from both of them to read between the lines, yet neither had fully disclosed everything that had transpired. That both were emotionally devastated was clear—Lissa just wished she knew why.
"I will," Lissa promised, meaning every word. If she felt an obligation to Belikov, thanks to her part in his restoration, it was nothing compared to how she felt about Rose's request. Over their years of friendship, her best friend had asked for so little, yet had sacrificed so much. It was Lissa's fervent hope that Rose's absence would be short, yet long enough for Dimitri to recognize how much he still loved his former mentee. Because even if he wasn't, Lissa was one hundred percent sure of that.