Rose
I don't know who I expected in my spirit dream. My ex, Adrian? I hadn't heard from him in months, and we hadn't exactly parted on good terms. He probably didn't even know what'd happened to me.
There weren't a lot of spirit users around, which made me feel all the more stupid when the spirit user involved in this dream turned out to be the most obvious choice.
"Lissa!"
I sprinted to hug her and hold her in my arms. She was crying, and her tears coursed down my cheeks as we hugged. For a few moments, there were no words, because we didn't need any. We were content to hug and hold each other.
Finally, though, we had to break apart. For the first time, I looked around to see where we'd materialized in the dream, and almost laughed. We stood in her old bedroom at St. Vladimir's Academy.
"Good choice, Liss," I said, grinning. "When'd you learn to walk dreams?! You couldn't when I last heard from you."
"Adrian," she said sheepishly. "He and I have been keeping in contact – he's been walking in my dreams, trying to teach me how – " Suddenly, she seemed to remember what was going on. "Rose! Where are you?!" She seemed almost ready to cry again. "I've been trying to contact you in your dreams – you don't know how terrible it was each time the connection failed. I didn't know if it was me and my own inability, or because you'd been…" Her voice trailed off, and I didn't need her to finish.
Dead. Or turned Strigoi. Either way, I wouldn't be sleeping, and she'd have no way of knowing what had happened to me.
"I'm fine," I told her. "I haven't even been drunk from. Listen…" And I told her what Eugene and the Strigoi woman had said to me, about having orders to keep me alive, and then what I'd heard them telling Natalia through the door about the Grand Master.
Lissa's eyes were wide. "The Grand Master? Who could that be?!"
"I don't know," I admitted.
"You know what this means, Rose? All those rumours about the Strigoi mobilizing…them banding together like they had a purpose…and now, news of this Grand Master…"
Again, I knew what she meant. If there truly was a Strigoi Grand Master, powerful enough to command huge numbers of Strigoi and begin to gather them like this, then the entire Moroi world was in terrible danger.
My mind whirled. Strigoi were evil creatures. They possessed no loyalty to anything, not even each other. A Strigoi Grand Master? The implications were awful.
"We have no evidence," I reminded her. "Just what I heard in passing."
Lissa nodded, but she still looked troubled. "I'll tell Dimitri."
"Dimitri?" My heart leaped. "What about Dimitri?"
"Oh, Rose…"
Lissa told me a crazy story about how Dimitri, Christian, and my mother had set out looking for me. Last she'd heard from them, they were on their way to Pittsburgh. Hearing that, my heart swelled with love for all of them. I was touched beyond words. My friends, coming to save me from the hands of Strigoi? I took a couple steps and sat back on Lissa's bed.
"I can't believe they'd do that for me."
Lissa's eyes were brimming with tears. "Of course they would! Hell, I would! I wanted to go with them, Rose…I really wanted to…but they wouldn't let me…"
"No, no, they were right," I said. I was already starting to go crazy with worry for Dimitri, Christian and my mom. I couldn't worry about Lissa as well. "I wouldn't have let you either. You're safe where you are."
Lissa's tears began to spill over onto her cheeks again. "Rose, it's my fault. I shouldn't have sent you on that suicide mission. I should've kept you back – it's my fault, all my fault…"
"No!" I was at her side in an instant, and hugging her. "You are not to blame yourself for this, Lissa. I was the one who persuaded you. I wanted to go on that mission. This is all on me, not you, and now I'm stuck in a basement somewhere."
Lissa blinked at me. "And now, everyone wants me off the throne. I was held responsible for – "
The room at St. Vladimir's went blurry, then back into focus. Lissa blinked again. "What's happening?"
A pang of fear shot through my heart as the room began to dissolve for real. "I'm being woken up."
Lissa's face lit up with alarm. "Be careful, Rose! Don't stay anything stupid – just hang on until Dimitri, Christian and your mom can find you!"
Her voice was growing more faint, and she was fading too.
"Lissa! I love you!" I called desperately.
"I love you too!"
Her reply was barely audible, and then she was gone. I was blinking awake on the floor of my prison – and a pair of red-ringed eyes were staring into mine.
"Good morning, Guardian Hathaway," the Strigoi snarled. "Sleep well? I hope so, because the Grand Master is going to see you now."