SUMMARY: Set in Last Sacrifice. Adrian's pov.
WORDCOUNT: ~920
Written for 100moods. Prompt: angry.
TEMPORARY BLINDNESS
by Leni
It said something about the whole situation that my first thought was: of course.
Of course Rose had worked her way through her father's failsafe plan for her protection; of course she had gotten an Alchemist – that species of human that walked the line between enemy and reluctant ally – to help her. Of course she had found one of the few known spirit users and changed her back into a Moroi – though I'd need more detail on that, as I knew for a fact that both Lissa and I had been at Court, and who else could spirit-charm a stake? Of course her little road trip had unearthed a clean, incontestable solution for Lissa's eligibility in the upcoming election and decisive clues about Aunt Tatiana's murder.
And of course she and Belikov were all over each other again.
The only surprise was that I hadn't seen this coming.
(Lies. Lies. But it's too easy to lie to oneself.)
I should have known the first time I saw them, almost a year ago now. They'd dropped clues as if they couldn't carry them along any longer, and yet too few had bothered to notice. But first amusement, and then growing curiosity, had driven me to keep an eye on them. I still remembered witnessing all the moments where they clashed against each other; sometimes with their knowledge, sometimes unnoticed in the background, along with the rest of the world; sometimes over important issues, sometimes over foolish ones that made me smile.
I was not smiling now.
I should have known, even then. Because no matter how many times they'd hurled harsh words and injured looks at each other, neither had ever showed the cracks for it.
(They didn't break easily. They didn't break unless the other was broken too. There was a lesson to apply there… somewhere.)
I should have known when my chance to get Rose's notice was earned by giving her the means to chase after him.
But she had come back and Belikov had still been away, worse than dead. When that didn't last and he returned to our lives, I'd barely had time to be nervous before he took care of pushing her back to my arms.
I should have known I'd pay for that favor.
(The devil's in the details, they say. The look in his eyes. The smile on her lips. Details, details…)
One moment, I was a boyfriend, happy to have her back within touching distance, ready with a quip about either getting a move or risking Guardian Tanner thinking better of this and ditching us to run away with his newly restored lover.
It was supposed to get a laugh out of Rose. She had an amazing laugh, both freeing and carefree; after her trip to Siberia, I had barely heard it, and it was my personal mission to make her laugh as often as possible.
But there wasn't meant to be any laughter.
Instead, I got to watch as Belikov touched her forehead with his lips – a gesture I'd have brushed off if it had been any of the other guys in Rose's life. But then she dropped his wrist as if it burned, and her big brown eyes stared at me with guilt and pity written all over them.
Yes, one moment I was a boyfriend. The next, I was her ex.
I didn't even get a 'let's-be-friends' speech in-between.
(Why was there pity? Why? …why did I need to ask at all?)
Tanner came to collect her, oblivious to the tension in our little reunion. Recovering the woman he'd thought lost forever had clearly blinded the man to neighboring love triangles kicking out one of its sides.
I wished I was blind instead, or at least drunk enough not to see the play of auras before me. They had always mirrored each other, teammates and equals with the clear potential of more; but where the air between them had always been the blue of strength, with stripes of purple and red for hidden lusts and unsaid words, now the colors twined around each other, blending in that encompassing gold that I'd seen on Rose only a few hours ago.
Ah, Rose. No wonder my little dhampir had greeted me in such a subdued manner. Needless to say, I neverwanted to find out what she'd been about before I visited her in that last dream.
In the meanwhile, Rose had stopped staring at me and was nodding at Tanner instead. I looked at the older guardian. He was of average figure and, from what I heard, had a soul-killing job, shoved down in the recesses of the archives. And yet…
I, a pampered heir of the most powerful Moroi family, tasted envy.
Lucky Tanner. Must be nice to be in love with someone who loved you back.
Instead of, say, standing frozen as one's beloved made time for a whispered exchange with another guy before leaving without one word for me. That they'd been whispering about me – their quick glances in my direction betrayed them – didn't make it better.
(Better if I left them. Better if I walked away. …Lies and lies, again. )
Ah, Rose. For a few months, I forgot I'd met her when she was breaking a school boy's heart, her hands happily entwined with his while her eyes hungered only for her mentor.
I should have known my own heart would be next.
I took out a cigarette and lit up.
Nobody around me cared.
The End
06/12/12