Thankfully, we wouldn't meet our doom until next week, when the next dancing class would be held. Until then, it was business as usual. I attended a Council meeting with Lissa, barely listening as they went on and on about feeder accommodations. I was amazed as always that there was still so much talking to be done; new proposals didn't reach Lissa until after they had been debated and revised several times by other committees.

Then, a more interesting meeting awaited us: Sonya wanted to tell Lissa about what she had found out about Olive's blood.

In a horrendous breach of etiquette for a queen, we met in Sonya's living room. It was where she kept all her utensils and papers, and Lissa wasn't a big fan of having people move their asses to come to her when it was much easier she come to them.

"The cellular structure is the same as you would expect," Sonya explained, bent over a tiny sample on a little glass plate. "I sent a sample to a Moroi lab to analyze, but I'm afraid to waste the blood on what has been fruitless before. This is probably the most valuable substance in the whole world right now."

I smiled at Sonya's priorities there. Even though preventing someone from turning Strigoi was as high on my list as it was on hers, not everyone would rate the value of Olive's blood that high.

"There is still some spirit left. It seems to envelop every single blood cell. Curiously, the spirit doesn't seem to seep out of the blood, but rather seep into it. If it was seeping out, I should be able to see tendrils of spirit leaving the vial. But I don't. Of course, they might be just too slight for me so see, but the assumption seems likely that the blood cells are imbibing the spirit. That would make sense, because something has to stay in order for the spirit to leave a lasting effect."

Lissa sighed regretfully. "I wish I could see it."

Ever since she had lashed out wildly on one of her spirit bouts after healing people like a maniac, she had resolved that her duty as a queen was to keep her sanity rather than healing the occasional wound. It was hard on her, but she kept to her resolve. And I cannot begin to tell how much worry that was taking from my shoulders. Even though times had been hard, she had not had a single mentally unstable second since she took her medication.

"Well, as I said, there is not actually much to see," Sonya said with a frown. "It's more of an educated guess than physical evidence. But it's the most plausible way spirit could change something."

"What else are you planning to do with the blood sample?" I asked her.

Sonya looked up from her various notes. "Well… it might sound odd. I was thinking about what an effect the blood might have when it was administered to another Moroi or dhampir. Eventually, we mean to find out a way to make others immune without having to be turned Strigoi and back. But I still can't think of a way to do this. And with what little material we have, the idea must be thought through before I attempt anything."

"Experiment on another Moroi or dhampir?" Lissa asked doubtfully. "Are you sure that is safe?"

"No, I'm not. I can't be. But there is no other way to make progress," Sonya replied.

"I guess you're right," Lissa conceded uncertainly.

Sonya drew back from her dinner table-turned-research lab.

"There's something else that might interest you," she said. "There might be a new spirit user."

"Tim?" I blurted.

Sonya raised her eyebrows. "You know him?"

"I met him in Dallas. Gave him your name so he could contact you. He was reluctant to admit he might be a spirit user."

"He's arriving tomorrow."

"That's great! He's really nice. I hope he really is a spirit user. As an air user, he sucked big time."

"Another one," Lissa said with a glint in her eyes. "And I asked all academies to inform me when they had a student with no apparent specialization. Maybe there will be more soon."

When we arrived at Sonya's apartment the next day, Lissa asked all her guardians but me to stay outside. We wanted to meet Tim at Sonya's so as not to frighten him with the palace – as well go the whole way and not frighten him with masses of guardians either.

We knocked and waited for Sonya to open. She appeared at the door with a wide smile that immediately told me that Tim had been a success.

"Meet the newest member of the spirit team," she said brightly as she led us in.

Tim was seated on Sonya's living room sofa. He got up when he saw us, nervously wiping his hands on his pants. There was the friendly smile on his face, but I could tell he wasn't feeling too comfortable with the situation. I guess suddenly having one's element changed and go from being an abysmally bad air user to a world-wide sensational spirit user was something to take in for a guy.

"This is great!" Lissa squealed. "It's so good you came! There are so few spirit users, it's so exciting to meet a new one!"

"Oh, I'm, um…" He stumbled awkwardly. I guess he meant to say something to the point of, don't get your hopes up, I'll probably suck as a spirit user, too, seeing as the guy didn't seem to be blessed with a particularly high self-esteem, when he saw me. His eyes widened slightly. I hadn't told him he would see me at Court, after all. "Hi, Rose."

"Hey buddy. How's it going?"

"Well, things have taken a surprising turn for the unusual. Which, if I may say so, is unusual for an ordinary being like me."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Didn't expect to see me here, did you?"

"No, indeed, I didn't. Are you her guardian?"

Did I imagine things or did he blush slightly when he sent a timid smile to Lissa? Well, that was hardly a new thing. Lissa was a stunner in the eyes of men. She didn't get so many flirty stares since she was queen, you know, respect and everything, but I guess Tim had been living under the figurative rock since she was elected and had never seen her face. Moroi society isn't big on TV transmission of important events. Or any other events.

"I'm Lissa", she said, extending her hand. "Also a spirit user." One that couldn't access her powers, a fact that she liked to omit sometimes.

Tim took her hand with a reverence that promised nothing good. Lissa had a boyfriend she adored, after all. But there was this shyness mixed into his behavior that made him seem incredibly cute right now. Teddy-bear cute.

"Tim Meares. It's really nice to meet you."

"Same here. So, Sonya diagnosed you're indeed a spirit user?"

He cast Sonya an anxious glance. "So she said. I can't really believe it."

"Believe her. Haven't you ever done things with your magic that other elemental users can't?"

He shrugged apologetically. "Not really."

"Maybe you haven't realized you did it," Lissa tried to comfort him. "Most of us did things unheard of, and we had no idea why we were able to do it."

"I'm sorry to say it, but I have led a pretty boring life so far. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to me."

"That is going to change," I told him brightly. "Already has." He'd met the queen and didn't realize it, he he.

After our introductions, Sonya and Lissa tried to gauge Tim's spirit abilities. They asked him whether he had ever been particularly successful at compulsion (to which he replied that he had never tried, seeing as it was forbidden to do so), healing, dream walking, moving objects, or any other stuff they thought spirit users might be able to do. Then they tried to make him see auras, heal plants and move a pen on the table. Tim showed no sign of spirit at all, except from that golden glow in his aura that only Sonya could see.

Sonya and Lissa both stayed as upbeat as they could throughout Tim's attempts. In the end, they both enthusiastically told him to practice, and promised him that he would show a talent eventually. Then, they started the downsides talk.

Spirit was a fickle element. It could make a person work wonders, but after this, it would make the person ill. It could cause mental problems that were different for every spirit user we had encountered yet, but it inevitably showed.

Tim received this news impassively. Maybe he was still too doubtful that he really could use spirit to worry about the side-effects of using it. In any case, the craziness news didn't weigh him down when we left Sonya's together.

Then we walked out into a dhampir apartment complex corridor lined with a phalanx of guardians.

Tim eyed them warily. He seemed to duck a little as we passed through them; only the two closest to the staircase walked ahead of us.

"That's a lot of guardians," he stated quietly.

"Um, yes, I guess," Lissa said. She must only realize now that Tim had no idea who she was.

"Are they all yours?" Tim asked cautiously, the inkling that he was missing something important clearly evident in his voice.

"Well, yeah."

"Um… are you important? What exactly do you do, except be a super spirit user?"

"Ah, well, I'm… I'm kind of the queen."

Tim stopped in his tracks, nearly causing a guardian to run into him. His mouth was wide open. He looked positively aghast.

Lissa used his speechlessness. "Oh, don't get any crazy ideas of kneeling or anything. It was nice to meet you casually. It's impossible to get to know people without them behaving all weirdly, you know?"

"I'm… I had no idea…"

"I'm glad you didn't. It's much nicer this way."

"Um…"

"Get over it, Tim," I told him, clapping his shoulder to make him breathe again. "She's also just a normal girl like you and me, in her free time."

"A normal girl like you would be entirely sufficient, Rose," Lissa corrected.

"Are you okay?" I asked Tim, because I still wasn't sure he was breathing.

"I'm, um… I'm sorry."

"That's okay," I said. "Come on, let's get some lunch. I'm starving."

"Would you like to have lunch with us, Tim?" Lissa asked politely.

"Of course he'll come," I interjected before he could refuse. "You don't know your way around Court yet, Tim, we'll show you."

He followed us dazedly, probably more because he didn't know what else to do. He'd get more comfortable with the queen's presence eventually. Lissa wasn't the sort of people who were out to inspire awe in her admirers. People tended to get comfortable with her highness really fast.

We quickly agreed to have lunch in one of our favorite Court diners. Entering the palace was probably a step too far for Tim. He needed to get used to a royal environment slowly.

We met Christian halfway to our destination.

"Hey. Made new friends?"

"Try not to scare him away, Christian," I warned him. "This is a promising new spirit user."

"I'll be nice," he said. "I'm Christian."

When after their introduction, Christian put an arm around Lissa and gave her a quick kiss, Tim eyed them suspiciously. "Are you the king, then?" he asked warily.

Christian made a disgusted face. "No. No way. Don't ever say that. Or even imply that. Ever."

"Hey, don't make being a monarch sound so awful," Lissa scolded him playfully. "I happen to be one, remember?"

"Yup, and you're a wonderful queen, Liss, but I think we all agree that it's a good thing that doesn't extend to me."

"Oh, yes, we are," I said, while Lissa pouted.

"You'd be sort of an honorary king if we'd marry," she suggested.

"Then we can't marry as long as you're queen," Christian retorted, deadpan.

We continued discussing whether marrying the ruling queen would make Christian some kind of king – and of course his mock refusal to marry Lissa – the whole way to the diner and halfway through lunch. Tim didn't contribute much, but our very normal teenage banter – well, except for the topic – seemed to make him more at ease with Lissa's presence.

He still gave Lissa a few longing glances, but I was relieved to see that he didn't try to compete with Christian for her affections or anything. He got my Rose-approved 'reasonable guy' stamp. It was probably the queen thing as well as the relationship status that discouraged him. In any case, Lissa, Christian and I dropped him off at Moroi guest housing with a favorable impression.

"He's really nice," Lissa said. "I do hope he'll improve a little in the spirit department, though. It would be good if he could help Sonya with her studies."

"Nina agreed to help her," I remarked.

"The more, the better!"

Christian huffed. "Do you really want all the world to know what kind of revelations Sonya's working on? I don't know, but you're usually not that open-hearted when it comes to potentially world-changing research."

"Oh, don't be that way, Christian. He could really help. Why not trust him?"

Christian just shrugged and dropped the matter. The reduced drive to argue came with his lingering weirdness.

"Sonya cannot make much time for him right now anyway," Lissa said. "She has to work on the blood while the magic still holds."

"Let's see how he's dealing in a few days," I said. "We need to be off soon."

As always we needed to depart for Lehigh once again. We had long since gotten used to the travelling we were doing, splitting the week between Court and college. At least we were both seeing much more of our boyfriends now that Lissa had reduced her college workload.

I went to Dimitri and my apartment then. The day's work was far from over: we had some tango steps to master!

….

Four days later, we were back at Court and a day to go until our unofficial dance competition. I tried to make Dimitri do some morning training right after we got up, but he flat-out refused on the grounds that I was taking this dance thing 'a little too serious'. However could you take it too serious to win against a bet with one of you best friends?

"At lunch break, then?" I asked, in between choosing today's shirt and sweater.

Dimitri just looked at me, raised an eyebrow, and then disappeared, eyebrow and all, in a brown knitted sweater that reminded me of what Tim wore when I first met him but looked like something out of a fashion magazine on Dimitri.

"Okay, tonight, then. We are absolutely not going in there tomorrow without a little last minute practice."

"Tonight it is, then," he finally said. "Don't overexert yourself until the big day, though."

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow, something that, unfortunately, looked a lot less impressive with me than with him. "Got it comrade. I knew you're taking this seriously after all."

He smiled, a wonderful, light-up-the-day smile. "Of course I do, if it matters to you."

"No, no, no," I exclaimed. "You need to recognize the importance of this! It's who will laugh at whom for the next couple months! Don't pretend that you're not personally invested!"

"The only people who will laugh are Christian and you, at each other."

"We will see, comrade. Either way, we will see."

We left our apartment together and walked arm in arm until he had to turn for guardian headquarters. He was still working Court duties because his charge, Christian, hardly needed him in an environment as safe as Court. Well, we had recently had to learn that even Court wasn't impenetrable, but the guardians had managed to reestablish security marvelously speedy. It was not like Christian needed a safe environment in order to not need a guardian; he was actually quite capable of dealing with most threats on his own. Sometimes, I think they just left Dimitri paired up with him because they made a team that it would be a shame to break apart. At other times, I'm pretty certain they do it because Christian was sure to find situations that were over his head even with his skills. Either way, I was thankful for the arrangement. If Dimitri got another charge, there was no telling in what part of the world he might end up. My own mom hadn't originally signed up to live in Europe.

Christian was alone in the apartment when I came in. He seemed to just vacantly stare into space, even though he had a stack of papers on front of him. I watched him for a few seconds before gently knocking on the doorframe to make myself known.

"Hey, Christian!"

"Hey Rose", he said, looking up. "Lissa went to see Marie. She didn't want to wake you, so she didn't call you."

"Why aren't you at morning training?" The Moroi fighting team went to gym insanely early in the morning. They kept a regimen that made them rise earlier than they had to when still at school.

"Already finished. I went early because Lissa was supposed to be free now."

"And she chose Court work over you? How heartless. That must be hard on you."

"Court work?" Christian snorted. "It sounded more like Marie had this new dress catalog that Lissa just had to see."

"Oops. Even harder. Don't worry, she still loves you." I plopped down on the sofa next to him and drew my knees under my body to get comfortable. "What are you doing?" I nodded to some papers that he held in his lap and otherwise ignored.

"Hmp. I'm drawing up a proposal about how you could teach defensive magic at the academies. Which feels pretty useless as long as they don't actually allow it to be taught."

"So instead, you decided to burn a whole into the air with your eyes?"

That just earned me a scornful look.

"Seriously, Christian. Are you okay?"

Now his look turned impatient. "Please don't give me a feelings talk, Rose."

"Had enough of those from Lissa?"

"No, she knows better than that."

He looked at his papers for the first time, pretending to read them, and I continued to sit next to him because I kind of didn't want to leave him alone. By and by, we both actually focused on the papers.

"Hadn't you better put this physics stuff before the 'Moving solid objects' classes for air users?" I asked. "If they know the physics, they can gauge their powers better."

Christian frowned. "Yes, but they all said that they had to try it for themselves before they could actually connect the theory with the practice. They said that because the strengths of their respective air streams are all different, the physics don't help them until they try. This is why I tried to make them have practice and theory classes alternately."

Right.

"Are you planning physical combat training also or will they just be taking part in guardian classes?" I asked.

"We're not there yet. And we would suggest that combat training remain voluntary anyways. It's not the focus. Also, Moroi should have separate classes from dhampirs, not only because the dhampirs would kick them into frustration, but also because we're currently figuring out ways and tactics that help a Moroi keep the distance we need to properly work magic. So, there would be different things to teach eventually."

When he showed me a rough sketch for the physical training, we got carried away, and had five months of training planned out before Dimitri interrupted our flow.

"There I thought you two were all wrapped up in competing against each other," he said, standing in the doorway with the tiniest of knowing grins. "Leave you alone for a few hours and I find you cuddled up and plotting world domination."

Christian and I immediately started protesting.

"She just came and butted in, it was really annoying," he claimed loudly.

"The things he wants to put these students through, I just had to intervene," I claimed equally as loudly.

Dimitri just laughed softly. "I just met Lissa. She wants to have lunch together with Tim at the diner and asked us all to come."

We got up and stacked the papers on the table.

"Don't think that means anything for tomorrow, Ozera," I whispered to him, menacingly, under my breath when we followed Dimitri outside. "Wouldn't dream of it, Hathaway," he whispered back.

Lissa and Tim were already at the diner when we arrived, deep in conversation about spirit.

"I don't understand this darkness thing," Tim was saying. "You seem fine. I mean, you're the queen. You couldn't rule with madness hanging around you all the time. You'd make terrible decisions. But you don't. I heard everywhere that you're a really good queen."

Seems like we arrived just in time to back Lissa up for the difficult bit. We seated ourselves at their table while Lissa didn't seem to know whether she should react to the compliment or the question in Tim's statement.

"Well, there are… ways to prevent the madness," she finally said.

"But they are quite extreme," I helped out. Tim looked from her to me and back again.

Lissa took a deep breath. "I can't access my magic," she said. "The madness, for me, predominantly manifested in depression. I take anti-depressants, and with the medication, there's no more madness, but there's no more magic either. We haven't figured out a way to have both magic and sanity yet."

If Tim was shocked at this, he hid it well. "So you're saying, you can't use spirit right now? You've given it up?"

"Well… temporarily, yes, I have. As you said. I can't rule with madness hanging around me all the time."

"Are you done with spirit talk now?" Christian broke the ensuing silence. "Can we move on to a more cheerful subject?"

"Are you going to watch us wipe Christian off the dance floor tomorrow?" I asked Tim maliciously. "It's the big day."

"Um… what day?" Tim asked confusedly.

"Never mind," Lissa said with a scolding look to me. She was the only one who was less than excited about our bet. Counting Dimitri as fully invested, of course. "How do you like Court? Are you going to stay for a while?"

"Actually, yes," Tim announced. "Not recognizing our queen when I stood right before her made me realized I am quite out of the loop when it Moroi society is concerned. I would like to stay here for a while, get work, learn about spirit, and catch up with the times again."

"That's great news!" Lissa beamed. "Sonya will be happy to know you're staying, too."

"That makes two new spirit users. Nina is staying as well. Until she and Olive know what to do with their lives again," I said.

"Yes, I got to know her," Tim said. "I can tell you, if you'd told me everything that had gone down in that house in Dallas right there… I would probably have turned tail and ran the minute I could. It's easier to take it all in gradually."

"Good thing Rose is so secretive, then," Christian said with a slightly sourly tinge. Oh dear, not the jealousy thing again. Christian and Lissa really had an issue with jealously. Especially when male spirit users were involved. I guess they breached the one matter where Christian just couldn't follow.

"Oh, and I heard what you two did at the battle," Tim said, turning to Christian and Dimitri. "I don't think I can really express my admiration at your courage. I'm just floored."

He really seemed floored, because he didn't appear to notice the silence he'd caused with the two.

"And then there's this whole craziness with this Ozera lady who killed the queen and then came back to Court as a Strigoi and died. She's not related closely to you, Christian, is she?"

Oh hell.

It was like a bombed had dropped right in the middle of our diner table. Lissa, Dimitri and me just froze. Christian seemed to freeze, too, because in my view, the alternative reaction to learning that your only living relative who brought you up and whom you used to love had turned into the monster you despise from the bottom of your heart was to take off screaming. Lissa looked as if her heart had stopped, and even Tim perceived that something was wrong. His eyes swiveled around everyone at the table.

Christian did not run off screaming, and he not freeze up, either. Instead, he fixed Tim with a hard glare. When he spoke, his voice was laced with an undertone very close to threatening.

"How do you know?"

"Um…" Tim swallowed. "I talked to some guys I met in a bar. I was just there to socialize, you know, get to know people… I don't usually go to bars on my own…"

"Christian" Lissa's voice was fearful. "I'm… I'm so sorry… I didn't want to lie to you-" She was sitting in the booth, crammed in by Tim and Dimitri, unable to touch Christian or make him leave with her.

Christian had that grim, vacant look again that I had seen on him earlier. I felt like I should do something, or say something, but I had no idea what could help. From the panic on Lissa's face, it was the same for her.

"I still don't believe what she said," Dimitri said, suddenly. Looking over to him, I realized that he didn't seem fazed by the news of Tasha's turning Strigoi leaking to Christian. I had no idea what he meant by what he said.

"And by no means do I believe that it has any effects on you," Dimitri continued talking in riddles. "You will never turn Strigoi. Ever."

Of course he wouldn't! Did he think that because Tasha had turned…

"Well, I think that the time for me to panic has definitely arrived," Christian replied, in a weirdly calm voice.

"What she said…?" Lissa whispered in horror.

It was then that it hit me. They had questioned the guardians who had been in the battle if they knew who had killed Tasha. No one had killed her, no one knew about it. The only ones they had not questioned were Christian and Dimitri, because they probably assumed that it would be crazy for Christian to be involved in his aunt's killing and not say anything.

In hindsight, it would probably have been crazier if he had said something.

"No," Lissa whispered. I saw in her eyes her longing to find the right thing to say or do for Christian, but she was still locked into her booth and was only just grasping what had happened.

My eyes met Dimitri's. "You killed her? You killed Tasha?"

That would mean that after witnessing his parents' deaths, which had definitely left a scar, Christian would have had to see his aunt die as a Strigoi as well. But what I saw in Dimitri's eyes told me that it was even worse.

"No," Christian said. "I killed her."

Yeah, I know, the Tasha thing is getting old. It was just an open end from the last story that I had to wrap up. There will be more new things from now on!