Rose POV

I watched Christian as he began his speech that he had formed in his mind. I had looked around the room and saw that Tasha was watching him with curiosity. No one in the room, except for me, knew what he was doing.

"Your Majesty, I think I have a solution to our problems. If you give me a minute of your time I can explain the whole thing." Not like he would take no for an answer anyway, he never does.

"Very well. What do you have to say Ozera?" he smiled kindly at her, happy that she agreed to let him speak. Everyone that was in the same room as us was watching the discussion between Christian and Tatiana intensely.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Well as we have all come to realize, Moroi can use magic in defence. If we could teach fire users how to use their magic against Strigoi than maybe we'll all make it through this." The way Christian had said it, well, I was proud of him. He almost made me see reason in why we should teach Moroi how to use their magic.

If we all do make it through this somehow, what about the fire users that want to take over the Queen? If we all made it through this somehow, what about the Moroi that will want to take over the Queen? It was such a horrible suggestion to ask the Queen, even if it did save lives.

While I had been thinking I noticed that the Queen hadn't actually spoken yet. What was she thinking? She wouldn't agree to such a thing. What if she was about to agree to Christian? Maybe he was more convincing than I had given him credit for?

"You have n interesting point Ozera. Do you really think that you could teach Moroi fire user's to use their magic in time to defend themselves against the Strigoi that are coming?" the answer was no. everyone knew the answer would be no. for one: we don't actually know when the Strigoi are coming. They could be coming tomorrow for all we know. We have no control over what's going to happen and that was why the Queen was willing to do this; to gain some control.

"I think that if the Moroi were willing enough we would be able to teach them in time, yes." Lies. Christian was lying to the Queen and she knew it as well as I did. she was willing to try anything to keep the Court safe but this wouldn't help a bit, I was sure of it.

"Very well Ozera, try as hard as you can to get the Moroi ready for the army that is coming. I have faith in you." She said as she turned away, talking to her guards. Faith? She had NO faith in Christian at all.

I looked over at Christian and found that he was looking at me. The smile on his face was irritating the crap out of me. He knows he won whatever argument we had just had. Or maybe it was because the Queen said she had faith in him? Did he truly believe the lies that come out of the horrible woman? She meant nothing of what she had said about faith, she knows we'll die.

Christian walked over to me, grinning from ear to ear. "Looks like the Queen has a little more faith in me than you do." I rolled my eyes. This wasn't about faith. This might cost people's lives.

"There's nothing to be smiling about Christian. A lot of people are going to die, whether you want to believe that or not." I wasn't going to lie about it because it seemed to me like a lot of people were deluding themselves into thinking that we were all magically going to survive this attack. A lot of people will die but as much as I hate to admit because I'm as stubborn as Christian, I'm glad he's trying to save lives. Even if the way he's planning to save lives is a taboo thing in the Moroi world, not that the Queen really cared about that fact.

"We can work this out Rose. Work it so that no one will get hurt. Rose, promise me you won't get hurt?"

"What? Christian, this isn't one or two Strigoi coming. It's an army and I have to do whatever I can to protect you and all the other Moroi." Especially Lissa. I'll do whatever I can to protect her life, even if that means it'll cost my life.

"Rose, I can protect you-"

"No. you have to protect the Moroi. No matter what Christian I'm still a Dhampir, you can't ignore a Moroi's life if I'm in danger. They come first remember?" I used to think that Moroi were selfish in thinking that they were better than us. That they were special and that was why they could act so high and mighty. I thought they were egotistical bastards that needed a slap across the face, but it always came down to them to decide major things. They had to decide what to do when a Dhampir or Moroi were kidnapped by a Strigoi. They usually never went after them to retrieve them. Now, when I think of Moroi, I would never want that power. They had to make hard decisions ad I think that was why the Queen was so bitter. The Queen has probably lost a lot of people in her life to Strigoi and she couldn't help them, because it was too dangerous and she couldn't risk more lives. Maybe the Queen wasn't so bad after all.

"Nothing comes before you Rose. You can't die." They way he said it, they way he said that I wouldn't die, I almost believed him. Christian could be convincing when he wanted to be. Most of all, though, it was like he was promising me that I wouldn't die, that I wouldn't even get hurt.

"Christian, I can't promise you that I won't get hurt because I probably will. I'm sorry." Truth is, I probably will die and he'll survive. Yes, it sounds horrible but it was the most likely scenario. I can't just set Strigoi on fire when I want to, Christian can. There was no way that I'll let him use his fire to save my ass in the fight. Dhampirs live to serve Moroi, that's the way it'll always be.

"Sorry for what, Rose?" I almost wished he could read my mind right now. It would be so much easier than having to form the words and say them out loud.

"Christian, think about the scenarios that will most likely happen. Yes, you may be able to teach people to use their magic but that's not me Christian. The Moroi will survive and that's all the Queen's worried about. Christian, she knows that the Dhampirs can't defend themselves and that we'll most likely die." The look on his face was horrible. It almost made me regret telling him what was going to happen.

He started to frown, something he did when he was deep in thought. He had been staring at the ground for about a minute when his head snapped up, meeting my blank face. He shook his head, obviously not liking the idea of so many deaths.

"I'll protect you and I don't care what you have to say about that because it is what it is, okay?"