I woke with a light throb in my head. I tried to remember what had happened but my mind was blank. I lifted myself and was surprised at the pain in my leg. I hand restrained me back softly. Also, the room was very bright, which I hated.

"Rose, sit back down. You need to rest."

I looked over to Adrian. "What happened?" I said trying to recall what had happened but failed entirely.

He looked at me, pain very obvious in his eyes. "Rose, I almost lost you! You lost a lot of blood. You hit your head pretty badly, several times." Tears fell out of his eyes. It broke my heart.

Then, like a thunder storm starts in the middle of the forest, all memories came back to me. I remembered that I had almost lost Adrian too. I put my hand on his cheek, wiping the tears away. "I almost lost you too if not for Christian. Remind me to thank him."

As if on cue, Christian and Lissa walked in. Christian was holding her hand and Lissa was holding her bag of chocolate chip cookies, while tears streamed down her eyes. It would have been a funny sight if not for such a gloomy mood. As it was, I did crack a smile.

"Oh, my. Rose, I thought we lost you forever back there." More tears.

"But you didn't, I'm here." I wiped the tears away.

I turned to Christian and gave him a nod of respect. "Thank you, Christian. Thank you for saving my life and Adrian's. How can I ever repay you?"

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "Rose, just get better and we will all be happy."

We heard a knock. Queen B walked into the room. Her posture strict and stiff. Her face was all serious like, but her eyes held worry. She had been at the wedding so she witnessed all the action first-hand.

"Rose, can I please talk to you in private?" She asked, eyeing the room. Everyone left the room immediately. Except Adrian, who was a little hesitant to leave.

"Aunt. . ." he began. She waved a hand to cut him off. "Let me talk to her."

He looked at me as if to say I'll make her suffer if she does anything to you. He kissed me quickly on the lips before exiting the room. The Queen looked at us; I was surprised to see the look on her face; it wasn't antagonistic or anything negative, it was different. It was as if she finally understood that I wasn't trying to take advantage of Adrian, that I only loved him.

"Rose," she began, trying to gather jumbled thoughts, "I want to thank you for saving Adrian like that. Although you could have lost your life, you still did it." She grabbed my hands in hers. "And I want to give you my blessing, the Ivashkov blessing. You can marry my great-nephew." There was no hint of lie in that old face. Was hell freezing over or was she actually saying those things?

"Thank you." was all I could think to say. My shock was too big.

"I know you will be good for him." She sighed. "I want to tell you something else too."

"Go ahead."

"I am giving up the throne to Adrian. My days are counted here on Earth, Rose. I know he will do a good job and that you will be a good queen along side him. And I know that you will love him forever." She sighed. "I have at least a year to live. Maybe less. I know you will take care of Adrian and vice versa. Rose, I am sorry for being such a, a bad person to you."

I was too shocked to say anything. Adrian came in, probably wondering why there was a lot of tears in my eyes.

"I will leave you two alone now." She standing up. She kissed her nephew on the cheek and then kissed me on the forehead. "Get better, Rose."

She walked stealthily to the door. She opened the door and went quietly out.

"What did she want?"

Okay, I admit that I hated when the tears started falling from my eyes. He rubbed them from my eyes. "Did do anything or say anything to you?"

"No."

"Then what's wrong?"

"She told me something. Adrian. . ."

"Tell me."

I took a deep breath. "Adrian…your aunt is dying."

He looked at me, shock making him incapable of speech. "What… How?"

"She has a least a year to live."

He began crying and I wrapped an arm around him. I pulled him close and didn't tell him about him being king just yet. I let him cry until he let it all out. He stood up after what seemed like forever.

"Alright with you if I leave you alone for a couple of minutes? I need to go speak with her."

"No, not all. Go Adrian. I'll still be here when you come back."

He leaned to give me a good kiss on the lips. "I will come back soon."

"Take your time." I called after him.

I was eating a yogurt when somebody walked through the door. Thinking it was Adrian, I said, "How'd it go?"

"Rose! How could—I almost lost you back there! Don't ever do that again!" My mother gushed, my father right behind her. They weren't the perfect parents, but they were still my parents.

"Mom, calm down! Nothing happened to me. Okay, maybe my leg just got broken. But it I saved a Moroi life. Remember the rule? They come first."

"It was irresponsible, Rose! You could have gotten yourself killed!" She was about to say more but my Father stepped in.

"Janine, calm down." Her anger dimmed a little. But still she looked at me at me with those dangerous eyes that I had inherited.

"Rose," my Father began, "I am glad that you are okay, I hope that this doesn't happen in the future."

I couldn't believe it! I was alive, wasn't that enough? Couldn't they be happy that I was alive? Apparently not.

They kept yelling at me until we heard a scream down the hallway. Oh, it took me a second to realize that it was Mia. All the yelling meant that her baby was on its way. A few minutes later, Lissa burst through the door. "Oh my god, Rose! Mia had a little boy!" Both Mia and Lissa had chosen to know the gender of the baby until they were born.

"That's great!" I screamed in happiness for Mia. Wow, they were finally parents!

Just then Adrian walked through the room. His eyes were rimmed in red and swollen but I could see that he was happy for the couple. "That's good to hear."

"Can you guys take me to her?" I looked around the room and my eyes landed on Adrian.

"Of course, little dhampir."

He scooped me up in his arms and took me to the room that Mia was held in. When I entered the room, I could see Eddie glow with light.

Adrian sat me down on a chair. "Congrats, guys! I am so happy for you!" Eddie was holding something small in hands wrapped in a blue blanket. He walked over to me and put the baby in my hands. "Aw, how cute. He looks just like you, Eddie, just with Mia's eyes."

The baby—they later decided to name him Seth—looked exactly like Eddie. It was like Eddie's miniature version of him except that Mia's eyes took place in his features too.

Another Month Later

Lissa gasped for a breath. "Push," the nice nurse told Lissa again.

Another scream and—

The cries of her newborn baby wrapped around me and I couldn't wait to have my own. Lissa's doctor, Dr. Bight, gave the baby to one of the nurses; the nurse did her thing and handed Lissa her baby.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Ozera! You had a baby girl! Should I call Mr. Ozera in here?"

"Yes." She was too happy to speak above a whisper. Tears of joy escaped her eyes.

I started crying too. "Oh, Lissa. She is beautiful." And she was. She had the beautiful icy blue Ozera eyes. Lissa's hair color was evident on her delicate face. She had all Lissa's features; she was beautiful.

Christian and came in, crying. Yes, big-bad flame boy was crying! He went to Lissa and she handed him the precious thing wrapped in a pink blanket. "Oh, Lissa. Our beautiful little girl is as beautiful as her Mother."

They shared their family moment. Adrian and I walked to the corner of the room to give them privacy.

"Rose!" Lissa called to me.

"What's up?"

"You need to help me decide what to name her. You promised."

"Fine. Why don't you name her after you?"

"No, Vasilissa is a mouth full." She thought for a moment. "Yes! I know! I'll name her after you, Rose."

"Why me?"

"Because you helped me and stayed with my while I gave birth to her!"

"Okay, how about you her middle name is Rose?"

"Yeah! And her first name?"

It was Adrian who answered that. "Why don't you name her after he dad?"

"No, better yet. I'll name her after you Adrian!" She looked at her baby girl and smiled. "Hey, Adriana Rose. I love you so much, baby."

All you could hear form the little girl, Adriana Rose, was a little cooing sounds.

"Yes!" exclaimed Lissa all of a sudden. She looked at Christian and said, "You're a genius you know that, right."

"I know," he said smugly.

"What's wrong?"

"Rose, we want you and Adrian to be the godparents of our child."

"We loved to!" Adrian answered for both of us.

I went to Lissa and she handed me our goddaughter. "She is really beautiful, Lissa. You and Christian did a good job." Adrian and I held our goddaughter till the night closed over us.

Two Days Later

Life with babies was very interesting. Well it seemed. I really couldn't wait until Adrian and I had our own babies.

They let Lissa go out of the hospital today. Mia and Eddie had come back from their honeymoon now.

Life was perfect with them and it was my turn and Adrian's to have our own happy, perfect ending, or so everybody said it was. The queen was a little bit better and we were all happy.

Twelve days to go till our wedding, I was really stressed out. I loved Adrian. I couldn't wait till I got married with him and had our kids. Too bad it was still twelve days to wait.