Lissa was happy. Extremely happy. I didn't know if it was relief from pressure or stress, or just because she felt the need to be happy. But she was laughing with Christian more than I had ever seen her laugh with anyone. It placed a smile on my face from the back corner of the room just watching her have a good time.
Mom had walked out on the party, making it notified to the rest of the guardians before she left. I knew she thought I was making the biggest mistake of my life, but she was still obsessed with this insane idea that I would get knocked up at my age.
It wasn't even possible between me and Dimitri, not that we wanted a child.
We behaved professionally, smiling at each other maybe once or twice, but other than that, stayed at opposite ends of the hall.
I watched Lissa have one last flirt with Christian then make her way over to me. Christian was left behind, now talking to Adrian.
"Are you ready to leave?" I asked her.
Dimitri noticed me talking to her and guessed what I had guessed. He walked around the back of the guardians and out the front door where he would, no doubt, be waiting for us.
She nodded. "I don't want to get too drunk in front of the entire court."
I laughed and helped her stand up, just in case she felt a little woozy.
I led her out that same door.
"Are you okay?" I asked her when we found Dimitri. He walked with us silently towards Lissa's room. "I would have thought Christian would be the first one complaining to leave."
She shrugged. "He'll be going soon. Well, that's what he told me. He just wanted to talk to someone first."
"Someone?" I thought of Adrian.
"Yeah. I don't know either, but I trust him."
I smiled. "That's good. You and Christian are, like, made for each other."
She laughed and hugged me. "Thanks, Rose."
We reached her room quicker than I had expected. Dimitri stood outside the door while I got her changed into her pyjamas, then came to assist me in giving her some Panadol and water. The last thing I wanted for her in the morning was a major hang over.
She crawled into bed wearily after taking the drugs and water and fell asleep within no time.
We locked the door behind us as we walked out of the room.
Dimitri put an arm around my shoulders and smiled at me. "Well done."
I smiled back. "I should say the same for you. Now that everything's explained, I feel much better."
He agreed silently.
I hesitated.
"Is there something wrong?"
I looked at him. "it's not to late. I was thinking…"
He lifted an eyebrow.
"That I could go out of the wards for a moment. You know how I feel about that graveyard…if I could just get them to talk to me, especially Eddie….I'd feel as good as I can get right now."
He rubbed my arm. "Can you not do this in the morning? It's been a long day for you."
I laughed. "I've just spent three days in bed, Comrade. Do you really think I want to go back there just yet? Unless you're tired. I could go-"
"I'm going with you," he interrupted.
I smiled. "Thought you might want to. I just…need to see something. I just need to make sure Eddie's okay."
Without a word, we started to head towards the front of the court.
It was quite cold outside, but our Guardian jackets were more than enough to keep us warm. Well, that, and we had each other's body warmth.
I stopped walking when I saw the front of the gates, just a couple of hundred yards from us. Dimitri looked at me with concern.
I turned to him in a short panic. "What happened to Denis?"
He smiled. "He's undergone the DNA test. We're waiting for the results. Should bee any day now."
"Where is he?"
"He went back to Russia. After the DNA results confirm his true identity, he'll move into the court with us. The decree will be eliminated."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "that's good to hear. How is he, anyway? I mean, it must be tough for him, thinking all these years that he was Victor Dashkov's when he wasn't."
He shrugged. "I'm guessing he's taking it pretty well. I know him. If anyone can survive this, it's him."
I smiled and kept walking. "I knew he'd survive it, but…I don't know."
He rubbed my arm again. "You were concerned for him."
I nodded.
We reached the gates. Dimitri talked to the guard and convinced him to open the gates enough to let us through.
As soon as I passed the ward, the headache started to arrive, but it wasn't bad. A rush of wind past by me for a second, and I saw him. Eddie.
"Eddie…"
He looked sad, like all ghosts did, but I could tell he was happy to see me alive. The last thing he'd seen of me, I realised, was me jumping off the cliff.
"Are you okay?" I asked, a tear running down my cheek. I tried to swallow it down, but I didn't succeed. It dribbled down my cheek. "Are you happy, Eddie?"
He tried to smile, and he did, but it didn't look good on ghosts. He nodded, then looked behind him. There was a shining light behind him, and I could just make out Mason's etched face in the fog.
"You're with Mason." I smiled. "That's good."
He smiled, but it faltered. He pointed to me, and then tried to act out me falling off the cliff as best he could with his hands.
"I'm so sorry, Eddie. I didn't mean to scare you."
He shook his head. That wasn't what he meant.
He pointed to himself, then pointed towards the light behind him, before at me, then the ground he was hovering over.
Another tear leaked. "You were waiting for me."
He nodded.
I turned towards Dimitri, three tears now visibly running down my face. "He was waiting for me to join him."
Dimitri wiped the tears off my face before I returned to Eddie.
"I'm so sorry," I told him. "So, so, so sorry."
He nodded.
"Are you happy? Are you really happy? I need to know…"
He tried to smile again.
"Everyone joins eventually…" he whispered.
"What do you-"
But he was gone.
He was replaced by Victor.
I backed up towards Dimitri slowly, grabbing his hand and leading him back with me.
"What do you want?" I asked bitterly. "I win, why are you still here?"
"All people die."
He smirked, then, in his misty cloud, rolled towards me. I tried to move out of his way, but he was, after all, a ghost. He reached inside of me somehow, and made ever muscle in my body scream with pain.
Dimitri dragged me back, screaming instructions that I did not hear at the guard. When I was inside the wards, I stopped screaming. Every muscle relaxed, and I fell onto my hands and knees before lying down on my back.
"Rose?"
I gasped. "I'm…fine."
I sat up slowly with help from Dimitri.
"What is going on? What was that?"
I gulped. "Dashkov," I gasped. "He…he tried to…"
What exactly did he try to do? Sure, he made every bone in my body go completely berserk, but what was his goal?
I knew it. I didn't know how I did, but I did.
"He…he tried to kill me."
