At that point, I didn't know what to respond.

Don't hold your breath. Don't. Don't. I don't want you to.

So that meant that Adrian no longer wanted to keep his thoughts to himself now?

To my gratitude—and disappointment—the door opened, revealing a Dhampir guardian.

"Guardian Hathaway and Lord Ivashkov, you may."

As Adrian and I stepped into the room, a memory passed through his mind.

It was the memory of him and Jill yesterday, when he came to try to heal her. From Adrian's eyes, I saw how different Jill looked. Her hair was all messed up and her green eyes—though still beautiful as ever—were dilated.

Curiosity and intelligence no longer lurked behind those lovely eyes of her. Instead, there was a whole lot of darkness. She whimpered, as if wanting to break free. Her eyes rested on Adrian but weren't focused on him. He took both of her hands, only to find that her fingers were swollen.

"Jill. It's me, Adrian. Hey."

She snapped out of it. "Adrian?"

Witnessing this scene, I couldn't help but notice how this paralleled what Adrian did not a day ago when he was drunk. He snapped out of whatever the hell he was thinking when he heard my name. Jill did the same thing when she heard Adrian's name.

"Yeah. I came to see you, Jill. Jill."

I noticed how Adrian didn't use her old nickname, Jailbait.

He started distracting her. He was talking to her whilst simultaneously using his magic to heal her. Slowly but surely he began to feel the effects of spirit magic-using. His finger tips where he touched her felt warm. His chest started to flutter, and then—

And then it stopped. He blinked several times and tried again.

This time, he didn't bother to even use 'distractions'. He put all of his effort and concentration. Then the feeling blossomed again for a little while. And then again, it was gone. On and on he tried, but all the results were the same.

Adrian snapped out of that flashback scene and so did I.

I stumbled backwards slightly, adjusting to the surroundings. I was just about to see if Adrian noticed that I saw what he remembered, until I realized he wasn't at all paying attention to me, but to who was in front of us.

Jill.

Sitting on the bed, smiling, healthy as ever.

"Jill?"

"Adrian!" she gave the biggest, most beautiful smile and stood. She looked as if she was conflicted about whether or not he wanted her to hug him.

Seeing that Adrian started walking towards her whilst gaping, she seemed to push away her hesitation and towards him she ran. They met in the middle and embraced, his arms thrown around her neck.

Gratitude and relief filled Adrian. He was drinking the feelings in, breathing it, savouring it.

Later, when I laid on my bed, replaying the day's scenes over in my head, it came to my realization that not only did Adrian's relief wash away his weariness, it also washed away mine.

But as his positive emotions dimmed down, I discovered, however, that a new emotion arouse; regret.

Regret? Over what?

Then the image of the girl with the black hair and green eyes reappeared his mind again.

The Iordach girl.

Then it all clicked in my head.

Adrian mentioned that he was indeed close with this black haired girl, and earlier we found out that she suffered the same disease as Jill, and that was her cause of death.

Adrian felt remorse—regret—because he thought that if Jill could heal, that meant that the Iordach could have survived too.

Adrian's chest ached, he wondered if there would come a time when he is able to think of his long lost friend without feeling like his old wound was cut open again.

Probably not, he thought.

I was still by the door, my feet planted on the ground.

Adrian broke away from the embrace and searched for Jill's face, all the while asking in a low tone over and over again whether she was completely sure she was okay.

Jill and Adrian exchanged a few more words, until she noticed me for the first time.

"Rose!"

I closed the door behind me and walked towards them.

"Welcome back to the land of the conscious, Princess," I grinned.

She moaned, "God, come here, you." She pulled me in for a half-embrace. I couldn't help but notice Jill's drastic change in attitude. She was no longer the shy girl who freaked out over talking to my friends and I anymore.

Adrian touched Jill's arm softly. "How exactly were you cured, Jill? I tried everything... My magic didn't work. If magic couldn't heal you, what did?"

Jill's smile faltered. "Well, the doctors ran some tests and they realised they were overlooking the situation. It wasn't anything supernatural nor extraordinary. I got measles."

"Measles? Ha. Ha. Funny. You're joking, right?"

"What makes you think I am?"

"Jill. That is a very human disease. We are Moroi. We don't get measles."

"Well, that is what the doctors told me. You can get affected by it from touch—"

"Hold on—"

"—So I must've caught it, maybe from a human?—"

"For goodness' sake, Jill, you almost died! Jesus! Measles? What kind of bullshit are the doctors feeding you?" Adrian half-shouted.

"In fact, in some cases, it can actually cause unconsciousness—"

"What game are you playing, Jill?" That was Lissa. We didn't notice she entered the room. She must had listened to our conversation. She had an expression of disbelief. "You're not the one being fed lies, are you, little lady? You're the one feeding them."

Hurt and shock was written all over Jill's face. "Game? Lies? What are you implying? Instead of patronizing me like you all are, can't you just be happy for me, with me for my recovery?" Jill looked enraged by then.

Jill opened her mouth to say something else, but thought better and instead simply exhaled and said, "You know what, I'd like you all out of here."

"Wh—"

"You heard me. I would like it if you all leave, thank you very much." She gained her composure. "And I would be pleased to see my mother and father," she gave a sweet smile.

Lissa took a big step towards her. "Listen, sister, I smell something very fishy here. If anyone thinks they can hide anything from the Court, they're very, very wrong."

With that, Lissa stomped out of the room, followed by a guardian, leaving Adrian and I very bewildered.

Eventually, we both left Jill to her own devices. We caught up with Lissa, demanding to know what the hell that was all about.

"I've never seen you snarl at someone like that! Yesterday you had tears in your eyes thinking Jill would die, and now you basically spit on her using words. What. Happened?"

"I'll show you."

We were led to Lissa's room and I saw pretty much the same people as yesterday. Doctors, a couple Moroi... And Dimitri.

He looked up when Lissa mentioned my name. "Will someone here pass me a copy of the test results? I would like to show it to Lord Ivashkov and Guardian Hathaway. Yes? Okay. Uh-huh. Alright. Rose? Come here, will you?" she waved us over.

I tried to catch Dimitri's eyes whilst walking across the room, but there were too many people passing by and when I did see him again, he had already immersed himself in whatever he was doing earlier.

Adrian and I found ourselves looking at prints of blood test results and various other print-outs.

A middle-aged Moroi doctor spoke up. "You see, Guardian, this, right here, is the Princess' test results. You see this chemical right here, contained in her blood? Up until Queen Vasilisa volunteered to give her blood sample, we hadn't learnt that this is only produced in the bodies of spirit-users, like the Queen, and also yourself, my lord," he looked at Adrian. "This is a revelation, you see, as the Princess hasn't specialised in her school yet."

"So that means Jill is a spirit-user? No. Can't be. She doesn't have a golden aura." Adrian passed me a message through the bond, spirit-user. Same as Adela. I think we're really seeing a pattern here.

I shot a confused look at him. HUH? I thought, as if the bond went both-ways and he could hear my thoughts.

The girl whose filed I showed you? Did you forget or what? He shot back a credulous look as if to say, DUH?

Then I gave him an OHHH! look and widened my eyes. In my mind, I was like, you're the one who forgot that you haven't told me her first name yet. DUH back.

Adela. So that was the mysterious girl's name.

For a second I wanted to laugh at the credulity of our one-way 'telepathy' conversation. I could see a small smile creeping up Adrian's lips as well.

But then I felt Lissa's glare from the corner of my eye. When I turned to look at her, she was already shifting her focus to the doctor.

"That was what I told the doctors too. Her aura has always been of soft, pastel colours. Calm, soft ones."

"Is it possible... That she has been using compulsion to conceal her true colours all this time, just as Avery Lazar did? No. Can't be, right?" Adrian looked at Lissa and I. "Come on. It's Jill we're talking about. Our Jill."

"People surprise you, Adrian," Lissa simply stated.

"It's. Not. Possible. Do you know how hard it is to do that? To summon up enough energy to do compulsion like that? It takes years of practice. Not to mention one would go absolutely mental to play with spirit magic in such a large scale, in such a young age. What is she? 14?"

"Or else..." I said.

"Or else what?"

"Or else, someone else did the compulsion for her."

"That would still be impossible, Rose. That means the person has to be with Jill everytime we're with her."

"True, but what if, the person doesn't have to be there at all? What if, he or she simply has to compel you and Lissa to remember that her aura isn't of golden colour. Like, altering your memories. And also compel you to always see other colours other than gold on her aura. Is that impossible?"

"That theory makes more sense. That would also explain why her aura stayed dull-coloured even when she was unconscious. It would still need a massive amount of power, though, Rose. If who we're dealing with is able to alter the mind of a spirit-user... Well, he could basically play with everybody's heads."

Silence fell.

I finally said, "You know what, uh, actually, now I'd like to think my theory is wrong."

Adrian and Lissa bobbed their heads, nodding.

Later, however, we all discovered that my theory, in fact, wasn't wrong.

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review of what you think of this chapter/the whole story. Fav/follow if you like it? :)

Also, apologies for not updating this fic for a fairly long time; I've been busy due to personal business. I'll try to update more frequently, but I can't promise anything. Feel free to PM me whatsoever, though!

Till the next chapter, then.

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