Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.
I've been really trying to figure out what to write next ever since I read Silver Shadows. That book was incredible and better than anything I could have imagined! If you haven't read it DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER! There will be SILVER SHADOWS SPOILERS! You've been warned. Anyway, this was just a silly little scene that popped into my head that I figured I'd share.
(This chapter takes place as if the thing with Jill didn't happen at the end of SS.)
Again MAJOR MAJOR SILVER SHADOWS SPOILERS AHEAD!
It was the look on his face. That's how I knew that he was serious.
It wasn't that I thought Adrian incapable of being serious, but when it came to girls, well... I knew firsthand that he could get carried away whenever "love" was involved. Not that I didn't think Adrian had legitimately loved me at one point. I'd loved him too, just not in the way he'd wanted me to. But with Sydney...
Like I said, it was the look on his face that convinced me. He'd never looked at me like that. It was always sly smirks and suggestive glances. It was never wide-eyed looks of awe. And that's the only way I could describe the look he was giving Sydney as he twirled her across the dance floor. He was in awe of her, of every move she made, every word she said. He looked at her with a respect I'd barely ever seen him show anyone.
They were married, something most of the people here at Court thought of as despicable.
"That Ivashkov boy actually married a human."
"And I thought he'd already gotten as low as he could get when he dated that dhampir."
"You know Adrian. Always trying to outdo himself."
"He was probably drunk. I can't remember the last time I saw him sober."
Friends and strangers alike had been gossiping ever since the couple had shown up out of the blue yesterday, still dressed in their wedding clothes and holding hands in front of the Queen. It had caught me off guard just as much as it had Lissa, and I assumed it was some sort of scheme. Adrian and Sydney had clearly become friends during their time together in Palm Springs, and I knew Adrian would do anything for a friend. But marriage? It was the craziest thing he'd ever done, which was saying a lot, and it had everyone at Court in an uproar.
But Adrian claimed to love her. Not only that, but love her enough to want to marry her. And Sydney wasn't acting like this was part of some master plan either. She'd told that Alchemist guy that her name was Sydney Ivashkov now, held head high, like it was something she was proud of. So, I'd thought, maybe they are in love. But it was mind boggling to imagine two such drastically different people falling in love, enough to get married so young, after knowing each other for less than a year. It was something Adrian might do, but not Sydney. She wasn't spontaneous and careless the way Adrian was. She was a thinker, a worrier. She wouldn't just jump into a marriage without seriously considering it first.
I knew, logically, that whatever had happened between them must have been intense, but the last time I'd seen them they hadn't seemed closer than just friends. Adrian had been a little different. More serious, less impulsive. He'd dropped a few of his bad habits, but I'd thought maybe that had been for Jill. Sydney maybe seemed a little less stiff than she had when I first met her, but not enough that I could imagine her having an illicit romance with a Moroi! But last night she was smiling like I'd never seen her before. It was easy and relaxed and... content. But that could've been because she was safe and among friends.
That's why I'd asked them to go out with me and Dimitri tonight. Adrian had promised stories and I wanted stories. I wanted answers, an explanation. Because I could see how they were with each other, but I couldn't comprehend it. Not until I knew the details. And, boy, did I get details.
It seemed Adrian and Sydney had become quiet the duo out in California, with dozens of stories and secrets and inside jokes. Sydney was constantly touching him, his arm or his leg or his hand, like she needed to physically feel him beside her. I couldn't blame her, not after she told us about what it was like in reeducation. And Adrian was equally attentive to her, rubbing her back, offering to get her another cup of coffee when she'd finished hers. I listened to their stories, but mostly I just observed. It was difficult, because all I wanted to do was ask questions and get straight to the answers, but whenever I started to open my mouth Dimitri would squeeze my knee. It was his way of reminding me to give them their space. They didn't owe me every detail of their relationship, as much as I wanted it, and they were offering up more than was necessary. The thing that bugged me though, was how vague they were being about some of the details.
Details about Sydney and her newfound talent for magic.
Yeah, I know. Sydney could perform magic? Who would've thought? But, apparently she could and it nearly dropped my jaw when they told Lissa at a meeting earlier that afternoon, and then again tonight when they explained some of how they'd escaped from the Alchemists in Las Vegas. But, even with those details, they weren't giving me the ones I truly wanted. Like how she'd discovered this ability, and who had taught her the many spells she was apparently now capable of? Sydney explained that that was information the Alchemists had wanted from her and she felt uncomfortable sharing, even with friends, and I understood that. But it hurt a little. We were in a pretty crowded restaurant, but the music was loud enough that no one would have heard. Dimitri squeezed my knee again and threw me a soft smile to get me to stop pestering her about details or a demonstration.
Eventually Adrian stood, offering his hand to Sydney and tugged her out onto the dance floor. There weren't many people dancing since it was early, but they would have stuck out even in a crowd. They just looked like they belonged together, their every move completely in sync. I'd thought it the first time I'd seen them dance together at Sonya's wedding. A few people sitting at the bar turned to stare, and even one of the other couples on the floor stopped swaying to the music to watch the Moroi royal and his human wife. Neither Sydney nor Adrian looked like they noticed. Sydney's eyes were closed as she dropped her head to Adrian's chest, and Adrian wasn't looking anywhere but at her.
But that wasn't the face that convinced me that their love was the real deal. They'd told me their stories and I'd observed their interactions and knew they loved each other, that was obvious. But love, especially love when you're so young, doesn't always hold up. Especially not in marriage. My mother and father didn't make it, Dimitri's parents hadn't, Adrian's parents, even Sydney's parents had just gotten a divorce. I was still worried they'd rushed into this as a way to help Sydney escape the Alchemists and weren't actually ready.
But then the music changed to something a little more up tempo. Not a dance song, really, just a slow smooth pop song with a quicker pace than the song they'd been swaying to. Sydney grinned up at him, turning around and swinging her hips a little, having more fun then I'd once thought her capable of. Adrian wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning down as she reached back for him.
That's when it happened. Not the look, but the magic. Sydney turned her head and shot me a wink and then sparks, small golden flecks of light, began swirling near their feet, moving up and up and up, until the two were surrounded and glowing. Adrian grinned even harder and he let out a laugh as he spun her inside their own private bubble of light. Somewhere between the sparks, the music, and their laughter, every eye in the room fell on them. Sydney turned in his arms, leaning up on her toes until they were only inches apart, and that's when the look happened. A look of awe, of respect, of complete surrender, crossed Adrian's face and it was obvious.
Whether or not Adrian and Sydney had gotten married as a way to escape the Alchemists, whether or not they were far too young to make such an enormous decision, whether or not they were ready, they were together. And would remain together because their wasn't any other choice for them. I could see it in his eyes, in her smile, in the way they didn't kiss but instead whispered softly to each other, never losing eye contact.
When the sparks faded Sydney grinned again and stepped back, tugging his t-shirt with one hand, leading him back to our table. I couldn't help my grin and started clapping, and Dimitri followed suit. But what was crazy was that one of the other couples on the dance floor started to clap too. Then most of the room joined them. Sydney blushed a little, looking like she'd forgotten they were even in public, but Adrian, always a master of handling attention, smiled and nodded at a few people he probably knew.
"That was amazing," Dimitri smiled as they sat down in our booth.
"It was nothing," Sydney said, with a modest shake of her head. "Just a light show. It takes almost no effort at all."
"Well, it still impressed everyone," I told her, tipping my chin in the direction of the bar. Nearly everyone there was watching her, and it was no longer with looks of disdain or indifferent curiosity. Someone even had their phone out like they'd been recording the dance. With one little light show Sydney had, perhaps, just won over the Moroi population. "And it was totally awesome," I added with a smirk. "We're going to have to rent you out for parties."
"You should see her when she really does magic," Adrian laughed. "You want to talk about impressive."
"I'd like to see," a voice came from beside the table. A Moroi girl in a blue dress, about our age, was standing their smiling at Sydney. "That was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"Hey, Vanessa," Adrian greeted with a relaxed smile. It figured he'd know her, he seemed to know everyone. "This is Sydney, my wife. And that's Rose and her Russian ninja, Dimitri."
Dimitri tried to suppress a grin. He was growing fonder of Adrian's teasing, and Adrian seemed to be growing fonder of teasing him. Vanessa greeted us all and turned back to Sydney.
"I heard a rumor you were a magic user," she said.
"I forgot how fast news travels here," Adrian shook his head, but he still looked pleased that this girl was showing a genuine interest in Sydney.
"I've never heard of a human using magic," she went on, "but I think it's pretty cool. I'm a fire user, and I'm not sure I could have done that without one of the sparks smoldering something."
Sydney smiled and shook her head. "I've practiced a lot with fire," she explained, "but that was more just light than actual sparks. They couldn't have burned anything."
"You can use fire though?" Vanessa said, excitedly.
"What about water?" An older guy with dark hair, maybe thirty, stopped beside Vanessa. "Can you use water?"
"And air?" another girl chirped, coming to join the growing crowd by our table. She was shorter than the other two and had white blonde hair wrapped around her head in a braid. She looked younger than the others.
"Yeah," Sydney said, looking a little disconcerted, but not put off by their questions. "I can use all of the elements, and do a lot of other spells as well."
"Like what?" I couldn't help myself. She'd explained how she'd had to use fire magic to scare the Alchemists into letting Adrian go in Vegas and how she'd used an amulet to blow up a car, but I knew there was more she hadn't mentioned yet.
Sydney grinned, like she knew she was about to blow all of our minds. "I've used invisibility spells quite a bit."
Everyone, myself included—possibly even Dimitri though he didn't show it—was understandably impressed.
"I've seen that one, it's badass," Adrian joined in. That look was back in his eyes, total awe.
"Melting glass, sending projectiles flying, summoning a demon... A benign one," she added quickly when the chirpy air user took a quick step back. "Really more of a baby dragon, to be honest. You want to see him?"
Before she'd even finished speaking Adrian was digging around in his pocket for something. He pulled out a small stone figurine shaped like a dragon, just like Sydney said. "His name's Hopper," Adrian said, gently placing it on the table. "Don't freak out if he makes a god awful screeching sound. It just means he's hungry."
With that Sydbey scratched the statue under the chin and mumbled what must have been the demon summoning spell. And suddenly the statue wasn't a statue anymore. He was a tiny dragon, moving towards Sydney the way a baby seeks out it's mother. She cooed and pet him, before dropping a small helping of food off her plate and onto the table top for him.
"He's so cute!" Vanessa squeaked in a baby voice, leaning in to see. A few camera flashes went off and more people began crowding around. "Aren't you, wittle Hopper? Aren't jou just sho cute?"
She reached out to pet his tiny stone head and he mewled at the attention. He was pretty adorable, and I had to admit Vanessa wasn't far off with her sho cute baby talk. If she wasn't here I'd probably be doing the same thing. When more of the crowd began reaching for him Adrian snapped him back to the far end of the table, dropping him right on his plate so the little guy could eat in peace.
"He's hungry, he hasn't eaten a lot today," he explained diplomatically.
"And he's a demon? Like a real one? Are there more?"
Questions were coming from everywhere, but Sydney handled it admirably. "I haven't really studied any of that. A friend suggested this spell to me as a way to have advanced warning for danger or evil. She didn't mention that I'd be summoning a demon. So when Hopper showed up we weren't expecting it." She turned and grinned at Adrian. "He was terrified."
"We were terrified," he corrected. "I seem to recall you yelling at me to get it."
"And you pushed me in front of you!" she argued, but she smiling at the memory.
"Who wouldn't be scared?" Adrian said smoothly, spreading his hands in front if him. "Some little creature who used to be a rock comes running at you, screeching like a banshee?"
Vanessa all but gushed at the adorableness of the story and the two telling it. Yeah, Sydney and Adrian were definitely winning the crowd over. "So does he?" she asked. "Protect you from evil?"
"His screeching is an early warning if anyone dangerous is around and looking to hurt me," Sydney said.
"It's much like his hungry screech, only more ear piercing," Adrian murmured, stroking the tiny dragon as it ate the leftovers of his dinner.
Sydney rolled her eyes. "He actually put himself between me and someone who was attacking me once." She gave Hopper a smile, watching him devour the remains of Adrian's mashed potatoes. "He's a brave little guy."
"What else can you do?" the older water user asked. Adrian turned irritated eyes on the man, but didn't say anything. Even I wanted to tell the guy to back off, Sydney wasn't some sort of sideshow act. Surprisingly, it was Vanessa that said something to the guy.
"Have some respect!" she said. "She isn't here to entertain you, she's a person. Back off."
"Yeah, back off," a few others in the crowd chorused and the guy eventually did, the buzz and crowd dying down a little as he left. Eventually it was only Vanessa and the air user left.
"I'm Catherine," the girl introduced herself. "I know I don't know you guys, and I don't mean to be rude, but I just wanted to let you know I think it's brave what you did, getting married like that. And romantic."
"Very romantic," Vanessa agreed. "I'm having a party next week and I'd love to have you guys if you want to stop by. It'll be fun, and I'd love to get to know you, Sydney. I think it's cool all the stuff you can do." Her face suddenly turned a brilliant shade of red, for a Moroi anyway. "Not that that's why I'm inviting you. I just thought it would be nice since I know not many people have been very welcoming."
Sydney smiled. "It's okay. Thank you for the offer. We might stop by."
"Great!" Vanessa chirped. "I'll see you around sometime. I really would love to talk more about magic and stuff. I've been thinking about training more with my fire, it would be cool to see what you can do with it."
"Maybe," Sydney nodded, eliciting another squeal from Vanessa.
"Maybe I could come too?" Catherine asked shyly beside her.
"Human and Moroi magic aren't the same," Sydney explained. "I don't think I'll be able to give you any tips or anything."
"Oh, that's okay," Catherine said. "I don't really have many friends who are into practicing with me. Just having someone else around who wants to practice would be nice."
Vanessa was nodding along. "Yeah, me either. Most of my friends only want to use their magic for practical jokes and stuff."
"You guys should consider going to Christian Ozera's classes," I told them. "He thinks Moroi can do more with their magic than just lame tricks too."
The girls looked back and forth between each other before wincing a little. "I don't know if I'm ready for that," Vanessa said. "But if Sydney goes than I might consider it."
"I might go check it out," Sydney said, non-committaly. "We'll be here at Court for awhile, so we'll get together some time. Everything's just a little hectic right now."
"Oh, no! We totally understand, right Cat?" Vanessa said, giving the girl a sudden nickname. Cat looked surprised, but nodded. "Whenever you have time. We'll see you around."
With that the two girls smiled and left, back to their friends or dates or whoever they ditched to come speak to Sydney.
"I think you just met the founders of your fan club," I smirked at her across the table, causing Adrian to laugh.
"No, I'm the founder of her fan club. Jill's the Vice President," he joked. "I'm making shirts and everything."
Sydney gave him a shut up kind of look, but couldn't stop grinning. "I didn't mean to cause a scene, but it is nice knowing there are people here who see me as more than just a feeder."
"Hey," Adrian said quickly, a serious expression coming over his face as he grabbed her hand. "No one thinks that about you. I won't let anyone think that about you."
Sydney sighed, reaching for Hopper with her free hand. "You might be able to control minds, but you can't control public opinions. They'll think what they want to think, and I don't care." The little dragon curled up into her palm and she pulled her hand free to stroke its back, but her eyes were focused on Adrian's green ones. "I really don't care if they want to call me a feeder or a gold digger or if they want to praise me as a witch. I'm just happy I'm here and with you."
That was when he kissed her. And there was nothing shy or modest about it. The moment there lips touched it was like neither cared that they were in public or that me and Dimitri were sitting less than two feet away. The sparks that flew from the couple as they kissed were less tangible than the light show earlier, but just as obvious. Sydney distractedly placed the baby dragon on the table so she could wrap her arms around Adrian's neck and I pushed some of the food off my plate, feeling bad for the little guy.
But then a gentle squeeze on my leg distracted me from the kiss and the dragon. It wasn't on my knee this time, but a little higher up on my thigh. Just high enough that, after one look at Dimitri, Adrian and Sydney weren't the only couple at the table making sparks fly.