7. Other People's Secrets

(Sonya POV)

When I opened my eyes I was huddled in a high-backed leather armchair that sat in a corner of the private attic room. I'm not sure how long I'd been there, but I couldn't hear any sounds from the chapel below so I assumed that the church service was over.

Stretching out my arms in front of me to relieve the tension between my shoulder blades, I instantly noticed the blood under my fingernails. What? Again? I thought I'd been doing so well staying in control lately, but that last nightmare and the memory of being attacked when I was a student must have been enough to push me over the edge.

I reached up gingerly to touch the fresh scratches that raked down the sides of my face and neck. I knew it was messed up, but there didn't seem to be any other way to block out the anxieties that overwhelmed me. I let one finger play at the edges of the wound near my right ear, momentarily forgetting everything except the familiar sting as my raw flesh was exposed to the air.

A noise broke through my focus and I startled, hurriedly snatching my hand away from my cheek.

'Come on, Aaron,' a female voice teased. 'Father Andrew has already gone home – we've got the whole place to ourselves. Just imagine what we could do with nobody to see or hear us.'

There were a few muffled footsteps followed by a creak on the bottom stair and I panicked. Without thinking, a burst of energy pulsed through my fingers and I healed the wounds that had framed my face – if I was going to be discovered by two horny teenagers I didn't want them to find me in this state. Slipping through the open doorway, I hid behind a bookcase halfway along the balcony, waiting for my chance to escape.

'I don't know, Lissa,' the boy replied cautiously, resisting her attempts to drag him up the stairs. 'It's kind of weird getting it on in a church. Just come to my dorm – I know I can get you past the duty teacher.'

The girl let out an annoyed huff before relenting. 'Okay, but you owe me,' she pouted at him. 'I get to choose the music, and no rushing off afterwards to tell Ralf and Jesse all the details,' she commanded.

'Okay then, but only if you don't go off and discuss it with Rose either,' he retorted playfully, pulling her towards the exit.

'I would never…!' she looked at him with mock astonishment, defending her own sense of dignity with a solid punch to his arm.

'Liar,' he grabbed her hand and kissed it possessively as they walked out the door, and silence fell over the chapel once more.

So Vasilisa Dragomir was intimately involved with Aaron Drozdov, I mused. It wasn't the first royal romance to flourish on campus and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Headmistress Kirova did everything in her power to establish a sense of decorum among the students, but teenage hormones were rife in a place like this and love had a habit of finding a way. In the end it wasn't any of my business – their secret was safe with me.

I peeked over the balcony to double-check I was alone before walking quietly down the steps and heading back to my apartment. As I made my way across the school grounds, my mind wandered from the carefree teenagers in the chapel to a very different love affair I'd kept secret for so many years…

The night after my ordeal in the forest I'd woken with a horrible headache. I lay very still, allowing my mind to process what had happened before finally coming to a depressing realisation; there was nothing I could do.

I couldn't tell the Headmaster I'd been tortured by a bunch of moroi students when I had no injuries to show for it, and confronting Damian and his possie was the last thing I wanted to do. In fact, I never wanted to see his stupid, arrogant face again. All I did know was that somehow I now possessed some kind of magical superpower that had allowed me to bring myself back from the brink of death, and I didn't plan on letting anybody else know about it until I understood what was going on myself.

Maybe a good breakfast would make me feel a bit better? As I eased myself out of bed and threw on a robe, a soft noise from the other end of the room caught my attention. At first I thought it was Emily laughing in her sleep but as I crept closer to investigate I realised she was sobbing. Forgetting my own problems for a moment, I sat down on the bed beside her and reached out a hand to stroke away the hair that was plastered across her eyes.

'What's wrong, Em?' I asked gently.

She rolled over, pretending I wasn't there.

'I'm sorry about what I said earlier,' I soothed. 'If this is about the dress, I feel terrible. Please don't worry – I'll replace it as soon as I can, I promise.'

My words didn't have the desired effect and her shoulders began to shake uncontrollably. Okay, so this problem was bigger than the dress, I assumed. I slipped my feet under the blanket and wrapped an arm over her, holding her until the tears subsided.

'Don't cry Emily – it'll be okay. Just calm down and tell me what happened,' I pleaded with her, until she eventually found her voice again.

'It's not the dress, Sonya,' she choked out. 'I just don't think I can do it.'

'Do what, Em?' I asked carefully, feeling completely baffled. Emily was normally so outgoing and self-assured. She was beautiful, popular and intelligent, she'd just graduated top of her year from ballet school and she had an amazing career ahead of her. I was struggling to see the problem.

She took my hand and placed it on her stomach and I resisted the urge to pull my fingers back in shock as I felt the hard, round bulge just below her belly button.

'Oh my God,' I whispered quietly, and she rolled over to bury her face in my chest as she was overwhelmed by another wave of tears.

When it was finally over she looked up at me for the first time and I saw the helplessness in her eyes. 'What am I going to do?' she asked.

I felt completely unqualified to answer – I was seventeen and Damian Lazar was the only guy I'd ever been serious with. How was I supposed to give her advice?

'Whose is it?' I asked uncertainly, immediately regretting how rude the question sounded.

'You wouldn't believe me if I told you,' she shook her head as she moved to sit up with her back against the wall.

'I promise I won't tell a soul,' I swore, wiggling up to sit next to her. 'I can't guarantee I'll be any help, but you might feel better if you talk about it,' I suggested, sounding more convincing than I felt.

She looked across at me then down at her belly, placing her hands protectively over the bump before finally deciding to talk.

'It was an accident,' she began, lightly stroking her tummy. 'A few months ago I was dancing my regular shift at The Witching Hour to help with my college tuition fees and a guy came to my dressing room after the show. As soon as he knocked on the door all the other girls suddenly had somewhere else they had to be and I was left alone in the room with the stranger.'

'What did he want?' I asked her with a sense of morbid curiosity.

'I think he just wanted to talk,' she replied, shrugging her shoulders. 'He bought me a drink and congratulated me on my solo, then asked about my dancing career and what I planned to do when I graduated – all pretty standard stuff.'

Emily fiddled nervously with the edge of the blanket as she moved on to the next part of the story.

'And then the conversation took an unexpected turn. He told me how lucky I was to have my whole life ahead of me – he'd just lost both of his parents and nothing made sense anymore. Then he touched my hair and kept saying how beauty belongs to the young. I felt so sorry for him but I didn't know what to say so I just reached up and kissed him to make him stop talking.'

'Oh, Emily,' I chided gently.

'What?!' she snapped, obviously embarrassed to admit what she'd done.

'Sorry, keep going,' I apologised hastily.

'Well, you can pretty much guess the rest,' she grumbled, avoiding making eye contact with me. 'When it was over he rested his head on my shoulder like he was a little child, then he looked at his watch and was suddenly in a hurry to get out of there.'

'He just left you?' I exclaimed in horror. 'What a bastard!'

'He said "sorry for everything" and hot-footed it without even telling me his name,' she replied.

'So did you ever find out who he was?' I asked her curiously.

'That's the unbelievable part,' she said, her voice dropping to a whisper as she looked at me meaningfully.

'Well?' the anticipation was killing me.

'Eric Dragomir,' she mouthed.

'Who?' I asked, not quite making out the words.

'Eric Dragomir,' she hissed a little louder, and I clamped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from crying out in shock.

'Prince Eric Dragomir?' I squeaked. 'Married with two children, head of the Dragomir royal line, Eric Dragomir?'

'Sssh,' she hushed me, nodding vigorously as she watched the penny drop.

'Okay… so what are your options?' I asked, trying to calm myself down as I realised how big this was. This wasn't just a dancing career ruined by an illegitimate baby – if this news got out it would be a royal scandal.

'Well, when I found out I was pregnant I had to tell my boss at The Witching Hour. She made some discreet enquiries and figured out who the father was. The next day I found a package on the doorstep of my college dorm.'

She got out of bed and rummaged around in the bottom of her suitcase, bringing out a small parcel and tipping its contents onto the covers. I reached out and picked up a passport with Emily's name on it and a one way plane ticket tucked inside the front cover. Behind that was a single sheet of paper marked with an ornate letterhead that read 'Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris', with the words 'LETTER OF OFFER - 12 MONTH SCHOLARSHIP' written in bold underneath. And finally there was a legal document that I didn't really understand, except for the blank space next to the words 'Next of Kin'.

I looked down at the pile of papers trying figure out what it all meant.

'So the Prince has organised for you to go overseas to have the baby so nobody will find out, under the guise of a ballet scholarship?' I asked to be sure.

She nodded grimly.

'And what's this for then?' I frowned down at the legal document, still confused.

'That's where you come in,' she said in a hushed voice. 'Eric wanted to acknowledge the baby as a Dragomir but I told him I didn't want my child to be dragged into a royal scandal - I can't bear the idea of those vicious royals at Court shaming my baby as a bastard and labelling me a home-wrecker. In the end the prince agreed that it would be best to keep our child a secret in order to protect his family from negative attention, but he still insisted on providing ongoing financial support.'

Emily's hand was shaking slightly as she reached out to the document on the bed, pushing it closer to me. 'Eric has set up a secret bank account for the baby - if you sign this form you will become the baby's legal next of kin, and when you turn eighteen you will have access to the bank account that will provide for my child's future,' she looked up at me with a hopeful, urgent expression. 'Will you do it Sonya? Can you keep the secret, no matter what, and help me make sure my baby has a chance at a normal life?' she pleaded.

I paused for only a second.

'Just let me get a pen,' I met her eyes steadily, glad that even if my own life was a mess there was one small thing I could do to stop Emily's life from falling to pieces.

…The sudden sensation of falling snapped me back into reality and I narrowly escaped tripping face-first into a garden-bed of thorned roses as I arrived back at the moroi staff accommodation wing. When I'd regained my balance, I laughed sarcastically as a thought struck me; I may not be capable of functioning as normal adult but, between my magic, Emily's love child and the kids in the chapel, there was one thing I was damn good at – keeping secrets.

Author's Note:

It was fun to imagine how Emily & Eric would have dealt with an unexpected royal love-child. There were lots of clues in the books, but I've added a few extra details that I hope you like. Thank goodness they had Sonya 'The Vault' Karp to hide their little secret!

Did you like the moment with Lissa & Aaron in the chapel? I thought it would be funny if Aaron was the prude in the relationship & Lissa was the demanding one!