CHAPTER SEVEN

Dimitri POV

The train ride to St. Basils found me overthinking every aspect of my situation. I agreed to take part as a mentor during these unprecedented trials for a change in scenery and to try to de-complicate my life and now . . . I have no idea what's going to happen. Will I meet this beautiful and sharp woman on this train ride? At the school, is she an instructor? After I return home to England?

Do I want to return to England?

This trip was to clarify and one thing is for sure. I can't run away from what I saw but I also can't sit by as it happens.

But I am one man. A dhampir. He is a king and my best friend. Or at least I thought he was my best friend. To his knowledge he still is, having no idea I witnessed him making deals with the devil.

I shake away the thought before I could get lost in it. I need to vet what I heard before getting too carried away.

Before long we arrive at the train station and I head over to the pick up zone, knowing instantly who is here to escort me to St. Basils.

"Dimitri, my man, it's been too long!" I let myself show a rare grin and embrace Spiridon, an old friend from our time back at the academy.

"It's great to see you, last I heard you were working as one of King Dashkovs Guardians."

"Yeah, but you know me, I get restless. Come on, let's head to campus. I don't want to miss the meeting where the novices find out the rules."

"Oh, it's going to be a bloodbath," I laugh, excited to see the show as well. As we drive to the academy, catching up, I let myself enjoy the weight lifted from shoulders and the small opportunity to be normal for a while before having to go back into Guardian mode.

"Is there a list of participants yet?" I ask.

Spiridon shakes his head, "No, since they don't want the students or faculty knowing ranks outside of their top five for the first trial as much as possible, everything is being kept hush hush, names, ages, nationality, you name it."

"Hmm, interesting."

"Although rumors are going around about a few . . ."

"Such as?"

Spirdion grins again, "You know me, Dimitri, I'm not a gossip."

I laugh out loud, calling bullshit on that but drop it nonetheless, not too interested anyways. I'll see for myself who they are and what they're about.

ROSE POV

Anticipation shoots through my body as we touch down on the tarmac, and I look at the window to see four other planes with Dhampires unloading.

"Is everyone set to arrive today?" I ask Alberta.

She looks out from her side and shrugs, "I'm not sure, but I do know due to the trials and the crowds it's drawn, we almost weren't allowed to land due to congestion on the tarmac."

Thank god that didn't happen, I can't wait to get out and stretch my legs.

"You said crowds?" Eddie asks through a yawn.

Alberta nods, "Yes, their battle arena is massive, could easily accommodate thousands of people, so anyone is welcome to come and watch."

I find myself unsure how to feel about that. I'm not too cool for school that the thought of impressing a crowd doesn't feel awesome but . . .

"This is starting to feel more like it's going to be a popularity contest," I whisper to Alberta.

She eyes me knowingly.

"I'm afraid you might be more right than any of us knows."

I let out a shaky breath and pack away my stuff, as the others begin to exit the plane.

When it's just me and Bert she grabs a hold of my elbow and pulls me into her side and speaks quietly.

"You, my dear, have an enigmatic bravado that endears you to people and on top of that you are drop dead gorgeous. It's easy to root for you."

I smile at my godmother and go to speak but she cuts me off.

"—You can also be a huge, annoying pain in the fucking ass, and most of the spectators are probably going to be locals that won't take too kindly to disrespectful foreigners so please for the love of god do not make any enemies and don't —."

"Bert!" I interrupt, "Please, trust me, I have a plan. I know what I'm doing."

She purses her full lips and nods once and heads towards the exit.

"And don't forget that I'm your huge, annoying pain in the fucking ass so maybe try being a little nicer to me, Kay?"

I step out and am hit in the face with a gust of sharp wind and the sun shining in my eyes. I breathe deeply and bask for a moment to be out in fresh air and not the cabin that was beginning to get stuffy.

"Okay, Rose, you got this." I whisper to myself.

Black SUV's, a staple of Moroi living, are waiting for us and we're told our luggage will be handled and we're taken to the dorms where we will be staying. The Guardian taxing us welcomes us with a curt nod.

"Welcome to St. Basils, I am Guardian Popov, I would recommend to not unpack completely, you'll only be staying in the dorms for tonight and will transfer over to the guest cottages tomorrow."

"Why?" Mikhail asks first.

"You'll be instructed further when the time comes."

Great non-answer, bro.

The academy is only about half a mile from the private tarmac and I found myself looking at the scenery with a sense of homesickness. We might have been in Siberia but it honestly looks exactly like the road leading to St. Vlads with lush green forests hugging us as we travel the winding road to the campus.

"Holy Sh-" I stop myself before letting the full word out but it's hard when St. Basils comes into view. St. Vlads is nothing to scoff at with beautiful gothic architecture but this is that on crack. Easily five times the size and even more ornate with a wrought iron front gate taller than some of the trees and gargoyles perched all throughout the buildings.

Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe the . . . majesty of it.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful," Meredith says softly, "Not even the Queen's castle."

I don't reply but agree completely.

Our line of cars is stopped at the gate by another guardian that does a quick search of the cars and lets us pass without much fuss.

I expected us to be given a tour and class list but instead I'm escorted to my dorm for the night and told I'll be sharing with a junior girl due to shortages and I hold in a sigh, not happy about it but smart enough to keep my mouth shut.

You're a guest here, Rose, and your every move is being monitored don't forget that.

We arrive at the absolute furthest dorm on the left wing and Guardian Orlov knocks sharply at the door. Almost immediately a girl slightly taller than me with golden brown hair throws open the door with a huge grin on her face.

"Oh my god, Hi, I'm Viktoria, I'm so excited to meet you!" Before I could respond to her shouting, im pulled into a very unexpected bear hug by the very hyper Russian girl.

"Uh, yeah, hi," I can't help but snort, kinda amused by her, "It's really nice to meet you too, thanks for letting me crash for the night."

"Oh, totally, when I heard one of the American girls needed a room I volunteered!" She turns to Guardian Orlov, "I can take it from here, Guardian, thank you!"

My arm is practically pulled from my socket as Viktoria pulls me into the pretty decent sized dorm room with two twin beds on opposite sides. I'm shocked to see there's a bathroom with a tub and everything in her dorm. It feels very lived in, but in a good way.

"I'm sorry if i'm being a little too much, but you have no idea how excited we all are!"

I laugh and shake my head, setting my bags down. "No, not at all, I was expecting everyone to hate us on sight."

Viktoria chuckles and looks at me sheepishly. "To be honest you probably will be by a few people, but I'm so excited to see what everyone can do! And I've always wanted to go to America, I have so many questions!"

I laugh again, surprising myself. I usually would be annoyed by someone so . . . happy, but my gut is telling me that this girl is alright and so I listen. Instead of being annoyed I find myself flattered that she obviously finds me cool for the fact alone that I'm American and hoping I can live up to her expectations.

"I have a lot of questions, too, I've never been to Russia before."

She squeals and jumps up and down.

"This is going to be so awesome! Tell me everything! Are there any cute boys with you? What did you rank?"

"Well, actually, there are three cute boys in my class, and sorry they don't want us revealing our ranks, the first Trial is supposed to be blind."

"OMG, are they single?"

I laugh, "Most definitely single, I'll introduce you to them, you can have first pick."

"Yes!"

I settled in and get all my stuff for my night routine out. I usually take a shower and then do my hair and skin care, Viktoria is curious about all the products so I let her use some like my hair oil and moisturizer.

"Wow, this stuff for sure has to be the best, you have the most beautiful hair i've ever seen."

I smile, shyly, "Thanks, I love yours as well, the color is gorgeous."

I find out she's from a small village called Baia and has three older siblings and loves American pop culture.

"Have you ever met celebrities?"

"Ha! No, not even close. I grew up mostly at the academy in rural Montana. Unless you count cattle as celebrities?"

Talking with Viktoria is easy and fun and we chat until I'm unable to keep my eyes open and we wish each other goodnight.

I fall asleep easily, eager for a new day to begin.

After only about five hours of sleep, Viktorias alarm goes off, startling me out of my very weird dream that I can't even remember anymore.

"Are you hungry?" Viktoria asks through a yawn, "the cafe isn't open for breakfast quite yet but I know a way in."

"Actually, I was planning on going for a run to shake off this jet lag and then shower before the school day starts. Could you show me the race track?"

"Oh, yeah, for sure, dude!"

I unpack some workout clothes grinning through my sleep haze at her saying 'dude' in her thick Russian accent.

Once I'm ready in my favorite pair of black leggings, sports bra and lightweight zip up hoodie and ultra boosts, we head out and Viktoria, or Vika as she said I can call her, takes me on a mini tour while walking to the track. She points out the main offices, cafeteria and chapel, giving explanations when necessary.

We pass by quite a few students getting an early start to their day, mostly dhampir and I find myself inspecting all the guys. Sure most of them are really fit and cute but no one jumps out at me as being like . . . the ultimate love of my life material. Not that looks is everything but by the way Rhonda spoke I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's probably going to be hotter than hell.

"There's the gym and that building on the side connected to it is the dedicated weight room. I'm meeting a friend for breakfast so I'll show you the rest later, have a good run!"

"Thanks, Vika, I really appreciate it."

"Anytime, dude!"

Oh lord, she is adorable.

I head to the bleachers right along the track and set my water bottle down, put my headphones on and stretch until I feel my limbs that had been inactive for way too long start to loosen. Once I felt ready I started my laps as the sun began to set, mentally preparing myself for a long three months.

After running about five miles I see more and more people walking around the campus and decide it's best to head back and shower so I'm not late for the meeting being held for all us competitors.

It's easy to see who is a guest like myself as opposed to a St. Basils student by the lack of school uniform and I wonder to myself if we were supposed to be given one already. As much as I would love to live in my workout clothes because that would mean I only had to do the training part of school, this is being treated as if we are exchange students and our grades will transfer.

I re-find Viktorias dorm easily enough and let myself in, ignoring the looks and whispers I'm receiving.

I grab my phone to try calling Lissa but remembered that we're in completely different time zones so instead I settle for sending a voice memo through text so that she can reply whenever she's able.

I tell her about Queen Tatianna and seeing her dad, as well what I know so far about the trials. I leave out Rhonda and her fortune telling, not quite ready for anyone else to know, especially if it doesn't pan out. After, I hop into the shower and let the hot water do its job on my sore muscles and wash the plane ride off of me.

Once clean and feeling more prepared to face what's next I wrap myself in a towel and exit the bathroom back to the connected room to get some clean clothes, still amazed by the fact that Viktoria has a conjoined set up. I struggle to decide what to wear seeing as again we weren't given uniforms. I decided to put on basically the same thing, all black work gear because if we do anything physical today I'm not gonna want to be in jeans.

I check myself out in a floor length mirror hanging on the door to the bathroom making sure my hair looks okay, seeing as I'm letting it hang in loose waves down my back instead of putting it back in a pony.

"Not bad." I whisper to myself and then scrunch up my nose and unzip my skin tight hoodie to show a little bit more cleavage propped up from my sports bra.

"Much better," I grin and head back out to the gym for the meeting.

Stepping out of the room this time feels very different. I'm surrounded by students staring at me, whispering, not attempting at all to pretend they're not gossiping about me.

That's fine, if they want a show, I'll give them a show.

I make sure to add an extra sway to my hips and show them they don't faze me. I make no apologies for being the baddest bitch in the room, never have, never will.

I thankfully make it back to the gym without having to ask for directions and try to find a familiar face in the crowd of people here for the same reason as me, all of them dressed in workout clothes as well, but no luck.

I was worried about where I was supposed to sit when I got in the gym but once I was able to enter I saw I was in fact worrying for nothing. Each school had their name on a sign showing us where we needed to be and I saw Alberta and the rest of our top Five already standing under it. As I make my way over I look over to the stands and am surprised to see them full of plan clothed people. Mostly dhampirs, but some Moroi as well.

"Who are all the people in the stands," I ask when I get to my group.

Alberta answers, "Family of the competitors mostly. I wasn't joking when I said this is going to draw huge crowds, but for today it's just family and friends."

I stand in between Mason and Alberta and take my first look at my competition.

At a preliminary glance I see mostly males, which is unsurprising, but noteworthy.

"Not many females in the top five."

"I've only counted seven so far, not including you and Meredith. None so far with two in one school."

I nod, continuing my scan of the room and finding myself feeling bad about my comment to Meredith before we left St. Vlads about her barely making it. She did make it, which is what is important. I almost want to apologize to her but . . . she's such a rude fucking bitch.

I take note of some of the school guardians standing on the walls throughout the gym but don't pay too much attention. It's not them, I'll be fighting. My attention shifts to the challengers, clocking the average size and build of everyone, almost all of the guys trying to look as big and ripped as possible, posing so obviously it makes me want to laugh.

"Man these guys are desperate." I scoff at Mason, and immediately roll my eyes when I see him and Eddie doing the same fake macho pose, feet spread, arms folded across their chests but slightly out to make it seem like their pecs are bigger than they are.

"Yeah, totally." Mase mocks completely blind to his own bullshit. I glance at Mikhail, not the biggest guy by a long shot but one of the more comfortable in his skin with a new appreciation.

Before too long a stocky woman with close cropped hair takes to the podium in the middle of the gym and calls for everyone's attention.

"Everyone please settle in." I'm surprised to hear her speak in English at first but then remembered that most of us are from English speaking countries so it makes sense she would compensate for those of us that don't speak Russian. We'll those of them that don't speak Russian, but I'll be keeping that little tidbit to myself, thank you very much.

"My name is Guardian Galina Minkoff and I am the head Guardian here at St. Basils, I'd like to thank all of you that have traveled far distances to be here. I'm sure all of you are eager to begin so please make sure you are with your school and we will go over procedures.

"We will be passing out a slip of paper and a pencil. You will write your full name and rank without showing anyone, student or Guardian included. Do not forge your rank or you will be disqualified. Today will be your first trial."

Guardian Minkoff looks at all of us, her face as stoic as a Guardian gets and a shiver goes through my spine.

"Your name will be randomly selected as well as your opponents and you will face off one on one. You all are used to certain rules while sparring." She pauses, seemingly making sure we're paying close attention.

"Rules such as no hitting above the neck and if you are pushed out of bounds you restart. I want you all to forget these rules. From here on out you win by knocking your opponent out cold. You win by any means necessary."

I can feel my eyes light up and the breath I didn't know I was holding rush out as chatter begins up. Some people are moaning that that's not fair, while some, the cockier of the guys, are laughing and high-fiving. I even think I hear Meredith whisper, "oh no."

Me? I'm as stoked as the cocky guys but I'm hiding it. They don't need to know what I'm thinking.

"Silence." Galina commands, expertly, and we all listen.

Our group is handed the small slips of paper and pencils by a female Guardian with a severely slicked back ponytail that is obviously her go to seeing as her hair line is almost to the crown of her head.

I write my name, Rosemarie Hathaway, down quickly and as cleanly as I can, seeing as I only have my palm to use as a surface and am startled as Alberta gently nudges my arm. I look at her and she slightly nods her head to the left side of the bleachers. It takes me a few seconds to see what she wants me to, but once I do a huge smile breaks out on my face, ruining my I-don't-give-a-fuck-about-anything mistique.

"No fucking way," sitting there grinning back at me is none other than Abe Mazur, Turkish gangster extraordinaire.

. . . Who for some reason is trying to play charades with me, by miming writing on the paper and then pointing to himself.

I look at him confused and mouth "what?"

He points at the paper again and after minute I realize he's mouthing "Mazur."

Realization dawns on me, he wants me to add his last name. To most a name wouldn't be a big deal . . . but his tells a whole different story.

I had it a lot better than most in our society, having a relationship with both my dhampir mother and Moroi father, most Moroi never claim their bastard dhampir children, but mine did. But with the type of work my father did, I knew very early on to not flaunt who I was the daughter of. Not that it was a complete secret but especially when I was younger, cautious took on a whole other meaning.

But I know my Baba well, and him being here, along with all the other warnings I've been given about these trials . . . he's telling me I need a showing of strength.

Of course he would know all of the shady shit happening behind this competition. It pays to be a flashy, Turkish gangster.

I hyphenate my last name and add a big fat #1 to show my rank and fold my slip, adding it to the opaque black bowl when it came around.

The bowl is taken back to Galina and she addresses us once more.

"Most of you will be full fledged Guardians soon. There will be no ground rules protecting you from injury when you are facing Stigoi out in the real world, so there will not be any now. Furthermore," She pauses for what feels like dramatic effect, "The loser of your match up today will be permanently eliminated and will be sent back to your home academy. Only 25 will move on today after scoring two knockouts!"

"Holy fucking shit," I can't help it, it slipped out . . . oh my god, this just got . . . really fucking . . . I don't even have words. I've been ordered by the Queen and begged by Lissa's father to win and now I'll be sent home packing on the very first day if I'm not good enough . . . what if I'm not?

I feel Alberta purposely brush up against my arm ever so gently to not make it obvious as cries of outrage from novices and family alike over take the room.

I look at my father and see his eyes harden but still filled with his always present mirth and nods his head; telling me I can do this.

And I can, I fucking know I can.

Any thoughts of doubt are evicted from my head with a big ass middle finger.

"Alright, no going back now." I whisper to myself.

AN: Please review!