Rose's POV

Whenever I had dreamt of reuniting with Dimitri, it had looked a whole lot different than the reality I'd experienced a few minutes ago. I'd imagined a tight embrace and tears and smiles and 'I missed you's, but none of that had happened. How could it have? How could I have possibly focused on anything else when, for all I knew, Christian could have been dead – possibly because of him.

At least I now knew that he wasn't. That, I could believe. Of course, that wasn't the whole story. Dimitri was still hiding something, and I would be damned if I didn't find out what it was. Eventually. For now, I had little choice but to follow his orders as my superior. He showed me the guardians' lounge first, where I had recognised a few faces from my time here. They'd seemed surprised to see me, too, but we didn't linger long enough for anyone to ask any questions. As we walked through the rest of the building, he barely spoke, only pointing out the rooms I'd have to remember. It was as though he didn't want to speak to me, which was unsurprising but just as infuriating. Years ago, I would have tried to start a conversation by provoking him. I had half a mind to do it now, but decided against it, opting to subtly stare at him instead. Now that I knew I wasn't going to get any more information out of him at this moment, I finally had the time to take it all in.

He was older now, but he had aged like fine wine. I wouldn't have expected anything else, really. I wondered if he thought the same of me, or if my age had made me less attractive to him. Not that it mattered at this point. We'd never formally broken up – promises of forever had been made just before he'd left Court with Christian – but we'd never expected to be apart for so long. A lot could happen in nearly a decade. A new thought crossed my mind – one I really, really didn't want to dwell on.

I'd never even considered being with another man, not with Dimitri being the only one I had ever truly been with, and I wouldn't have had the time, either way. But could the same be said for him? I'd thought protecting Christian would have been a 24/7 job, too, but he clearly wasn't doing so right now. Had he had the time for romantic dalliances? Or more, even? Would he have done something like that while I had done nothing but wait for him? I wanted the answer to be no but, the truth was, I couldn't possibly know. While he had been my first, last, and only, he would have had women before me. Eight and a half years was a long time. I tried to push the thought aside, but it kept creeping up on me.

"I can practically hear you thinking, Rose," Dimitri sighed when we reached the main entrance again. My heart stopped for a moment, worrying he had truly guessed my thoughts. "There's nothing you can do to find him, and there's no way that I will tell you."

Oh, thank God. Back in his office, I'd had the impression he was still as adept at reading me as ever. It seemed that wasn't quite true anymore. "If you say so."

"I know so," he said, but he didn't sound quite as convincing as he probably thought he did. He watched me, seemingly contemplating something, then said, "I suppose I don't need to show you around much so I will be getting back to my other responsibilities. I expect you to report for duty at the front gate. Guardian Alto has been picking up some extra shifts the last couple of days and could use some rest."

He had to be kidding. A shift at the front gate sounded ridiculously boring. With the new school year still over a week away, we probably wouldn't even encounter all that many parents who came to drop their kids off. Sitting in that booth all night with only one other guardian to talk to, unable to move past a radius of a couple of yards. I narrowed my eyes at Dimitri – this was a conscious decision on his part to keep me from snooping around, I was sure of it. Talking back was not an option right now, though. I'd have to do what he told me to, and I supposed I would have to get some time off eventually. Then, I could find out what was going on here. "Fine."

He had clearly expected me to throw a fit and appeared surprised at my answer. "Perfect. I should have adjusted the schedule to account for your presence here by the end of your shift so please do drop by the guardians' lounge before you turn in."

I promised to do just that, and then I was off for my first shift as an academy guardian. At the front fucking gate. The one saving grace was that, if I was to take over from Stan, I wouldn't have to spend the entire night in that goddamn booth with him. Sure, our relationship had somewhat improved over the course of my last year at the academy, but I was still pretty convinced that he and I would never get along. He'd definitely get a kick out of knowing I was back here, though. And he did.

He laughed at me when I told him that I would be taking the rest of his shift, but soon seemed to realise that I was serious. His eyes went wide, and then he laughed again. "Oh, and here I'd thought you were just visiting. It's really true, then? You were taken off your assignment to the Queen?"

"I'm glad this is amusing for you," I said through gritted teeth. I could have told him that I was here of my own volition, but it might have been better to let this particular rumour spread around. Fewer questions asked that way.

Stan didn't take any more jabs at be and soon left me alone with the second guardian on duty. I'd almost hoped it would be someone I didn't know but, of course, I had no such luck. Emil was sitting there calmly, his eyes trained on the gate, but I knew he had listened. I sat down next to him.

"No jokes from you?" I asked.

"What do you want me to say? If you're here, it's for a reason."

"Yeah, being a disgraced guardian, apparently," I mumbled. That was how people would see me now, I'd known as much when I'd made the request. Coming to an academy meant either you failed at being a guardian, you were a coward, or you majorly pissed somebody off.

Emil finally turned to me, an eyebrow raised in question. "Disgraced? Hardly. Maybe when you ran away to hunt down and kill your mentor. But you not only returned alive but graduated top of your class and had a hand in restoring his humanity. Or maybe when you were a fugitive accused of assassinating the Queen. But then you returned to Court, showed yourself to an army of trained guardians, and exposed the real culprit. No, if Rose Hathaway is at St. Vladimir's Academy, it is not because she was forced to be. It means something is going on here, and I think we should all be very afraid."

That stunned me into silence for a few moments. Did other people think that way, too? I hoped not. I couldn't have anyone become suspicious of my presence here. Stan's reaction was much safer than this. I hoped more people shared his view rather than Emil's.

"Well, there's no reason to be afraid. I'm here because I was sent here, and I don't have enough influence with the council to challenge their decisions."

Emil regarded me carefully, but I knew he wouldn't be able to tell that I was lying. "That would mean your last mission has failed."

"Yes," I said without hesitation though it pained me to do so. "I have failed."

"In the eyes of the Guardian Council."

I huffed. "In the eyes of everyone."

"Just you wait until your first lesson," he said mysteriously. "I doubt the novices would see it that way."

Lessons? No, he must have been mistaken. I'd come here to guard the school. Teaching had never been part of the deal. Participating in field experiences – if I even stayed here that long, which was highly unlikely – maybe, but definitely not teaching. I wasn't an instructor. Learning from me would benefit no one. "I'm only here as a guardian."

"That's odd. As far as I'm aware, we were primarily hiring instructors. With novice numbers slowly rising, we need them desperately."

I'd heard about that. Lissa's views and appreciation of guardians had led to a higher willingness of dhampirs – especially the female ones – to start up training. There were probably still nowhere near enough, but things were slowly beginning to look up. But that was besides the point. I wasn't going to teach or train anyone. Or was I?

But you won't like what you'll find.

Was that what my mother had meant? When learning of Dimitri's position as captain, I'd thought that was what she'd meant. Maybe not. God damn it.

We spent the remainder of the night – or, well, technically it was day, according to the vampiric schedule I'd be adhering to now – in relative silence. Twice, we were forced out of the booth to inspect a car. One had been a Moroi couple dropping their middle schoolers off at the academy. I'd taken that one, checking to make sure they were who they said. The other was a 'delivery' of feeders. Before I could even say anything, Emil had gone to check them. I was glad for it. After all this time, the whole concept of feeders still sent the occasional chill down my spine.


I shouldn't have been surprised by what I found when I checked the freshly printed schedule on the notice board in the guardians' lounge. Still, I checked it multiple times to make sure I hadn't misread. Nope, that was definitely what it said.

Hathaway, Rosemarie Guardian/Instructor

Friday – Front Gate 10:00 – 18:00

Saturday – Front Gate 10:00 – 18:00

Sunday – Front Gate 10:00 – 18:00

Maybe, maybe I could have let it go if he'd only given me shifts at the gate. Sure, they weren't exactly fun, and I definitely wasn't looking forward to them, but I could have lived with it. No, much more worrying was the fact that he'd only given me shifts during the human day. From ten to six. The bulk of the vampiric night, which would have been the best time for me to go snooping around. Sleep-deprived and angry, I couldn't let this stand.

So I was back in his office within minutes. This time, I didn't even bother knocking.

"What is this?" I demanded, slapping the schedule down on his desk.

He looked at me and tilted his head to one side. "I believe that is the guardians' schedule for the rest of this week."

"Very funny, comrade, now tell me why you put me on nighttime front gate duty for all of it."

A hint of a smile crossed his face before his guardian mask once again replaced it. He was the picture of calm but, more annoyingly, he was playing dumb. "I thought I was doing you a favour. Haven't you been living on a human schedule these past years?"

"I don't believe that for a second," I told him. "You're trying to keep me busy at night, but you can't keep me from finding out whatever it is you're hiding."

Dimitri crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at me levelly. "I could have given you two shifts per day, but I didn't. Take what you can get, and get out of my office."

His tone made it clear that he wasn't playing around, and it took everything in me to accept that. All I wanted was to fight him, make him switch my schedule around again, or get some fucking information out of him. But I couldn't. I had to play nice – for now. So I did what he told me to, and I made my way back to my room. My next shift was in less than eight hours at this point, and I was going to have to get some sleep.