Rose's POV

I had three more classes to guard that day before I was finally done with work – no night shifts for the week, though Dimitri had said that it wasn't impossible that I might have to do an early night shift despite having a first period class to teach, which wasn't something I looked forward to. Then again, functioning without a lot of sleep was expected of guardians. I was thankful that I had been spared this week, though, and especially today. It hadn't only been the first day of the school year for me, after all.

It was a stupid idea, of course, to seek out Sunshine when it wasn't strictly necessary, but I wanted to know how her day had gone, and I was sure she would be burning to tell me. I found her just outside her dorms with lots of other people around, which wasn't ideal.

"A—Guardian Hathaway," she said with a bright smile. She'd almost slipped up, but I was impressed with her for remembering nonetheless. She was so young still, and yet she had never revealed how well we knew each other to anyone.

I smiled back at her though I made sure not to let it be too wide of a smile. Just a casual smile that I would have given any student that would have approached me. "Good evening Sunshine."

This was weird and awkward and I hated everything about it. I tried to find an excuse as to why I would need to speak to her but came up short.

Luckily, Sunshine was a lot smarter than me, even at her age. "Mrs Hoffman said she wants to talk to you."

"Oh. I guess I'm free right now," I said with a barely hidden smile when I followed Sunshine inside. She led me past the dorm matron Mrs Hoffman – who never asked what I was doing here after she had seen me calm down Sunshine after her nightmare – and to her room. Her roommate wasn't here yet, and I hoped she wouldn't be back too soon.

As soon as we were alone, Sunshine's already bright smile became even brighter and she ran into my arms. "Auntie Rose! You won't believe what I learned today!"

"Oh? Tell me everything."

And that's exactly what she did. I, of course, already knew most of the things she was telling me. Unlike her, I had grown up in Moroi society. Still, I humoured her and pretended this was all new information to me, too. She seemed excited about every little thing she learned here, and I enjoyed this rare moment of normalcy with her. Until I noticed something.

"What's this?" I asked, taking hold of the hand she had just gesticulated wildly with. Upon closer inspection, my suspicion was confirmed – there was a bruise on her hand that would have only made sense if she had physically fought someone. I had taught her some techniques, but I knew she didn't like fighting. She wouldn't havestarted a fight, though she was probably capable of ending one – at least if her opponent was a Moroi. That only allowed for one conclusion – someone had attacked her and she had felt the need to defend herself. "Did someone try to hurt you?"

Sunshine tried to pull her hand out of my grasp. I let her – I didn't want to hurt her further. I had just been shocked. "No," she said with a shake of her head. She refused to meet my eyes.

"I know you're lying," I scolded her. "You have to tell me these things, Sunny. We've talked about this."

She was still not looking at me when she said, "I had a nightmare again. Jane said I was screaming and flailing around and I must have hit the bedframe or something."

So she was still experiencing these nightmares. I had really, really hoped they would have stopped by now. While her explanation made sense, it did nothing to ease my worry. In fact, it only confirmed that those dreams were worse than I had initially assumed. I still wondered if I was at fault for them.

Maybe Sunshine should talk to a counsellor. Then again, she couldn't truly talk to one without revealing information she wasn't supposed to. But counsellors weren't allowed to tell anyone about what they'd been told, right? Still, it was dangerous to trust anyone these days. It was quite a dilemma. One choice might compromise her physical and the other her mental wellbeing.

"It's okay," Sunshine interrupted my thoughts. "They're less often now."

Less often, but potentially worse. Still, this might have meant they would end completely soon. Maybe I could get a feel for the counsellors on campus and see if they were trustworthy. If the dreams persisted, I would bring up the topic. And if they ended, even better.

Reluctantly, I told her, "All right, but you'll let me know if you have more of these dreams, okay?"

"Okay."

I didn't sleep particularly well that night, but at least I didn't have any strange dreams – neither of the nightmarish nor the spirit-induced kind. When I woke up the next morning, I was tired and sure as hell didn't feel ready to face an entire class of novices again. I had never intended to make it to this point – I'd originally only wanted to find out what Dimitri was doing here, after all – but with everything I knew now, it dawned on me that I might have to accept that this would be my day-to-day life for the near future. Teaching and guarding classes, sleeping, investigating, and maybe getting to talk to Sunshine every once in a while.

If I wasn't one-hundred per cent sure that the answers to all of our problems were buried here, I might have regretted asking to be assigned to this post. But I was sure. From what Dimitri had told me, I gathered that he'd got answers out of the Strigoi after she had attacked Christian, and I had no doubt in my mind that whatever he had done to her then would have made her tell the truth. So, as much as it annoyed me, I would have to stay here a little while longer. Which meant I would have to get up, have some coffee, and teach some novices to fight today – and tomorrow and the day after that and for however long it took.

When I got to the gym, my class was waiting outside, just like I had told them. I was determined to get as much daylight as I could here, and we only had about a month or so left before it would be too cold to have practice outside. Unfortunately, I immediately saw a smug grin on one of the novices' faces – Amy, I had remembered her name. I'd immediately clocked her as someone to look out for, and I had been right.

"Guardian Hathaway, is it true that you got knocked out by a Sophomore yesterday?"

I had to hold back a groan. It wasn't quite accurate, of course, but it was embarrassing enough that there was a kernel of truth in there. "No, but it is true that I can make you run an extra lap for every snarky comment you intend to make about it."

She was quiet after that, and we all headed to the training field. I started the lesson off with a bit of a warm-up before I showed them a couple of exercises to try with a partner. Unfortunately, another student that hadn't been here yesterday had now joined the class, which made it an uneven number of novices. It was inevitable that I would eventually have to spar with them, but I had hoped it wouldn't be before I could get some more training sessions of my own in. I had been able to practice a bit over the last week, but I definitely wasn't in perfect shape just yet. It was even worse, then, that the person that remained without a partner was – who else? – Amy. Great.

The exercises weren't technically cause for worry, but I recognised that look on her face. She wanted to fight, and with her having been training for the past couple of years, I had no doubt she would have the upper hand here. With a quick prayer that she would not try to do anything stupid, I adopted a defensive stance. Amy executed the techniques I had shown earlier almost flawlessly, and if I hadn't been so focused on not getting hit, I would have been very impressed.

After a little while, we switched positions. It was her turn to practice some defensive techniques while I tried attacking her. She did well with that, too, and I might have let my guard down just a little bit. Quite the mistake. After dodging one of my attacks, she suddenly threw a punch I hadn't expected. I managed to block it with my arm – otherwise she would have hit my face, which was very much out of bounds for this exercise – but it would definitely leave a bruise there.

"You're supposed to be on the defence," I reminded her. I tried for a calm voice but wasn't sure if I managed.

Amy shrugged. "They tell us to be prepared for anything so I just wanted to test your reflexes."

She was distracted, and I was almost tempted to hit her back now. I couldn't, though. She was just a novice. I was a guardian. A teacher. As much as I wanted to wipe that self-satisfied smirk off her face, it would have been wrong. So I stepped back. "We also tell you to listen to instructions, which you clearly struggle with. I wasn't joking about those extra laps. I'm sure you can fit at least four more in before the end of the lesson."

That seemed to set her off, though. She charged at me again. This time it was so unexpected that she did manage to strike my face before I could stop her, but I recovered quickly. She'd hit my nose and, while it hurt, I didn't think it was broken. I vaguely noticed that the other novices had stopped their training and were watching us. Some seemed quite uneasy with what was happening, and I hoped to God that no one was going to get another guardian involved. I had little time to worry about that as I did my best to dodge and block Amy's attacks, though. She was good, but she had the disadvantage of being angry and therefore more susceptible to mistakes.

I tried my best to be on the defensive and to avoid hurting her, but it was becoming more and more of a struggle. Eventually, I found my opening and succeeded in pinning her hands behind her back. She tried to free herself, but realised she didn't have a chance at this point.

"What on Earth is your problem?" I asked her. This hadn't been her lashing out because I didn't put up with her attitude. No, this had to have been personal, but I didn't know her. I'd never done anything to her.

"You're my problem!" she yelled at me, the rage unmistakeable in her voice. "You're the reason my mother is dead!"

That hit me harder than her fist had. I didn't know who her mother was, and I wanted to tell her that I couldn't have possibly had anything to do with her death, but the terrifying truth of the matter was that I didn't know that. I was all too aware that some of my actions had had devastating consequences, and I did not remember the names of all that had fallen because of me. I let go of Amy's hands and staggered several steps backwards. I didn't know what to say to her, and I was almost relieved when I didn't have to say anything because I heard a guardian's footsteps behind me. Unfortunately, the relief was replaced with dread as soon as I heard the voice that accompanied them.

"What is going on here?"

Dimitri. It made sense for him to be alerted when something like this happened since he was the captain of the school guard and all, but I really didn't want him here right now. Crap.