Rose's POV

Yesterday's incident had been bad enough, but batons were not typically used as a ranged weapon, so even though it had showed that my reflexes weren't as quick as they used to be, I could convince myself that it hadn't been entirely my fault. What had happened this morning, though, was inexcusable. I already knew the guardians and novices alike would never let me live that down, but that wasn't my primary worry at this point. No, the worst part about it was that it confirmed my worst fear – I was inadequate as a guardian. I'd believed the most significant threat to Sunshine were Moroi but, knowing what I knew now, it wasn't impossible that they would have Strigoi do their dirty work for them. Hell, even if they'd only sent their guardians, I would have been in big trouble. Had we run into any larger threat these past few years – no. There had been some truth in Dimitri's words earlier.

The past was the past and there was nothing we could do to change it. What I could do, though, was be better now. Any spare minute not spent investigating would go towards practicing. Unfortunately, that would have to wait until later. I had two classes to stand guard in before lunch, and then three more after. If I was lucky, I might be able to squeeze in a short training session during the break.

With a little time left before second period, I went back to my room to get changed. My nose may not have been broken, but it had bled onto my shirt. I also washed the remainder of the blood on my face off and inspected my reflection in the mirror. It didn't look quite as bad as it felt, but there was a clearly visible bruise on the bridge of my nose. I tried covering it up with concealer, but it was still noticeable. It probably didn't matter whether or not people saw the evidence on my face, either way. I was sure the novices had already started spreading the word about what had happened, and if anyone didn't know yet, they probably would by the end of the day at the latest. With a defeated sigh, I left my room again and made for the next class.

It was Stan's class and he taught it exactly the same as always had, in that dry and mind-numbingly boring manner that I remembered from my time as a student. At least I didn't actually have to pay attention to his lecture this time around. I'd managed to sneak in before too many students had come into the classroom, which helped with keeping them from noticing me too much. Still, I heard some whispers here and there. I knew they would only get worse over the course of the day.

The one after that was some literature class for the Moroi, though. They cared little for novice and guardian business, which I was glad for. Regrettably, that did not mean I was spared any awkward situations. The two guardians on either side of me were trying to be discreet, but I noticed the looks they exchanged. They knew better than to say anything, of course – it was our job to be invisible at the back of the class, after all – but it made for a rather awkward forty-five minutes. I left that room as soon as the teacher dismissed the class and made straight for the gym even though I knew things would not get better there.

I was early after my quick departure from the previous class, but some of the novices were already there. They had been whispering about something but abruptly stopped when one of them spotted me. Great – I knew what that meant. They had the decency not to say anything to my face but that didn't make it much better. I hated every minute of the lesson but at least nobody threw anything at my head this time. By the end of it, I had made the decision to stay in the gym until after lunch.

It wasn't that I wasn't hungry – I was starving, actually, since I hadn't eaten breakfast this morning – but I most definitely did not want to enter the cafeteria right now. My other option would have been the guardians' lounge and, honestly, that sounded even worse. At least most of the students would probably know not to taunt me, but the other guardians? Yeah, no thank you. Staying here was my best option, and it had the added benefit that I could get started on my training, which I had planned on doing, anyway. I was glad when I remained alone in the gym for the entire hour, but not so much when I realised I had maybe pushed myself a bit too hard. I was already beginning to feel sore, and my resolve to continue training after classes almost started to crumble. I needed to, though. For Sunshine and for Lissa.

The afternoon classes were just as horrible as the ones in the morning, but I tried my best to tune everyone out. This would pass. Most of the guardians seemed content with just making one or two snarky comments and going right back to treating me normally with a few exceptions. There was already some new gossip among the Moroi kids, too, and I knew it wouldn't be long until the novices would be more interested in that than whatever was going on with one of their instructors. At least I hoped so. Still, I was more than happy when I got off work after seventh period.

With an hour to go before school was out, I decided that going to the cafeteria would be safe enough. It had been far too long since I had eaten, and I needed the energy if I intended to get some more training time in tonight. Dinner wasn't going to be served for a while yet, but there was some cold leftover pizza from lunch still, which I was more than happy with. My relative peace was disturbed when someone sat down next to me.

For half a second, I worried it might be Dimitri, but that wasn't the case. I wasn't sure if it was better or worse that the person at the table with me now was Alberta. "Hathaway, I was wondering when I'd get to see you."

"Yeah, me too. Thought I would be reporting to you when I got here but imagine my surprise when that wasn't the case." I turned to her, painfully aware of the visible marks from this morning's fight on my face – but she would have heard about it already so it was no use trying to hide them. Alberta looked surprisingly good for her age, all things considered, but maybe that was the power of a nice vacation.

She laughed. "Oh, I've been too old for this position for a while now – or so the council would have me believe. I'm more surprised by your presence here than you should have been by my absence."

"It's less that I was surprised it wasn't you and more that I didn't expect it to be Dimitri," I replied, opting to ignore the implied question in her statement. She was trustworthy, sure, but I was not about to involve her in something that didn't concern her. She didn't need to know why I was here.

"I wouldn't have stepped down if it had been just anyone taking over. Belikov is one of the few I could get behind." She seemed to contemplate something for a moment. "You might have been the other choice."

Oh hell no. Being a teacher was bad enough already. "Absolutely not."

"It's a good thing he asked to be transferred first then," Alberta said with a good-natured laugh. "Otherwise they might have made taking the position a condition for you to come."

Now, that was news to me. I had wondered just why Dimitri had taken on that role since he, too, wasn't the biggest fan of paperwork, but that was actually an explanation that made sense. If the council had wanted Alberta to step down, then Dimitri's request to be reassigned would have been a perfect opportunity to achieve that. There was another implication to her words, though. She knew I had not been sent here against my will – or at least suspected it. "No, I don't think my mother would have done that. This seems more like a punishment than anything else."

"Rose," Alberta said levelly. "Don't think you can fool me. With Belikov and you here—"

"It could well be a punishment for him, too," I cut her off. Unlikely but, hey, he had kind of just disappeared with Christian. Granted, Christian was still not everyone's favourite royal, but he was the Queen's husband, so his wellbeing would have been important, too, right? "Do you know what he's been doing these past years?"

She evaluated me for another moment before responding, "Yes. Yes I do."

"He told you?!" No. No, he wouldn't have told her anything. He would have told her some lie, probably, and she only thought she knew the truth. Surely, surely that was what this was.

Alberta nodded. "It was not easy for him after what happened, but he needed someone to confide in. He has his sister, of course, but she was busy tending to Lord Ozera's wounds."

What the actual fuck? She knew. She knew everything, and it would have been fine if she had somehow found out against his wishes, but that didn't seem to be the case. Alberta knew because he had fucking told her. Something he had adamantly refused to do with me. I had had to deceive him and steal his goddamn phone to find out, but he had just told her?

"I take it he hasn't been so open with you?" she ventured hesitantly.

My anger must have been quite evident on my face. "No. No, he has not."

That bastard. I was going to kill him.

Unfortunately, Dimitri wasn't in his office, and the schedule in the lounge told me that he wasn't on shift anywhere, so I had no clue where to find him. I did check the chapel on the off-chance that he was there but I had no luck. So if I couldn't find him, I decided to do the second-best thing. I went back to the gym, where I found a group of guardians sparring. Perfect.

"Hey, can I join in?" I asked them. Glances were exchanged, and I knew they were probably thinking about what had gone down this morning.

Still, they didn't seem to find a reason for me not to, and I found myself fighting Guardian Ruiz within a few minutes. He was good, but even though Dimitri always said that anger was a bad emotion to feel while training, it was also one hell of a motivator. I took more hits than I would have liked, but I dealt out more. In the end, Ruiz took the win. I beat one of the other younger guardians, though, which felt good. Overall, I lost more matches than I won, but it felt good to practice with actual people again. If I kept this up, it wouldn't be long before I got back in shape again.

After a while, our group started to disperse. Some left for their shifts, others went off to bed, and by now there were only three of us left. I took a quick break to do some stretches after I lost against one of them and watched while they sparred. They were tired, too, though, and ended up leaving soon enough. Maybe it was time for me to do the same at this point. It was getting pretty late, after all.

That was, of course, until I saw a tall figure by the entrance. Dimitri was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed in front of his chest.

Well, if fighting the others had helped in dissipating my anger at all, it certainly came back with full force now. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to know that that was a rather poor show of skill," he said nonchalantly.

Was he trying to piss me off? "Oh, fuck you. I did well enough."

"Anger makes you vulnerable, Rose. Have you forgotten all of my lessons?" he asked as he stepped away from the door and towards me. He was wearing his duster, but underneath it he was wearing his workout clothes. Either he had come to train, or he had come expecting a fight. I strongly suspected the latter. In fact, he was clearly trying to rile me up.

It would have been the better move to ignore it. If I had just grabbed my workout bag and left, that would have probably pissed him off immeasurably more than reacting to his taunts would have. I could have been the bigger person…

…but where's the fun in that?

Author's Note:

I'm sorry there wasn't anew chapter up yesterday but I've been struggling with some stuff irl so I haven't really had the time to update.