Rose's POV

Alberta was waiting for me in the guardians' lounge, and I was glad to see at least half of a smile on her face when I approached. So maybe this really wasn't so scary after all. What reason would she have had to scold me, anyway? I wasn't a student anymore, and she also wasn't my boss. Still, as soon as she told me to sit down with her, her tone told me it wouldn't be the most pleasant conversation.

Maybe she just had questions about where Dimitri and I had been last night, and maybe she'd made the connection between our disappearance and Sunshine's – though why she would have known or cared that Sunshine was gone at all, I did not know. For all anyone knew, Sunshine was just another non-royal Moroi kid who might have been picked up for a random vacation by her mother or something. Wouldn't have been the first time.

That was not at all what she asked about, though. "How is your nose, Rose?"

God damn it. I let out a long sigh before telling her, "Look, if you're just going to tell me that I'm a horrible instructor and shouldn't be teaching these kids at all, I'll be the first to agree, but—"

"Oh, no, not at all," she interrupted me, seemingly confused. "From what I've heard, you've handled yourself quite well. Surprisingly so, some might say."

I eyed her carefully but could not find any traces of insincerity in her expression. She meant what she said, but… then what was this about? "So why do I have the feeling this is going to be an uncomfortable conversation?"

"Because there is still the question of how we are going to handle this situation," she admitted.

Well, she was right about that. But why was she the one talking to me about it? "Isn't it, like, Dimitri's responsibility to take care of these things now?"

"Would you prefer him to handle this?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.

Thinking back to the conversation in his office after it had happened, the only way to answer that question was a resounding no. Yet another thing to add to my list of issues that I still needed to talk to him about. Dimitri, unlike Alberta, it seemed, had not believed that I'd handled myself well when dealing with the novice. "Point taken."

"The simplest solution would be to remove her from the course," Alberta said hesitantly.

That certainly seemed like the obvious choice. Except, of course, that this was a required class, and unless I'd missed something, mine was the only one this semester. "That would delay her graduation by a year, though."

"Yes," she confirmed. "I'm afraid so."

Unacceptable. First, I was the reason for her mother's death, and now I was to be the reason for her delayed graduation? Not that going into the field at a later point in time was a bad thing, at least not in my opinion, but it would certainly leave a mark on her reputation before she even had the chance to build one for herself. No. I most definitely was not going to let that happen.

Yes, it had been wrong of her to attack me. She was undisciplined, impulsive, and reckless. But hadn't I heard that somewhere before? Besides, her anger was not unjustified. Misdirected at Dimitri, certainly, but at me? I was at fault. I had failed, not once but twice, at eliminating an immense danger to the Moroi and, by extension, their guardians, which led to her mother's death. And yet, I could not bring myself to regret it. How selfish of me, but even knowing that this young girl had lost a parent was not enough to make me reconsider my choices. The least I could do now was not make her life worse.

"There has to be another way," I told Alberta, shaking my head. "I can't cause her more grief than I already have."

"So you would be willing to keep teaching her after she has attacked you?"

I nodded. "Of course. I know she hates me, but she would hate it more if she didn't get to graduate."

Alberta's expression changed into a mysterious smile. "Very well. Novice Collins will remain in your class, but there will be consequences for her actions."

"What exactly does that mean, then?" I asked, not liking the way she looked at me in the least.

She got up from her chair, and that's when I knew I wasn't going to get a straight answer. "That, I will have to discuss with Belikov first."

Great. Why did I have this suspicious feeling that I was going to like this about as much as Amy herself?

The girl was very clearly not happy about the fact that I had returned to teach her class today, but at least there wasn't another incident. I was surprised that she didn't even comment on my bruise – maybe Alberta'd had a talk with her, as well. I also received no snarky remarks about it from any of my colleagues, which was a relief. I supposed it wasn't too rare that guardians got bruises from novices. I'd just never expected it to happen to me. Then again, I'd never expected to teach at an academy to begin with.

All in all, the day was exceptionally boring. Dimitri had managed to get me into some different classes today, but there was no gossip worth investigating to be heard among the Moroi. I was also a little disappointed that I didn't get to guard a single class with him, but I supposed that was for the better. We were trying to gather information, after all, and we could cover more ground this way, essentially. Still, I would have liked to spend some time with him.

Unfortunately, that would have to wait until the next day. As much as I would have liked to find him after work, I knew that wouldn't be the best idea. I had other places to be tonight – places he would not want me to go. Of course, I fully believed in Oksana's abilities, but I still needed to speak to Adrian. True, he wasn't going to be so helpful with protective magic, but dream walking was his speciality. And I needed a specialist to find out who on Earth we were dealing with.

As far as I was aware, being able to bring another person into a dream was powerful magic, indeed, and if Sunshine was telling the truth, whoever this spirit user was had brought more than just one. Maybe Adrian could tell me just how rare and how hard that would have been. Because, unfortunately, these dreams were the closest thing to a lead we had right now.

So, since we had failed to connect last night, I decided to head to bed much earlier than usual to give him as big a window of time as possible to reach me. I was in bed by six, and it didn't take all that long until I felt a spirit dream materialise around me. Finally.

The room around me was familiar – my bedroom at court, I realised – and certainly an odd choice. It was rather modest, and Adrian usually favoured more lavish surroundings for our midnight meetings.

But it wasn't Adrian I saw sitting on my bed when I turned around. My heart stopped for a second, and if I hadn't known the signs of a spirit dream so well by now, I would have certainly thought this was just a regular dream.

"Lissa?"

Author's Note: I'm sorry! I promise, I won't leave you with this cliffhanger for too long!