Sunshine

by moodydhampir

Several events that have occured after Vasilisa Dragomir's ascension to the throne have led her to make the hard decision of sending her daughter away with her best friend and guardian Rose Hathaway to be raised away from Court. Eventually, the Dragomir heir will have to attend school. Upon their arrival at the academy, they find the unexpected.

37. Motions

Lissa's POV

One moment, Rose was thinking about my question – the next, she was just gone. Vanished into the void, leaving me to wonder whether I had lost control of Spirit yet again. But losing control felt different. Something must have happened on her end, and I almost dared to hope that Adrian had arrived wherever she was.

I didn't truly believe that, though. The expression on her face before she disappeared was clear as day – Adrian should have long shown up if he had been on his way to her. Which, naturally, did nothing to ease my concerns.

Adrian being gone was a major problem for all of us. Why he even decided to go looking for Rose was beyond me – he had been more than helpful in our work here. Then again, he had always made it clear that his interest in politics was practically non-existent. He likely wanted to be where the action was, which usually was wherever Rose went.

Except it wasn't supposed to be like that this time. Not if everything had gone according to plan, which I now had to assume it had not. Rose was supposed to protect my daughter and keep her away from harm. What had happened to that?

I would have liked to hope that maybe Adrian was simply mistaken and Rose was not, in fact, in the middle of another insane mission, but he knew her too well. He would have recognised if that was the case.

After collecting my thoughts for a little while, I decided to try reaching Rose again, but I had no such luck. Whatever had woken her must have been important – or maybe it had simply been her alarm? After all, I still had no idea just where she was. It might have been a perfectly reasonable time for her to get up.

With a deep sigh, I decided to leave Rose's old room and return to my own. Eddie, who had been standing guard by the door, waited patiently for me to answer the question he clearly had but didn't dare to ask.

"Rose doesn't know anything," I told him. "He's officially missing."

He didn't curse or, in fact, say anything to me at all. He nodded, then spoke a few quick words into his earpiece.

"Keep this under wraps," I instructed him. "Only those who need to know."

Another nod, then a few more words spoken.

"As far as the public is concerned, Adrian is simply off on another bender."