The third “hmm” hadn’t come from either of us. I looked across the hall and saw Christian watching us. I separated from Adrian, just as the bell rang. The sounds of students pouring out of classrooms rumbled through the hallway.
“Now I can see Lissa,” said Adrian happily.
“Rose, will you come with me to the feeders?” asked Christian. He spoke in a flat tone, and his expression was unreadable.
“I’m not guarding you today.”
“Yeah, well, I miss your charming company.”
I told Adrian goodbye and cut through the cafeteria with Christian. “What’s up?” I asked.
“You tell me,” he said. “You were the one about ready to start making out with Adrian.”
“It was an experiment,” I said. “It was part of my therapy.”
“What the hell kind of therapy are you in?”
We reached the feeders’ room. Somehow, despite him getting out of class early, there were still a few people ahead of us in line.
“Why do you care?” I asked him. “You should be happy. It means he isn’t moving in on Lissa.”
“He could be moving in on both of you.”
“What are you, my big brother now?”
“Annoyed,” he said. “That’s what I am.”
I looked beyond him and saw Jesse and Ralf enter. “Well, keep it to yourself, or our good friends will overhear.”
Jesse, however, was too busy to hear, because he was arguing with the feeding coordinator. “I don’t have time to wait,” he told her. “I’ve got to be somewhere.”
She pointed to us and the others in line. “These people are ahead of you.”
Jesse met her eyes and smiled. “You can make an exception this time.”
“Yeah, he’s in a hurry,” added Ralf in a voice I’d never heard him use before. It was smooth and less grating than usual. “Just write his name down at the top of the list.”
The coordinator looked like she was going to tell them off, but then a funny, distracted look came over her face. She glanced at her clipboard and wrote something. A few seconds after she looked away, her head jerked up again, eyes sharp once more. She frowned.
“What was I doing?”
“You were signing me up,” said Jesse. He pointed at the board. “See?”
She looked down, startled. “Why is your name first? Didn’t you just get here?”
“We were here earlier and checked in. You told us it was okay.”
She looked down again, clearly puzzled. She didn’t remember them coming earlier—because they hadn’t—but she apparently couldn’t figure out why Jesse’s name was at the top now. A moment later, she shrugged and must have decided it wasn’t worth overthinking. “Stand with the others, and I’ll call you next.”
As soon as Jesse and Ralf came near us, I turned on them. “You just used compulsion on her,” I hissed.
Jesse looked panicked for a fraction of a second; then his normal swagger took over. “Whatever. I just convinced her, that’s all. What, are you going to try to tell on me or something?”
“Nothing to tell,” scoffed Christian. “That was the worst compulsion I’ve ever seen.”
“Like you’ve seen compulsion,” said Ralf.
“Plenty,” said Christian. “From people prettier than you. Of course, maybe that’s part of why yours isn’t as good.”
Ralf seemed highly offended at not being considered pretty, but Jesse just nudged him and started to turn away. “Forget him. He had his chance.”
“His chance at—” I remembered how Brandon had attempted weak compulsion when trying to convince me his bruises were nothing. Jill had said that Brett Ozera actually had convinced a teacher that his were nothing. The teacher had dropped the matter, much to Jill’s surprise. Brett must have used compulsion. Lightbulbs went off in different parts of my brain. The connections were all around me. The problem was, I couldn’t untangle the wires quite yet. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Your stupid Mână and its need to beat up on people. It’s got something to do with compulsion. . . .”
I didn’t understand how it all fit together, but the surprised look on Jesse’s face told me I was on to something, even though he said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I pushed forward, hoping some blind hits would make him mad and say something he wasn’t supposed to. “What’s the point? Does it give you guys some kind of power trip to do these little tricks? That’s all they are, you know. You seriously don’t know the first thing about compulsion. I’ve seen compulsion that would make you do handstands and throw yourself out a window.”
“We’re learning more than you can even imagine,” said Jesse. “And when I find out who told—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his threat because he was called over to the feeder just then. He and Ralf stalked away, and Christian immediately turned to me.
“What’s going on? What’s a Mână?”
I gave him a hasty recap of Adrian’s explanation. “That’s what they wanted you to join. They must secretly be practicing compulsion. Adrian said these groups are always royals who have some plan to change and control things in dangerous times. They must think compulsion is the answer—it’s what they meant when they told you they had ways to help you get what you wanted. If they knew how crappy your compulsion was, they probably wouldn’t have asked.”
He scowled, not liking me reminding him of the one time he’d attempted—and failed—to compel someone at the ski lodge. “So where’s the beating-people-up part come in?”
“That’s the mystery,” I said. Christian was summoned over to feed just then, and I put my theories on hold until I could get more info and take action. I noticed which feeder we were being led to. “Is that Alice again? How do you always get her? Do you request her?”
“No, but I think some people specifically un-request her.”
Alice was happy to see us, as always. “Rose. Are you still keeping us safe?”
“I will if they’ll let me,” I told her.
“Don’t be too hasty,” she warned. “Conserve your strength. If you’re too eager to fight the undead, you may find yourselves joining them. Then you’d never see us again, and we’d be very sad.”
“Yes,” said Christian. “I’d cry into my pillow every night.”
I resisted the urge to kick him. “Well, I couldn’t visit if I was Strigoi, yeah, but hopefully I’d just die a normal death. Then I could come see you as a ghost.”
How sad, I thought, that I was now making jokes about the very thing that was freaking me out lately. Alice found no amusement in it whatsoever. She shook her head.
“No, you wouldn’t. The wards would keep you out.”
“The wards only keep Strigoi out,” I reminded her gently.
A defiant look replaced her scattered one. “The wards keep anything that isn’t alive out. Dead or undead.”
“Now you’ve done it,” said Christian.
“The wards don’t keep ghosts out,” I said. “I’ve seen them.”
Considering Alice’s own instability, I didn’t mind discussing mine with her. In fact, it was kind of refreshing to talk about this stuff with someone who wouldn’t judge me. Indeed, she treated this as a perfectly normal conversation.
“If you’ve seen ghosts, then we’re not safe anymore.”
“I told you last time, the security’s too good.”
“Maybe someone made a mistake,” she argued, sounding remarkably coherent. “Maybe someone missed something. Wards are made of magic. Magic is alive. Ghosts can’t cross them for the same reason as Strigoi. They aren’t alive. If you saw a ghost, the wards have failed.” She paused. “Or you’re crazy.”
Christian laughed out loud. “There you go, Rose. Straight from the source.” I shot him a glare. He smiled at Alice. “In Rose’s defense, though, I think she’s right about the wards. The school checks them all the time. The only place guarded better than here is the Royal Court, and both pl
aces are overflowing with guardians. Stop being so paranoid.”
He fed, and I glanced away. I should have known better than to listen to Alice. She was hardly a reputable source of information, even if she’d been around for a while. And yet . . . her weird logic did make sense. If wards kept Strigoi out, why not ghosts? True, Strigoi were the dead who had come back to walk the earth, but her point was sound: All of them were dead. But Christian and I were right too: The wards around the school were solid. It took a lot of power to lay wards. Not every Moroi home could have them, but places like schools and the Royal Court had theirs maintained diligently.
The Royal Court . . .
I’d had no ghostly encounters whatsoever while we there, yet that had been incredibly stressful. If my sightings were stress-induced, wouldn’t the Court and encounters with Victor and the queen have provided great opportunities for them to occur? The fact that I’d seen nothing seemed to negate the PTSD theory. I hadn’t seen ghosts until we’d landed at the Martinville airport.
Which didn’t have wards.
I nearly gasped. The Court had strong wards. I’d seen no ghosts. The airport, which was part of the human world, had no wards. I’d been bombarded with ghosts there. I’d also seen flashes of them on the plane—which was unwarded when we were in the air.
I looked over at Alice and Christian. They were just about finished. Could she be right? Did wards keep out ghosts? And if so, what was going on with the school? If the wards were intact, I should see nothing—just like at Court. If the wards were broken, I should be overrun—just like at the airport. Instead, the Academy was somewhere in the middle. I had sightings only occasionally. It didn’t make sense.
The only thing I knew for sure was that if something was wrong with the school’s wards, then I wasn’t the only one in danger.
TWENTY-ONE
I COULD HARDLY WAIT for my day to end. I’d promised Lissa I’d hang out with her and the others after school. It should have been fun, but the minutes dragged by. I was too restless. When curfew came around, I split off from them ran back to my dorm. I asked the woman at the front desk if she could call up to Dimitri’s room—off-limits to students—because I had an “urgent” question for him. She had just picked up the phone when Celeste walked past.
“He’s not there,” she told me. She had a large bruise on the side of her face. Some novice had gotten the better of her—some novice who wasn’t me. “I think he was going to the chapel. You’ll have to see him tomorrow—you can’t be there and back before curfew comes.”
I nodded meekly and acted like I was heading for the student wing. Instead, as soon as she was out of sight, I headed back outside again and ran to the chapel. She was right. I wasn’t going to make curfew, but hopefully Dimitri could make sure I got back without getting in trouble.
The chapel’s doors were unlocked when I reached them. I walked in and saw all the candles lit, making all the gold ornaments in the room sparkle. The priest must still be working. But, when I stepped inside the sanctuary, he wasn’t there. Dimitri was, however.
He sat in the last pew. He wasn’t praying or kneeling or anything. He just sat there, looking quite relaxed. Although he wasn’t a practicing member of the church, he’d told me he often found peace there. It gave him a chance to think about his life and the deeds he’d done.
I always thought he looked good, but just then, something about him nearly made me come to a standstill. Maybe it was because of the background, all the polished wood and colorful icons of saints. Maybe it was just the way the candlelight shone on his dark hair. Maybe it was just because he looked unguarded, almost vulnerable. He was normally so wound up, so on edge . . . but even he needed the occasional moment of rest. He seemed to glow in my eyes, kind of in the way Lissa always did. His normal tension returned when he heard me come in.
“Rose, is everything okay?” He started to stand, and I motioned him down as I slid into the spot beside him. The faint smell of incense lingered in the air.
“Yeah . . . well, kind of. No breakdowns, if that’s what you’re worried about. I just had a question. Or, well, a theory.”
I explained the conversation with Alice and what I’d deduced from it. He listened patiently, expression thoughtful.
“I know Alice. I’m not sure she’s credible,” he said when I finished. It was similar to what he’d said about Victor.
“I know. I thought the same thing. But a lot of it makes sense.”
“Not quite. As you pointed out, why are your visions so irregular here? That doesn’t go along with the ward theory. You should feel like you did on the plane.”
“What if the wards are just weak?” I asked.
He shook his head. “That’s impossible. Wards take months to wear down. New ones are put in place here every two weeks.”
“That often?” I asked, unable to hide my disappointment. I’d known maintenance was frequent but not that frequent. Alice’s theory had almost provided a sound explanation, one that didn’t involve me being insane.
“Maybe they’re getting staked,” I suggested. “By humans or something—like we saw before.”
“Guardians walk the grounds a few times a day. If there was a stake in the borders of campus, we’d notice.”
I sighed.
Dimitri moved his hand over mine, and I flinched. He didn’t remove it, though, and as he did so frequently, guessed my thoughts. “You thought if she was right, it would explain everything.”
I nodded. “I don’t want to be crazy.”
“You aren’t crazy.”
“But you don’t believe I’m really seeing ghosts.”
He glanced away, his eyes staring at the flickering of candles on the altar. “I don’t know. I’m still trying to keep an open mind. And being stressed isn’t the same as being crazy.”
“I know,” I admitted, still very conscious of how warm his hand was. I shouldn’t have been thinking about things like that in a church. “But . . . well . . . there’s something else. . . .”
I told him then about Anna possibly “catching” Vladimir’s insanity. I also explained Adrian’s aura observations. He turned his gaze back on me, expression speculative.
“Have you told anyone else about this? Lissa? Your counselor?”
“No,” I said in a small voice, unable to meet his eyes. “I was afraid of what they’d think.”
He squeezed my hand. “You have to stop this. You aren’t afraid of throwing yourself in the path of danger, but you’re terrified of letting anyone in.”
“I . . . I don’t know,” I said, looking up at him. “I guess.”
“Then why’d you tell me?”
I smiled. “Because you told me I should trust people. I trust you.”
“You don’t trust Lissa?”
My smile faltered. “I trust her, absolutely. But I don’t want to tell her things that’ll make her worry. I guess it’s a way of protecting her, just like keeping Strigoi away.”
“She’s stronger than you think,” he said. “And she would go out of her way to help you.”
“So what? You want me to confide in her and not you?”
“No, I want you to confide in both of us. I think it’d be good for you. Does what happened to Anna bother you?”
“No.” I looked away again. “It scares me.”
I think the admission stunned both of us. I certainly hadn’t expected to say it. We both froze for a moment, and then Dimitri wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest. A sob built up in me as I rested my cheek against the leather of his coat and heard the steady beating of his heart.
“I don’t want to be like that,” I told him. “I want to be like everyone else. I want my mind to be . . . normal. Normal by Rose standards, I mean. I don’t want to lose control. I don’t want to be like Anna and kill myself. I love being alive. I’d die to save my friends, but I hope it doesn’t happen. I hope we all live long, happy lives. Like Lissa said—one big happy family. There’s so much I want to d
o, but I’m so scared . . . scared that I’ll be like her. . . . I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop it. . . .”
He held me tighter. “It’s not going to happen,” he murmured. “You’re wild and impulsive, but at the end of the day, you’re one of the strongest people I know. Even if you are the same as Anna—and I don’t think you are—you two won’t share the same fate.”
It was funny. I’d often told Lissa the same thing about her and Vladimir. She’d always had a hard time believing it, and now I understood. Giving advice was a lot harder than following it.
“You’re also missing something,” he continued, running a hand over my hair. “If you are in danger from Lissa’s magic, then at least you understand why. She can stop using her magic, and that’ll be the end of it.”
I pulled away slightly so I could look at him. Hastily, I ran my hand over my eyes in case any tears had escaped.
“But can I ask her to do that?” I said. “I’ve felt how it makes her feel. I don’t know if I can take that away from her.”
He regarded me with surprise. “Even at the cost of your own life?”
“Vladimir did great things—so could she. Besides, they come first, right?”
“Not always.”
I stared. I’d had they come first drilled into me since I was a child. It was what all guardians believed. Only the dhampirs who’d run away from their duty didn’t subscribe to that. What he said was almost like treason.
“Sometimes, Rose, you have to know when to put yourself first.”
I shook my head. “Not with Lissa.” I might as well have been with Deirdre or Ambrose again. Why was everyone suddenly challenging something that I’d held as absolute truth my entire life?
“She’s your friend. She’ll understand.” To make his point, he reached forward and tugged at the chotki peeking out underneath my sleeve, his fingertips brushing my wrist.
“It’s more than that,” I said. I pointed to the cross. “If anything, this proves it. I’m bound to her, to protect the Dragomirs, at all costs.”
“I know, but . . .” He didn’t finish, and honestly, what could he have said? This was becoming an old argument, one without a solution.
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