It’s charmed with spirit, just as Robert instructed. White light bursts out, and Rose can feel the healing magic come through the bond, more intense than anything she’s ever felt before. The bond temporarily disappears—shorted out by the sheer amount of spirit that’s just been used. And then . . . the results speak for themselves.
I’d expected him to be burned to a crisp—some sort of blackened, skeletal nightmare. Yet when he shifted his head, giving me my first full view of his face, I saw that he was completely unharmed. No burns marked his skin—skin that was as warm and tanned as it had been the first day I’d met him.
I caught only a glimpse of his eyes before he buried his face against Lissa’s knee. I saw endless depths of brown, the depths I’d fallen into so many times. No red rings.
Dimitri . . .was not a Strigoi.
And he was weeping.
—pages 289-290
A MODERN MIRACLE
That a Strigoi could be restored has shaken everyone who witnessed it. Despite Rose and Lissa’s protests, Dimitri’s taken away by guardians. Rose, meanwhile, is hauled in a different direction. She’s freaking out—no one will give her any damn information about what’s going on—or let her see Dimitri.
The trip back to Court is a blur, and it’s followed by a frustrating amount of secrecy. Dimitri’s been locked up somewhere, and nobody will tell her where. Lissa’s been taken to the medical center for treatment—Hans tells Rose she isn’t welcome there. It’s chaos and she’ll just be in the way. Adrian’s busy using spirit to help heal those who were injured in the fight, and everyone is buzzing with the rumor about Lissa working a miracle by restoring a Strigoi back to his former dhampir self.
When Rose finally gets to Lissa, her friend is making her second visit to see Dimitri. Rose wants to go too, but Lissa gives her some shocking news: Dimitri doesn’t want to see her.
What? He doesn’t want to see her? After everything she’s done, everything she’s sacrificed to help him? Rose is deeply hurt—he is supposed to be her Dimitri. The man she went to Russia to find. The one who she made a deal with the devil to save. Lissa begs her to understand, to give Dimitri the time he needs to heal.
Not like she has any choice. Rose watches through the bond as her friend goes to Dimitri’s holding cell. As a former Strigoi, he’s being kept under constant guard. Rose can’t get over the way Dimitri looks at Lissa—it’s with awe and wonder that she was able to bring him back from the nightmare of being an evil Strigoi.
“I swear, whatever you need, anything—if it’s in my power—I’ll do it. I’ll serve and protect you for the rest of my life. I’ll do whatever you ask. You have my loyalty forever.”
Again, Lissa started to say she didn’t want that, but then a canny thought came to mind. “Will you see Rose?”
He grimaced. “Anything but that.”
“Dimitri—”
“Please. I’ll do anything else for you, but if I see her . . . it’ll hurt too much.”
—page 316
This sure isn’t the fairy-tale ending Rose always hoped for. Dimitri isn’t running into her arms. He’s running away from her.
While she finally lets herself cry in the privacy of her room, Adrian stops by to invite her to a party. But not any party. It’s a Death Watch, an official Moroi ceremony to honor those who died in the attack. It’s by invitation only for the most elite Moroi bloodlines—but he has some passwords he’s stolen to sneak his friends into the masked event.
The ceremony begins, and both Moroi and dhampirs who were lost in the battle are honored. Rose is surprised to see that the dhampir guardians are treated with such respect. Even if they weren’t actually invited to the party . . .
Christian and Mia are there as well, also courtesy of Adrian. And again, Lissa is jealous. To Rose, it’s obvious the two aren’t dating, but Lissa thinks the worst. Any romantic drama is put on hold, though, when someone outs Rose as a party crasher. To make matters worse, she’s the only dhampir in attendance, and this is considered a major breach of tradition. Adrian’s mother chastises him for letting this happen; however, the queen actually seems somewhat pleased that Rose was able to witness the respect paid to her race. Sadly, now even more guardians have been lost, leaving holes in the ranks.
Rose leaves the party—she can take a hint—and runs into Mikhail. And does he have a surprise for her: he says he can get her in to see Dimitri. Right now.
Well, okay then. Eager and apprehensive, she’s led to Dimitri’s holding cell. She finds him standing with his back to her. This is exactly what he didn’t want to happen.
He probably knew the sound of my heartbeat and breathing. As it was, I think I stopped breathing while I waited for his response. When it came, it was a little disappointing.
“No.”
“No what?” I asked. “As in, no, it’s not me?”
He exhaled in frustration, a sound almost—but not quite—like the one he used to make when I did something particularly ridiculous in our trainings. “No, as in I don’t want to see you.”
—page 353
How can Dimitri just turn her away? What about the life that they almost had together, that they could have again? And what about everything she did for him? Rose’s anger starts to burn through the hurt when she tells him he should be grateful. He tells her he is grateful—to Lissa, his savior.
She demands that he turn around and face her. Finally, he does. When their eyes meet, all the memories of falling in love with him in the first place come flooding back. And it’s not just how she feels—she knows he feels it too. He might not want her there now, but he still feels something for her. Something big.
The way Dimitri was looking at me . . . it confirmed everything I’d suspected. The feelings he’d had for me before he’d been turned—the feelings that had become twisted while a Strigoi—were all still there. They had to be. Maybe Lissa was his savior. Maybe the rest of the Court thought she was a goddess. I knew, right then, that no matter how bedraggled I looked or how blank he tried to keep his face, I was a goddess to him.
—page 356
Dimitri finally breaks down and tells her he’s racked with guilt over his actions as a Strigoi—including what he did to Rose, keeping her imprisoned in Russia and feeding off her like a blood whore. Even his thoughts of killing her and using her friends as bait against her haunt him. He can’t forgive himself for any of it.
Rose assures him she forgives him for everything. She loves him and knows he still loves her.
Dimitri’s the one to bring up the subject of her new boyfriend—Adrian. But he’s not jealous; he’s glad. Besides, he assures her he doesn’t love her anymore. He can’t love anyone.
Her continued protests start to break him, and he shouts for the guards to get her out of there. When she finally leaves, her heart feels like it’s shattered into a million pieces.
THE QUEEN’S DECREE
Meanwhile, the Council has been debating something for days—the same thing that they had Rose testify about—and they’ve finally reached a verdict. Queen Tatiana has been the deciding vote in a decree to lower the age of official guardians. Now, instead of eighteen, guardians will graduate at sixteen and immediately be assigned to Moroi. It’s a controversial decision—to say the very least.
Rose is furious when she realizes it was her testimony that was held up as a shining example of what underage Strigoi killers can do. It’s clear to her now—Tatiana hadn’t begun to accept her. Instead, she’d shamelessly used her as a way to pass her new ruling.
Tasha is equally appalled by this decision. She’s been pushing for Moroi to learn how to fight to avoid just such a decision. The last thing she wanted was to put sixteen-year-olds in the line of fire.
The ruling brings up an important debate. Lissa is the last in her royal line. Even though she’s now eighteen, she had no vote on Council because of something called a quorum. In order to be eligible to vote, a family must have more than one member. If Lissa had a vote, th
is ruling would have gone a very different way.
Rose makes her opinion known to all about this ridiculous decision. She should be an exception. Not all teens are well trained enough to deal with what she’s had to face. She just had a great instructor—one the Court insists on keeping locked up even though he’s not a danger anymore.
To stop her outburst, Tatiana orders her removed from the Council room. But a pissed-off Rose has a few last words for the queen.
“You could change the quorum law if you wanted, you sanctimonious bitch!” I yelled back. “ You’re twisting the law because you’re selfish and afraid! You’re making the worst mistake of your life. You’ll regret it! Wait and see—you’ll wish you’d never done it!”
—page 377
They’re harsh words, spoken in a public forum, and Rose will come to regret them in the days that follow. But for now, they’re heartfelt and full of passion. Even the guardians who give her the boot think what she said was pretty fantastic.
Through the bond, Rose can see that Tasha is still arguing with everyone on the Council who’ll listen. To her, it’s been proven that a spirit user can restore a Strigoi. Why would they need to find new ways to kill them if they can save them?
To Rose, though, the amount of spirit needed to restore Strigoi makes it impossible for it to become the ultimate solution. The more spirit used, the quicker the spirit user will succumb to insanity. She’d seen it herself—Lissa had used a staggering amount of power to restore Dimitri. It had even temporarily hurt the bond. Even if she might be naively compassionate enough to do it again, Rose knows that road is a dangerous one for her friend or any other spirit user. It’s not worth it.
Rose has heard enough. She cuts off the connection to Lissa, planning to talk more to her friend later. She’d been so absorbed by the bond, she didn’t even realize that someone she knows is standing right in front of her—Ambrose, the queen’s masseur and secret lover. Since Rose is waiting around to talk to Lissa later, he suggests that she see his aunt Rhonda for another tarot card reading.
Actually, she could use a little insight on her future at the moment—so she agrees. Just like last time, though, the cards aren’t all that helpful.
I scanned the cards. Heartache. An enemy. Accusations. Entrapment. Travel. “Some of it tells me things I already know. The rest leaves me with more questions.”
She smiled knowingly.“ That’s how it usually is.”
—page 390
Great. Real helpful there. But there’s one card—the Page of Cups—that confuses Rhonda. It’s possible that it points to the reason for the journey Rose will go on—a search for an unknown girl or a boy. Unfortunately, she can’t be of much more help.
As they leave, Rose vents to Ambrose the anger she feels toward Tatiana about the quorum and the age law, but Ambrose defends the queen. It wasn’t her sole decision—the Council voted. Even so, he believes the queen will eventually change the decree.
Sure. Rose will believe that when she sees it.
Lissa calls to her through the bond. There’s something Rose should see—and it involves Dimitri.
Say no more. Rose finds Lissa and Dimitri outside in the sunshine sitting opposite three Moroi—and Hans. They’re being interrogated in front of a scattering of guardians and a crowd of curious Moroi onlookers. The officials want to determine once and for all if Dimitri is still Strigoi. Well, being out in the sunshine should clue everyone in. But no, they’re still asking questions. Lots of them.
When Lissa testifies on Dimitri’s behalf, he watches her with with wonder . . . and worship. Again, Rose is jealous of the connection the two seem to have formed without her.
His feelings weren’t romantic, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had rejected me but regarded her as the greatest thing in the world. He’d told me never to talk to him again and sworn he’d do anything for her. Again I felt that petulant sense of being wronged. I refused to believe that he couldn’t love me anymore. It wasn’t possible, not after all he and I had been through together. Not after everything we’d felt for each other.
—pages 397-398
By the end of the session, the official determination is that Dimitri is no longer Strigoi and that Lissa, somehow, has worked a miracle to restore him. He won’t be held in the locked cell anymore but will still be kept under watch by guards for now.
Lissa warns Rose to back off and not to provoke Dimitri. He needs to stay in control—something he definitely doesn’t do whenever Rose is around—to ensure that he’s not seen as a threat. If Rose keeps pushing, it will ruin everything they’ve worked toward.
It totally sucks. But even Rose can see it’s the truth.
Rose becomes aware of someone lurking nearby. She confronts the stranger, and he identifies himself as a messenger from her father. He gives Rose a laptop and a satellite modem for a meeting she’s to have momentarily. She quickly returns to her room to set up the equipment. But instead of her father, she’s surprised to come face-to-face with Sydney, the Alchemist she met in Russia.
Sydney questions Rose about a recent break-in she thinks Rose might have been involved with (thankfully, it’s not at Tarasov!). The Alchemists had some files stolen—files about Eric Dragomir, Lissa’s father. He’d made some large deposits to an anonymous woman’s bank account in Las Vegas.
Rose didn’t steal the files, but now she’s wondering who did and what this all means.
She goes to sleep, forgetting all about a promise she’d made to meet Adrian for a cocktail party. Oops. Adrian’s waiting in Rose’s lobby the next morning, and he’s not too cheerful at being stood up. It’s obvious to him she’s been so distracted visiting Dimitri that he’s the last thing on her mind.
Rose tries to assure him that it’s not true—she values their relationship. Really she does. He gives her another chance but warns that she needs to really mean it this time. He isn’t interested in playing games with her.
She takes the opportunity to pick his brain about Eric Dragomir and what trouble he might have gotten into in Las Vegas. Adrian figures gambling debts, but the family’s rich, so that doesn’t make much sense. Why would anyone want to steal info like that anyway?
Rose heads to church. Not so much to worship, but because she has a hunch who might be there. And she’s right. Dimitri’s there, with guards in tow. She sits next to him, which he doesn’t appreciate very much. Too damn bad.
She tries to convince him again that his Strigoi deeds are in his past. Besides, what he did as a Strigoi was completely out of his control. She presses for some sign that he still cares about her, but Dimitri begins to lose his patience, and his desperation and frustration bleed through. Her being there with him is too hard. He wants them to stay away from each other. It’s better that way.
But Rose is nothing if not stubborn. After everything they’ve been through together, it can’t end like this. She still feels the connection between them.
Without even realizing it, I reached toward him, needing that touch. He sprang up like I was a snake, and all of his guardians shot forward, braced for what he might do.
But he did nothing. Nothing except stare at me with a look that made my blood run cold. Like I was something strange and bad. “Rose. Please stop. Please stay away.” He was working hard to stay calm.
I shot up, now as angry and frustrated at him. I had a feeling if I stayed, we’d both snap. In an undertone, I murmured, “ This isn’t over. I won’t give up on you.”
“I’ve given up on you,” he said back, voice also soft. “Love fades. Mine has.”
—page 430
The words are like a stake to Rose’s heart. But she finally accepts that he doesn’t want her around. She runs out of the church and lets out her grief and pain in the privacy of her room.
Lissa calls to her through the bond, but she just wants to be alone. She avoids everyone and wanders the Court grounds. When she returns to her room, Adrian stops by to see her. He has some info on Lissa’s fathe
r courtesy of his mother. Daniella thinks the anonymous woman might have been a mistress he was supporting. It’s unbelievable and shocking, but it doesn’t sound like anything that could put Lissa in danger, which is a definite relief.
The rejection by Dimitri has made her realize how much she’s been taking Adrian’s affections for granted. He’s a great guy and endlessly supportive of her. She apologizes for how much she’s been taking him for granted lately. He needs to know that she’s willing to give him a real shot—that what she’d had with Dimitri is truly over.
“I realize now that it’s over with him. I’m not saying that’s easy to get past. It’ll take a while, and I ’d be lying to both of us if I said it wouldn’t.”
“ That makes sense,” Adrian said.
“It does?”
He glanced at me, a flicker of amusement in his eyes. “ Yes, little dhampir. Sometimes you make sense. Go on.”
“I . . . well, like I said . . . I ’ve got to heal from him. But I do care about you . . . I think I even love you a little. ” That got a small smile. “I want to try again. I really do.”
—page 436
Dimitri’s in her past, but Adrian could be her future. At the moment, she doesn’t want to feel anything for Dimitri—it only causes her pain. She wants to block out those feelings completely. He’s rejected her and she wants to feel wanted again. Adrian makes her feel wanted . . . and loved. What more could she ask for?
A passionate moment between them leads them to do something Rose never thought she’d do again. She bares her neck to Adrian, and he hesitates only briefly before sinking his fangs in. The endorphins kick in and all is blissful and perfect. Nothing else seems to matter—for a little while, anyway.