“
Blackmail
’s an ugly word.”
“There’s no way you’re going to see her—at least outside of the courtroom. She’s never going to heal you. I told you: You’re going to get sick again, and you’re going to die. You’re going to be the one sending me postcards from the other side.”
“You think that’s what this is about? You think my needs are that petty?” The mockery was gone, replaced by a feverish and almost fanatical look in his green eyes. The tight set of his mouth stretched the skin of his face a little, and I noticed he’d lost weight since our last encounter. Maybe prison had been harder on him than I’d thought. “You’ve forgotten everything, why I did what I did. You’ve been so caught up in your own shortsightedness that you missed the big picture I was looking at.”
I racked my brain, thinking back to that time last fall. He was right. My focus had been on the wrongs he’d committed against Lissa and me personally. I’d forgotten other conversations, his insane explanations of his grand scheme.
“You wanted to stage a revolution—still want to. That’s crazy. It’s not going to happen,” I said.
“It’s already happening. Do you think I don’t know what’s going on out in the world? I still have contacts. People can be bought off—how do you think I was able to send you that message? I know about the unrest—I know about Natasha Ozera’s movement to get Moroi to fight with guardians. You stand by her and vilify me, Rosemarie, but I pushed for the very same thing last fall. Yet, somehow, you don’t seem to regard her in the same way.”
“Tasha Ozera is working on her cause a bit differently than you did,” noted Dimitri.
“And that’s why she’s getting nowhere,” Victor retorted. “Tatiana and her council are being held back by centuries of archaic traditions. So long as that sort of power rules us, nothing will change. We will never learn to fight. Non-royal Moroi will never have a voice. Dhampirs like you will continually be sent out to battle.”
“It’s what we dedicate our lives to,” said Dimitri. I could sense the tension building in him. He might show better self-control than me, but I knew he was getting just as frustrated here.
“And it’s what you lose your lives for. You’re all but enslaved and don’t even realize it. And for what? Why do you protect us?”
“Because . . . we need you,” I faltered. “For our race to survive.”
“You don’t need to throw yourselves into battle for that. Making children isn’t really that difficult.”
I ignored his quip. “And because the Moroi . . . the Moroi and their magic are important. They can do amazing things.”
Victor threw his hands up in exasperation. “We
used
to do amazing things. Humans used to revere us as gods, but over time, we grew lazy. The advent of technology made our magic more and more obsolete. Now, all we do is parlor tricks.”
“If you have so many ideas,” said Dimitri, with a dangerous glint in his dark eyes, “then do something useful in prison and write a manifesto.”
“And what’s this have to do with Lissa anyway?” I asked.
“Because Vasilisa is a vehicle for change.”
I stared incredulously. “You think she’s going to lead your revolution?”
“Well, I’d prefer that I lead it—someday. But, regardless, I think that she’s going to be part of it. I’ve heard about her too. She’s a rising star—still young, certainly, but people are taking notice. All royals aren’t created equal, you know. The Dragomir symbol is a dragon, the king of the beasts. Likewise, the Dragomir blood has always been powerful—that’s why the Strigoi have targeted them so consistently. A Dragomir returning to power is no small thing—particularly one such as her. My impression from the reports is that she must have mastered her magic. If that’s so—with her gifts—there’s no telling what she could do. People are drawn to her with almost no effort on her part. And when she actually tries to influence them . . . well, they’ll do anything she wants.” His eyes were wide as he spoke, wonder and happiness on his face as he imagined Lissa living out his dreams.
“Unbelievable,” I said. “First you wanted to hide her away to keep you alive. Now you actually want her out in the world to use her compulsion for your own psycho plans.”
“I told you, she’s a force for change. And like you being shadow-kissed, she’s the only one of her kind that we know about. That makes her dangerous—and very valuable.”
Well, that was something. Victor wasn’t all-knowing after all. He didn’t know about Adrian’s spirit use.
“Lissa will never do it,” I said. “She’s not going to abuse her powers.”
“And Victor’s not going to say anything about us,” said Dimitri, tugging my arm. “He’s achieved his goal. He brought you here because he wanted to know about Lissa.”
“He didn’t find out much,” I said.
“You’d be surprised,” said Victor. He grinned at Dimitri. “And what makes you so certain I won’t enlighten the world about your romantic indiscretions?”
“Because it won’t save you from prison. And if you ruin Rose, you’ll destroy whatever weak chance you had of Lissa helping you with your warped fantasy.” Victor flinched just a little; Dimitri was right. Dimitri stepped forward, pressing close to the bars as I had earlier. I’d thought I had a scary voice, but when he spoke his next words, I realized I wasn’t even close. “And it’ll all be pointless anyway, because you won’t stay alive long enough in prison to stage your grand plans. You aren’t the only one with connections.”
My breath caught a little. Dimitri brought so many things to my life: love, comfort, and instruction. I got so used to him sometimes that I forgot just how dangerous he could be. As he stood there, tall and threatening while he glared down at Victor, I felt a chill run down my spine. I remembered how when I had first come to the Academy, people had said Dimitri was a god. In this moment, he looked it.
If Victor was frightened by Dimitri’s threat, he didn’t show it. His jade green eyes glanced between the two of us. “You two are a match made in heaven. Or somewhere.”
“See you in court,” I said.
Dimitri and I left. On our way out, he said a few words in Russian to the guardian on duty. From their manners, my guess was Dimitri was offering thanks.
We ventured outdoors, walking across a wide, beautiful parklike space to get back to our rooms. The sleet had stopped, and it had left everything—buildings and trees alike—coated in ice. It was like the world was made of glass. Glancing at Dimitri, I saw him staring straight ahead. It was hard to tell while walking, but I could have sworn he was shaking.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“You sure?”
“As okay as I can be.”
“Do you think he’ll tell everyone about us?”
“No.”
We walked in silence for a bit. I finally asked the question I’d been dying to know.
“Did you mean it . . . that if Victor did tell . . . that you’d . . .” I couldn’t finish. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words
have him killed
.
“I don’t have much influence in the upper levels of Moroi royalty, but I have plenty among the guardians who handle the dirty work in our world.”
“You didn’t answer the question. If you’d really do it.”
“I’d do a lot of things to protect you, Roza.”
My heart pounded. He only used “Roza” when he was feeling particularly affectionate toward me.
“It wouldn’t exactly be protecting me. It’d be after the fact—cold-blooded. You don’t do that kind of thing,” I told him. “Revenge is more my thing. I’ll have to kill him.”
I meant it as a joke, but he didn’t think it was funny. “Don’t talk like that. And anyway, it doesn’t matter. Victor’s not going to say anything.”
He left me to go to his own room when we got inside. As I was opening the door to mine, Lissa rounded the hall corner.
“There you are. What happened? You missed dinner.”
I’d completely forgotten. “Sorry . . . got carried away with some guardian stuff. It’s a long story.”
She’d changed for dinner. Her hair was still pulled up, and she now wore a form-fitting dress made out of silver raw silk. She looked beautiful. She looked royal. I thought about Victor’s words and wondered if she really could be the power for change he swore she was. Looking like she did now, so glamorous and self-composed, I could imagine people following her anywhere. I certainly would, but then, I was biased.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked with a small smile.
I couldn’t tell her that I’d just seen the man who frightened her the most. I couldn’t tell her that while she’d been out living it up, I’d been off watching her back in the shadows, like I would always do.
Instead, I returned her smile. “I like the dress.”
FOURTEEN
A
BOUT A HALF HOUR before my alarm was scheduled to go off the next morning, I heard a knock at my door. I expected it to be Lissa, but a sleepy check of our bond showed that she was still fast asleep. Puzzled, I staggered out of the bed and opened the door. A Moroi girl I didn’t recognize handed me some folded clothes with a note attached. I wondered if I should tip her or something, but she left too quickly for me to react.
I sat back on my bed and unfolded the clothing. Black slacks, white blouse, and a black jacket. It was the same ensemble that the other guardians wore around here, and it was in my size. Wow. I was about to become part of the team. A slow grin spread over my face, and I opened the note. It was in Dimitri’s writing:
Wear your hair up
.
The grin stayed on my face. A lot of female guardians cut their hair to show off their
molnija
marks. I’d reluctantly considered it once, and Dimitri had told me not to. He loved my hair and had told me to wear it up. The way he’d said it back then had given me chills, just like now.
An hour later, I was on my way to the trial with Lissa, Christian, and Eddie. Someone had rustled up a black-and-white outfit for Eddie too, and I think we both kind of felt like kids playing dress-up with their parents’ clothing. My cropped jacket and stretchy blouse were actually pretty cute, and I wondered if I’d be able to bring these back with me.
The courtroom was over in the large, ornate building we’d passed upon arrival. Walking through its halls, I saw a mix of the old and the new. Outside, it was all arched windows and stone spires. Inside, it was a hub of modern activity. People worked in offices with flat-screen monitors. Elevators led to upper floors. Yet, despite that, a few antique touches could still be found. Sculptures on pedestals. Chandeliers in the halls.
The courtroom itself had beautiful murals that stretched from floor to ceiling, and in the front of the room, seals from all the royal families hung on the walls. Lissa stopped as we walked in, her eyes falling on the Dragomir dragon.
King of the beasts.
A sea of conflicting emotions swirled within her as she stared at the seal and felt the full weight of being the only one left to carry on her name. Pride to be part of that family. Fear that she wouldn’t be good enough to live up to the name. Giving her a gentle nudge, I urged her on toward our seats.
The seating was split by an aisle down the middle of the room. We sat at the front of the right-hand section. There were still several minutes to go before proceedings began, but the room wasn’t very full yet. I suspected that wouldn’t change, due to the secrecy surrounding what had happened with Victor. A judge sat at the front, but there was no jury. An elevated seat on one side of the room marked where the queen would sit when she arrived. She would be the one who made the ultimate decision. That was how it worked with royal criminal cases.
I pointed it out to Lissa. “Let’s hope that she’s against him. Looks like she’ll be the only one making the decision.”
Lissa frowned. “Not having a jury feels kind of weird.”
“That’s because we spent so much time around humans.”
She smiled. “Maybe. I don’t know. Just seems like there’s a lot of room for corruption.”
“Well, yeah. But this is Victor we’re talking about.”
Moments later, Prince Victor Dashkov himself entered the courtroom. Or, rather, just Victor Dashkov did. He’d been stripped of his title when he’d been imprisoned. It had gone to the next oldest person in the Dashkov family.
Fear shot through Lissa, and the little color that was in her cheeks completely disappeared. Mingled with that fear was an emotion I hadn’t expected: regret. Before he’d kidnapped her, Victor had been like an uncle to her—that was even how she’d referred to him. She’d loved him, and he’d betrayed her. I put my hand over hers. “Easy,” I murmured. “It’s going to be okay.”
His eyes, narrowed and cunning, looked around the courtroom as though it were a party. He had that same unconcerned look he’d had while talking to Dimitri and me. I felt my lips curl into a sneer. A red haze tinged my vision, and I worked hard to be as serene as the other guardians in the room. He finally focused on Lissa, and she flinched at seeing the same eye color she and others of her family had. When he nodded a sort of greeting to her, I felt my control snap. Before I could actually do anything, I felt new words in my mind—Lissa’s.
Breathe, Rose. Just breathe.
It looked like we were going to have to rely on each other to get through this. A heartbeat later, Victor was walking again, off to take his seat on the left side of the room.
“Thanks,” I said to her, once he was gone. “It’s like you can read my mind.”
“No,” she said gently. “I could just feel your hand.”
I looked down at where I’d put my hand over hers. I’d done it to comfort her and had ended up clenching her fingers in my own agitation. “Yikes,” I said, jerking away and hoping I hadn’t broken her bones. “Sorry.”
Queen Tatiana’s entrance followed his, which distracted me and helped calm my dark feelings. We all stood when she appeared and then knelt. It was all kind of archaic, but it was a custom the Moroi had held onto over the years. We didn’t rise until she took her seat, and then the rest of us were able to sit too.