More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Please. No more.” I saw then that he finally understood what I was trying to say. People were still afraid of him. No one knew what he was. Lissa had said him behaving calmly and normally would soothe fears. But this? Him taking on an army of guardians? That was not going to get him points for good behavior. For all I knew, it was already too late after this, but I had to attempt damage control. I couldn’t let them lock him up again—not because of me.
“Rose Hathaway, you are under arrest for high treason.” Not quite what I’d expected. Hoping my submission had earned me points, I asked, “What kind of high treason?” “The murder of Her Royal Majesty, Queen Tatiana.”
“Adrian! Take this seriously. This is going to make a huge difference on how things proceed. If you got there before Tatiana was killed, then you won’t be tied to it. If you were with Rose afterward—” “Then she has an alibi,” he interrupted. “And there’s no problem.”
Well. Apparently Tasha had been right: I was the only one who could bring them back together. I just somehow hadn’t expected my arrest to play a role.
“The sooner they convict the murderer, the safer everyone will feel. They think this case against you is so solid, they want to rush it through. They want you to be guilty. They want to bury her knowing her killer is moving toward justice, so that everyone can sleep easy when the new king or queen is elected.”
Again, I had that eerie flashback to Victor. He too had walked in defiantly, and I’d been appalled that someone who had committed his crimes could behave that way. Were these people thinking the same thing about me?
“Fine. Send whoever it is up here and let’s get this settled.” Abe walked in. “Oh dear lord,” I said out loud.
I’d been watching the drama between the two men like a tennis match, and now the ball had hit me in the head.
“What have you gotten me into?” I hissed to him. “Me? What have you gotten yourself into? Couldn’t I have just picked you up at the police station for underage drinking, like most fathers?” I was beginning to understand why people got irritated when I made jokes in dangerous situations.
“It has a pattern etched near the top. A kind of geometric design.” Guardians had engraving done sometimes. I’d found this stake in Siberia and kept it. Well, actually, Dimitri had sent it to me after it had come loose from his chest.
mean, we haven’t even gotten to the part where countless witnesses heard Miss Hathaway tell the queen she’d regret establishing the recent guardian law. I can find the transcript if you like—not to mention reports of other ‘expressive’ commentary Miss Hathaway made in public.”
“Okay,” I said, hoping I sounded reasonable and wasn’t going to lose my temper. “You’ve put up a lot of suspicious stuff here. I can see that.” Abe looked pained. It was not an expression I’d seen on him before. He didn’t lose control of situations very often. “But that’s the thing. It’s too suspicious. If I were going to murder someone, I wouldn’t be that stupid. Do you think I’d leave my stake stuck in her chest? Do you think I wouldn’t wear gloves? Come on. That’s insulting. If I’m as crafty as you claim my record says I am, then why would I do it this way? I mean, seriously? If I did it,
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
The judge asked the Council to vote on whether they believed there was enough evidence to make me a viable suspect and send me to trial. They did. Eleven hands went up. Just like that, it was over.
Rose, If you’re reading this, then something terrible has happened. You probably hate me, and I don’t blame you. I can only ask that you trust that what I did with the age decree was better for your people than what others had planned. There are some Moroi who want to force all dhampirs into service, whether they want it or not, by using compulsion. The age decree has slowed that faction down. However, I write to you with a secret you must put right, and it is a secret you must share with as few as possible. Vasilisa needs her spot on the Council, and it can be done. She is not the last
...more
“You will not go to trial. You will not go to prison,” he hissed, out of the guards’ hearing. “I won’t allow it. Do you understand?”
“No,” said Abe, just before he turned away. “They execute traitors.”
that the ceiling and walls were closing in around me. Like I couldn't breathe. Like the sides of the cell would keep coming toward me until no space remained, pushing out all the air . . . I sat up abruptly, gasping. Don't stare at the walls and ceiling, Rose, I chastised myself.
"Immediately? So. Two weeks. In two weeks, I could be . . . dead."
"Sometimes the greatest tests of our strength are situations that don't seem so obviously dangerous. Sometimes surviving is the hardest thing of all."
There was nothing in our banter to concern my guards. But every so often, I'd see Abe's gaze flick around, taking in the hall, my cell, and whatever other details he found interesting. Abe had not earned his reputation as zmey—the serpent—for nothing. He was always calculating, always looking for an advantage. It seemed my tendency toward crazy plots ran in the family.
"We're trying to push the idea that he just thought Rose was in danger and jumped in before he realized what was actually happening."
Why had he done it? Why had he risked his life for mine? Was it an instinctive reaction to a threat? Had he done it as a favor to Lissa, whom he'd sworn to help in return for freeing him? Or had he truly done it because he still had feelings for me?
Unfortunately, it took longer to get over a guy when he threw himself into danger for you.
She was Ambrose's aunt, and one of the cards she'd drawn for me had shown a woman tied to swords. Wrongful imprisonment. Accusations. Slander. Damn. I was really starting to hate those cards. I always insisted they were a scam, yet they had an annoying tendency to come true.
The bond, I realized. The bond had woken me up. I'd felt a sharp, intense flare of . . . what? Intensity. Anxiety. A rush of adrenaline. Panic raced through me, and I dove deeper into Lissa, trying to find what had caused that surge of emotion from her. What I found was . . . nothing. The bond was gone.
It was almost as though the blankness was intentional on her part.
"It's going to be okay," he murmured, his look of worry returning. "This'll work. We can do this."
Too close, too close. We're moving too fast.
So, you can imagine our surprise when the statues blew up.
The closest I had was Abe's book, which was no good at all. If he was the badass he pretended to be, he really would have slipped a file into it. Or gotten me something bigger, like War and Peace.
"Anyone" turned out to be Eddie Castile. And Mikhail Tanner.
My friends were staging a prison break. Unbelievable. Crazy was usually my specialty.
My tongue locked up when I saw who was standing at the end of the hallway. Dimitri.
"He escaped," said Eddie slyly. I caught the real meaning: he and Mikhail had helped Dimitri escape. "It's what people would expect some violent probably-still-a-Strigoi guy to do, right?" "You'd also expect him to come bust you out," added Mikhail, playing along with the game. "Especially considering how he fought for you last week. Really, everyone is going to think he busted you out alone. Not with us."
really," a new voice said. "Not after a little spirit-induced amnesia. By the time they wake up, the only person they'll remember seeing will be that unstable Russian guy. No offense." "None taken," said Dimitri, as Adrian stepped through the doorway.
"Wait—before you go with us, you need to know something." Dimitri started to protest, eyes glinting with impatience. "She does," argued Adrian, meeting Dimitri's gaze squarely. "Rose, if you escape . . . you're more or less confirming your guilt. You'll be a fugitive. If the guardians find you, they aren't going to need a trial or sentence to kill you on sight."
Adrian looked as conflicted as I felt. We both knew I didn't have any good choices. He was simply worried and wanted me to know what I was risking. Dimitri, however . . . for him, there was no debate. I could see it all over his face. He was an advocate of rules and doing the proper thing. But in this case? With such bad odds? It was better to risk living as a fugitive, and if death came, better to face it fighting.
A loud booming noise interrupted us, and we saw a flash of light off to my right. People near the other garages screamed. "There, you see?" asked Abe, quite pleased with himself. "A new gate. Perfect timing."
"Ah, my daughter," he said. "Eighteen, and already you've been accused of murder, aided felons, and acquired a death count higher than most guardians will ever see." He paused. "I couldn't be prouder."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "I hate not being in the loop." That tiny smile on his lips grew a little bigger. "Well, I have my own personal theory that the more you don't know, the more your curiosity is likely to make sure you stick around with me."
He glanced away from the side of the road just long enough to give me a surprised look. "You've always been my equal, Roza."
Sometimes, I wondered if there was more to the deal than just a job transfer, like maybe he'd done something else that neither had told me about.
All my life, I'd taken care of her. I'd protected her from danger and gone out of my way to keep her away from any threats. Now, the roles were reversed. She'd come through for me in saving Dimitri, and I was in her—and apparently everyone else's—hands as far as this escape was concerned. It went against every instinct I had and troubled me. I wasn't used to being protected by others, let alone her.
"Surviving isn't as easy as you think." "Oh God," I groaned. "You've been hanging out with Abe, haven't you? You know, when you were a Strigoi, you told me to stay away from him. Maybe you should take your own advice."
Her emotions were keyed up, prickly and a bit wilder than I would have liked. So much spirit, I realized. She's using too much.
I'd never thought of my relationship with Dimitri as "irrational affection," but Alberta's point was taken. Something in Hans's and Steele's faces made me think soon the whole world would know about us, but that was nothing compared to murder. And if it cleared Dimitri of being a Strigoi, then it meant he'd be imprisoned instead of staked if ever captured. Small blessings.
"A new king or queen can affect everything—for better or worse. I hope it's someone good. One of the Ozeras, maybe. One of Tasha's people."
"You should have just hidden in town," he said, a little amused. His weight and position allowed me no room to move. "It would have been the last place I looked. Instead, I knew exactly where you'd go."
"Right about . . . ?" Dimitri was at a total loss. It was a common reaction for people when I agreed to something reasonable.
"We can't go to some random place—at least not nearby. I doubt they took down my plates, but they could put out a call to look for this kind of car. If they've got that and our descriptions, and it gets to the state police, it'll get to the Alchemists and then it'll—"
