Others are there, too. People Rose knows and trusts, but she can’t concentrate enough to tell who they are. She just clings to Dimitri, unable to move from the spot where her friend was killed.
Janine’s there—although Rose doesn’t register anything other than a voice telling Dimitri to get Rose out of the house. Her mind refuses to process what happened, and all she can really do right now is follow simple directions, aided by Dimitri. His presence and strength is all that’s helping to get her through this.
She eventually finds herself on an Academy jet on its way back to St. Vladimir’s, with Janine by her side. She wants to know what she can do for her daughter, but Rose doesn’t answer. As the tears finally come, all she can do right now is cry over the death of her friend.
MARKED BY DEATH
Having successfully killed two Strigoi, Rose is honored in a
molnija
ceremony. Before, she’d looked at the marks—like those her mother has—as badges of honor, but now they represent something she wants to forget. After the back of her neck is tattooed, she’s greeted into the ranks of the guardians.
And then when my mother came up to me, I couldn’t help the tear that ran down my cheek. She wiped it away and then brushed her fingers against the back of my neck. “Don’t ever forget,” she told me.
Nobody said, “Congratulations,” and I was glad. Death wasn’t anything to get excited about.
—pages 314-315
Something very small has shifted in Rose and Janine’s relationship. They aren’t friends, but they’re not enemies anymore either. They both bear the marks of death—as well as the inner scars. And that forges something between them that is strong enough to start to erase past hurts.
POP QUIZ:
Frostbite
1. Rose is scheduled for an important interview at the beginning of
Frostbite
to determine her commitment to being a guardian. What is this interview called?
2. Before he’ll teach her to use a silver stake, Dimitri insists that Rose learn the location of what?
3. A “hat trick” for a guardian would be to kill three Strigoi by staking, ________, and burning.
4. What does Tasha Ozera teach?
5. What is Adrian Ivashkov’s royal title?
6. Whose mother is killed during the Strigoi attack on the Drozdov family?
7. True or false? Tasha suggests to everyone that they should lower the graduation age of dhampirs so there will be more guardians to protect Moroi.
8. Where do the guardians pinpoint the location of the Strigoi they’re searching for?
9. Who makes up the trio that originally leaves the ski lodge to hunt Strigoi?
10. What does Mia explode with her magic to help Rose when she fights the Strigoi?
* For quiz answers, see p.299.
After the ceremony, flowers are delivered to Rose from Adrian—and Lissa fills her in on the details about the other spirit user. He’s going to take the semester off from college and hang out at St. Vlad’s with them. His plan is to work with Lissa on how to use spirit—but he wouldn’t mind spending more time with Rose, either.
Dimitri lets Rose know there’s no practice today because she needs to recover. Taking a life, even a Strigoi’s, is a lot to come to terms with. Rose blames herself for Mason’s death, but Dimitri tells her not to. Rose has made some bad decisions lately, but Mason was responsible for his own decisions. It wasn’t Rose’s fault.
Speaking of decisions, Dimitri’s made one of his own lately.
“I told her no. Tasha.”
“I . . .” I shut my mouth before my jaw hit the floor. “But . . . why? That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. You could have a baby. And she . . . she was, you know, into you . . .”
The ghost of a smile flickered on his face. “ Yes, she was. Is. And that’s why I had to say no. I couldn’t return that . . .couldn’t give her what she wanted. Not when . . .” He took a few steps toward me. “Not when my heart is somewhere else.”
I almost started crying again. “But you seemed so into her. And you kept going on about how young I acted.”
“You act young,” he said, “Because you are young. But you know things, Roza. Things people older than you don’t even know. That day . . .” I knew instantly which day he referred to. The one up against the wall. “ You were right, about how I fight to stay in control. No one else has ever figured that out—and it scared me.
You
scare me.”
—pages 325-326
They know they still can’t be together—not really. Between the age thing and being Lissa’s guardians, there’s too much working against them. However . . . they’re not Lissa’s guardians
yet.
Dimitri kisses Rose passionately, which fills her with hope and happiness, and then says he’ll see her at their next training session. After all, he still has things to teach her. Lots of things.
CHAPTER 3
Shadow Kriss
RICHELLE ON SHADOW KISS
If readers thought the ending to Frostbite was harsh, it was nothing compared to this one. Frostbite was just the warm-up act! Again, I’d known from day one that the series was going to go in this direction, so the ending to this book wasn’t that difficult for me to write. In fact, it’s probably one of my favorite things that I’ve ever written! No author wants to be cruel, but we all really want to create something that has an impact on readers, and
Shadow Kiss
’s ending certainly delivered. This book’s publication was also kind of a wake-up call for me about how much of a following the series now had. The first book had done well, but it certainly wasn’t an overnight blockbuster. The series’ popularity had been growing steadily but gradually, and it wasn’t obvious to me, the author, how big the fan base was getting. Both
Shadow Kiss
and the previous book had made the
New York Times
Bestseller list, but the impact of what that truly meant didn’t hit me until, immediately after
Shadow Kiss
’s publication, my inbox began getting filled with distraught e-mails from readers devastated by the ending. I was flooded with comments from those who couldn’t believe I’d done something so mean to the characters. An astonishing amount of people told me that they’d thrown the book across the room in outrage—but then they’d add that they were eager to read the next book. What probably shocked me the most was that there was a handful of people who believed this was a trilogy and that I actually ended the series this way! Now
that
would’ve been mean.
First line:
His fingertips slid along my back, applying hardly any pressure, yet sending shock waves over my flesh.
GHOST FROM THE PAST
Rose is having a very sexy dream, but it’s not Dimitri who’s the object of her affection; it’s . . .
Christian
?
Oh no. It’s happening again. Rose slipped into Lissa’s mind by accident, something that’s easier to control when she’s awake. Luckily, she’s able to pull herself out of her friend’s romantic encounter with her boyfriend.
But now she’s extremely cranky since it’s only another reminder that Lissa can have the perfect relationship out in the open, but Rose’s feelings toward Dimitri need to be bottled up and kept a secret.
So
not fair.
She doesn’t want to go back to sleep and risk facing the couple again, so she decides to get some fresh air. Maybe a walk through the campus will help take her mind off her own troubles . . .
But her “troubles”—aka Dimitri—are currently out on patrol. She plays it off like her being out in the middle of the night (which in the vampire world is actually
day
) is no big deal.
“Rose—” Dimitri’s hand caught my arm, and despite all the wind and chill and slush, a flash of heat shot through me. He released me with a start, as though he too had been burned. “What are you really doing out here?”
He was using the
stop fooling around
voice, so I gave him as truthful an answer as I could. “I had a bad dream. I wanted some air.”
“And so you just rushed out. Breaking the rules didn’t even cross your mind—and neither did putting on a coat.”
“ Yeah,” I said “ That pretty much sums it up.”
“Rose, Rose.” This time it was his exasperated voice. “ You never change.”
—page 7
But she
has
changed. What happened in Spokane—losing Mason and singlehandedly killing two Strigoi—has given Rose a darker outlook on life. And Dimitri knows it.
When Alberta, the captain of the school guardians, draws near, Dimitri tells Rose to stay out of sight. But from her hiding place, she ends up hearing something shocking. Dimitri is scheduled to testify at Victor Dashkov’s upcoming trial for kidnapping Lissa. Victor had wanted her to use her spirit ability to heal his debilitating disease and didn’t hesitate in killing anyone who got in his way. Now he’s being judged. But this doesn’t make any sense to Rose . . . why aren’t she and Lissa testifying on their own behalf? They were both involved in the incident.
Alberta leaves and Rose comes out of her hiding spot to grill Dimitri about this. Victor is one of the highest-ranking royals, very close to the throne, and Dimitri says that those who know about the trial would prefer things stay quiet. He assures her that there’s more than enough evidence to put Victor behind bars without Rose or Lissa attending the trial. While Dimitri is sorry and understands why she’d be upset about this—Rose would love to help convict the man who very nearly destroyed her and Lissa’s lives—it wasn’t his decision.
They part ways and an annoyed Rose heads back to her dorm. But someone is watching her. Someone familiar.
Stunned, she realizes that it’s Mason.
But that’s impossible. He was killed three weeks ago!
He beckons to her, a sad, grim expression on his face. Terrified, she runs away. When she looks back, he’s gone. Maybe it was just her imagination.
GETTING EXPERIENCED
The next day is the exciting start of the novices’ field experience. For the next six weeks, Rose—even though she has two
molnija
marks, she’s still a novice guardian—and the other seniors in her class will be assigned a Moroi student. Each of them will protect their Moroi from fake Strigoi attacks, instigated by guardians, to test what they’ve learned so far. Rose thinks it’s a done deal that she’ll be assigned to Lissa. The two of them will ace this assignment. Piece of cake.
But she isn’t. She’s shocked when Eddie gets Lissa. And Rose gets . . .
Christian.
This seriously can’t be happening. She’s supposed to get
Lissa
—her
best friend
. The girl she protected for two years when they were out on their own. The one she will be protecting full-time once they graduate. Somebody must have made a huge mistake!
An angry and indignant Rose confronts Alberta and Dimitri and insist they see reason and reassign her to Lissa. Instead, she’s told that this is a lesson for her. In real life guardians don’t have a choice: whoever they’re assigned to is who they get. Bottom line: she’ll need to suck it up or she’ll fail this very important assignment.
Fine. But she’s not going to be happy about it.
Meanwhile, ever since they got back from Spokane, Adrian’s been hanging out at the school to learn more about the spirit ability he and Lissa share. But it’s not Lissa who he has a thing for. It’s the pretty girl he likes to call “little dhampir.”
“Look, Rose. You don’t have to keep up with the hard-to-get thing. You’ve already got me.”
Adrian knew perfectly well I wasn’t playing hard to get, but he always took a particular delight in teasing me. “I’m really not in the mood for your so-called charm today.”
“What happened, then? You’re stomping through every puddle you can find and look like you’re going to punch the first person you see.”
“Why are you hanging around, then? Aren’t you worried about getting hit?”
“Aw, you’d never hurt me. My face is too pretty.”
—pages 34–35