* For quiz answers, see p.299.
There’s more than enough evidence to warrant a full trial.
It’s obvious that she’s been framed. Somebody wants her to take the blame for this horrible crime. But who?
As she’s leaving the courtroom, stunned by what’s happened, Ambrose manages to slip her a note. It’s from Queen Tatiana herself, written before her death. She wasn’t in favor of the age decree, but it was better than what some Moroi wanted—to force
all
dhampirs into becoming guardians.
But that’s not all the note says.... It also reveals that there’s another Dragomir—Eric Dragomir’s illegitimate child. Lissa’s half-sibling! If Rose can find this child—and the queen trusts only her to take on this important task—then Lissa will have an official vote on the Council. It would make the difference for Lissa, for everyone.
It’s an amazing amount of information to take in.
But at the moment, Rose is a bit busy dealing with the thought of being sent to prison for the rest of her life. Abe assures her that she won’t go to trial . . .
or
anywhere else.
“Even you have your limits, old man.”
His smile returned. “ You’d be surprised. Besides, they don’t even send royal traitors to prison, Rose. Everyone knows that.”
I scoffed. “Are you insane? Of course they do. What else do you think they do with traitors? Set them free and tell them not to do it again?”
“No,” said Abe, just before he turned away. “ They execute traitors.”
—page 489
CHAPTER 6
Last Sacrifice
RICHELLE ON
LAST SACRIFICE
What was most surprising about
Last Sacrifice
was what a high-powered action novel it became! The love story, friendships, and emotional content have always made up the heart of this series. While they were still present in this book, they were also sharing the spotlight with C4 explosions and car chases, which was certainly a long ways from how the series had started!
It’s amazing how difficult it can be to wrap up all the subplots and threads in a series, particularly when you’ve fallen into a pattern of just ending books on cliffhangers. There are so many nuances to address, and as I tried to cover all of them, the book just kept getting longer and longer. Equally difficult was that I also wanted to seed some plotlines for
Bloodlines
, which meant purposely leaving a few threads open. My hope was that this would excite readers for the spin-off series, but it backfired on me a little! Those who didn’t realize there was more to come thought I’d been sloppy and forgotten to wrap certain things up, not realizing those threads had been left by design.
Overall, I’m happy with the way this book and the series turned out. Ask any writer, and he or she will always wish there was more time to go back and keep fixing or adding things. I’m no different and probably could’ve kept perfecting this for years! At some point, though, you have to step back and say, “It’s time we wrap this up.”
First line:
I don’t like cages.
ROSE BEHIND BARS
Framed for the murder of Queen Tatiana, Rose is awaiting trial, under constant guard, behind cold steel bars in a holding cell at the Moroi Royal Court—frustrated that she’s helpless to do anything at the moment but wait. And if she’s found guilty of this crime, she’ll immediately be sentenced to death.
Her father, Abe—who’s also working as her lawyer—visits to tell her that her trial might be moved up to two weeks from now. To Rose, that’s great news. It means she’ll be free earlier than expected once they prove her innocence.
To Abe, it’s a bad thing. He anticipates it will be exactly the same as her hearing—same evidence and a guilty verdict. After which, she’ll be executed. Immediately.
Abe assures her before leaving her cell that he believes in her innocence—his daughter might be capable of murder, but not this one—and he’s working on a way to fix this. Just as he promised her in the courtroom, she
won’t
stand trial. But even she knows that her dangerous and influential father has limits to what he can fix—especially in the amount of time they have.
But her impending fate is not all that’s on Rose’s mind . . . The visit from Abe did nothing to distract her from the other important matter at hand: the possible existence of another Dragomir. Rose rereads the note the queen wrote to her before she died. In it, she disclosed her belief that Lissa’s father’s had an illegitimate child. If this is true and the child can be found, the Dragomir family would gain quorum, and Lissa would be given an official voice on the Moroi Royal Council. This would be
big
. One vote could change everything—including whether or not Rose is found guilty.
Rose reaches out to her friend through their bond, but it feels as if Lissa is trying to hide something from Rose—something huge. But what?
It doesn’t take long before she finds out.
During Queen Tatiana’s funeral procession, statues rigged with explosives detonate to distract guardians while Eddie and Mikhail help free Rose from her cell. They’re helped by another conspirator, one who’s a big surprise to Rose given their many issues and difficulties: Dimitri. Adrian is also doing his part to help by using compulsion on any guards who try to stand in their way as they get Rose away from the Royal Court.
With the help of her friends, Abe has masterminded this prison break. If Rose isn’t at Court, she won’t stand trial. And if she doesn’t stand trial, she can’t be found guilty. It’s not a perfect solution, but drastic times call for drastic measures. Rose is told she must go with Dimitri and stay safely hidden away while her friends work on finding evidence to prove her innocence.
Adrian warns Rose of one problem—by escaping, she’ll be confirming her guilt in the eyes of the guardians. And if she’s caught, they’ll have the authority to kill her on sight. If she stays, there is a slim chance she will be found innocent during her trial. Either option is a gamble.
To Rose, it isn’t a difficult decision. She’d rather risk living as a fugitive, and if death came for her, she’d rather face it fighting.
They fight their way past guardians to get to their getaway car—a nondescript Honda—where Abe meets up with them.
There isn’t much time for goodbyes, and Rose quickly hugs Eddie and Mikhail—and then shares a brief moment with her current boyfriend before she flees the scene with her ex-boyfriend.
Adrian was the hardest to leave behind. I could tell it was difficult for him too, no matter how relaxed his grin seemed. He couldn’t be happy about me going off with Dimitri. Our hug lasted a little bit longer than the others, and he gave me a soft, brief kiss on the lips. I almost felt like crying after how brave he’d been tonight. I wished he could go with me but knew he’d be safer here.
“Adrian, thank you for—”
He held up his hand. “It’s not goodbye, little dhampir. I’ll see you in your dreams.”
—pages 63-64
Finally, Rose says goodbye to her father, who has planned all of this, right down to one more explosion—one that will blast a hole in the Court’s walls so they can get out. Dimitri races the car through the opening, leaving the Moroi Royal Court behind them.
The longer she sits there—in the passenger seat next to him—the more the truth of what’s happened sinks in. And the more she realizes that she is really and truly alone with Dimitri for the first time since he’d become a dhampir again.
He’d risked so much for her by doing this. He was now a fugitive too. She lets him know that he’s free to take off at any time. But he refuses to even consider it. He warns that if she tries to get away from him, he’ll just find her.
She wants to know why . . . she wonders to herself if he might still feel a lingering attraction to her despite his harsh words from before—“
love fades, mine has.”
Dimitri makes sure she knows exactly why he’s doing this.
“Lissa asked me to protect you.”
“Hey, I don’t need anyone to—”
“And,” he continued, “I meant what I said to her. I swore I’d serve her and help her for the rest of my life, anything she asks. If she wants me to be your bodyguard, then that’s what I’ll be.” He gave me a dangerous look. “There’s no way you’re getting rid of me anytime soon.”
—page 67
If the guardians find her—they’ll find Dimitri too. He’s destroying his life by helping her—by agreeing to do this. Staying with her is definitely the wrong decision, and she needs to convince him of that. But there’s no time to argue. It’s not long before pursuing guardians start to tail them. Dimitri swerves off the highway and into a mall parking lot, where he decides they need to split up temporarily to lose those following them. They’re to meet up at the nearby movie theater in half an hour.
Rose does as he says and tries to blend in with other teens at the mall while she waits out the half hour. As she exits the mall and heads for the theater, she’s ambushed by a guardian. She knows he has the authority to kill her on sight, so she dodges his blows and manages to take him to the ground, where she knocks him unconscious.
Breathlessly, she reaches the theater—but there’s no sign of Dimitri. Finally an unfamiliar car pulls up beside her and Dimitri calls out to her. He stole this car and ditched the other one. When Rose gets in, he hits the gas, and they get back to the main road, leaving the guardians far behind them.
A few hours later, Dimitri pulls off the road into a McDonald’s, where they meet up with another surprising ally—Sydney. She now works out of New Orleans. Abe had been responsible for getting her out of Russia, which is where the girls first met during Rose’s quest to find and kill the Strigoi version of Dimitri. This “favor” has left Sydney in open-ended debt to him, and he kept getting favors from her—this is just the most recent. Helping a wanted fugitive and a former Strigoi isn’t exactly part of an Alchemist’s regular work, and Sydney’s not thrilled with being a part of this drama. But here she is. And she also has a new car for them to continue on in, leaving the stolen one behind.
Back at Court, order has been restored, but the guardians are grilling Rose’s friends about what happened and who’s involved. However, everyone involved with her breakout has alibis. Lissa suspects that Rose is watching and doesn’t want her to worry. She sends a message through the bond that they will clear Rose’s name. It’s crazy, really. Rose has always been the one to protect Lissa, and now it seems to be the other way around.
At an ordinary motel in an uninteresting town, Sydney checks them in. Rose and Dimitri have to share a room, since it’s all the better to defend themselves if there’s any trouble. However, if they do get caught, Sydney doesn’t want to be anywhere near them, so she gets a separate room. Abe has strictly instructed Sydney that the three are to get comfortable at the motel and stay out of trouble while her friends try to gather evidence to help Rose’s case back at Court, but Rose is frantic. She hates the idea of sitting around and doing nothing. Who knows how long it will take to clear her name? When she and Dimitri are alone in their room, she heads for the motel room door, but Dimitri blocks her way. So now what is she supposed to do?
Clearly, there’s only one answer. Fight. Dimitri, however, throws her on the bed and pins her down. This is totally infuriating. But it’s also kind of intoxicating to have his body so close to hers. Fighting isn’t working so well, so she tries a different tactic.
My body might be constrained, but my head and neck had just enough freedom to shift up—and kiss him.
My lips met his, and I learned a few things. One was that it was possible to catch him totally by surprise. His body froze and locked up, shocked at the sudden turn of events. I also realized that he was just as good a kisser as I recalled. The last time we’d kissed had been when he was Strigoi. There had been an eerie sexiness to that, but it didn’t compare to the heat and energy of being alive.
—page 96
Dimitri kisses her back—passionately. She wonders, not for the first time, if it’s possible he might still love her. However, this isn’t the time to think about romance; it’s time to think about escape. She manages to catch him by surprise—again—with a very non-sexy punch to his face and flees the motel, headed into the woods.
While she tries to get her bearings and put space between herself and Dimitri, she slips into Lissa’s head to find her friend being questioned by guardians. The subject turns to Dimitri and why he’d help an accused murderer escape if he’s no longer an evil Strigoi.