Dimitri’s face. It was . . . terrifying. Ferocious. He’d had a similar look when he’d defended me at my arrest—that badass warrior god expression that said he could take on hell itself. The way he looked now . . . well, it took that fierceness to a whole new level. This was personal, I realized. Fighting these Strigoi wasn’t just about finding Sonya and helping Lissa. This was about redemption, an attempt to destroy his past by destroying the evil directly in his path.
—page 249
He stakes the Strigoi henchman—hard—but he’s so fixated that he’s almost blindsided by Donovan. He and Rose restrain the Strigoi and demand answers. Donovan finally reveals what he knows, giving them a town and description of Sonya’s house.
As soon as they have the information they came for, Dimitri stakes him. And not just once. He thrusts his stake into Donovan’s chest over and over again. The carnage gets out of hand, and Rose has to beg Dimitri to stop before he loses himself completely.
“It’s over. You’ve done enough.”
“It’s never enough, Roza,” he whispered. The grief in his voice killed me. “It’ll never be enough.”
“It is for now,” I said. I pulled him to me. Unresisting, he let go of his stake and buried his face against my shoulder. I dropped my stake as well and embraced him, drawing him closer. He wrapped his arms around me in return, seeking the contact of another living being, the contact I’d long known he needed. “You’re the only one.” He clung more tightly to me. “The only one who understands. The only one who saw how I was.”
—page 253
The pain he feels is palpable. It breaks Rose’s heart. She tries to comfort him, tries to remind him that he said he wants to appreciate life now that he’s a dhampir again. But at the moment, he can’t find anything beautiful . . . there’s only death. She forces him to focus on one thing that’s beautiful; one thing will be enough to make him realize he is no longer Strigoi.
Finally, he finds something. Her hair—Rose’s hair is beautiful to him. Since Strigoi don’t see beauty in the world, only death, this is definitely progress.
Later, in a spirit dream, Rose is visited again by the brothers Dashkov. Against her better judgment, she shares their quest to find Sonya Karp, a major lead in locating the missing Dragomir. Victor and his brother promise to join them tomorrow to assist her in her efforts. Then the dream ends.
Awesome.
One spirit dream follows another as Adrian checks in with his dhampir girlfriend, who he believes is still safely tucked away at the original motel—and Rose isn’t filling him in on their current plan since she doesn’t want to worry anyone. Adrian shares his concerns with Rose about his own mental stability. Unlike Lissa, who has Rose to take away some of her spirit darkness when it gets to be too much to handle, Adrian doesn’t have anyone to whom he’s bonded. He’s afraid he’s going insane—the alcohol only masks his deterioration. Adrian tells Rose that she’s his strength. She’s about to tell him that she’d rather he find that strength inside himself when she’s abruptly woken from the dream by the blare of the alarm clock, leaving her frustrated—both because she misses Adrian and also because she hadn’t been able to tell him all she wanted to. She can only hope that he’ll be able to manage on his own.
GETTING ANSWERS THE HARD WAY
On the way to Sonya’s house, Rose shares a little info with the others.
“So,”I began casually, “Victor Dashkov might be joining us soon.”
It was to Sydney’s credit that she didn’t drive off the road. “What? That guy who escaped?”
I could see in Dimitri’s eyes that he was just as shocked, but he kept cool and under control, like always. “Why,” he began slowly, “is Victor Dashkov joining us?”
“Well, it’s kind of a funny story . . .”
—page 267
Rose fills Dimitri and Sydney in on Robert Doru’s background and also the spirit dreams she’s been having with the Dashkov brothers. While she glosses over Victor’s “mysterious” escape from prison a few weeks ago, something tells her that Dimitri is putting the pieces together for himself about what really happened—and just what extremes Rose took to find a way to restore him from his Strigoi self.
When they arrive at Sonya’s house, Rose and Dimitri scout the area, until finally they break in. Rose bangs her head hard while fighting Sonya, but at last they’re able to chain her to a chair. Even restrained, Sonya refuses to tell them anything about her connection to the missing Dragomir. No surprise there—she’s a Strigoi.
Dimitri’s concerned about Rose’s head injury and instructs her to rest, which she does begrudgingly.
While resting, Rose mentally visits Lissa and finds that she’s now taking part in the first of three monarch tests. The test takes place in the wilderness and is designed to assess the candidates’ physical endurance. The royals are given cell phones, maps, and compasses to guide them. If, however, they decide to use their phones to call for help, they’ll have failed the test and be out of the running for the throne.
The map contains a riddle Lissa must follow to find her way to the finish as well as the locations of helpful items. It’s a miserable, cold, and rain-drenched day, but Rose is impressed by how well Lissa can take care of herself. The princess is far from helpless.
When Rose is drawn back to Sonya’s house, the Strigoi still isn’t saying a word—and is extremely dangerous, even restrained.
When Sonya makes her move to break free, it takes both Dimitri and Rose to hold her down. Shockingly, the Dashkov brothers arrive with their own solution to make her talk—they’re going to stake her! Robert plunges a silver stake into the Strigoi’s heart—one that’s been charmed with spirit. A brilliant, blinding white light throws everyone back as spirit returns Sonya to her former self, just as it did Dimitri only recently.
The former Strigoi is in shock—being restored to a Moroi is something she never thought possible. And she’s not the only one who finds it miraculous. Sydney is staring, wide-eyed.
The Alchemist met my eyes wonderingly.
“I heard . . . but I didn’t believe.”
“Sometimes,” I told her, “I still don’t. It goes against every rule of the universe.”
To my surprise, she touched the small gold cross around her neck. “Some rules are bigger than the universe.”
—page 302
A now-protective Dimitri takes Sonya into another room where she can recover. Witnessing the spirit conversion for himself has made him understand that a gift like this—life emerging from death—is something that shouldn’t be wasted.
Through the bond, Rose sees that someone else is coming to a similarly inspired realization back at Court. Lissa has returned victorious from the test to be greeted by a mob of admirers who are treating the nominees like celebrities and whispering about the “return of the dragon,” the symbol of Lissa’s family. Even though this started as an act to buy more time to solve the queen’s murder, Lissa resolves to treat the election process with respect. Anything else would be an insult to her society.
Adrian brings Christian and Lissa to a local bar to meet Blake Lazar, the queen’s other lover. It doesn’t take them very long to determine that this guy is a total jerk. The initial pleasantries turn into a heated discussion about the queen’s murder and Ambrose’s other lovers, who could be suspects. They press for names and are stunned by what they learn. Among Ambrose’s lovers is Daniella Ivashkov, Adrian’s mother.
Adrian’s appalled by this possibility and storms out. To Lissa and Christian, however, it puts Daniella on the short list of potential murder suspects.
THE MISSING DRAGOMIR
While Dimitri gets some rest, the others go and sit in Sonya’s garden. Dimitri didn’t want Sonya grilled in her delicate state, but Rose knows they don’t have time to waste. She questions Sonya about her relative—the mother of Lissa’s brother or sister—but she’s resistant. Robert tries to compel her to talk, but this just pisses her off, and the spirit users attack each other. Rose calls Dimitri to help, and he’s angry they refuse to let Sonya recuperate.
Sydney is the one who finds a solution. Sonya doesn’t want to go back on her promise not to
tell
who her relative is—but she can
show
them where to find her, can’t she? It’s shaky logic at best, but it works. Sonya reluctantly agrees to lead the way.
Which means only one thing—another road trip! The six of them, the Dashkov brothers included, bundle into Sydney’s SUV and off they go.
On the way, Rose is able to watch through the bond as Lissa takes part in the second monarch test. She’s taken to a room where a very old Moroi woman—who Lissa will later learn is Ekaterina Zeklos, the queen prior to Tatiana—waits for her with a silver goblet filled with water. The goblet is charmed with magic from the four elements—and likely with spirit too, Lissa decides, when she finds herself in a spirit dream after drinking from it.
She quickly comes to the horrible realization that this is a test that will force her to face her darkest fears, starting with learning that Rose is dead. While Lissa is filled with grief over losing her dearest friend, dream-Christian announces that he too is leaving her. Lissa knows it’s only a dream—a nightmare—but she’s desperate for it to end. She can’t take the thought of being alone.
Would she give up over a dream? A dream about being alone? It seemed like such a minor thing, but that cold truth hit her again:
I’ve never been alone.
She didn’t know if she could carry on by herself, but then, she realized that if this wasn’t a dream—and dear God, did it feel real—there was no magic “stop” in real life. If she couldn’t deal with loneliness in a dream, she never would be able to while waking.
—page 355
Pulling out of the dream would mean failing the test. She forces herself to hang on, and the dream shifts to one in which she’s a Council member unable to properly represent the Dragomir family name due to her lack of confidence in this intimidating setting. She gropes for words when faced with the strong speakers and personalities from other royal representatives. They mock and jeer at her, calling for a removal of this “tongue-tied child” from Council. It isn’t until the Dragomir family seal is pulled off the wall that she finds her courage—and her voice. She snatches the seal back. It’s
hers
. Just like the seat on Council is
hers
. And no one has the right to take that away from her!
The Council room and members disappear and silence falls. Next she finds herself in the St. Vladimir medical examining room. Her spirit darkness has taken over, causing her to become a danger to herself and to others. They’re threatening to lock her up in the criminally insane wing of the Tarasov Prison. Rose bravely volunteers to take all of Lissa’s darkness and be driven mad in her place. But no—Lissa can’t let her make such a sacrifice. She will accept this fate and be sent away in order to protect her best friend.
And that’s when the dream ends, and with it, the test. Lissa has faced her fears and passed the test. She exits the room to the enthusiastic crowd shouting for the “dragon.”
Happy her friend is doing so well, Rose drifts off to sleep and finds herself in a spirit dream of her own with Adrian. They’re in a location picked by Rose’s subconscious—Sonya’s beautiful garden. When Rose accidentally lets it slip where they are, Adrian finally clues in that his girlfriend is not safely tucked away in the original motel, she’s been on a mission to find a dangerous Strigoi with Victor Dashkov as one of her allies. Adrian’s furious—staying at the motel was the only way to ensure Rose’s safety. When she’s anywhere else, she’s putting her life at great risk. She assures Adrian that her quest is worth it, but she can’t fill him in on the details . . . he just has to trust her. As the dream fades, she begs him not to say anything to the others. It’ll just worry them.
In the morning, they finally arrive at the house Sonya has directed them to. The face that greets them is a familiar one. Rose is completely shocked to realize that the missing Dragomir is someone they’ve known all along—it’s Jill Mastrano!
Jill’s mother, Emily, is scared when she sees her cousin Sonya. After all, Sonya’s supposed to be a
Strigoi
. It takes a bit of explaining before they’re allowed in the house, especially since Rose is a wanted fugitive.
The gravity of the situation is not lost on Rose.
I’d rushed into this, ready to find Lissa’s sibling—her sister, we now knew—with little thought of the implications. I should have known this would be a secret from everyone—including the child in question. I hadn’t considered what a shock this would be to her. And this wasn’t just some random stranger. This was
Jill
. Jill. My friend. The girl who was like a little sister to all of us, the one we looked out for. What was I about to do to her?
—pages 378-379