It’s enough to finally stop his protests. They can’t deny their feelings for each other, feelings that overwhelm them as they give into their mutual passion. They were meant to be together.
But before they can truly be together, there are a couple of very important things standing in their way.
Adrian.
Rose realizes what she’s done. She’s cheated on him. He deserves better than that because she does truly love him. He’s amazing, but . . . he’s not Dimitri. She needs to give Adrian the respect he deserves and let him go once and for all. The last thing she’d ever want to do is flaunt her feelings for Dimitri in front of him.
And also, before she and Dimitri can even think about having a real relationship, she has a single request: he needs to truly forgive himself. If he can’t be happy with himself, he can’t be happy with her.
When Rose falls asleep in Dimitri’s arms, she’s faced with something she didn’t think she’d have to deal with yet—Adrian. Talk about unfortunate timing. She knows she can’t break up with him in a dream, even when he comments that her aura is shinier than he’s ever seen it before. He doesn’t realize it’s because of what’s happened between her and Dimitri—and she can’t exactly tell him. Um,
awkward
.
Rose tries to be all business. She asks Adrian to have Mikhail meet her at a restaurant near the Alchemists’ hotel. She needs to get in to see Ian, to find out the identity of the Moroi he recognized in the photograph.
When the dream ends, she checks in with Lissa, who’s on her way to complete the last of the monarch tests by answering the question. And she’s deeply scared that she will answer incorrectly. On the way, Serena stops her to give her the list of Moroi defense trainees. A familiar name is among them—Daniella Ivashkov.
Lissa goes to face the former queen for her test and is tongue-tied when she’s asked the question again:
“What must a queen possess in order to truly rule her people?”
The answer finally comes to her.
“A queen must possess nothing to rule because she has to give everything she has to her people. Even her life.”
It’s the right answer! Even so, Lissa confides that she can’t become queen due to the rules of quorum. She’s hoping that Ariana Szelsky will be elected. She’s the only one from the remaining nominees who Lissa believes would make a great ruler.
Ekaterina breaks the bad news to Lissa: Ariana failed this test. She’s out of the running.
ENDGAME
Rose, Dimitri, Sonya, and Jill must gather their things from the hotel and hurry to the restaurant to meet Mikhail. Rose finally has a prime suspect for the murder—and a quick visit to Lissa confirms that her friend is also putting the pieces together . . .
It’s Daniella Ivashkov.
Adrian’s mother had both the method and the means to kill the queen. She did it—Rose is
certain
of it—even though it breaks her heart to think what this will mean for Adrian when he learns his mother is a murderer.
Both Rose and Lissa believe that Daniella did it. Now they just have to prove it.
At the moment, Lissa needs to focus on giving her pre-election speech, which is taking place in the huge Royal Ballroom—there are so many people in the audience that it looks like a rock concert. Lissa will be speaking along with the remaining two other nominees—only three left from the original pool of twelve. When Lissa speaks about Moroi and dhampirs being one people and how they must work together for a strong future, she receives loud cheers.
But then the enthusiastic crowd receives some bitter news. Despite Lissa’s popularity, she has no family and is therefore not allowed to win this election. The crowd goes crazy, and it’s clear there will be no vote today. Order must first be restored.
Lissa is not eligible to be queen—but Rose and the others already knew this. This was supposed to simply be a diversion to buy them more time to find evidence to clear Rose’s name.
And yet it’s become so much more than that.
Rose listened in on Lissa’s incredible speech with pride—and with every word her friend spoke, the truth became clearer and clearer to her. This was meant to be.
She
would
be queen.
I decided then and there that I would make it happen. We wouldn’t bring Jill simply to give Lissa her Council vote. Jill would give Lissa the status that would allow Moroi to vote for her. And Lissa would win.
—page 513
Rose, Dimitri, Sonya, and Jill arrive at the restaurant where Mikhail . . . and Adrian . . . are waiting for them. When Mikhail and Sonya see each other, she immediately runs into his arms. After three years being apart, they’re still in love. Mikhail is desperately grateful to Rose and the others for making this reunion possible.
Before Rose leaves with Mikhail to sneak into the hotel where the Alchemists are being held so she can get more evidence to prove Daniella is the murderer, Dimitri tells her to be careful and kisses her forehead . . .
But once again, Adrian’s timing is impeccable.
“Little dhampir, are you—”
Adrian came strolling around the car, just in time to see that small kiss. I dropped my hand from Dimitri’s. None of us said anything, but in that moment, Adrian’s eyes . . . well, I saw his whole world come crashing apart. I felt sicker than if a fleet of Strigoi were around. I felt worse than a Strigoi. Honor, I thought. For real: the guardians should have taught it. Because I hadn’t learned it.
—page 519
Talking to Adrian about this is her responsibility—but it’s one that will have to wait until later. Her heart twisting from what just happened, Rose goes with Mikhail to the hotel and dons a magical disguise, courtesy of Sonya, to help her get past the guards to go see Sydney. Once they drop their disguises and the young Alchemist sees who has just barged into her room, she’s hopeful that they’re there to free her.
No, sorry. They’re actually there to talk to Ian—he knows something important. And they need Sydney’s help to get to him.
The other Alchemist clearly won’t help a couple of dhampirs, but Rose thinks he’ll help Sydney—it’s clear to Rose that Ian has a crush on Sydney. If she asks him to talk, he’ll talk.
Rose is right. When Sydney flirts—just a little bit—Ian caves. He confirms that he recognized the Moroi with the bad hand he’d seen in the photo during their earlier interrogation at Court. The Moroi was a hired bodyguard for a non-royal Moroi. The Moroi woman he describes, though, is definitely not Daniella—but it
is
someone else Rose knows
very
well.
Shocked by what she’s learned, Rose returns with Mikhail to Dimitri, Jill, and Sonya—Adrian’s still there too, but he’s now keeping his distance from Rose—and compares notes on the real killer. The threatening letter likely
was
from Daniella. But she wasn’t the one who killed the queen.
With Dimitri and Rose in magical disguises, they slip past Court security and into the ballroom, where chaos still reigns. Rose finds her father and asks him to take charge of this situation—especially when he realizes that it’s his rebellious daughter who’s broken back into Court. Abe grabs the microphone to get the crowd’s attention so Rose can speak.
She wastes no time in introducing Jill—Eric Dragomir’s illegitimate daughter.
It’s a major surprise for the crowd, and there is a flurry of shouted commentary. One person’s voice carries through the room to confirm that it’s all true. It’s Daniella Ivashkov. She knew all along. Eric had personally asked her to help keep this secret—and to help with certain tasks to facilitate this.
Pieces click in Rose’s head—Daniella was the one responsible for having the files stolen from the Alchemists to cover up the existence of another Dragomir. But it’s over now and Daniella knows it—the truth is out there, and one simple DNA test will prove that Jill is Eric’s daughter.
Daniella turns on Rose, demanding to know who she is.
Rose faces the crowd before her—those all too willing to accuse her of a crime she didn’t commit and toss her away. She wants to face them and let them all know that she’s innocent.
She drops her disguise.
The crowd reacts with cries and screams, and guardians move in to capture her and Dimitri. Rose still has the microphone, and she announces to all who the real murderer is—and it’s not her.
It’s Tasha Ozera.
Christian’s aunt springs to defend herself, shocked and hurt that Rose would make such an accusation. But the facts speak for themselves: Tasha hated the queen for the guardian age law and her refusal to let Moroi learn how to fight back against Strigoi. That the queen didn’t
actually
feel this way would have been too little, too late. Tasha’s hired Moroi bodyguard had a bad hand—it would have been impossible for him to stake the queen. Tasha did it herself.
Tasha’s also been working hard to change the quorum so Lissa could become queen—having the new queen’s confidence would have helped Tasha pass the laws she wanted. As far as her bodyguard attacking Lissa, Dimitri thinks that was supposed to have been a fake attack to throw off suspicion. Tasha seems crushed by Dimitri’s accusations. She’s still in love with him, which only adds to her motive. Having the murder pinned on Rose would mean she’d have another chance with him after Rose’s execution.
When guardians move in to take Tasha into custody, she grabs Mia Rinaldi and holds a gun to her head, planning to use the girl as a hostage. But Mia’s come a long way in her abilities to defend herself—and uses her powers to fight back.
Lissa fears that one of them is going to die and leaps forward in an attempt to compel Tasha to drop her weapon, but Tasha turns the gun on Lissa and fires.
Rose jumps in front of her friend, shielding Lissa with her own body, and is shot in the chest. Pain rips through her.
She escaped death once before. She doesn’t think she’ll escape this time—death has finally come to claim her . . .
Just before the light completely vanished, I saw Dimitri’s face join Lissa’s. I wanted to smile. I decided then that if the two people I loved most were safe, I could leave this world. The dead could finally have me. And I’d fulfilled my purpose, right? To protect? I’d done it. I’d saved Lissa, just like I’d sworn I’d always do. I was dying in battle.
—page 551
But Rose isn’t meant to die today. She wakes up three days later in a huge, luxurious bedroom with a canopied bed. And Dimitri is by her side.
Since Court went into lockdown and Adrian and Lissa were taken away and couldn’t heal her, she healed
herself
—because she’s a fighter and because she has a very strong will to live.
Dimitri fills her in on what she’s missed. Tasha was caught, and Rose and Dimitri are clear of all charges. Rose is more than free—she’s a hero! And almost losing her made Dimitri realize that he truly loves her and that she forgives him for being Strigoi—all this time, he hasn’t been certain. But now he is.
We kissed, lightly at first, and the sweetness of the moment overpowered any pain I felt. The intensity had just barely picked up when he pulled away.
“Hey, what gives?” I asked.
“You’re still recovering,” he chastised. “You might think you’re back to normal, but you aren’t.”
“This
is
normal for me. And you know, I thought with all this freedom and self-discovery and expression of our love stuff that we could finally stop with the whole Zen master wisdom and practical advice crap.”
This got me an outright grin. “Roza, that’s not going to happen. Take it or leave it.”
I pressed a kiss to his lips. “If it means getting you, I’ll take it.”
—pages 557–558
There’s more good news. They’ve both received guardian status again . . . and Rose has officially been named Lissa’s guardian! However, it brings up old worries. From the beginning, they didn’t think they could be together because protecting Lissa got in the way. Dimitri had once told her that if he let himself love Rose, then he wouldn’t throw himself in front of Lissa to protect her—he’d throw himself in front of
her
.
When Rose had been shot, she knew she wasn’t the only one to move into the line of fire . . .
“You followed when I jumped in front of Lissa, didn’t you? Who were you going for? Me or her?”
He studied me for several long seconds. He could have lied. He could have given the easy answer by saying he’d intended to push both of us out of the way—if that was even possible, which I didn’t recall. But Dimitri didn’t lie. “I don’t know, Roza. I don’t know.”
I sighed. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
“It never is,” he said, pulling me into his arms. I leaned against his chest and closed my eyes. No, it wouldn’t be easy, but it would be worth it. As long as we were together, it would be worth it.
—page 560