Oh wow. I do apologize for the extended absence on my part. Life just kind of gets in the way of getting anything does, doesn't it? It almost seems silly for me to even be writing more since the book itself comes out relatively soon, but a girl's got to do something to keep herself occupied as she waits in suspence for Last Sacrifice. I really do hope that the break between when I last wrote and when I picked this back up didn't impact the style of it too much. If anyone's curious, I made some minor adjustments to the previous chapter, but it's probably nothing to lose sleep over.

Once again, the floor is open to suggestions and all that jazz. :) So do please enjoy and leave a review for such things are much appreciated (naturally) and are a very good motivation for further updates. Also, letting me know of any inconsistencies would also be much appreciated.

Abe had come back down to my dreary place of captivity once he had finished his discussion with Lissa. Not that he really needed to tell me anything since I had heard everything already through Lissa. He did it all the same though, skillfully keeping clear of deliberately discussing the new "weapon" at his disposal for interrogational purposes. Between us though, it was fairly obvious that he was pleased by the unexpected event of Lissa offering to assist us in any way necessary to figure out the real plot going on here. I wasn't too pleased really about her being so ready to compel the living daylights out of people, but I knew there was no way to stop her with bars and a handful of guards standing in the way.

You would think Dimitri of all people, moral buff as he was, would instantly be opposing the abuse of spirit. Apparently me being behind bars and a dead Moroi queen were enough to stifle any ethical dilemmas about it.

Speaking of Dimitri…

I really wasn't taking too well with how my mind kept going in circles that started and ended with him. No amount of thinking seemed to make me feel completely satisfied. And that was putting aside the real need within me to see him do something—anything to make me believe we still stood a chance. I needed to see him and—if it was humanly possible—actually talk to him. I needed answers regardless of the possibility that I might wind up in the same emotional state as before. It had only been a day and I already couldn't stand this whole half doubt, half hope state of mind. Being so alone wasn't helping. Being alone left me with nothing but myself and my tormenting thoughts.

And I really wondered why I was even bothering with it. Maybe what had happened at the café was a momentary lapse from post-Strigoi Dimitri to pre-Strigoi Dimitri because of the imminent danger. Maybe I had imagined that glorious moment when I had felt the stirrings of that old electricity permeating the air between Dimitri and I at the point during the fight where I had resigned myself to my fate. Maybe I was being too hopeful and partially delusional, willing to project my feelings for the sake of pitiful hope. Most of all, maybe, just maybe I was going to die so it wouldn't matter either way.

The pessimism was fairly detrimental to my state of mind, but I couldn't conjure up enough happy thoughts since I appeared to be quite short of those as of it. If they, whoever it was, really wanted me dead, what was going to stop them? If it was enough members on the Moroi council or whatever who were backing this plot, I could just throw in the towel now and submit my request for a painless, private execution. Only problem was, I couldn't do that. I couldn't just lie down and die because that's just not who I am. I couldn't possibly let some Moroi political shitstorm take down Rose Hathaway. Oh hell no. If they were going to be attempting that sort of thing, I would most definitely not go down without the worst fight to ever be seen by Court—verbal or physical.

"I need to get some air," I said to myself quietly, rolling onto my side despite how uncomfortable the floor was to begin with. Louder, I asked the guards, "Is a change of scenery out of the question?"

I really didn't expect any of them to answer. After all, they seemed to be relatively content with standing still a statues and disregarding my existence completely. To my surprise and relief, one of them replied.

"I doubt it," he said, sounds of shifting coming from the nameless guard's direction.

"Damn it," I muttered, slapping the ground with a flimsy arm. It hurt, but not enough that I cared. Suddenly being overcome by my traditionally snarky nature, I decided to speak up again. "And if I go crazy before this trail of mine, which is by the way a real waste of time if you asked me, goes down, what happens?"

"Beats me. It'd be a first," the guard replied tersely. Whether he was amused or not, I couldn't tell.

"Lucky me," I said bitterly. "You'd really think it wouldn't be that big of a deal to let a girl get some sunshine or something. I'm not exactly hard to take down."

"Says your high body count—"

"—of Strigoi," I finished before he could continue. "And just so you know, that really has no relevance here, but thanks for trying."

He was silent for a moment after that. I turned my head to look at him. He was middle age from the looks of things with a head of buzzed dark hair and a solemn face. Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure I had heard his name sometime beforehand. It was something like Guardian Duncan or something like that. At any rate, I caught his eye for a moment and wondered what he, or really any of the guards, thought of this. Sure, some really seemed to be going with the scapegoat ploy hanging over my head, but after hearing from the Dimitri's guards that not all guardians thought that way, I was getting curious. Of course, I didn't think it was in my best interest to start questioning my guards, but it was something new to think about.

No real conversation took place after that. They did feed me though. And since I hadn't really taken to eating most of the day, I gobbled down my meager rations and sent them back a clean plate. Afterwards I might have felt a little queasy, but at least I didn't feel quite so hollow inside. I moved back to my bed eventually and tried to sleep, but that really wasn't working out too well. The problem was, I wasn't really tired. And even when I got tired, I just didn't sleep. I laid there on my hard mattress wondering what Dimitri must have been thinking while lying in this same bed no so long ago. Unfortunately, all I could think of as possible candidates were the unpleasant reminders of Strigoi Dimitri.

I cringed as the thought crossed my mind. The memories of his time as a Strigoi were probably beyond words. Language couldn't convey the torment of his revived soul weighed down so heavily by the memory of ever man, woman and child he had ruthlessly murdered. When I put it like that in my own head, my insides grew cold and hardened to the point they ached—my heart especially. I realized I could try to put into perspective what had happened, but part of me refused to accept that completely as the reason behind his rejection of what had been the best thing to ever happen to me: our love. I couldn't accept it because I still believed in him and the endless strength I knew he had. I knew he could conquer everything. Or, at least I believed he could. He had the strength in him to do anything so long as he put his mind to it.

Another reason I wasn't dozing off for quite some time fell into almost the same category as Dimitri: Adrian.

Right now, I didn't want to so much as think about him. Or Dimitri either. Not that wanting to avoid thoughts of either of them was really working, because it wasn't. I tried relentlessly to convince myself that where I stood in all of this was neither defined nor important at the moment. But it wasn't like I could think of much else. By this point I had gotten so confused with conspiracy theories that I didn't know left from right or where one idea stopped and another began. So at least with my love problems there were two known sources of conflict. One small relief I guess.

At some point I fell asleep without realizing it. Luckily, I got to skip out on seeing Adrian. When I woke up, I nibbled away at my breakfast before sitting on the floor with my back leaning against the bed. Once I could tell through Lissa's excitement that something was going down, I left my cell all too eagerly.

Lissa was anxiously pacing outside a rather plain door. At least, it was plain considering the other ostentatious décor known to deck the walls of pretty much every building at Court. That being said, I felt it safe to assume she was somewhere further away from the more prestigious areas inhabited by Royals. Given that there were several stoic Guardians standing around, I felt her safety was pretty much insured. Not that I would really bet on anything happening to Lissa with Zmey around.

Lissa's nerves were working into overdrive as she waited for Abe to take her inside to where the interrogation would take place. From where she was standing, she could hear nothing coming from the other side. The guardian—presumably one on Abe's payroll—standing by the door appeared to about a sociable as those guarding my cell. Lissa fought the urge to ask him what was going on inside the room; she'd already been standing there for approximately twenty minutes. Abe had offered for her to sit in a quaint room across the hall where she could sit, but she had opted for pacing the length of the hall instead. She had too much energy bubbling in her veins to withstand sitting.

Feeling the frantic depths of her anxiety, I allowed for it to seep into my own psyche. They weren't welcomed feelings, but it was the least I could do within my power. Stress and anxiety really didn't mix well with Lissa and her spirit powers. I knew that far too well given all our prior experiences where emotional turmoil found a physical outlet—cutting. The habit had died, thankfully, but Lissa's emotions still grew to unstable proportions at times. Being connected to her, I took it onto myself to take away the darkness as it threatened to grow within her. It wasn't healthy for me considering how it had led me down a warpath once before with the intent of murdering a Moroi student, but I was fairly confident in my ability to control myself. And this was putting aside the fact that there were enough guards outside my cell to put me out of commission pretty fast.

At any rate, apparently my actions piqued Lissa's attention. Lissa's endless pacing paused and she turned her head as if I would appear right behind her, a bittersweet feeling coating her thoughts.

Are you there, Rose?

My inability to respond became a momentary source of ire for me. Though for the most part I wished our bond would stay the way it was, at times I wanted the one-way connection to be a two-way one instead.

I hope you aren't mad at me for doing this, Lissa whispered quietly, guilt contorting her insides. It was another reminder from within herself that she had to stay strong for me that caused the guilt to ebb away. I'm doing this for you. You always do things for me and protect me. Now it's my turn to do what I can.

I wanted to hug her and scold her at the same time. Spirit's effect on the user's mental state meant that she was putting herself at risk. I couldn't be happy about that even if it was for me.

Suddenly, the door at her back opened. A second Guardian's head poked out of the room. The two exchanged brief words before the one standing at the door waved for Lissa to enter. Lissa's insides jolted and she was nervous since she had no idea what to expect out of this. She passed through the open doorway quickly; the door shut behind her. The interior of the room resembled the hall in the lack of outrageous designing. A pair of dark leather couches sat on two adjacent sides of a long, low glass table. On couch one sat a pair of the Royal Guard; Abe sat on the other and looked quite comfortable indeed. His posture was relaxed, his legs crossed and his hands neatly folded atop his knees. Abe's two guards stood in positions advantageous to apprehending anyone so much as looking at Abe the wrong way.

Taking a quick note of the fact that all occupants of the room were staring at her, Lissa took minor comfort in the brief smirk Abe threw in her direction. However, in comparison to the substantial amount of anxiety sending little tremors through her body, Abe's attempt at easing her did little.

"How kind of you to join us, Princess," Abe said, patting the cushion next to him. "Grab a seat and we'll get this show on the road."

Lissa nearly felt she was going to fall over nothing as she passed before the Royal Guards to sit by Abe. As she walked, she let her eyes drift towards the two. They regarded her with that schooled look all guardians have and nodded respectfully, but there was something to their expressions that I noticed while Lissa didn't. Both of them had a sort of tension hanging around their eyes that pinched the corners. It was clear that neither of them trusted Abe. It wasn't that surprising. If I were them I wouldn't have even let myself get into this situation unless he busted my kneecaps and had someone drag me.

Once Lissa was sitting she felt slightly relieved. Naturally, she knew full well that no harm could ever come to her. Not when Zmey was around, the man I had chosen as my advocate over Damon Tarus. Though between the two, Abe was by far the shadier of the two, I had the genetics on my side to win all my close friends his unwavering protection.

Abe absentmindedly introduced Lissa to the two guards, but their names fell on deaf ears. Lissa's heart was pounding in her ears. She looked at the two and felt fear and excitement well up inside of her. Here was hope. These two men could hold the key to clearing my name. The prospect sent shudders through her again and again. She wondered if she could do this. Could she compel them into telling her the truth? Did she have it in her? She surely hoped so. In a bittersweet way, I did, too.

It was Abe's voice that suddenly shook her from her thoughts.

"Whenever you're ready, Princess."

Lissa glanced at Abe. He nodded, a vague smile over his features. She turned her attention to the guards.

The bigger of the two raised his hand, leaning out over his knees. "No funny business, hear me?"

It took Lissa a moment to comprehend his words, but she was shaking her head frantically instantly. "Nothing like that. We just…"

"We need to get our facts straight, if you know what I mean," Abe continued lightly. "It's a shame to imagine that the Queen's guards had a glitch in their system."

The man's jaw tightened. "There was no such thing."

"If that was true, we wouldn't be here right now," Abe said flatly with a dismissive hand. "Just let the Princess here do her job and we'll go from there."

The men decided who was going to go first, the other being escorted into the next room by one of Abe's guards. However, before the other left completely, Lissa spoke up suddenly, remembering her conversation with Dimitri's guards.

"Do you two really think Rose—I mean Guardian Hathaway did it?" she asked quickly, the words nearly catching in her tight throat.

The guards looked at one another in a way that made Lissa's stomach drop. Clearly their opinions were slanted, a black mark staining my name in their eyes. The one leaving regarded Lissa with a very solid, almost remorseful stare, his lips making an effort to smile and failing miserably.

"I'm sorry, Princess."

With a subtle nod, he left. Lissa took in a shuddering breath once it was just the three of them (Abe's guards aside), gripping her knees with hands bleached white. So they thought I was guilty, did they? The idea didn't sit well with Lissa at all. Her resolve rose within her, a burning desire to prove them or anyone else who thought ill of me wrong. She regarded the man who had spoken up, giving him her full attention. He stared back into her eyes with conviction burning in them, but at the same time he was apprehensive. He feared her power. Both of us could tell that much.

"Whenever you're ready," Abe said as though to remove any doubt from Lissa's mind. "These guys know what they've signed up for."

And then, Lissa reached into that wonderful essence of spirit inside of her. It surged and filled her with all sorts of wonderful feelings. She forgot to worry about me, about the morality of the situation. The world was purely a better place once she had the power flowing through her. With this sort of ability, she nearly felt invincible. Nothing could stop her. She focused that into the man's eyes, into implementing her will onto others.

"You will answer any question I ask truthfully," Lissa stated, her tone absolute and surprisingly steady. "Nod to say that you will do this."

She could tell he was fighting her. It took him a little longer than anticipated to do as instructed. Naturally, the Queen's guards were trained rigorously in the art of resisting compulsion. However, spirit users were unmatched in their abilities when it came to compulsion. Therefore, it only too a little more effort on Lissa's part for her to get the man to do as she wished. Nonetheless, the man's eyes unfocused, his face acquiring that almost lost expression you get when being compelled. It spread, loosening his muscles so that I half expected his mouth to fall open and drool to trickle from the corner. The expression seemed very inappropriate given his already serious countenance. It was as though someone had hit him between the eyes with a ton of bricks and he was too dazed to figure out left from right.

Abe's voice at her ear almost startled her.

"Tell him to answer anything either of us ask. We can't miss a thing," he said quietly, prudence evident in his tone.

"You will nod and tell me you're going to answer any questions either of us ask," Lissa relayed.

He nodded. "I'll answer anything you ask, Princess."

"Tell me when you were guarding the Queen's chamber," Lissa commanded.

"From the moment she went in," he responded.

"What time was that?"

"Not long after six."

"Were you alone, Guardian Syerov?" Abe asked.

"No. Guardian Schroeder was with me along with other guards stationed around the premises." Lissa took that as being the guardian next to him.

"The entire time?" Abe prompted.

Lissa almost lost her concentration when she watched something unbelievable happen before her very eyes. Guardian Syerov's eyes dilated and shrunk, a crease forming between his dark brows. The more Lissa focused, the more his confusion alleviated, as though she had helped him make a decision about what to say. "Ye—no," he corrected himself. He looked confused.

Was this what it was like to compel someone who had already been compelled? The hope feebly living off Lissa's optimism grew inside of her. I felt nothing but relief at the nearly solid confirmation that the guards had been compelled into all of this. It looked like we were going to make some progress in finding the key to my salvation.

"Yes? No? Were you there the entire time, Guardian Syerov?" Lissa asked, being sure that he was completely under her control, her power thrumming through her.

He seemed ever more confused, as if he couldn't decide. Slowly, he shook his head. "We moved."

"We as in you and you and Guardian Schroeder?"

Guardian Syerov nodded.

When asked why, he looked confused again. His mouth moved one way, then another. The formation of sentences started, then stopped abruptly. He tensed, bulky shoulders drawn tight and his eyes going through the same motions again. Different stages of listlessness crossed his features. He closed his eyes, but was instructed to look at Lissa to ensure that whatever hold on him was keeping his lips sealed would break. The amount of effort Lissa had to put into her compulsion then was amped up, her insides warm, her will burning. She was not going to lose to whatever prior impediments were already in place within the man's memory.

For a moment, his jaw slackened. The crazy movements of his pupils paused, normal in size but the entire eye otherwise frozen in a state of constant bewilder.

"You will remember everything that happened," Lissa commanded firmly, drawing up the image of me in my cell to solidify her determination. Compulsion backed her every word, an ally and tool she was ready to use.

"She told us to leave," he explained. The words began to tumble off his tongue as though Lissa had broken a dam. "We were told to go down the hall. So we did, but then she called Guardian Schroeder back. I waited down the hall until they came back out. Then she made us come outside. We broke open a window from the outside. We went back inside. She told us to forget, that we had heard nothing and were standing there without fail the entire night."

A moment of tense silence passed. So the murderer was a woman, was it? I wasn't sure whether I should have been surprised by that or not. Maybe since Tatiana had been staked I was imagining more of a man being the culprit. Most women, unless they were trained guardians, would naturally lack the upper body strength to shove a stake through someone's heart. So unless this woman had been practicing her staking in her spare time (quite the hobby if you asked me), there had to be something more to it. With the same thought floating around in Lissa's head, I felt fairly sure in my assumption. At the same time, I feared if the notion forming in the back of my head was going to prove true or not. I sincerely hoped not.

"What did the woman look like? Did you know her?" Lissa questioned, her heart palpitations increasing in frequency.

"I don't know what her face looked like," Guardian Syerov answered immediate. "She was wearing a mask."

"Great cover," Abe muttered sarcastically. Raising his voice, he asked Guardian Syerov to describe the mask.

"It was black and white; it only covered the top half of her face."

I felt as though I was going to sink through the bed. Or maybe the couch Lissa was sitting on and it was Lissa who felt like she was going to fall through furniture. Whatever it was, it wasn't hard to guess that the mask came from the Death Watch. I had come uninvited to the private Moroi event, invited by Adrian whose mother had been the sort of coordinator of the entire thing. It was a ceremony meant for respecting the lives of dhampirs lost in battle for their sake. This one had taken place in memory of those who had died in the attack on the warehouse to rescue Christian and Lissa. I had also been kicked out of the event once Tatiana had noticed my presence there. She had told me then that it was actually a good thing that I had come, invited or not, so that I could see how my people was respected by the Moroi. Considering how shortly after that the decree had be issued that now young sophomores still wet behind the ears were going to be set loose against Strigoi, I really didn't know what to think of that anymore.

"Height, hair color?" Abe suggested. "Describe her otherwise."

"Dark hair, tall, bright eyes, Moroi…"

"Anything else?"

The conversation continued on for quite some time, but they wound up getting very little information afterwards. From there, it was a matter of Lissa releasing her control on the man. He slumped back in his seat for a while afterwards. Lissa, fearing that she had somehow done something in the midst of compelling him to remember what the Moroi had told him to forget, rushed to him and roused him. Once he regained consciousness, he grabbed her arm and stared at her, eyes wide. It was a weird look for his face for someone of his caliber. Behind her, I could hear the sound of what I assumed were Abe's guardians coming forward should their services be required.

"I…"

His face began to crumble. Shame overtook his features. He released Lissa and covered his face with his hands. I didn't want to see what sort of emotions were being displayed behind the barrier of his hands, so I hoped he kept them up. Of all things, to see a Royal Guard fall to pieces wasn't exactly something I needed right now. If I saw them, I'd almost feel guilty for having been the reason he was put through all of this. However, I was glad, almost in a twisted way that the information had been extracted from him. But simultaneously I couldn't quite shake the uncomfortable thought that something wrong had just taken place. Should I really have been worried about that when my very life was on the line? I decided that it didn't matter in the long run since it was already done.

When Guardian Syerov removed his hands from his face, what was revealed was a rather calm expression. It was a sign that he had put up his blank face again. Whatever he was thinking was only going to be shown through his eyes, and even those were rather hard to decipher at the moment.

"What have we done?" he asked aloud, voice laced with anger he couldn't conceal despite his best efforts.

Lissa looked to Abe for help, a surge of compassion preventing her from finding anything good to say. It was rather surprising since Lissa was far better with words than, say me who cursed openly before open the Queen . The ol' man had an indecipherable expression etched across his face. Finally shifting his position, he rested his elbows on his knees, legs slightly apart.

"I can't tell you that. What I can tell you is that it's in your best interesting offer anything else you can," Zmey said gravely. His eyes were impossibly dark, his mouth an immutable line. He was so serious I almost didn't want to hear what was going to come out of his mouth. "We're trying to save a life here. So you either do what you can or you stay out of our way. Am I clear?"

A burst of pride swept through me. I admired how much Zmey cared. While he might have been indirectly threatening one of the Court's most prized Guardians, he knew where his values lied. As ironic as that is to say, his loyalty to his kinsman was well deserving of some praise. I was going to have to pat him on the back the next time I saw him. I almost thought of a hug, but the idea self-destructed on me.

Guardian Syerov's understanding was clear, but he didn't seem to feel any more at ease than he did moments ago. He did earn himself plenty of points in my book. While I felt compassion for him, the stirrings of rage were beginning to simmer inside of me. Whoever did this was about to have another thing coming. A storm was coming their way and there was going to be no stopping it. Not while I was still alive for that matter.

Lissa and Abe gave Guardian Syerov a moment of silence. In the meantime, Lissa's emotions began running rampant. She felt sorry for the guardian before her and traces of exhaustion from the effort, knowing there was only more to come. The very idea of that twisted her insides mercilessly. She suddenly didn't even want to talk to Guardian Schroeder. Dread made her wish she never would have to question him, never have to see him come out of that room and sit on the couch like his partner. But Lissa couldn't do that. Not when it was my life that was on the line. They needed to know what happened, what secrets were locked inside the man's head.

Even if that meant finding out that the other guardian, the one that had gone into the room with the Moroi woman, had been the driving force putting my stake through the queen's heart.