Soul Bound

Chapter 42

RPOV

We had all settled in after the buck load of information we had been given over the past few days. My mother had actually stayed at Abe's place to give us all some more space. I tried not to think about that too much. The Spirit team has been getting a lot done and Lissa was animatingly telling me about it over lunch now.

"It's amazing Rose, Oksana knows so much, and she is like the perfect in-between between me and Adrian. She can both heal and see auras. She is even teaching us how to look into other people's minds. Although she is more focused on that with me since Adrian said he wanted to use it to read the minds of girls."

I laughed. But I wondered how much of that was Adrian bravado. I could see he was pining over Sydney. I doubt he will get over her soon.

"So Rose, what are your plans now? I mean yours and Dimitri's?"

She corrected very fast. I knew it had taken her some adjusting to the fact we were now married. I know she wanted to have been there, she was telling me that almost every day, but our wedding was perfect. But we had to keep repeating that to Lissa and to Olena to get them to forgive us.

"I don't know Liss, I don't know if I can go back to my life. I mean we wanted to go to Lehigh together, but I didn't even graduate. If I return and let people know what happened I don't know how they will react? I wonder if they will let an ex- Strigoi guard a princess. And that is if they don't lock me up"

I saw she was mulling it over in her head. She hadn't considered that people might be afraid of me.

"But Adrian is probably going back to court soon and Dimitri will have to go with him."

My father, it was still weird thinking that, was walking up behind me.

"Don't worry little girl, I will make sure you get your life back. I did it before."

And suddenly it was clear to me how I didn't get expelled from the academy once Dimitri had gotten us back. But I doubted it would be that simple. Although I didn't think there was anything that Abe didn't think he could do, even if it was impossible. The man would think he could defy the gods themselves, he deems himself so powerful.

"How do you propose to do that?"

He just smirked at me. I was glad I was his daughter, because if I had been anybody else I would have been afraid of him. Very afraid.

"I will call Tatiana and explain the situation to her calmly. It concerns Adrian as well so I doubt she will make a big fuss, the members of the council are a bit more difficult but don't worry, they know better than to go against my wishes."

The way he said it made it sound that he had dirt on all of them. And I realized if he owned the council he did indeed possess more power than the queen. It had probably been this kind of thing that had kept Abe away from me. My mother and he had explained to me that even though he had kept track of me my entire life, he wasn't involved in my life because of fear of retribution from his enemies. He simply said that it was no business a little girl should be around. It was nice to know it wasn't because he didn't want me.

He whipped out his phone and pressed the button for the speed dial.

"Tatiana, it's Abe, we need to have a little chat."

Unbelievable, my father had the queen on speed dial and didn't even bother to call her by her title. I was starting to realize where her disdain for me came from. He walked into the next room so we wouldn't hear him. After a few minutes had passed he came back.

"It is settled. You will go to court and appear before the council. They will also want to examine you. I told her that was acceptable within reason. The council will not be made aware of your situation until you appear there to prevent an audience from showing up. I will be there to make sure you are treated fairly. The point is to recognize you as a full Dhampir again and have you reinstated. I haven't worked out the details yet about that one but I will discuss this with guardian Croft when we arrive at court. You may have to take your field exam, but I doubt that will pose a problem for you."