With or Without You

Chapter 12

"Does your mom know you're ok? Or was she in on this all along?" Lissa asked. They had shown the group to their suites, the Moroi fed, and Rose and Abe were now seated in a comfortable living area upstairs, about to tell all.

"Yeah. She knows, now. Baba tricked her into coming here a few days back, and she left to go back to Court yesterday."

"How did that happen?" Adrian asked Abe with a smirk.

"I invited Prince Szelsky to visit for a few days. I thought Janine was going to attack me again when she realized it was my house they were visiting, but she calmed down a bit once she saw Rose."

"Calmed down being a relative term," Rose butted in. "She shouted so loud and for so long she lost her voice at one stage."

"She'd regained it by the time they left," Abe said, his tone of voice suggesting she'd resumed using it to good effect.

"So, how did you get out? We were told you died in the explosion," Eddie asked Rose. Like Belikov, he'd been exceptionally quiet once they left the room downstairs. Both were now sitting in armchairs, watching Rose as though she might disappear at any moment.

"Magic," Rose teased.

"But I thought the jail at Court was protected. I've always thought magic doesn't work there," Tasha piped up.

"Not Moroi magic," Rose agreed. "But as I learned, human magic works there just fine."

"Human magic?" Lissa asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah. Turns out there are humans who are witches and wizards. They have academies to learn magic kind of like ours, and there's even a Ministry of Magic."

"It's true, Liss. I've met two human wizards," Adrian said.

"Can all humans use magic?"

"No. Only some of them, and they hide it from the ones that can't."

"The Ministry of Magic knows about our world, and our Monarch and Head of Guardians know about theirs. They rarely interact, but they keep one another informed if something big happens. Moroi and humans are not the only magical creatures, either. There are also goblins, fairies, and elves. Each species uses magic differently," Abe explained. "Human witches and wizards use wands, spells, potions, and incantations. Unlike our magic, which is largely elemental, what they can do with their magic is much more varied. For instance, I removed Rose from jail via a portkey."

"What's that?" Christian asked.

"A portkey can be anything, but it's usually an everyday object so as not to draw attention to itself. When a portkey is activated, it will transport anyone touching it to a pre-arranged place. I didn't know, but Baba had arranged for my mattress in jail to be made into a portkey. It activated at 2:00 am on the day of Queen Tatiana's funeral. One second I was in my cell, and the next the mattress and me landed on the foyer floor here. Gave me one hell of a fright!"

"By the time Pavel blew the wall of the jail, Rose was here talking to my housekeeper," Abe said.

"Then who did we bury?" Lissa asked.

"An unfortunate Jane Doe from the human world. She died in a meth lab fire. Since she was already deceased and matched Rose physically..." At least Abe had the grace to look a little uncomfortable. "There had to be a body for Rose's death to be convincing."

"And that's why you told us about the jailbreak, but not the full plan," Christian said, his mind putting the pieces together. "Our grief had to be believable."

"Exactly."

There was a few minutes' silence where everyone took it in.

"But I couldn't feel our bond?" Lissa said.