Turning Tables

Chapter 4

Rose

That night I slept uneasy, but when I did sleep, it wasn't my own dreams I ended up in. I looked around and saw the garden I recognized as Adrian's grandmother's garden. Adrian was standing somewhere between the roses. Normally I would have made a comment about that, but not today.

When he saw me he had a small smile on his face, but it didn't reach his eyes. Eyes that had been crying by the looks of it.

I didn't hesitate. I ran towards him and hugged him. "I am so sorry." I said to him, he just held me, burying his head in my neck. He took a few breaths before he pulled back, but he kept me close.

"Why are you sorry? You didn't kill her." I almost laughed. Because, apparently I had been suspect number one. It had been my stake Tatiana was killed with. Lissa had informed me of it as soon as she heard.

"If I had taken better care of my stake, if I had checked to see if my room was locked, maybe, maybe..."

"She would have been killed with a different weapon, Rose. I am just glad that whoever wanted to drag into this mess was unsuccessful. At least this mission is good for something."

The latter part sounded a bit bitter, but I couldn't really blame him. I had broken up with him in the same night as his aunt had been murdered.

"How are you holding up?" I asked as I sat down on one of the benches. Adrian sat down next to me, but he kept a hold of my hand, even if he released the rest of me.

He simply shrugged, but the dark circles under his eyes told me all I needed to know.

"What will happen next?" I had only ever known Tatiana on the throne. I had no idea what would happen now? I don't think a monarch has been murdered in a very long time.

Adrian leaned back, staring up at the sky. "They will hold an election. The Moroi need a leader. The funeral is in a couple days and after that candidates can put their name up for Monarch."

"All Royal families are putting someone up?" He nodded. "Well all but one. and the Ivashkovs can't put a name up, so two." He replied.

I had to bite my lip. Lissa didn't have a quorum to be on the council, so I assume she didn't have a quorum to run for Queen. Not that she wanted to. But she wouldn't even get to vote for whoever ran. Which was wrong. I had seen with the age law how close the vote was. Lissa's vote could sway the council to a more progressive candidate and lack of her vote could mean decades of a conservative monarch who had been in favor of the more drastic measures Tatiana was talking about.

I wanted to tell Adrian about Tatiana's note, that among other things, I would be trying to find Lissa's sibling. Which had just gotten a little more pressing. But he already had too much on his mind. Besides, I don't think he could help anyway.

"We could really use you back here at Court Rose. We have a killer to track and seeing as someone had wanted to frame you, I thought maybe you would want to find out who did it just as much as I did."

Oh, I did want to find out who had killed Tatiana and who had wanted to frame me. But I could do little about that from here. Tatiana had given me an assignment, two actually and I would do them.

"You know I can't, Adrian."

He got up from the bench and threw his hands up in the air. "Why is this suddenly so important? More important than your friends."

"It isn't more important than my friends and I have always put my job first. Just, up until now, the two were one and the same."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "You had been willing to give it up for him."