Sunshine

Prologue

Rose's POV

The day my best friend became Queen should have been the best day of my life. You know, as long as we ignored the fact that I was also near-fatally shot on that very same day. But the shooter had been taken into custody, I had – to everyone's surprise, including my own – recovered without the help of either my best friend's or my ex-boyfriend's healing powers, and my dhampir-turned-Strigoi-turned-dhampir-again boyfriend had finally been given his guardian status back. All was well in Rose-Hathaway-land... until we realised that being Queen to all Moroi in the entire world was not quite as easy as it sounded. Not that it sounded easy it all, but still. It was unlike what any of us had expected. And yet, Lissa rose to the occasion and became the most wonderful Moroi Queen I could have imagined. Of course, we all knew that she would. In just under a year, she'd brought more change to our world than her predecessor had during her entire reign... but that was around the time the problems began. The attacks.

Not Strigoi attacks – those, I could have handled – but rather politically motivated ones. It had started harmlessly enough. A few smear campaigns here and there, that had been rather easily debunked. We'd expected those, and we'd been prepared. Not all Moroi were as progressive as Lissa was – certainly not those with any power. The royals. As much as Lissa had tried to advocate for change in our government, it had been no use. Nobody had wanted to abolish any part of the system we had – tradition and all that. Despite my own political opinions, I was almost glad for it, as I'm certain something like that would have led to even more threats to her life. As it was, though, her life was being threatened.

And not just hers. It had been just under one and a half years since she had ascended to the throne when we realised for the first time just how dangerous her opponents were. Due to certain circumstances that, at the time, nobody but her inner circle had been privy to, a royal wedding was to occur. Christian's proposal had been a shock to me, but I'd soon learnt the reason for it. Young and in love as they'd been, they'd not been quite as diligent about protection as they should have been, and there was no way in hell a queen could have a child out of wedlock. Which also meant the wedding had had to happen as quickly as possible. Arrangements had been made, and while everything had gone according to plan from the Moroi side, us guardians were not feeling quite so good about the whole thing. Planning security for such an event was anything but easy, and there was sure to be some hole in it with all this rushing to get it done. There was.

Fortunately, Lissa did not get hurt when the attack happened, but not everyone had been so lucky. Christian had been quite severely injured, and with him... Dimitri. I'd known my duty was to Lissa, and that I had to get her to a safe location immediately, but, God, it had taken everything in me not to turn back around for Dimitri. It had been hours until court was declared 'safe' again. Agonizing hours for Lissa and me. We were both hoping, praying, that the loves of our lives were going to be all right. When we eventually learnt that they had survived – albeit with significant injuries – we should have been the happiest women on Earth. And we'd both been relieved, that was for certain, but it had become clear that despite what the guardians had told us, there was no such thing as being 'safe' at court anymore. Lissa knew that, and I did, too.

So what had to happen next broke both of our hearts, but it had been necessary. Lissa, being a Queen, could not leave court. That much was clear. Christian, on the other hand... while he was now her husband, he had no such obligation. He had every right to, say, travel the world with his guardians. And that's exactly the story we sold everyone when Lissa sent them away. There had been protest from Christian's side, of course, but logic had won out in the end. The less people we had to keep safe, the better the chance we would actually be able to. And so they left court not long after the wedding, and never told us where they went. That, too, was by design. Promises were made to get in touch as soon as all of this was over. The possibility it might never be was not brought up.