Charlotte

Chapter 17

All four of us were forced into the clinic. Lissa was fine on the outside, having just needed burn cream applied to her skin and she healed up pretty fast. Christian needed stitches, and he'd probably have some wicked scars, but thanks to Spirit...and whatever my magic was, he would live. Now he had a pretty good story to tell people about his badassory. I had a mild concussion, making things a little difficult for me, and I had a near constant headache from it, but otherwise, I was just suffering exhaustion. 

Rose was asleep for two days. Lissa and I hardly ever left her side. She was hooked up to saline and sugar drips the entire time, and I just knew she would have something to say about it if she were conscious. He wounds had been pretty extensive. Her leg and arm were stitched up and wrapped, and I had to remind Lissa that Rose was going to be okay. That she didn't need to heal her, that's what the doctor was for. 

When she did come to, we all had to go talk to Kirova. Unfortunately, we had to come clean about Lissa's magic. About how she had healed Rose, Christian, and Victor. We didn't even mention me, because for all they knew, we had done some weird strength sharing thing and we could pass that off as Spirit from Lissa. I released a breath, relieved that I didn't have to face it just yet. Thankfully, it was decided that what happened would stay within these walls. Nobody was to talk about Lissa's Spirit, and nobody tried to send her away like they did to Ms. Karp. 

The most that the rest of the school knew was that Victor Dashkov had kidnapped Vasilisa Dragomir. They didn't know why. Some of the guardians had died when Dimitri's team attacked, and it was a blow to the Dhampirs because their numbers were already low to begin with. There were less and less guardians every day, and even fewer were female. Losing them just because they were following orders was a damn shame, and the abuse of power made everyone's blood boil. Victor was now being held under 24/hour surveillance, and he awaited the royal guard to come collect him for his sentencing. 

Natalie was a minor, and though she still had to be punished for her role in what happened, it was a lot more difficult to figure out what to do with her. Rose wanted to strangle her, among other graphically displeasing threats. Lissa didn't want to talk about her at all, and the one time I had seen her, I found all I could do was look at her in pity. We said nothing to each other as we passed in the hall. She was being escorted by guardians to the headmistress's office, and I knew she was in a lot of trouble. In a way, I wondered how I didn't see her for what she was before. 

She had access to their room, and she had used that to her advantage to bring in dead animals to terrorize Lissa. She had spied and conspired with her father because...well...he was her father. I could safely say I would never have done what she did, even for my dad, but I also never had a relationship with mine. We also found out that she was the one who had rotted the bench that Rose fell through, using her earth magic. It was a little sad that she was so desperate for attention from her father that breaking the law and hurting her friends was the only way to get that. Rumor had it, that she had stood outside the detention center, screaming, trying to get them to let her see her dad. They'd refused and hauled her away. 

We tried to go back to normal. Everyone was being nice to Lissa again, and Rose got back into the swing of things. It was nice to see Lissa and Christian openly start dating. I found myself smiling more and more often around them. Their happiness was infectious. I wish I could have said the same for myself. 

"Hey...can we talk?" Rose asked as she came up to me after classes. She looked really serious and was skipping practice. It had to be serious for her to do that. I nod and follow her outside where there weren't as many people as possible to overhear us. We sat down on a stone bench under a tree. The sunrise was really pretty. A sherbet orange with cotton candy pinks and purples mixed in and the breeze was a little warmer than it should be for it being nearly December. It was going to be a beautiful day.