Shadow Rider (Vampire Academy Fanfic)

Chapter 32 - Rose

I was pumped, and oh so ready for the trials. It felt kind of exciting, and to think I'd complained how boring things had gotten at Court!

Thanatia hadn't specified what we would wear to the trials, so I took the liberty of wearing loose sweatpants tied at the waist, a tanktop and my favourite sneakers. My hair was pinned up in a neat ponytail. Dimitri wore sweats with a navy t-shirt, looking mouthwatering, as usual.

'Dimitri, I think you need to put on something uglier,' I remarked. 'I can't concentrate with you around.'

He smiled at me. 'Rose, I can never concentrate around you.'

'That's so not true! Some might think you don't even like me,' I protested.

He chuckled. 'You just have to learn how to conceal it.'

'More zen master stuff?'

'Definitely.'

It was kind of fun to watch Dimitri do his meditative thing. Since I had no patience for that stuff, he did it somewhere private. He said it was a calming experience, and the sole thing that had taught him such, and I quote, "excellent" control. Sadly, meditation had the opposite effect on me. It made me irritable and grumpy. But luckily, I had no reputation for being an in-control kind of guardian, so nobody expected anything different.

'You ready to go?' I asked. He nodded, and we were out of the door, making our way to the arena. We met Mikhail on the way, and he was chatting happily about Sonya's progress with her experiments.

'How's she doing?' I asked. 'Mentally, I mean.'

He sighed. 'She's doing well. I mean, she gets to use spirit much less than she wants to, but it's safer that way.'

'That's for sure,' I agreed.

We arrived early, and yet Ash and Casimir were already there, standing awkwardly next to each other as they listened to Thanatia's instructions.

'Casimir, you'll be the first opponent. Ash, you're the second. Ah!' She'd seen us coming. 'Rose, you're third, then Dimitri, then Maxim, Roger, and lastly, me.' She nodded at all of us. When Maxim and Roger arrived, she repeated the instructions. 'When it's your turn to do the trial, I'll have your levels replaced with someone else.' She looked over at the others filtering in through the doors. 'Right, you all know what you're doing?'

We grabbed our padded vests and assumed our positions at our assigned levels. I saw with some satisfaction that the guardian in my level was to defeat me with a dagger. He'd be lucky if he succeeded. Then I remembered that Thanatia had instructed us to act like Strigoi. We had no weapons to attack with; we had to make use of combat skills, and that would be tricky.

Soon the silent forest was filled with excited murmurs and jeerings. It was like being back in school. I could tell that everyone were reminiscing the good old days, me being the possible exception. I'd been in Russia killing Strigoi on a daily basis before I went back to school. The trial had been cake then. Somehow, I had a feeling this one wouldn't be as easy.

So, I had the dagger level. Roger had the stake, Maxim had the axe, Dimitri had the spear (he could throw with incredible force and precision - he'd make a great athlete), Casimir had the throwing star, and Ash had the crossbow. Thanatia of course had the swords.

Mikhail Tanner was acting as the referee. 'All of you ready?' he called.

'Yes!' I yelled back, echoed by the others.

Then it began.

I couldn't see what was going on in the other levels, since we were walled off from each other, but I could definitely hear. The stake level was just before mine, and I could tell that Olivia, the first combatant, had a struggle with the far more experienced Roger. In the end, she made it through to my level. Her eyes widened when she saw me, and she shot lightning fast towards the dagger. It may have been wooden, but it was still sharp, and I could tell I was going to bruise. When the tip touched my chest, I went immobile, signalling my defeat. She moved on to Maxim, and the cheers from the crowd told she'd made it through there too. Sadly, she didn't make it through Dimitri's.