Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 1b

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Back in my room, I saw how truly filthy I was from all of the mud and dirt of the practice attack. I was flushed from the field experience fight with Dimitri - both from the fighting itself and from the position I was in at the end -, so a cool shower would do me good. After I took off my grungy clothes, I saw that I needed to take a thorough shower to get rid of the filth before I could be out in front of other people again. After I finished, almost an entire hour had gone by and dinner was nearly done being served. As I ran back over to the commons, I heard Lissa in my mind: Dinner's almost over.

As I rushed down the hallway that led to the cafeteria, I noticed a big group of people had gathered around something, and I recognized there was a fight. Since I knew that the group of royals tended to keep their beatings private, I guess that this wasn't them. I squeezed in through the crowd and looked over the taller people to see what had brought so many people together.

I was astonished to see Adrian and Christian there.

Eddie was there, clearly in a referee role, stepped in between them. Lissa was inside the cafeteria, but I checked into the bond and she was on her way out. The time for niceties had passed, so I shoved in past the rest of the masses that had gathered in front of me and went to stand beside Eddie.

"What the hell's going on?" I asked.

Eddie seemed glad I was there. Even if he was doing fine in keeping the combat instructors from 'attacking' his charge during our field experience, he didn't have any idea how to handle this.

"No idea."

It didn't look like anyone had hit the other person - yet. Christian appeared to be the one who had started it, though.

"How long did you think you could get away with it?" he asked, with an angry gleam in his eyes, "Did you seriously think everyone would keep buying your act?" Adrian appeared to be his usual pithy self, except for some hints of worry under his charming grin. It seemed clear that he didn't want this fight.

"Honestly," Adrian said, ready to be done with this, "I have no idea what you're talking about. Can we please just go sit down and discuss this reasonably?"

"Sure. Of course you'd want that. You're afraid I might do this." said Christian, holding up an orange fireball with a core the color of his ice-blue eyes. A few of the people around us gasped, but I was getting accustomed to seeing Moroi - especially Christian - fighting with magic. For many of them, it was still pretty off-limits, though. Christian only gave a smug grin. "What have you got to fight back with? Plants?"

Lissa walked up and stepped between the two. "What is going on here?" she asked.

"Your boyfriend there thinks I'm planning to marry you and carry you off into the sunset," said Adrian. He spoke to Lissa, but his eyes never left Christian.

"Don't act like it's not true," Christian raged. "I know it is. It's been part of your plan—yours and the queen's. She's been backing you the whole time. Coming back here...the whole studying thing ... it was a scam to get Lissa away from me and tied to your family instead."

Adrian said, "Do you have any idea how paranoid you sound? My great-aunt has to manage the entire Moroi government! Do you think she really cares about who's dating who in high school—especially with the state of affairs lately? Look, I'm sorry about all the time Lissa and I've spent together. I really wasn't trying to get between you. There's no conspiracy going on here."

Christian was adamant, though. "Yes, there is."

He glanced over at me with a scowl, but it was Lissa who replied. "I just heard about it last night from Ralf Sarcozy and Jesse Zeklos," Lissa replied, "It was the first I'd known, but honestly, I thought it sounded hilarious. I think it's just some crazy rumor some royal made up. I'd forgotten all about it until this minute. I don't think there's really any plan the two of them have put in place, just some silly story a couple of high school guys made up."

"Isn't there?" Christian asked, "Rose knows. Rose has known for a while about this. She even talked to the queen about it."

"That's ridiculous," Adrian replied, looking over at me for a denial that wouldn't come. "Right?"

Oh, Shit. "Well ..." I started to say, "Yes and no."

Christian eyed Adrian with a look that could practically spew venom at him, but he wasn't about to take action with Lissa right there.

"It doesn't matter," said Lissa, as she turned to Christian, "You're the one that I love and I'm not walking away from you."

"Something's wrong here," I said, shooting a meaningful look at Christian, "and we all need to figure it out before Christian does something stupid." The crowd had started to break up and disperse.

"What's wrong," said Christian, eyes pleading with Lissa after glancing angrily at Adrian, "is that they're trying to break us up, Lissa, and Rose knew about it."

"Did you really?" Adrian had directed his question at me.

"Yeah, long story." I stopped looking at Adrian and then told Lissa and Christian, "Look, Adrian didn't have anything to do with this. Not intentionally. It was Tatiana's idea—and she hasn't even actually done anything yet. It's just her long-term plan—hers alone, not his."

Christian asked, "Then how did you know about it?"

"Because she told me—she was afraid that I was moving in on Adrian." I could feel Lissa's shock coming through the bond.

Adrian asked me, "Really? Did you defend our love?"

I scoffed, "Adrian, for the last time, there is nothing between you and I."

"My fondest wishǂ, little dhampir," Adrian replied, giving me a wink.

"Really, Adrian?" I asked.

"Rose, when did she tell you this?" asked Lissa.

"When we were at Court. Just before the spa."

"You've been hiding this from me for that long, and you didn't think it was worth telling me? I thought we were best friends, Rose." anger flashed through the bond. "Why didn't you tell me all this?"

"Because I didn't want you to worry. With all that you've been going through from spirit, and with Victor's trial, you deserved some peace."

The feelings coming through the bond changed from anger to compassion. Lissa replied, "Rose, what about what you've been going through? I just don't understand why you didn't feel like you could confide in me."

Lissa stared at me and I could feel through the bond that she was noticing something hadn't been right with me in a while. It hit me that I've been doing the same thing with what I know about Anna - and doing the same thing with everything that had happened with Dimitri. I wanted to tell her - badly -, but I wasn't sure I was ready. "Liss ... I just wasn't sure I could yet. I don't want to put this all on you. Could you give me some time and we'll talk? Maybe tomorrow?"

Lissa walked over to me and looked me in the eye. "Take all the time you need. Just promise me you'll tell me when you're ready."

"I promise," I told her and she hugged me. Feeling like a weight was beginning to lift off of my shoulders, I couldn't help but smile.

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Author's Notes:

ǂ = Borrowed this line-usage from Kresley Cole's Poison Princess