Speaking of the future, Ambrose, who’s also rumored to be the queen’s secret lover, takes the girls to see his fortune-telling aunt, Rhonda, so they can get a tarot-card reading.
Lissa’s told her life is about to change in ways that, while difficult, will “ultimately illuminate the world.” Sounds pretty cool.
Rose is told that she will “destroy that which is undead.”
Lame. She already knows that. She’s training to be a guardian, after all. What a stupid fortune!
When Dimitri comes to retrieve the girls for the flight, he too is given a little insight on his future. He’s told: “You will lose what you value most, so treasure it while you can.”
It’s an ominous reading, and one that will prove true all too soon . . .
DESCENDING DARKNESS
On the flight back to the Academy, Rose is again plagued by a headache and shadowy forms. Due to inclement weather, the plane is diverted to a nearby airport. When they land, Rose’s world explodes. The pain in her head becomes so intense, it feels like her skull is being ripped open.
She sees ghostly faces—many of whom she recognizes as victims of Strigoi massacres—and they’re reaching out to her with pale, shining hands. They want something from her. They’re trying to tell her what it is, but they can’t speak. There’s a growing patch of blackness, and Rose instinctively knows it’s the entrance to the world of death—she died in the car crash, but Lissa brought her back. She shouldn’t be alive. This—this is where she’s supposed to go.
She starts screaming and screaming. Mason appears, and she begs him to make the others leave her alone. She can’t get away—they’re everywhere and they’re reaching for her. Finally, Rose can’t take it anymore, and she passes out from the fear and pain.
When she wakes, she’s in the school’s clinic, and everybody’s worried about her. Finally she tells them the truth: she’s been seeing ghosts, including Mason.
As predicted, no one—her friends or the school officials—believes her. It seems clear to the school doctor that her visions are a result of post-traumatic stress. Witnessing Mason’s murder and then killing the Strigoi responsible must have taken their toll on her. Obviously, her recovery has been hindered by fighting the “fake” Strigoi during the field experience sessions.
It’s suggested that she drop the field experience entirely, but Rose doesn’t like this suggestion at all—she needs to pass to graduate. Dimitri, deeply concerned with Rose’s well-being but also familiar with her stubborn streak, suggests she take part in the testing part-time. She’s also to see a counselor.
Rose is grateful Dimitri stepped in and helped, but she doesn’t realize quite how upset he was to see her in such distress.
“Rose,” he said, the pain in his voice making my heart stop, “this shouldn’t have been the first time I heard about this! Why didn’t you tell me? Do you know what it was like? Do you know what it was like for me to see you like that and not know what was happening? Do you know how scared I was?”
I was stunned, both from his outburst and our proximity. I swallowed, unable to speak at first. There was so much on his face, so many emotions. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d seen that much of him on display. It was wonderful and frightening at the same time. I then said the stupidest thing possible.
“You’re not scared of anything.”
“I’m scared of lots of things. I was scared for you.” He released me, and I stepped back. There was still passion and worry written all over him.
—pages 253-254
She didn’t tell him about the ghosts because he wouldn’t have believed her. He still doesn’t believe her. But it makes sense to her that she’s the only one who can see the ghostly visions—she’s shadow-kissed. Because she died, she has a connection to the world of the dead. Killing the Strigoi has strengthened that connection.
And this experience has strengthened Rose and Dimitri’s relationship. This has shown Rose how much he cares about her—and it’s not just the concern of a tutor for his student. It’s way deeper and more powerful than that.
When they part, Rose realizes she forgot her overnight bag and heads back to the clinic to retrieve it. There, she spots another Moroi student, Abby Badica, who’s been beaten up by the mysterious school bully. To get to the truth, Rose pretends she already knows what’s going on, and Abby begs Rose to “keep things quiet until everything’s set.” If the rest of the “Mână” find out she’s at the clinic for medical attention, she’ll get in trouble. She tells Rose that she wants the chance to “try again.”
When the doctor arrives, Rose is blocked from getting more information, but now she definitely has a clue who’s behind the recent royal-bashing—they’re called the Mână.
Rose starts to guard Christian again as she heads to class—and Adrian’s hanging around, too. While Christian continues to fight his jealousy, Lissa teaches Adrian how to bring plants back to life. Adrian also shares what he’s learned about their mysterious mutual ability. There are stories about “super compulsion” being used to make others live through their worst nightmares, kind of like a vivid hallucination. Sounds pretty scary, actually.
As they walk back to their dorms, Rose suggests to Adrian that he be careful of Christian’s rising jealousy toward him and Lissa.
“What?” he asked in mock astonishment. “Doesn’t he know my heart belongs to you?”
“It does not. And no, he’s still worried about it, despite what I’ve told him.”
“You know, I bet if we started making out right now, it would make him feel better.”
“If you touch me,” I said pleasantly, “I’ll provide you with the opportunity to see if you can heal yourself.”
—page 270
Adrian confides that he saw something weird earlier when Lissa used her magic to demonstrate bringing the plant back to life—something only he, as a spirit user, could see. Her aura dimmed. But then that darkness didn’t just disappear . . . it went into Rose. Lissa isn’t having side effects from her magic anymore because Rose is absorbing her darkness! And her madness, which, to Adrian, could easily explain the ghosts.
It makes a strange sort of sense and makes Rose think of St. Vladimir and his shadow-kissed guardian, Anna. Rose goes to the chapel to ask the priest what ultimately happened to Anna so she can get a sense of what she might expect. The answer isn’t very reassuring: Anna committed suicide.
When Mason appears before Rose again, she has to ask him directly: Is she really going crazy? Or is he really there?
All she can get him to confirm—he’s only able to communicate with nods or shakes of his head—is she’s not going crazy, he’s not looking for revenge, and he’s having trouble finding peace. There’s another reason he’s there, but he can’t get the information across to Rose no matter how hard he tries. And then he disappears again.
Counseling sessions don’t help much. Rose tells the counselor about the problems with her mother, the guilt over Mason’s death, and her fixation on unattainable guys. (This subject is one of the counselor’s favorites. Does she only pick guys she can’t have so it will always ensure she’ll stay dedicated to Lissa? This is so not helpful.)
Rose definitely has issues—she doesn’t need a counselor to tell her that.
Trying to focus on something else, Rose questions Adrian about the Mână. She learns the word is Romanian for “the hand,” and it’s a secret society found at a lot of schools. Apparently, its membership consists of royals who band together to feel special and exclusive. Rose remembers Jesse and Ralf inviting Christian to their group. Could this be related?
Rose is still disturbed by the counselor’s insistence that she intentionally falls for guys who are unattainable as a way to ensure she’ll always be around to protect Lissa. Adrian’s pretty unattainable since it’s obvious to her he just wants her body, not a real relationship. She decides to test the theory on him and see just how interested in him she could get.
“Use compulsion t
o make me want to kiss you—except you have to promise not to actually kiss me.”
“That’s pretty weird—and when I say something’s weird, you know it’s serious.”
“Please.”
He sighed and then focused his eyes right on me. It was like drowning, drowning in seas of green. There was nothing in the world except for those eyes.
“I want to kiss you, Rose,” he said softly. “And I want you to want me too.”
Every aspect of his body—his lips, his hands, his scent—suddenly overpowered me. I felt warm all over. I wanted him to kiss me with every ounce of my being. There was nothing in life I wanted more than that kiss. I tilted my face up toward his, and he leaned down. I could practically taste his lips.
“Do you want to?” he asked, voice still like velvet.
Did I ever. Everything around me had blurred. Only his lips were in focus.
“Yes.”
—pages 291–292
Holding true to her request, he doesn’t actually kiss her. And she’s proven something very important to herself—she’s definitely in love.
With Dimitri.
Adrian is incredibly sexy and charming. There’s no doubt that Rose is attracted to him. But even under compulsion, it hadn’t been the electric, all-encompassing feeling she had had with Dimitri—that feeling like they were bound together by forces way bigger than both of them combined.
With Dimitri, it’s really love, not just a trick her mind is playing on her.
But in her heart, she already knew that.
Rose takes Christian to another feeding session. The human feeder is definitely crazy—giving so much blood to a vampire will do that to a person—but her insights are surprisingly helpful. She thinks if Rose has seen a ghost on campus, then there must be something wrong with the wards—the magical barrier that surrounds the school is designed to keep Strigoi out, which means that they should also fend off the dead.
It suddenly makes sense. It’s why she didn’t have a ghost problem at Court. The wards there are very strong. But on the plane and at the other airport, there were no wards—which could explain the onslaught of ghosts. If this is true, if there’s something wrong with the wards at school, then Rose isn’t the only one in danger.
Rose approaches Dimitri with this disturbing info, but he assures her the wards are checked daily and guardians would notice a problem.
Maybe she just has to face facts: the only one who believes her is a demented human feeder. She’s going crazy. For real.
She shares what she’s learned about Anna and how she’s scared that she’ll suffer a similar fate. All Dimitri can do is reassure her that she’s going to be okay. She’s wild and impulsive, but she’s strong. He’s certain she and Anna won’t share the same fate.
This moment between them only intensifies their feelings for each other. If they’re trying to avoid the many complications of their forbidden relationship, they’re not helping matters right now. But it just feels so right.
THE HAND
Through the bond, Rose gets the confirmation about the Mână she’s been looking for when she sees Jesse and Ralf approach Lissa about joining. They want every royal Moroi name represented, and Lissa is the last Dragomir. Lissa really doesn’t like the sound of the elite club, though. Sounds snobby to her. They explain it’s more important than that; it’s to help get their voices out politically—keeping the government from making “stupid” decisions and making the queen and everyone else see the Mână’s way, no matter what.
Sounds kind of like compulsion. And compulsion is supposed to be forbidden. While Lissa will use it when absolutely necessary, manipulating the minds of others against their will is morally wrong.
Jesse and Ralf disagree. Also, it’s not like Lissa is one to talk. They’ve heard rumors that she is particularly good at compelling people—how else could she have gotten away with so much? The boys don’t back off until Eddie steps in as Lissa’s guardian. Eddie’s not afraid of kicking a little Moroi butt, and Rose is totally okay with that.
Speaking of kicking butt, Rose finally gets to do it when they’re “attacked” again. She’s doing great, taking down two guardians with her practice stake. Even though she’s only been allowed to practice part-time—and she’s being gently eased back into things after her breakdown on the plane—the “Strigoi” are no match for Rose. That is, until she sees the third “Strigoi”: Dimitri.
Rose hesitates. This is the guy she loves standing in front of her. Can she fight him? Can she win? After a momentary hesitation, she rushes toward him. Even though they’re very evenly matched after all their practice sessions, Rose manages to “stake” him successfully.
Behind me, people were clapping, but all I noticed was Dimitri. Our gazes were locked. I was still straddling him, my hands pressed against his chest. Both of us were sweaty and breathing heavily. His eyes looked at me with pride—and a hell of a lot more.
—page 326
Luckily, no one else notices the intense heat between the two. Rose is praised for passing the test perfectly.
Feeling good, she cleans up and heads to the cafeteria . . . where there’s a big problem escalating. Somebody has told Christian about Adrian and Lissa’s “arranged marriage,” and he assumes it’s been Adrian’s plan all along to steal Lissa away from him.
Christian is hurt and insane with jealousy. He wants to cause some pain of his own—and he’s got the fire magic to help back him up. Somebody’s going to be seriously injured if Rose can’t get this situation under control. She has Adrian use compulsion to calm Christian down and, luckily, it works.
Why didn’t Lissa stop this confrontation from happening? Where is she? Rose checks the bond and finds that Lissa is in great distress. She’s in pain—and screaming.
On the other side of campus, members of the Mână, led by Jesse and Ralf, are forcibly subjecting Lissa to their initiation test. She is to use her compulsion to stop her attackers, who are using their own powers to throw rocks at her, attempt to drown her, and—just like Victor’s henchman did—use air magic to try to suffocate her.
Rose races there and starts kicking ass, furious at the group of spoiled Moroi students. Most of them scatter at the sight of her.
But it ’s Lissa who the remaining Mână members should be worried about. Now unhinged by the torture and reminded of what Victor’s henchmen did to her, Lissa turns her attention to Jesse. He should be careful what he wished for. He wanted to see Lissa’s compulsion at work? How about some super-compulsion? She traps him in a nightmare where spiders are crawling on him. Lissa’s overwhelmed by darkness, unable to stop herself from hurting Jesse.
Rose knows what she has to do: absorb some of that darkness into herself. But when she does, the darkness manifests itself as uncontrollable rage. She starts to beat the life out of Jesse, and it takes Eddie pulling her back to stop her from accidentally killing him.
When other guardians arrive to get everything under control, Dimitri takes a still enraged Rose away from the scene before she can cause any more damage. They go to the cabin in the woods where her dark mood can be dealt with privately.
He’s desperately worried about her—this looks pretty bad. But slowly she’s able to pull herself out of the darkness, leaving her with the horrible fear that she’s destined for the same fate as Anna.
“It won’t happen to you. You’re too strong. You’ll fight it, just like you did this time.”
“I only did because you were here.” He wrapped his arms around me, and I buried my face in his chest. “I can’t do it by myself,” I whispered.
“You can,” he said. There was a tremulous note in his voice. “ You’re strong—you’re so, so strong. It’s why I love you.”
—page 348
Their feelings for each other, which have been building steadily to this point, finally spill over. There’s nothing they can do but give in to it. They kiss, and this time there’s no pulling back. When they make love, Rose knows it’s right—
it’s perfect—because they’re in love with each other.
Afterward, Dimitri assures her that he won’t let anything bad happen to her. His words are both wonderful and dangerous, but she makes him the same promises. They’re in love, and the world seems golden and wonderful.
But it’s not to last.
MASON’S WARNING
Mason’s ghost appears to Rose as they head back to the school. He has a message, and this time he’s finally able to put it into words: “They’re . . . coming . . .”
It’s Strigoi. They’ve breached the wards.
Rose and Dimitri are attacked, but Dimitri’s able to stake the Strigoi. He sends Rose back to campus with a message for the other guardians: buria.
She doesn’t argue. She runs, scared to death that Dimitri’s going to get killed. She relays the message Dimitri gave her: Buria. Russian for “storm,” it’s a signal of a Strigoi attack. The guardians don’t hesitate.
Because of the field experience, Lissa’s dorm is mostly protected, but the same can’t be said for the elementary dorm, where Jill lives. The campus is under immediate lockdown. Rose is given a stake and told to watch over the kids.
She checks in on Lissa through the bond—she’s safe, at least, and with Eddie and Adrian. But where’s Christian? Even though she’s defying orders, she heads out to make sure he’s okay. When she finds him, she senses Strigoi nearby—she can sense them now too, just as she can ghosts.
Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide Page 9