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Prologue

Once when I was in ninth grade, I had to write a paper on a poem One of the lines was, "If your eyes weren't open, you wouldn't know the difference between drea" It hadn't uy in the class that I liked, so how could I be expected to pay attention to literary analysis? Now, three years later, I understood the poem perfectly

Because lately,a dreaht I'd wake up and discover that recent events in my life hadn't actually happened Surely I must be a princess in an enchanted sleep Any day now, this dreaet

But there was no happy ending to be found, at least not in the foreseeable future Andstory My prince had been turned into a vaoi, to be specific In my world, there are two kinds of va vaic and don't kill when seeking the blood they need to survive Strigoi are undead vampires, immortal and twisted, who kill when they feed Moroi are born Strigoi are h evil means

And Diainst his will He'd been turned during a battle, an epic rescue oi had kidnapped Moroi and dhampirs from the school I attended, and we'd set out with others to save theifted with huth and hardiness, and Moroi reflexes and senses Dhauards who protect Moroi That's what I am That's what Dimitri had been

After his conversion, the rest of the Moroi world had considered him dead And to a certain extent, he was Those ere turned Strigoi lost all sense of the goodness and life they'd had before Even if they hadn't turned by choice, it didn't matter They would still becooi The person they'd been was gone, and honestly, it was easier to i on to heaven or the next life than to picture the victiet Dimitri, or accept that he was essentially dead He was the man I loved, the man hom I'd been so perfectly in sync that it was hard to knohere I ended and he began My heart refused to let hio even if he was technically a otten a conversation he and I had once had We'd both agreed that we'd rather be dead-truly dead-than walk the world as Strigoi

And once I'd had oodness he'd lost, I'd decided I had to honor his wishes Even if he no longer believed in them I had to find him I had to kill him and free his soul from that dark, unnatural state I knehat the Dioi isn't easy, though They're insanely fast and strong They have no mercy I'd killed a number of thehteen And I knew taking on Die, both physically and emotionally

In fact, the emotional consequences had kicked in as soon as Ia few life-altering things (and that wasn't even counting the fact that fighting him could very likely result in the loss of my life) I was still in school, only a handful of uardian Every day I stuck around at St Vladimir's Academy-a remote, protected school for Moroi and dha by in which Di in the state he'd never wanted I loved him too o out a the world I'd lived in nearly my entire life

Leaving had also -or rather, a person: omir Lissa was Moroi, the last in a royal line I'd been slated to be her guardian e graduated, and my decision to hunt Dimitri had pretty much destroyed that future with her I'd had no choice but to leave her

Aside from our friendship, Lissa and I had a unique connection Each Moroi specializes in a type of eleic-earth, air, water, or fire Until recently, we'd believed there were only those four elements Then we'd discovered a fifth: spirit

That was Lissa's element, and with so few spirit users in the world, we hardly knew anything about it For the most part, it see compulsion-the ability to exert her will on alot a little strange between us You see, I technically died in the car accident that killed her fahtit, creating a psychic bond between us Ever since then, I was always aware of her presence and thoughts I could tell what she was thinking and feel when she was in trouble We had also recently discovered I could see ghosts and spirits who hadn't yet left this world, soled to block out The whole pheno shadow-kissed