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"Strigoi aren’t lurking around every corner out there," I shot back "It’s not like e’ve been taught It’s safer than you guys make it sound"

"Safer? Safer? We are at ith the Strigoi!" he yelled I could smell coffee on his breath, he was so close "One of theht up to you and snap your pretty little neck before you even noticed hiht have th than a Moroi or a huoi They are deadly, and they are powerful And do you knohatto let this jerkaway fro else My eyes rested on Di my humiliation, stone-faced

"Moroi blood," I whispered

"What was that?" asked Stan loudly "I didn’t catch it"

I spun back around to face hier"

He nodded in satisfaction and took a few steps back "Yes It does It er and harder to destroy They’ll kill and drink from a hu else They seek it They’ve turned to the dark side to gain immortality, and they want to do whatever they can to keep that ioi have attacked Moroi in public Groups of Strigoi have raided acadeoi who have lived for thousands of years and fed off generations of Moroi They’re almost i They aren’t strong enough - even with guardians - to protect the anyoi by choice And as the Moroi disappear¡­"

"¡­so do the dha sprayed spit off his lips "It looks like you learned so after all Noe’ll have to see if you can learn enough to pass this class and qualify for your field experience next semester"

Ouch I spent the rest of that horrible class - inthose last words in my mind The senior-year field experience was the best part of a novice’s education We’d have no classes for half a sened a Moroi student to guard and follow around The adult guardians would ed attacks and other threats How a novice passed that field experience was alrades coned to after graduation

And me? There was only one Moroi I wanted

Two classes later, I finally earned my lunch escape As I stumbled across campus toward the co particularly godlike - unless you counted his godly good looks

"I suppose you sahat happened in Stan’s class?" I asked, not bothering with titles

"Yes"

"And you don’t think that was unfair?"

"Was he right? Do you think you were fully prepared to protect Vasilisa?"

I looked down at the ground "I kept her alive," I ainst your classmates today?"

The question was mean I didn’t answer and knew I didn’t need to I’d had another training class after Stan’s, and no doubt Diet beat up there too

"If you can’t fight them - "

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I snapped

He slowed his long stride toand fast by nature You just need to keep yourself trained Didn’t you play any sports while you were gone?"

"Sure," I shrugged "Now and then"

"You didn’t join any teams?"

"Too much work If I’d wanted to practice that ave me an exasperated look "You’ll never be able to really protect the princess if you don’t hone your skills You’ll always be lacking"

"I’ll be able to protect her," I said fiercely

"You have no guarantees of being assigned to her, you know - for your field experience or after you graduate" Diiven me a warm and fuzzy oing to give her an inadequate guardian either If you want to be with her, then you need to work for it You have your lessons You have uard Vasilisa when you both graduate - if you can prove you’re worthy I hope you will"

"Lissa, call her Lissa," I corrected She hated her full na the Americanized nickname

He walked away, and suddenly, I didn’t feel like such a badass anymore

By now, I’d burned up a lot of ti since sprinted inside the coer to maximize their social time I’d almost made it back therecalled toin the voice’s direction, I caught sight of Victor Dashkov, his kind face s’s wall His two guardians stood nearby at a polite distance

"Mr Dash-er, Your Highness Hi"

I caught otten Moroi royal ter hu twelve royal faot the title of "prince" or "princess" Lissa had gotten hers because she was the only one left in her line

"Hoas your first day?" he asked

"Not over yet" I tried to think of so here for a while?"

"I’ll be leaving this afternoon after I say hello to Natalie When I heard Vasilisa - and you - had returned, I simply had to come see you"

I nodded, not sure what else to say He was more Lissa’s friend than mine

"I wanted to tell you¡­" He spoke hesitantly "I understand the gravity of what you did, but I think Head You did keep Vasilisa safe all this time That is impressive"

"Well, it’s not like I faced down Strigoi or anything," I said

"But you faced down sos?"

"Sure The school sent psi-hounds once"

"Re thehed "I’ve hunted with them before They aren’t that easy to evade, not with their powers and intelligence" It was true Psi-hounds were one of ical creatures that wandered the world, creatures that humans never knew about or else didn’t believe they’d really seen The hounds traveled in packs and shared a sort of psychic communication that made them particularly deadly to their prey - as did the fact that they rese else?"

I shrugged "Little things here and there"

"Remarkable," he repeated

"Lucky, I think It turns out I’uardian stuff" I sounded just like Stan now

"You’re a sirl You’ll catch up And you also have your bond"

I looked away My ability to "feel" Lissa had been such a secret for so long, it felt weird to have others know about it

"The histories are full of stories of guardians who could feel when their charges were in danger," Victor continued

"I’veup on it and some of the ancient ways I’ve heard it’s a treed What a boring hobby, I thought, i over prehistoric histories in some dank library covered in spiderwebs

Victor tilted his head, curiosity all over his face Kirova and the others had had the same look e’d mentioned our connection, like ere lab rats "What is it like - if you don’t ?"

"It’s¡­I don’t know I just sort of always have this hum of how she feels Usually it’s just e" I didn’t tell hi into her head That part of it was hard even for me to understand

"But it doesn’t work the other way? She doesn’t sense you?"

I shook my head

His face shone onder "How did it happen?"

"I don’t know," I said, still glancing away "Just started two years ago"

He frowned "Near the time of the accident?"

Hesitantly, I nodded The accident was not so I wanted to talk about, that was for sure Lissa’sinto theain Lissa screa for her parents and her brother to wake up None of them had, only me

And the doctors said that was a miracle in itself They said I shouldn’t have survived

Apparently sensing o and returned to his earlier excitement

"I can still barely believe this It’s been so long since this has happened If it did happen more often¡­just think what it could do for the safety of all Moroi If only others could experience this too I’ll have to do more research and see if we can replicate it with others"

"Yeah" I was getting impatient, despite how much I liked him Natalie rambled a lot, and it was pretty clear which parent she’d inherited that quality froh Moroi and novices shared afternoon classes, Lissa and I wouldn’t have much tihing, a great, seizing fit that made his whole body shake His disease, Sandovsky’s Syndro the body toward death I cast an anxious look at his guardians, and one of thehness," he said politely, "you need to go inside It’s too cold out here"

Victor nodded "Yes, yes And I’m sure Rose here wants to eat" He turned toto me I can’t emphasize how much it means to me that Vasilisa is safe - and that you helped with that I’d pro happened to him, and I felt like quite the failure when you left"

A sinking sensation filled uilt and worry over our disappearance Until now, I hadn’t really thought about how others oodbyes, and I finally arrived inside the school As I did, I felt Lissa’s anxiety spike Ignoring the pain in s, I picked up ht into her

She didn’t seewith her: Aaron and that little doll girl I stopped and listened, just catching the end of the conversation The girl leaned toward Lissa, who see else

"It looks to oo Doll Girl by the shoulder, I jerked her away She was so light, she stumbled three feet and nearly fell

"She does have standards," I said, "which is why you’re done talking to her"