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Shrugging, she hung it back up She and Ca of clothes, theirthat price posed no probleenerous with each other our whole lives, and I didn’t hesitate to take her up on it My choices surprised her

"You’ve got three therh a stack of BCBG jeans "You’ve gone all boring onslutty tops"

"I’m not the one ears them"

"Thanks a lot"

"You knohat Iyour hair up"

It was true I’d taken Dih bun, earning a smile when he’d seen me If I’d hadaround, she s in the bond shifted to so more troubled

"You knew about Ms Karp"

"Yeah I heard about it a month or so after she left"

Lissa tossed a pair of e at me "Why didn’t you tell me?"

"You didn’t need to know"

"You didn’t think I could handle it?"

I kept my face perfectly blank As I stared at her, o I’d been on day two ofWade’s room when a royal party visited the school I’d been allowed to attend that reception too but had been under heavy guard to uardians escortedthe way

"She killed the doctor attending her and nearly took out half the patients and nurses on her way out"

"Do they have any idea where she went?"

"No, they’re tracking herbut, well, you kno it is"

"I never expected her to do this She never seemed like the type"

"Yeah, well, Sonya was crazy Did you see how violent she was getting near the end? She was capable of anything"

I’d been trudging along miserably and jerked my head up

"Sonya? You mean Ms Karp?" I asked "She killed soed looks Finally, one said gravely, "She beca and stared "Ms Karp? Noshe wouldn’t have"

"I’m afraid so," the other one replied "Butyou should keep that to yourself It’s a tragedy Don’t h the rest of the night in a daze Ms Karp Crazy Karp She’d killed sooi I couldn’t believe it

When the reception ended, I’d uardians and steal a few preciousby now, and I hadn’t needed to see her face to kno ?" I asked her We were in a corner of the hallway, just outside the commons

Her eyes were blank I could feel how she had a headache; its pain transferred to me "II don’t know I just feel weird I feel like I’ followed, like I have to be careful, you know?"

I didn’t knohat to say I didn’t think she was being followed, but Ms Karp used to say the sa," I said lightly

"Probably," she agreed Her eyes suddenly narrowed "But Wade isn’t He won’t shut up about what happened You can’t believe the things he’s saying about you"

I could, actually but I didn’t care "Forget about hi"

"I hate him," she said Her voice was uncharacteristically sharp "I’m on the co hi hi female that walks by You shouldn’t be punished for what he did He needs to pay"

My mouth went dry "It’s okayI don’t care Cal her anger on et back at him Some way to hurt him like he hurt you" She put her hands behind her back and paced back and forth furiously, her steps hard and purposeful

The hatred and anger boiled within her I could feel it in the bond It felt like a storm, and it scared the hell out of me Wrapped around it all was an uncertainty, an instability that said Lissa didn’t knohat to do but that she wanted desperately to do soht with the baseball bat And then I thought about Ms Karp She becaoi, Rose

It was the scariesther in Wade’s roo her heal that raven Scarier than uardians would be Because just then, I didn’t know my best friend I didn’t knohat she was capable of A year earlier, I would have laughed at anyone who said she’d want to go Strigoi But a year earlier, I also would have laughed at anyone who said she’d want to cut her wrists or make someone "pay"

In that ht do the impossible And I had to make sure she didn’t Save her Save her fro her arht now"

Confusion er "What do you ?"

I didn’t answer So in my attitude or words must have startled her, because she didn’t questionacross ca lot where visitors cauests One of thee Lincoln Town Car, and I watched as its chauffeur started it up

"So at hilanced behind us and saw nothing "They’ll probably be here any ht on "When you said, ¡®We’re leaving,’ you meantno Rose, we can’t leave the Acadeh the wards and checkpoints"

"We don’t have to," I said firmly "He does"

"But how does that help us?"

I took a deep breath, regretting what I had to say but seeing it as the lesser of evils "You kno you s?"

She flinched but nodded

"I need you to do the sauy and tell him to hide us in his trunk"

Shock and fear poured out of her She didn’t understand, and she was scared Extremely scared She’d been scared for weeks now, ever since the healing and theneither of us understood But through all of that, she trusted me She believed I would keep her safe

"Okay," she said She took a few steps toward hi this?"

I thought about Lissa’s anger, her desire to do anything to get back at Wade And I thought about Ms Karp - pretty, unstable Ms Karp - going Strigoi "I’ care of you," I said "You don’t need to know anything else"

At the ner clothes, Lissa asked again, "Why didn’t you tell me?"

"You didn’t need to know," I repeated

She headed toward the dressing roo to lose it Are you worried I’ll go Strigoi too?"

"No No way That was all her You’d never do that"

"Even if I was crazy?"

"No," I said, trying to make a joke "You’d just shave your head and live with thirty cats"

Lissa’s feelings grew darker, but she didn’t say anything else Stopping just outside the dressing roohtened a little

"This is the dress you were born for I don’t care how practical you are now"

Made of silky blackabout to the knees Although it had a slight flair at the hee soe-the-school-dress-code sexy

"That isit so badly that it ached in ed the world The kind of dress that started religions

Lissa pulled out my size "Try it on"

I shook my head and started to put it back "I can’t It would corisly death"

"Then we’ll just get it without you trying it on" She bought the dress

The afternoon continued, and I found uard suddenly became a lot less fun When we hit our last stop, a jewelry store, I felt kind of glad

"Here you go," said Lissa, pointing at one of the cases "The necklace old chain with a gold-and-diamond rose pendant Emphasis on the diamond part

"I hate rose stuff"

Lissa had always loved getting s - just to see my reaction, I think When she saw the necklace’s price, her smile fell away

"Oh, look at that Even you have li is stopped at last"

We waited for Victor and Natalie to finish up He was apparently buying her sos and fly aith happiness I was glad She’d been dying for his attention Hopefully he was buying her so extra-expensive to make up for it

We rode home in tired silence, our sleep schedules allnext to Diainst the seat and yawned, very aware that our ar of closeness and connection burned between us

"So, I can’t ever try on clothes again?" I asked quietly not wanting to wake up the others Victor and the guardians were awake, but the girls had fallen asleep

"When you aren’t on duty, you can You can do it during your time off"

"I don’t ever want tiain "Did you see that dress?"

"I saw the dress"

"Did you like it?"

He didn’t answer I took that as a yes

"Aer my reputation if I wear it to the dance?"

When he spoke, I could barely hear hier the school"

I smiled and fell asleep

When I woke up,coat of his-the duster-covered me like a blanket The van had stopped; ere back at school I pulled the duster off and cli wide awake and happy Too bad my freedohed, walking beside Lissa toward the commons "Maybe if you fake a heart attack, I can make a break for it"

"Without your clothes?" She handedit around happily "I can’t wait to see the dress"

"Me either If they let h"

"Show her those boring shirts you bought She’ll go into a cohed and hopped up onto one of the wooden benches, pacing her as I walked along it I jumped back dohen I reached the end "They aren’t that boring"

"I don’t knohat to think of this new, responsible Rose"

I hopped up onto another bench "I’m not that responsible"

"Hey," called Spiridon He and the rest of the group trailed behind us "You’re still on duty No fun allowed up there"

"No fun here," I called back, hearing the laughter in his voice "I swear - shit"

I was up on a third bench, near the end of it My muscles tensed, ready to juo with ave way beneath rated My foot went through, ht in the hole while the rest of o in another direction The bench heldmy foot My ankle bent in an unnatural direction I crashed down I heard a cracking sound that wasn’t the wood The worst pain of h my body

And then I blacked out