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The reactions wereDimitri’s family members Some cried Some were stunned And some-mainly Yeva and Viktoria-simply took it in and kept their emotions from their faces, just as Dimitri would have done That upset me almost as much as the tears; it renant Sonya-who came home shortly after the news broke-had theto her room and wouldn’t co, however, for Yeva and Olena to spring into action They spoke rapidly in Russian, clearly planning so Phone calls were made, and Viktoria was dispatched to run an errand No one seemed to need me, so I mostly wandered the house and tried to stay out of the way

I foundthe leather-bound books The titles were in Cyrillic, but it didn’tDi held and read the for a little light reading?" Sydney walked up and stood beside me She hadn’t been around earlier but had heard the news

"Very light, seeing as I don’t understand any of the fa on here?"

"They’re planning Dimitri’s funeral," Sydney explained "Or, well, his memorial service"

I frowned "But he’s not dead-"

"Shh" She cut lanced warily at the others as they hustled around "Don’t say that"

"But it’s true," I hissed back

She shook her head "Not to thees there’s no in-between state You’re alive or you’re dead They aren’t going to acknowledge hiust out of her voice "For all intents and purposes, he is dead to them They’ll mourn him and move on So should you" I didn’t take offense at her blunt attitude because I knew she hadn’t ive any It was just her way

The problem was, that in-between state was very real to me, and there was no way I could an Sydney after several seconds of silence She wouldn’t meet my eyes "I’m sorry"

"You mean, for Dimitri?"

"Yeah I had no idea I haven’t really been that nice to you Ito act like I feel any better about hanging out with your kind, but you guys are still well, not human, obviously But I don’t know You still have feelings; you still love and hurt And while ere co here, you had all this horrible news in you, and I didn’t make it any easier for you So I’ the worst of you"

At first, I thought she was talking about thinking I was evil, but then I got it She’d thought this whole ti to be a blood whore and now believed delivering the news to Dimitri’s family had been my only purpose I didn’t bother to correct her

"Thanks, but you couldn’t have known And honestly, if I were in your place I don’t know I’d probably act the same way"

"No," she said "You wouldn’t You’re always nice to people"

I gave her an incredulous look "Have you been traveling with soot a reputation for not always being so nice I’ve got attitude, and I know it"

She ss to people when you have to Telling the Belikovs what you did well, that was hard

And no o out of your way to ood Most of the time"

I was a bit startled Was that how I appeared? I often thought of er-happy queen bitch and tried to think about my behavior with her these last few days I had sparred with her a lot, but a the others we’d met, I supposed I had been friendly

"Well, thanks," I said, not knohat else to say

"Did you see Abe yet? When you walked around town?"

"No," I said, realizing I’d forgotten about my ured he’d find you"

"Who is he? Why did he coet us when you told hiht I was going to get solancing around uneasily, she said in a low voice, "Abe’s not royal, but he’s a really iuy He’s not Russian either, but he’s in the country a lot, always on business-both illegal and legal, I think He’s friends with all the important Moroi, and half the time, it seems like he controls the Alche our tattoos but his business goes far beyond that We have a name for him behind his back Zmey"

"Zma what?" I had barely heard the word It sounded like zz- I’d ever heard before

She gave a s;snake’ But not just any snake" Her eyes narrowed as she pondered a better explanation "It’s a teriant snakes heroes have to battle There are also a few stories about wizards with snake blood who get called that The snake in the Garden of Eden? Who made Eve fall? He was called a zmey too"

I shivered Okay, that was pretty freaky, but it edly had ties to leaders and authorities, and Abe apparently wielded a lot of influence with them "Is Abe the one anted you to come with me to Baia? The reason the Alcheain, she paused, then nodded "Yeah when I called that night in Saint Petersburg, I was told there was a search going on for you Abe gave orders through the Alchemists for me to stay with you until he couldfor you on someone’s behalf"

I went cold My fears were being realized People had been looking for me But who? If Lissa had initiated a manhunt, I would have sensed it when I visited her mind I didn’t think it was Adrian either, not from the way he seemed so desperate and clueless about my whereabouts Plus, he seemed to acceptforperson-albeit soht very well be connected to the queen or others alhow much the queen hated me-had he perhaps been ordered towith an assassin?

Sydney certainly seeard him with a weird mix of fear and respect

"Maybe I don’t want to meet him," I said

"I don’t think he’ll hurt you I mean, if he wanted to, he already would have But be careful He’s always playing several gah secrets to rival the Alchemists"

"So you don’t trust hirin as she turned to walk away "You forget: I don’t trust any of you"

When she was gone, I decided to go outside, away from the sorrow and business indoors I sat down on the top step of the backyard porch, watching Paul play He was building a fort for sorief in his family, it was hard for him to be too affected by the "death" of an uncle he’d only met a couple of times The news didn’t mean as much to him as it did to the rest of us

With so much time on my hands for the rest of the day, I decided to do a quick check-in with Lissa In spite of s had panned out with Avery Lazar

While Lissa’s intentions were good, she’d still had so to lunch And yet, she was pleasantly surprised to see Avery fitting in perfectly, char both Adrian and Christian Ad female Christian was harder to crack, but even he see fond of her-probably because she kept teasing Adrian Anyone who could h on Christian’s list

"So, explain this," Avery said, winding linguine around her fork "You just, what, hang around the Acadeh school experience?"

"Nothing to redo," said Adrian loftily "I totally ruled h school I orshipped and adored-not that that should come as a shock" Beside him, Christian nearly choked on his food

"So you’re trying to relive your glory days It’s all gone downhill since then, huh?"

"No way," said Adrian "I’e The best is yet to coet old after a while," said Avery, apparently not convinced by the co wine simile "I’ my dad"

"Adrian sleeps ht face "So he doesn’t actually have to worry about finding things to do"

"Hey, I spend a good portion ofyou unravel the mysteries of spirit," Adrian reminded her

Avery leaned forward, curiosity all over her pretty face "So it’s actually real? I heard stories about spirit about how you can heal people?"