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Meanwhile, Mason was still hung up on my question about whether novices going to battle<br />
before graduation was a good idea.<br />
"What else are we doing?" he asked indignantly. "What are you doing? You run laps with<br />
Belikov every morning. What's that doing for you? For the Moroi?"<br />
What was that doing for me? Making my heart race and my mind have indecent thoughts.<br />
"We aren't ready," I said instead.<br />
"We've only got six more months," piped in Eddie.<br />
Mason nodded his agreement. "Yeah. How much more can we learn?"<br />
"Plenty," I said, thinking of how much I'd picked up from my tutoring sessions with Dimitri. I<br />
finished my drink. "Besides, where does it stop? Let's say they end school six months early,<br />
then send us off. What next? They decide to push back further and cut our senior year? Our<br />
junior year?"<br />
He shrugged. "I'm not afraid to fight. I could have taken on Strigoi when I was a sophomore."<br />
"Yeah," I said dryly. "Just like you did skiing on that slope."<br />
Mason's face, already flushed from the heat, turned redder still. I immediately regretted my<br />
words, particularly when Christian started laughing.<br />
"Never thought I'd live to see the day when I agreed with you, Rose. But sadly, I do." The<br />
cocktail waitress came by again, and both Christian and I took new drinks. "The Moroi have got<br />
to start helping us defend themselves."<br />
"With magic?" asked Mia suddenly.<br />
It was the first time she'd spoken since we'd got here. Silence met her. I think Mason and Eddie<br />
didn't respond because they knew nothing about fighting with magic. Lissa, Christian, and I<br />
did—and were trying very hard to act like we didn't. There was a funny sort of hope in Mia's<br />
eyes, though, and I could only imagine what she'd gone through today. She'd woken up to learn<br />
her mother was dead and then been subjected to hours and hours of political bantering and
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