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"And mess up a lot of royal get-togethers," said Christian. His brief seriousness had vanished;<br />
his snide air was back. "You know how they are this time of year—always competing with each<br />
other to throw the biggest parties. They won't know what to do with themselves."<br />
I could believe it. My life was about fighting, but the Moroi certainly had their share of internal<br />
strife—particularly with nobles and royals. They waged their own battles with words and<br />
political alliances, and honestly, I preferred the more direct method of hitting and kicking. Lissa<br />
and Christian in particular had to navigate some troubled waters. They were both from royal<br />
families, which meant they got a lot of attention both inside and outside of the Academy.<br />
Things were worse for them than for most Moroi royals. Christian's family lived under the<br />
shadow cast by his parents. They had purposely become Strigoi, trading their magic and<br />
morality to become immortal and subsist on killing others. His parents were dead now, but that<br />
didn't stop people from not trusting him. They seemed to think he'd go Strigoi at any moment<br />
and take everyone else with him. His abrasiveness and dark sense of humor didn't really help<br />
things, either.<br />
Lissa's attention came from being the last one left in her family. No other Moroi had enough<br />
Dragomir blood in them to earn the name. Her future husband would probably have enough<br />
somewhere in his family tree to make sure her children were Dragomirs, but for now, being the<br />
only one made her kind of a celebrity.<br />
Thinking about this suddenly reminded me of the warning scrawled on the mirror. Nausea<br />
welled up in me. That dark anger and despair stirred, but I pushed it aside with a joke.<br />
"You guys should try solving your problems like we do. A fistfight here and there might do you<br />
royals some good."<br />
Both Lissa and Christian laughed at this. He glanced up at her with a sly smile, showing his<br />
fangs as he did. "What do you think? I bet I could take you if we went one on one."<br />
"You wish," she teased. Her troubled feelings lightened.<br />
"I do, actually," he said, holding her gaze.
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