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Still holding me in his arms, he looked down at me. I could hear voices and footsteps getting
closer.
"Because we can't be together.”
"Because of the age thing, right?" I asked. "Because you're my mentor?”
His fingertip gently wiped away a tear that had escaped down my cheek. "That's part of it," he
said. "But also…well, you and I will both be Lissa's guardians someday. I need to protect her at
all costs. If a pack of Strigoi come, I need to throw my body between them and her.”
"I know that. Of course that's what you have to do." The black sparkles were dancing in front of
my eyes again. I was fading out.
"No. If I let myself love you, I won't throw myself in front of her. I'll throw myself in front of
you.”
The medical team arrived and took me out of his arms.
And that was how, two days after being discharged, I ended up back in the clinic. My third time
in the two months we'd been back at the Academy. It had to be some kind of record. I definitely
had a concussion and probably internal bleeding, but we never really found out. When your best
friend is a kick-ass healer, you sort of don't have to worry about those things.
I still had to stay there for a couple of days, but Lissa—and Christian, her new sidekick—
almost never left my side when they weren't in class. Through them, I learned bits and pieces
about the outside world. Dimitri had realized there was a Strigoi on campus when they'd found
Natalie's victim dead and drained of blood: Mr. Nagy of all people. A surprising choice, but
since he was older, he'd been able to put up less of a fight. No more Slavic art for us. The
guardians in the detention center had been injured but not killed. She'd simply slammed them
around as she had me.
Victor had been found and recaptured while trying to escape campus. I was glad, even though it
meant Natalie's sacrifice had been for nothing. Rumors said that Victor hadn't seemed afraid at
all when the royal guards came and carried him away. He'd simply smiled the whole time, like
he had some secret they didn't know about.