How It All Goes Down
- Wheels up—the guardians, led by the smoldering Dimitri, put Lissa and Rose on a plane back to St. Vladimir's Academy, keeping the girls separated so they can't come up with an escape plan. Darn, this guy's good.
- Rose gives us a little backstory; she notices six molnija marks on Dimitri's neck, which mean that he's killed six Strigoi (whatever those are).
- He asks Rose whether she was really going to attack them before Lissa told her not to. We're as surprised as he is that a girl would try to take down half a dozen special ops guys, but she says she's Lissa' guardian, so that's the gig. Um, okay.
- When they get to the gothic-style academy in Montana, Rose and Lissa are paraded through the cafeteria where all their classmates are. There's no time to catch up with their buddies, though, because it's straight to the Headmistress's office for a lecture.
- On the way, Rose fills us in on the fact that she's a dhampir, or a beginner guardian, who has to protect Moroi like Lissa. We're guessing the Strigoi have something to do with why the Moroi need to be protected.
- Rose also gets a peak at Aaron, Lissa's ex, who has taken up with a young, new gal she doesn't recognize. She totally gets a jealous vibe radiating from her though, so that could get complicated.
- Once in Headmistress Kirova's office, Lissa reunites with her uncle, Prince Victor Dashkov. He's relieved to see her and there are hugs and kisses to go around.
- The family reunion is soon over, though, when Kirova gets down to business. She yells at Rose for breaking the most sacred promise there is—to protect Moroi. By taking Lissa off the well-protected campus, Rose risked Lissa's life which is a big no-no.
- Rose doesn't take this accusation lightly. She claims she helped Lissa escape so she could protect her, but no one really understands why. Plus, the girls have been on the run for two years, and nothing happened to Lissa, so she did protect her, right?
- That's when we get our first glimpse of Rose's temper. She's ticked that she's in trouble and has no problem telling people about it, and while she's a bit reckless, it's clear she really cares about Lissa.
- Since Rose isn't technically Lissa's guardian, Kirova is thinking about sending her away, but Victor defends her—he's really sick now from a disease, but he's still got some fire left in him.
- He's noticed that the two girls have a special bond. We're not talking about braiding each other's hair and gossiping about guys either—it turns out that Rose can understand what Lissa is thinking and feeling without being told. There were legends about this kind of thing between guardians and Moroi thousands of years ago, but Kirova hardly believes it.
- Dimitri steps in and suggests Rose get back into her training; that way when she's done, she can be Lissa's guardian. In the meantime, he is technically assigned to the princess.
- Kirova still won't allow it because Rose would be way far behind in her studies… since she's missed the past two years of school and all. Dimitri's got an answer for that too, though, and he offers to do extra training sessions with Rose so she can catch up.
- It's all settled. There's just one condition: Rose can't go to any parties, social events, or anything aside from school and training. She's reluctant to accept this deal, but eventually she does just so she can stay close to Lissa.