Literature

ElevenLISSA WAS UP AND GONE before I even stirred the next morning, which meant I had the bathroom to myself while I got ready for the day. I loved that…

TenTHE SKI TRIP COULDN’T HAVE come a moment too soon. It was impossible to get the Dimitri and Tasha thing out of my head, but at least packing and getting…

NineI DIDN’T SEE DIMITRI FOR a while after that. He’d sent a message later that day saying that he thought we should cancel our next two sessions because of the…

EightChristian was kissing her, and wow, was it a kiss. He wasn’t messing around. It was the kind of kiss that small children shouldn’t be allowed to see. Hell, it…

SevenI ANGRILY PUSHED THROUGH THE double doors that led into the Moroi dorm. Snow swirled in behind me, and a few people lingering on the main floor glanced up upon…

SixI WAS FEELING PRETTY GOOD about life when I headed to my before-school practice the next day. The secret gathering last night had been super fun, and I felt proudly…

FiveI HAD NO IDEA WHAT Dimitri was talking about, but I followed along obediently. To my surprise, he led me out of the boundaries of the campus and into the…

FOURI COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. JANINE Hathaway. My mother. My insanely famous and stunningly absent mother. She was no Arthur Schoenberg, but she did have a pretty stellar reputation in the…

ThreeTHE LOBBY OF MY DORM was abuzz when I sprinted downstairs to my before-school practice. The commotion didn’t surprise me. A good night’s sleep had gone far to chase away…

TWODIMITRI MADE ONE PHONE CALL, and a veritable SWAT team showed up. It took a couple of hours, though, and every minute spent waiting felt like a year. I finally…

OneI DIDN’T THINK MY DAY could get any worse until my best friend told me she might be going crazy. Again. “I… what did you say?” I stood in the…

TWENTY-FOURIN SPITE OF ALL THE training I’d received, all the lessons on Strigoi habits and how to defend against them, I’d never ever actually seen one. It was scarier than…

TWENTY-THREEI’D NEVER HAD SO MUCH trouble staying out of Lissa’s head before, but then, we’d never been through anything like this together either. The strength of her thoughts and feelings…

TWENTY-TWO”HEAL YOU?” Heal him? My thoughts echoed hers. “You’re the only way,” he said patiently. “The only way to cure this disease. I’ve been watching you for years, waiting until…

TWENTY-ONEI’D NEVER BEEN COMPLETELY NAKED around a guy before. It scared the hell out of me – even though it excited me, too. Lying on the covers, we clung to…

TWENTYMY MOUTH DROPPED OPEN. “Uh…wait…you mean sex?” My astonishment prevented me from thinking of a better response. Mason thought it was hysterical. Jesse looked like he wanted to die. “Of…

NINETEENIT’S HARD TO SAY WHAT finally made me do it. I’d held on to so many secrets for so long, doing what I believed best protected Lissa. But hiding her…

EIGHTEENI WOKE UP STARING AT the boring white ceiling of the clinic. A filtered light – soothing to Moroi patients – shone down on me. I felt strange, kind of…

SEVENTEENA FEW DAYS LATER, LISSA found me outside the commons and delivered the most astonishing news. “Uncle Victor’s getting Natalie off campus this weekend to go shopping in Missoula. For…

SIXTEENTHE NEXT DAY, IT FULLY hit me how much things had changed since the Jesse-and-Ralf rumors first started. For some people, I remained a nonstop source of whispers and laughter….