Last Sacrifice

I recognized the finality in her voice, as well as the logic. She didn't want to talk anymore. Inside the bag, I found two giant orders of fries, and three cheeseburgers. She apparently still knew me pretty well. It took all of my restraint to keep from stuffing fries into my mouth then and there. Instead, I offered a cheeseburger to Dimitri.

'You want one? Gotta keep up your strength.'

He hesitated several seconds before taking it. He seemed to regard it with a kind of wonder, and it hit me that eating food was still a new thing for him after these last few months. Strigoi only subsisted on blood. I handed him a couple of fries too and then turned back around to devour the rest. I didn't bother offering any to Sydney. She was notorious for her lack of appetite, and besides, I figured she would have eaten already if she'd wanted to while waiting for us.

'I think this is for you,' Dimitri said, handing me a small backpack. I opened it and found a few changes of clothes, as well as some basic toiletries. I double-checked the outfits.

'Shorts, shirts, and a dress. I can't fight in these. I need jeans.' The dress was cute, admittedly: a long gauzy sun-dress in a watercolor print of black, white, and gray. But very impractical.

'That's gratitude for you,' said Sydney. 'This happened kind of fast. There was only so much I could put together.'

Glancing behind me, I saw Dimitri unpacking his own bag. It had basic clothing like mine and also—

'A duster?' I exclaimed, watching him pull out the long, leather coat. How it even fit in there defied physics. 'You managed to get him a duster, but you couldn't find me a pair of jeans?'

Sydney seemed unconcerned by my outrage. 'Abe said it was essential. Besides, if all goes like it's supposed to, you won't be doing any fighting.' I didn't like the sound of that. Safe and remote.

Seeing as I had what were potentially the quietest car companions in the world, I knew better than to expect any real conversation for the next three hours. I supposed it was just as well because it let me check in on Lissa. I was still too on edge about my own escape to spend much time in her head, so it was just a quick assessment of life at Court.

Just as Dimitri had predicted, the guardians had restored order pretty soon. The Court was under lockdown, and everyone with any connection to me was being questioned extensively. The thing was, they all had alibis. Everyone had seen my allies at the funeral—or, in Abe's case, thought they'd seen them. A couple girls swore they'd been with Adrian, which I could only imagine was the result of more compulsion. I could feel Lissa's satisfaction through the bond as the guardians' frustration grew and grew.

Although she had no idea when I might be checking in on her, she sent me a message through the bond: Don't worry, Rose. I'll take care of everything. We're going to clear your name.

I slumped back in the car seat, unsure how to feel about this situation. All my life, I'd taken care of her. I'd protected her from danger and gone out of my way to keep her away from any threats. Now, the roles were reversed. She'd come through for me in saving Dimitri, and I was in her—and apparently everyone else's—hands as far as this escape was concerned. It went against every instinct I had and troubled me. I wasn't used to being protected by others, let alone her.

The interrogations were still going on, and Lissa hadn't had hers yet, but something told me my friends were going to get off the hook for this. They wouldn't be punished for my escape, and for the moment, I was really the only one in danger—which was what I preferred.

West Virginia might have been as beautiful as Sydney claimed, but I couldn't really tell since it was the middle of the night when we arrived. Mostly I had the sense of driving through mountains, feeling the ups and downs as we went through switchbacks and tunnels. After almost exactly three hours, we rolled into a small hole of a town that had one traffic light and a restaurant simply marked DINER. There hadn't been any traffic on the road for over an hour, though, which was really the most important thing. We hadn't been followed.

Sydney drove us to a building with a sign that read MOTEL. Apparently, this town liked to stick to the basics when it came to names. I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually just called TOWN. As we walked across the motel's parking lot, I was surprised to feel how sore my legs were. Every part of me ached, and sleep sounded fantastic. It had been more than half a day since this adventure began.

Sydney checked us in under fake names, and the sleepy desk clerk didn't ask any questions. We walked down a hall that wasn't dirty exactly but also wasn't anything a royal would have gone near. A cleaning cart leaned against one wall, as though someone had given up and abandoned it. Sydney suddenly came to a halt in front of a room and handed us a key. I realized she was heading off to a different room.

'We're not all staying together?' I asked.

'Hey, if you guys get caught, I don't want to be anywhere near you,' she said, with a smile. I had a feeling she also didn't want to sleep in the same room as 'evil creatures of the night.' 'I'll still be nearby, though. We'll talk in the morning.'

This made me realize something else. I eyed Dimitri. 'We're sharing a room?'

Sydney shrugged. 'All the better to defend yourselves.'

She left us in that abrupt way of hers, and Dimitri and I glanced at each other briefly before heading into the room. Like the rest of the motel, it wasn't fancy, but it would do. The carpet was worn but intact, and I appreciated the weak attempt at decorating with a very bad painting of some pears. A small window looked sad. There was one bed.

Dimitri locked the bolt and chain on the door and then sat back in the room's lone chair. It was wooden with a straight back, but he seemed to regard it as the most comfortable thing in the world. He still wore that perpetually vigilant look of his, but I could see exhaustion around the edges. This had been a long night for him too.

I sat down on the edge of the bed. 'What now?'

'Now we wait,' he said.

'For what?'

'For Lissa and the others to clear your name and find out who killed the queen.'

I expected more explanation, but all I got was silence. Disbelief began to build up in me. I'd remained as patient as I could tonight, always assuming Dimitri was leading me toward some mysterious mission to help solve the murder. When he said we were going to wait, surely he didn't mean we were just going to . . . well, wait?

'What are we going to do?' I demanded. 'How are we going to help them?'

'We told you earlier: You can hardly go looking for clues at Court. You need to stay away. You need to stay safe.'

My jaw dropped as I gestured around the drab room. 'What, and this is it? This is where you're stashing me? I thought . . . I thought there was something here. Something to help.'

'It is helping,' he said, in that damnably calm way of his. 'Sydney and Abe researched this place and decided it was out of the way enough to avoid detection.'

I shot up from the bed. 'Okay, comrade. There's one serious problem here with your logic. You guys keep acting like me staying out of the way is helping.'

'What's a serious problem is us repeating this conversation over and over. The answers to who murdered Tatiana are at Court, and that's where your friends are. They'll figure this out.'

'I didn't just get in a high-speed chase and jump state lines to hole up in some crappy motel! How long are you planning on ‘staying out of the way' here?'

Dimitri crossed his arms over his chest. 'As long as it takes. We have the funds to stay here indefinitely.'

'I probably have enough spare change in my pocket to stay here indefinitely! But it's not happening. I have to do something. I won't just take the easy way out and sit around.'

'Surviving isn't as easy as you think.'

'Oh God,' I groaned. 'You've been hanging out with Abe, haven't you? You know, when you were a Strigoi, you told me to stay away from him. Maybe you should take your own advice.'

I regretted the words as soon as they left my lips and saw in his eyes that I'd inflicted serious damage. He might have been acting like the old Dimitri in this escape, but his time as a Strigoi still tormented him.

'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I didn't mean—'

'We're done discussing this,' he said harshly. 'Lissa says we're staying here, so we're staying here.'