How It All Goes Down
- Lissa's little compulsion convincing works, and Rose is surprised the next day when everyone is treating her a little differently.
- Everyone is also distracted by the news of Lissa and Aaron getting back together. Mia found out about Aaron hanging out at Lissa's and flew off the handle, so they are history, and Aaron quickly moved on to Lissa.
- Rose decides she wants to pay Ms. Carmack, the elemental teacher, a visit. She doesn't take Carmack's class being a dhampir and all, but she's got a question about elements.
- She wants to know what happens if someone doesn't specialize in one element—Lissa hasn't gotten hers yet and Rose thinks that's abnormal. Ms. Carmack tells her not to worry, that sometimes it takes people a little longer than others, but it will come. There are only a tiny amount of people who don't specialize in one.
- Rose wonders which element St. Vladimir specialized in, but Ms. Carmack isn't sure… which is odd since he's the patron saint of the school and everyone's always talking about him.
- How about Ms. Karp? Now that Rose mentions it, Ms. Carmack thinks Ms. Karp was one of those rare people who didn't specialize. Whoa.
- Later that day, Rose tells Lissa she thinks Project: Brainwash is complete. No one believes the Jesse/Ralf/Rose rumors anymore so they're in the clear.
- Lissa doesn't want to stop hanging out with her new posse and she's with Aaron now too, but Rose is in Lissa's head and knows that Lissa doesn't feel nearly as loved-up about Aaron as she pretends to. Ouch.
- Then she lets Lissa in on all her research/fact finding mission: St. Vladimir and Ms. Karp were both bananas and they didn't specialize in anything, just like Lissa.
- So? That could be a coincidence, Lissa says.
- Is it a coincidence that all three of them (1) didn't specialize, (2) used compulsion, and (3) could heal people? Hmm… we think not.
- Lissa's not sure whether to be relieved or annoyed, but Rose tells her she doesn't think it's a good idea to hang around Aaron and the royals—she should hang around someone like Christian instead.
- Wait a minute… Wasn't she the one saying Christian was creepy? Lissa can't believe this change of heart. Besides, Christian just up and stopped talking to her one day out of the blue. (Ahem, right around the time Rose told him off, but Lissa doesn't know that.)
- Rose decides the only way to get Christian to hang out with Lissa again is to apologize to him in person. She was a jerk to him, and she should fess up, so she goes to find him; he gives her a hard time, but she manages to say sorry.
- It finally occurs to Rose why Christian and Lissa have a bond in the first place: they both saw their parents die.
- She also tells him she's worried about Lissa. He's seen the marks on her wrists, and put two and two together about what was happening. He tells Rose she better get Lissa help—real help and let someone else know about the cutting, but Rose isn't so sure.