How It All Goes Down
- Still on house arrest (aside from school and training), Rose goes to Headmistress Kirova's office to ask if she can go to church. She's not religious or anything—she just wants more time where she can hang out with Lissa.
- Even though Headmistress Kirova doesn't buy the "I found Jesus" bit, she allows it; she can't really keep someone from church.
- That Sunday at church, the priest gives a message about St. Vladimir, who helped heal the sick, but was mocked (read: thought to be insane). His trusty sidekick Anna was shadow-kissed.
- Rose focuses on what that might mean. Shadow-kissed… hmmm… she's not sure. When she asks the priest after church, he doesn't know either, but he gives her a book to read.
- She catches up with her friends and hears that two guardians are resigning and getting hitched. This is a big no-no because dhampirs couldn't have kids together. Morois and dhampirs could, but it wasn't really worth it because they came out as dhampirs, and Moroi numbers were going down. So, some dhampirs had kids with Morois; other Morois had kids together, but dhampirs never got together. Ever.
- There were some Morois who had long-term dhampir relationships, but it was nothing more than physical stuff and usually not marriage or anything. Rose's mom gave her to the Morois to raise by the time she was four years old, because her mom was a guardian and needed to protect her own Moroi.
- Just then, snowy, slushy water falls on Lissa and Rose, and she's sure it wasn't an accident. She blames Mia, and thinks she's got to get back at her somehow.
- As they walk away, Lissa and Rose talk about how they don't like Mia. She's such a poser, always trying to act higher class than she really is.
- Rose's friend Mason fills her in on a little secret: Mia's parents work for the Drozdov lords, as in cut their grass, cleaned their house, and that kind of hard labor. Rose respects that. She just doesn't like when someone tries to act all holier than thou on her, like Mia does.
- She thinks to herself that Mason might her like, ya know, in that way, but she doesn't like him back. He's a cool friend though.
- When Rose starts reading about St. Vladimir, she figures out Anna was his guardian. What's more is that they had a special psychic bond, just like Rose and Lissa. There's no word on what shadow-kissed means though.