He was in a precarious position himself, straddling the rail as he tried to lean over far enough to get me and actually hold onto me.

"Let go of me!" I yelled back.

But he was too strong and managed to haul most of me over the rail, enough so that I wasn't in total danger of falling again.

See, here's the thing. In that moment before I let go, I really had been contemplating my death. I'd come to terms with it and accepted it. I also, however, had known Dimitri might do something exactly like this. He was just that fast and that good. That was why I was holding my stake in the hand that was dangling free.

I looked him in the eye. "I will always love you."

Then I plunged the stake into his chest.

It wasn't as precise a blow as I would have liked, not with the skilled way he was dodging. I struggled to get the stake in deep enough to his heart, unsure if I could do it from this angle. Then, his struggles stopped. His eyes stared at me, stunned, and his lips parted, almost into a smile, albeit a grisly and pained one.

"That's what I was supposed to say..." he gasped out.

Those were his last words.

His failed attempt to dodge the stake had made him lose his balance on the edge. The stake's magic made the rest easy, stunning him and his reflexes.

Dimitri fell.

He nearly took me with him, and I just barely managed to break free of him and cling to the railing. He dropped down into the darkness - down, down into the blackness of the Ob. A moment later he disappeared from sight.

I stared down after him, wondering if I would see him in the water if I squinted hard enough. But I didn 't. The river was too dark and too far away.

Clouds moved back over the moon, and darkness fell over everything again. For a moment, staring down and realizing what I'd just done, I wanted to throw myself in after him, because surely there was no way I could go on living now.

You have to. My inner voice was much calmer and more confident than it should have been. The old Dimitri would want you to live. If you really loved him, then you have to go on.

With a shaking breath, I climbed over the rail and stood back on the bridge, surprisingly grateful for its security. I didn't know how I would go on living, but I knew that I wanted to. I wasn't going to feel fully safe until I was on solid ground, and with my body falling apart, I began to cross the bridge one step at a time. When I was on the other side, I had a choice. Follow the river or the road? They veered off from each other slightly, but both headed roughly in the direction of the city's lights. I opted for the road. I didn't want to be anywhere near the river. I would not think about what had just happened. I couldn't think about it. My brain refused. Worry about staying alive first. Then worry about how you're going to live.

The road, while clearly rural, was flat and packed and made for easy walking-for anyone else. A light rain began falling, which just added insult to injury. I kept wanting to sit and rest, to curl up in a ball and think of nothing else. No, no, no. The light. I had to go toward the light.

That almost made me laugh out loud. It was funny, really. Like I was someone having a near -death experience. Then I did laugh. This whole night had been full of near-death experiences. This was the least of them.

It was also the last, and as much as I longed for the city, it was too far away. I 'm not sure how long I walked before I finally had to stop and sit.

Just a minute, I decided. I'd rest for a minute and then keep moving. I had to keep moving. If by some crazy chance I'd missed his heart, Dimitri could be climbing out of the river at any moment. Or other surviving Strigoi could be coming after me from the manor.

But I didn't get up in a minute. I think I may have slept, and I honestly don't know how long I'd been sitting there when headlights suddenly spurred me to alertness. A car slowed down and came to a stop. I managed to get to my feet, bracing myself.

No Strigoi got out. Instead, an old human man did. He peered at me and said something in Russian. I shook my head and backed up a step. He leaned into the car and said something, and a moment later, an older woman joined him. She looked at me and her eyes widened, face compa.s.sionate. She said something gentle-sounding and held out her hand to me, cautious in the way one would be when approaching a feral animal. I stared at her for several heavy seconds and then pointed at the purple horizon.

"Novosibirsk," I said.

She followed my gesture and nodded. "Novosibirsk." She pointed to me and then to the car. "Novosibirsk."

I hesitated a little longer and then let her lead me into the backseat. She took off her coat and laid it over me, and I noticed then that I was soaked from the rain. I had to be a mess after everything I 'd been through tonight. It was a wonder they'd even stopped. The old man began driving again, and it occurred to me I could have just gotten in a car with serial killers. But then, how would that be any different from the rest of my night?

The mental and physical pain were starting to drag me under, and with my last effort, I wet my lips and choked out another gem from my Russian vocabulary.

"Pazvaneet?"

The woman looked back at me in surprise. I wasn't sure if I had the word right. I might have just asked for a pay phone instead of a cell phone-or maybe I'd asked for a giraffe-but hopefully the message came through regardless. A moment later, she reached into her purse and handed me a cell phone. Even in Siberia, everyone was wired. With shaking hands, I dialed the number I now had memorized. A female voice answered.

"Allo."

"Sydney? This is Rose..."

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I didn't recognize the guy Sydney sent to meet us when we reached Novosibirsk, but he had the same golden tattoo that she did. He was sandy-haired and in his thirties-and human, of course. He looked competent and trustworthy, and as I leaned against the car, he laughed and spoke to the elderly couple like they'd been best friends forever. There was a professional and rea.s.suring air about him, and soon they were smiling too. I'm not sure what he told them, maybe that I was his wayward daughter or something, but they apparently felt good enough to leave me in his hands. I supposed with their jobs, the Alchemist charm in action.

When the old man and woman drove off, his demeanor shifted slightly. He didn't seem as cold as Sydney initially had, but there was no laughing or joking with me. He'd become distinctly businesslike, and I couldn't help but think of the stories of men in black, the people who cleaned up after extraterrestrial encounters in order to keep the world ignorant of the truth.

"Can you walk?" he asked, eyeing me up and down.

"Unclear at this time," I replied.

It turned out I could, just not very well. With his help, I eventually ended up at a town house over in a residential part of the city. I was bleary-eyed and barely able to stay on my feet by that point. There were other people there, but none of them registered. The only thing that mattered was the bedroom someone took me to. I mustered enough strength at that point to break free of the arm supporting me and do a face-plant right in the middle of the bed. I fell asleep instantly.

I awoke to bright sunshine filling my room and voices speaking in hushed tones. Considering everything that I 'd been through, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Dimitri, Tatiana, or even Dr. Olendzki from the Academy there. Instead, it was Abe's bearded face that looked down at me, the light making all of his jewelry gleam.

For a moment, his face blurred, and all I saw was dark, dark water-water that threatened to wash me away. Dimitri's last words echoed in my head: That's what I was supposed to say... He'd understood that I wanted to hear that he loved me. What would have happened if we'd had a few moments more? Would he have said those words? Would he have meant them? And would it have mattered?

With the same resolve I'd mustered before, I parted the waters swirling in my mind, ordering myself to push aside last night as long as I could. I would drown if I thought about it. Now I had to swim. Abe's face came back into focus.

"Greetings, Zmey," I said weakly. Somehow, him being here didn't surprise me. Sydney would have had to tell her superiors about me, who in turn would have told Abe. "Nice of you to slither on in."

He shook his head, wearing a rueful smile. "I think you've outdone me when it comes to sneaking around dark corners. I thought you were on your way back to Montana."

"Next time, make sure you write a few more details into your bargains. Or just pack me up and send me back to the U.S. for real."

"Oh," he said, "that's exactly what I intend to do." He kept smiling as he said it, but somehow, I had a feeling he wasn 't joking. And suddenly, I no longer feared that fate. Going home was starting to sound good.

Mark and Oksana walked over to stand beside him. Their presence was unexpected but welcome. They smiled too, faces melancholy but relieved. I sat up in bed, surprised I could move at all.

"You healed me," I said to Oksana. "I still hurt, but I don't feel like I'm going to die, which I have to think is an improvement."

She nodded. "I did enough to make sure you weren't in immediate danger. I figured I could do the rest when you woke up."

I shook my head. "No, no. I'll recover on my own." I always hated it when Lissa healed me. I didn't want her wasting the strength on me. I also didn't want her inviting spirit's side effects.

Lissa...

I jerked the covers off of me. "Oh my G.o.d! I have to get home. Right now."

Immediately, three pairs of arms blocked my way.

"Hold on," said Mark. "You aren't going anywhere. Oksana only healed you a little. You're a long way from being recovered."

"And you still haven't told us what happened," said Abe, eyes as shrewd as ever. He was someone who needed to know everything, and the mysteries around me probably drove him crazy.

"There's no time! Lissa's in trouble. I have to get back to school." It was all coming back to me. Lissa's erratic behavior and crazy stunts, driven by some kind of compulsion-or super-compulsion, I supposed, seeing as Avery had been able to shove me out of Lissa's head.

"Oh, now you want to go back to Montana?" exclaimed Abe. "Rose, even if there was a plane waiting for you out in the other room, that's a twenty hour trip, at minimum. And you're in no condition to go anywhere."

I shook my head, still trying to get on my feet. After what I 'd faced last night, this group wasn't that much of a threat-well, maybe Mark was-but I could hardly start throwing punches. And yeah, I still wasn't sure what Abe could do.

"You don't get it! Someone's trying to kill Lissa or hurt her or..."

Well, I didn't really understand what Avery wanted. All I knew was that Avery had somehow been compelling Lissa to do all sorts of reckless things.

She had to be amazingly strong in spirit to not only manage those feats but also keep it hidden from Lissa and Adrian. She'd even created a false aura to hide her golden one. I had no idea how that magnitude of power was possible, particularly considering that Avery's fun-loving personality could hardly be called insane. Whatever her scheme, Lissa was at risk. I had to do something.

Removing Abe from the equation, I looked up at Mark and Oksana pleadingly. "It's my bondmate," I explained. "She's in trouble.

Someone's trying to hurt her. I have to go to her-you understand why I have to."

And I saw in their faces that they did understand. I also knew that in my situation, they'd try exactly the same thing for each other.

Mark sighed. "Rose... we'll help you get to her, but we can't do it now."

"We'll contact the school," said Abe matter-of-factly. "They'll take care of it."

Right. And how exactly would we do that? Call up Headmaster Lazar and tell him his party -girl daughter was actually corrupting and controlling people with psychic powers and that she needed to be locked up for Lissa's and everyone else's good?

My lack of an answer seemed to make them think they'd convinced me, Abe in particular. "With Oksana's help, you'd probably be in good enough condition to leave tomorrow," he added. "I can book a morning flight the next day."

"Will she be all right until then?" Oksana asked me gently.

"I... I don't know..." What could Avery do in two days' time? Alienate and embarra.s.s Lissa further? Horrible things, but not permanent or life threatening. Surely, surely... she'd be okay that long, right? "Let me see..."

I saw Mark's eyes widen slightly as he realized what I was about to do. Then I saw nothing in the room anymore because I was no longer there. I was in Lissa's head. A new set of sights settled in around me, and for half a second, I thought I stood on the bridge again and was looking down into black waters and a cold death.

Then I gained a grip on what I saw-or rather, what Lissa saw. She was standing on the ledge of a window in some building on campus. It was nighttime. I couldn't tell offhand which building it was, but it didn't matter. Lissa was on what appeared to be the sixth floor, standing there in high heels, laughing about something while the dark ground threatened below. Behind her, I heard Avery's voice.

"Lissa, be careful! You shouldn't be up there."

But it had the same double meaning that permeated everything Avery did. Even as she said those words of caution, I could feel a reckless drive within Lissa, something telling her that it was okay to be where she was and not to worry so much. It was Avery's compulsion. Then, I felt that brushing of my mind, and the annoyed voice.

You again?

I was forced back out, back to the bedroom in Novosibirsk. Abe was freaking out, apparently thinking I 'd gone into some catatonic fit, and Mark and Oksana were attempting to explain to him what had happened. I blinked and rubbed my head as I gathered myself, and Mark breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's much stranger watching someone do that than it is doing it myself."

"She's in trouble," I said, attempting to get up again. "She's in trouble... and I don't know what to do..."

They were right in saying there was no way on earth I could get to Lissa anytime soon. And even if I followed Abe 's suggestion and contacted the school... I didn't know for sure where Lissa was at or even if anyone there would believe me. I thought about jumping back in and trying to read Lissa's location from her mind, but Avery would likely throw me out again. From what I had briefly felt, Lissa didn't have her cell phone on her-no surprise. There were strict rules about having them in cla.s.ses, so she usually left hers in her dorm room.

But I knew someone who would have his. And who would believe me.

"Does anyone have a phone?" I asked.

Abe gave me his, and I dialed Adrian's number, surprised I had it memorized. Adrian was mad at me, but he cared about Lissa. He would help her, no matter his grudge toward me. And he would believe me when I tried to explain a crazy, spirit-induced plot.

But when the other end of the line picked up, it was his voicemail that answered, not the man himself. "I know how devastated you must be to miss me," his cheery voice said, "but leave a message, and I'll try to ease your agony as soon as possible."

I disconnected, feeling lost. Suddenly, I looked up at Oksana as one of my crazier ideas came to mind.

"You... you can do that thing... where you actively go in someone's mind and touch their thoughts, right? Like you did to me?"

She grimaced slightly. "Yes, but it's not something I like to do. I don't think it's right."

"Can you compel them once you're in there?"

She looked even more disgusted. "Well, yes, of course... the two things are actually very similar. But reaching in someone's mind is one thing and forcing them into some unwanted behavior is an entirely different matter."

"My friend is about to do something dangerous," I said. "It could kill her. She's being compelled, but I can't do anything about it. The bond won't let me actively reach her. I can only watch. If you could reach inside my friend's head and compel her out of danger..."

Oksana shook her head. "Supposing morals weren't an issue, I can't reach into someone who's not actually here-let alone someone I've never met."

I raked a hand through my hair, panic setting in. I wished Oksana knew how to walk dreams. That would at least give her the long-distance capability. All of these spirit powers seemed to be one off from each other, each having some additional nuance. Someone who could dream walk might be able to take the next step and visit someone awake.

An even crazier idea came to me. This was a groundbreaking day. "Oksana... you can reach into my mind, right?"

"Yes," she reaffirmed.

"If I... if I was in my bondmate's head at the time, could you reach into me and then reach into her mind? Could I, like, be the link between you guys?"

"I've never heard of anything like that," murmured Mark.

"That's because we've never had this many spirit users and shadow-kissed around before," I pointed out.

Abe, understandably, looked completely lost.

A shadow fell over Oksana's face. "I don't know..."

"Either it works or it doesn't," I said. "If it doesn't, then there's no harm done. But if you can reach her through me... you can compel her."