Rose fights hard and stakes one. But another gets the upper hand and she’s certain she’ll die—but then he bursts into flames. Thank you, Christian!
Christian thinks that the two of them make a good team. They could fight the Strigoi together and help protect the school. It goes against everything she’s been taught about keeping Moroi safe, but it makes total sense. Together they kick Strigoi butt on the way back to the elementary campus. Total badasses!
One blond Strigoi seems to know her. He’s familiar with Lissa too. He’d love to be the one to take down the last Dragomir. He slips away before she manages to stake him—it’s one kill she’ll later have wished she’d made.
Rose is beyond relieved when Dimitri returns battered but not dead. They survived! But the bad news comes quickly. The Strigoi killed many in their attack, and they also carried some away. And one of those kidnapped is Eddie.
No . . . it’s not possible. Rose lost Mason; she can’t lose Eddie too.
The wards around the school are reinforced, and more guardians have been called in to help deal with the aftermath of the attack. One is Rose’s mother. Rose tries to get her plan across to Janine—and she does have a plan. In order to rescue the Moroi, they need to know where they are—and Rose thinks she knows how they can get that information.
She takes Dimitri with her to the school’s gates. Since the wards have been strengthened, Mason’s ghost is stuck outside now. Dimitri’s skeptical since he can’t see anything, but he’s willing to trust Rose’s instincts.
Outside the gates, Mason appears to Rose. Using a map, he helps pinpoint where the Strigoi have taken their victims—caves five miles away. Since it’s now daylight, the Strigoi are trapped, which means there’s still a chance to get to them and rescue the others.
It’s good enough information to launch a rescue mission.
Dimitri takes Rose for a walk to try to calm her down while they wait for everything to be organized. She’s certain he’s going to lecture her on how their being together was wrong and how it can’t happen again. But he most definitely doesn’t feel that way.
“Even before the Strigoi attack, as I watched all the problems you were struggling with, I realized how much you meant to me. It changed everything. I was worried about you—so worried. You have no idea. And it became useless to try to act like I could ever put any Moroi life above yours. It’s not going to happen, no matter how wrong others say it is. And so I decided that’s something I have to deal with. Once I made that decision . . . there was nothing to hold us back.” He hesitated, seeming to replay his words as he brushed my hair from my face. “Well, to hold me back. I’m speaking for myself. I don’t mean to act like I know exactly why you did it.”
“I did it because I love you, ” I said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And really, it was.
—page 398
He wants to be with her after graduation and will do anything to make that happen.
In the middle of the rescue mission and all this chaos, Rose has a glimmer of hope for the future. For a minute, she lets herself think it might all work out perfectly. Rose can have Dimitri and Lissa in her life. She doesn’t have to give up one or the other. It’s everything she wanted.
RESCUE AND LOSS
A large team of fifty guardians, novices, and Moroi travel to the caves. Dimitri and Janine are part of the first team to go inside.
It’s not long before sounds of fighting reach those waiting tensely outside. Some rescued Moroi and dhampirs emerge, but Dimitri’s team gets trapped!
Reinforcements have to go in to help. Rose is among them, and her ability to sense Strigoi proves extremely helpful. She fights with everything she’s got on her way to where Dimitri and the others are trapped behind a collapsed wall.
With Rose helping to fight off the Strigoi—which distracts them—those trapped, including Dimitri, are able to free themselves from their position. Together they head out of the caves. It’s a huge maze, with Strigoi hiding behind every corner. Overwhelmed and outnumbered, they decide to retreat and head back behind the wards since the sun is setting, which will mean the Strigoi can emerge from their dark, protective caves. But there’s good news for Rose: Eddie’s among those successfully rescued.
Just before they can get out, another group of Strigoi attack and Dimitri is taken by surprise. It’s an attack that will change everything.
It was the blond Strigoi. The one who had spoken to me in the battle.
He grabbed Dimitri and pulled him to the ground. They grappled, strength against strength, and then I saw those fangs sink into Dimitri’s neck. The red eyes flicked up and made contact with my own.
I heard another scream—this time it was my own.
—page 413
Rose is forced to flee the caves in the ensuing chaos. But the second she emerges, she’s desperate to go back to Dimitri, to save him, to be near him, to do anything but stand helpless while the man she loves more than anything in the world is only a few hundred feet away. Her mother tells her it’s too late—Dimitri’s dead.
AFTERMATH
It’s torture waiting for the chance to go back to check the caves. Rose’s relentless grief is enough to clue Lissa in to something she should have recognized a long time ago: Rose and Dimitri are in love.
When they finally head back to retrieve the dead, Dimitri’s body isn’t among them. That can only mean a couple of things, but none are good.
Rose crosses the wards once more so she can speak to Mason’s ghost. What she learns shatters her world. Dimitri is neither alive nor dead now.
He’s been turned into a Strigoi.
Rose’s heart and her world shatter.
Dimitri’s tarot card reading from Rhonda was that he “will lose what you value most.”
Rose thought it might be her . . . or it might be Dimitri’s life . . .
But it was his soul that he lost. He’s not dead, but he’s gone, replaced by a monster. It’s the last thing Dimitri ever would have wanted.
A week passes, and there have been no classes since the attack. The school is in deep mourning for those lost in the attack. After the memorial services, Rose seeks Adrian out—she needs to talk to him about something very important.
She needs money—a lot of it. She’s leaving the Academy. She has things she needs to do, and graduating isn’t one of them anymore. She isn’t willing to go into further detail about her plans than that.
When she flirts to get what she wants, Adrian’s hurt that she’d play on his feelings for her. It’s not fair. He knows that she’s in love with Dimitri, not him.
She presses for the money—she doesn’t want to talk about Dimitri; it hurts too much. Adrian decides that it might be good if Rose leaves. Maybe that’s the only way she’ll be able to get over Dimitri. Maybe if she’s away from Lissa’s aura, Rose can find a way to be happier . . . and stop seeing ghosts.
Fine. He’s willing to give her the money she needs—but with one condition. When she returns, she has to agree to give him a chance romantically. Looks like Rose was wrong about him. Adrian isn’t only interested in her body; he’s interested in her.
She agrees, although right now she’s only saying what it takes to get what she wants. After all she’s lost, the last thing she can even think about is dating somebody else.
POP QUIZ: Shadow Kiss
1. Rose and Lissa weren’t invited—or even told—about whose upcoming trial?
2. Who is assigned to be Lissa’s guardian during the novices’ field experience?
3. Where is the trial taking place?
4. How does Queen Tatiana want Lissa to demonstrate her spirit magic?
5. Deeming Lissa’s relationship with Christian unacceptable, the queen wishes to arrange a marriage between the Dragomir princess and who?
6. Fill in the blank: “You will lose what you value most, so ________ it while you can.”
7. How did St. Vladimir’s shadow-kissed guardian, Anna, die?
8. What is the name of the royal student secret society formed by Jesse and Ralf at St. Vlad’s?
9. What word does Dimitri give Rose to tell the guardians to warn of a Strigoi attack?
10. Fill in the blank: “I set off, off to kill the man I _____.”
* For quiz answers, see p.299.
It’s Rose’s eighteenth birthday today, an important day—but one she doesn’t meet with celebration. Being officially an adult means that she has the legal right to drop out of St. Vladimir’s no matter what anyone else says. And that’s exactly what she does.
As she’s leaving through the Academy’s gates, Lissa catches up to her, desperately trying to convince her friend not to leave. She knows what Rose is planning to do now—Lissa was present in the van during the shopping trip when Rose and Dimitri made the promise to each other if either was ever turned into a Strigoi. Rose is leaving St. Vlad’s to find him . . . and kill him.
Even though it means leaving her best friend in the world, Rose tells her that this is something she has to do. She never wanted to have to choose between them, but it’s come down to this.
Mason appears briefly to her once more, before he finally is able to leave forever. He’s found his peace. Rose needs to do the same.
For the first time since his death, thinking about Mason no longer devastated me. I was sad and I really would miss him, but I knew he’d moved on to something good—something really good. I no longer felt guilty.
Turning away, I stared at the long road winding off ahead of me. I sighed. This trip might take a while.
“Then start walking, Rose,” I muttered to myself.
I set off, off to kill the man I loved.
—page 443
CHAPTER 4
Blood Promise
RICHELLE ON BLOOD PROMISE
Blood Promise stands out to me for a few different reasons. It was the first book to really deviate from the kids-in-school format and thrust Rose out into the real world. That certainly required a shift in my mindset while writing it, particularly since I also had to contend with an entirely foreign culture and language! A visit to Russia was out of the question for me, but the digital age we live in put all sorts of resources at my fingertips. I think one of my very favorite things that I found was a website that had virtual tours of the Trans-Siberian Railway cars. You could “walk” around the sleeping compartments and dining car and see all the features and décor. This was an amazing asset to have and really added a richness to the book. Still, I was concerned that some readers wouldn’t accept the change in story location and style, and my anxiety increased when we ended up accelerating this novel’s publication schedule. Amazingly, it all came together, and readers really enjoyed it. This book vies with Shadow Kiss as my favorite in the series.
First line: I was being followed.
ROZA DOES RUSSIA
Rose has traveled across the world to Russia with one important but heartbreaking goal: to find and kill Dimitri. It was a promise they once made to each other if either was turned into a Strigoi, and she’s determined to hold true to it.
She loves him so much—the only thing she can do to prove that now is to keep that promise.
She’s been staking out a Moroi nightclub in St. Petersburg for information that could lead her to a dhampir commune. Her ultimate destination is Dimitri’s hometown—she thinks he might have returned there. But finding it is harder than she’d expected, especially since she doesn’t know the name of it; she’s mostly met with brick walls and the assumption that she’s looking for such a village because she’s an aspiring blood whore.
Outside the club, she senses she’s being followed. When she confronts her pursuer—not a Strigoi—she meets Sydney Sage, an eighteen-year-old Alchemist, who’s pretty mad at Rose for leaving a path of dead Strigoi bodies behind her since her arrival in Russia.
Speaking of Strigoi, one attacks them at that very moment. Fortunately, Rose manages to stake it. Sydney is shocked—she’s never seen a staking before—but she manages to compose herself enough to demonstrate one of her many responsibilities as an Alchemist. She sprinkles something on the body that makes it disintegrate, leaving only dust behind.
Sydney fills Rose in on the info she needs: Alchemists are a group of humans who help the Moroi hide their existence from the rest of the human world. Rose would have been told about them if she’d stuck around St. Vlad’s long enough to graduate.
Rose can’t help but notice the intricate design of flowers and leaves that Sydney has tattooed on her face. All Alchemists have this mark. It’s made from a mixture of gold, Moroi blood, and earth and water magic—which gives them long life and good health. It also prevents them from speaking of their jobs with other humans. Despite their job requirements, Alchemists consider all vampires—including half-Moroi dhampirs—to be evil creatures of the night.
“We’re not like Strigoi!” I snapped.
Her face stayed bland. “Moroi drink blood. Dhampirs are the unnatural offspring of them and humans.”
No one had ever called me unnatural before, except for the time I put ketchup on a taco. But seriously, we’d been out of salsa, so what else was I supposed to do? “Moroi and dhampirs are not evil,” I told Sydney. “Not like Strigoi.”
“That’s true,” she conceded. “Strigoi are more evil.”
—page 38
Okay, so maybe Rose hasn’t found a new BFF, but she’s definitely found someone who knows about local vampires. Rose asks about the village she’s looking for, but instead of offering up an answer, Sydney makes a phone call to get her orders. She’s told to take Rose to the village personally. Sydney obliges, but she doesn’t seem all that happy about spending more time with an evil creature of the night.
Their train for Moscow leaves late the next morning to take them on their first leg of the journey, and it gives Rose a lot of time to think. The real possibility that she’ll be facing Dimitri in a few short days weighs heavy on Rose. She gave up a lot to travel to Russia, forfeiting her education and bruising her friendship with Lissa in the process. But it’s the second issue that most troubles Rose, the fact that Lissa felt abandoned when Rose left school. Rose still has the bond, though, and checks in with her friend to see how everything is.
And Lissa’s frustrated. Ever since she agreed to move to Court after graduation and attend Lehigh University, it feels as if the queen’s trying to dictate her life. At Tatiana’s “request,” she has to go greet two newcomers to the school. Eugene Lazar, who’s from one of the royal families, is taking over as headmaster, and he’s bringing his daughter, Avery, with him. Also joining them are her brother, Reed, and her guardian, Simon. Rose thinks that putting a royal in the head-of-school position is likely a decision the queen made to ease parents’ minds after the recent Strigoi attacks. Good for the parents—but bad for Lissa.
Now she has to show Avery around campus—and Lissa doesn’t know why, but the whole thing feels suspicious to her. Was Avery sent here to keep an eye on Lissa and report back to the queen? Lissa decides to do the bare minimum of showing Avery around—and definitely won’t take the girl into her confidences. No way.
This apprehension is cool with Rose. At least Lissa isn’t jumping at the first chance to replace her as a friend.
After a short stop in Moscow, Rose and Sydney catch their next train, which will take them to Siberia. They’re sharing first-class accommodations on board, and the girls are able to get some sleep in their private room. As Rose dozes off, she has a spirit dream starring Adrian—a regular occurrence since she left. While she doesn’t appreciate the intrusion, she knows he means well.
“I suppose I should be grateful you only show up about once a week.”
He grinned and sat down backward in one of the slatted wooden chairs. He was tall, like most Moroi, with a leanly muscled build. Moroi guys never got too bulky. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Rose. Don’t want you to take me for granted.”
“We’re in no danger of that; don’t
worry.”
—page 64
JOURNEY TO BAIA
Sydney seems uncomfortable traveling with Rose, but they manage to form a decent relationship—if not quite a friendship—over the next few days. After a long train ride on the Trans-Siberian, Sydney happily buys a car (she’s a car nut). They’ll have to drive the rest of the way on a remote road. And to add to the fun, the threat of Strigoi makes it dangerous on the roads at night. Harder to see what’s coming—and what’s coming could kill you.
In a way, Rose almost wishes she’ll never find Dimitri. Then she’ll never have to face what he’s become—or what she has to do. During the long stretches of travel time, memories of the man she fell in love with haunt her constantly.
How can she kill someone she loved so much?
But that’s exactly the point. That man is gone forever, replaced by a monster.
Back at St. Vlad’s, Adrian and Lissa are practicing spirit and discussing the very same issue: Rose and Dimitri. Rose listens in through the bond.
“Do you think she can kill Dimitri?”
Adrian took a long time in answering. “I think she can. The question will be if it kills her in the process.”
Lissa flinched, and I was a bit surprised. The answer was as blunt as one Christian might give. “God, I wish she hadn’t decided to go after him.”
“Wishing’s useless now. Rose has got to do this. It’s the only way we can get her back.” He paused. “It’s the only way she’ll be able to move on.”
—page 82