Or maybe I was overthinking things. I couldn’t doubt my mom’s love. Whatever her faults, she still cared about me, and seeing her alive and well drove home how worried I’d been about her while she was imprisoned. Whenever I tried to bring up her time away, though, she brushed the subject off.

“It’s done,” she said simply as we drove up to the Court’s front security gates. “I’ve served my sentence, and that’s all there is to it. The only thing you need to know is that it’s made me reassess my priorities in life and what really matters.” She gently touched my cheek. “And you’re at the top of those priorities, my darling.”

The Moroi Royal Court was arranged like a university, with lots of old Gothic buildings set on sprawling grounds. In fact, in the human world, its cover story was that it was an academic institution, a private and elite one that was generally left alone. Government officials and certain royal Moroi had permanent lodging there, and there were also accommodations for guests and all sorts of services to make life bearable. It was, in a sense, its own little enclosed city.

I expected my mother to take us to our family townhouse, but instead, we ended up at one of the guest housing facilities. “After living on your own, I couldn’t imagine you’d want to be holed up with your father and me,” she explained. “We can work on something more permanent later, but in the meantime, the queen has allowed these arrangements for you.”

I was surprised, but she was right about one thing—I didn’t really want my father tracking my comings and goings. Or her, for that matter. Not that I intended on too many wild and crazy goings-on. I was here for a fresh start, resolved to use what resources I could to help Sydney. After she’d gone out of her way to find me, though, I’d assumed my mother would want to keep me under lock and key.

An attendant at the building’s front desk set me up with a room, and my mother hugged me goodbye. “I have an appointment to get to, but let’s get together tomorrow, shall we? We’re having guests over for dinner. I’m sure your father would love to see you. Come by, and we’ll catch up. You will be okay now, won’t you?”

“Of course,” I said. We’d lost a lot of the day owing to travel and time change. “Not much trouble left for me to get into. I’ll probably call it an early night.”

She hugged me again, and then I made my way up to my room, which was the kind of one-bedroom suite you’d find at any five-star hotel. Once I’d deposited my suitcase in the bedroom, I immediately made some phone calls and began setting up plans. With those in place, I took a quick shower (my first of the day) and promptly headed back out again. It wasn’t for any wild time, though.

Of course, some might consider any get-together with Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir a wild time.

Both lived inside what was dubbed the royal palace around here, though from the outside, it maintained that same university facade. Once indoors, the full weight of Moroi history came pressing down with Old World grandeur: crystal chandeliers, velvet drapes, oil paintings of monarchs past. The queen’s rooms were pretty updated, however, having been decorated more for her personal tastes and less for her office. I was just glad she’d taken a set of rooms different from the ones my aunt had lived—and died—in. It was already surreal enough coming here sometimes without that memory to haunt me.

The girls were in Lissa’s living room when I arrived. Lissa was sitting cross-legged on a couch surrounded by books, while Rose had managed to arrange herself upside down in an armchair, her long, dark hair dangling and fanning out on the ground. She leapt upright to her feet with dhampir skill and grace upon my entrance. Hurrying over, she gave me a quick, friendly embrace. “You’re really here. I thought it was a joke at first. Figured you’d be staying with Jill.”

“She doesn’t need me right now,” I said, going over to hug Lissa as she rose up from her books. “School’s wrapping up, and there’s all sorts of things keeping her busy for now.”

“Tell me about it,” said Rose, rolling her eyes at Lissa. “Miss All-Study-and-No-Play here has been taking the fun out of everything.”

Lissa smiled indulgently at her best friend. “Exams start tomorrow.”

“Mine just ended,” I said.

“How’d you do?” Lissa asked, settling back down.

I eyed her books. “Let’s just say I didn’t put nearly as much work into it as you.”

“See?” grumbled Rose. She flounced back into her chair, arms crossed.

I found my own chair between them and reflected upon my sketchy chances of passing this semester. “I think Lissa’s doing it the right way.”

At eighteen, Lissa was the youngest queen in the history of the Moroi, elected in the chaos following my aunt’s murder. No one would’ve faulted her for not going to college or for simply attempting to do it long distance. Lissa, however, had held true to her lifelong dreams of going to a big university and felt that as monarch, it was now doubly important for her to have a thorough education. She’d been attending Lehigh University, a few hours away, and had kept her GPA up while ruling a restless nation. She and Sydney would get on beautifully.

Lissa put her feet up on a coffee table, and I used spirit to briefly look at her aura. It was warm and content, as it should be, with the flashes of gold that marked another spirit user. “Then you’ll understand if I have to keep this short. I’ve got to memorize some dates and places before I go to bed tonight, and then we’re heading up to school early in the morning. We’re going to actually stay on campus for the rest of exam week.”

“I won’t keep you,” I said. “I just wanted to ask you about something.”

Lissa looked mildly surprised at that, and I realized she’d thought this was just a social call.

“Have you looked any more into what happened to Sydney Sage?”

Mild surprise turned to extreme surprise. “That again?” asked Lissa. It sounded unkinder than I knew she intended. No one outside of the Palm Springs circle knew what Sydney meant to me, and Lissa didn’t even have the connection of friendship to Sydney that someone like Rose did.

In fact, the mention of Sydney brought a frown to Rose’s face. “She’s still missing?”

Lissa glanced between us. “I don’t know anything more since you asked me a few months ago. I made inquiries. They said she’d been reassigned and that the information was classified.”