Shadow Kiss Chapter 17

SEVENTEENOUT ON THE RUNWAY, Christian s to a faultd near the entrance to the plane, along with a few of the other guardians. Lissa ran move out to communion to him, leaving me and Dimitri al one. He hadnt said a word the entire way back from the spa. Strong and silent were typical behaviors for him, only something about his mood strike me as unusual this time.Are you still thinking about what Rhonda said? That womans a supply scam. wherefore do you say that? he asked, stopping non far from where the others stood. A sharp wind blasted us all in the construction, and I hoped we could get on soon.Because she didnt tell us anything You should have heard my future. It was, like, one sentence stating the obvious. Lissa had a better fortune, I admitted, but it wasnt existingly anything that profound. Rhonda said shed be a great leader. I mean, seriously, how hard is that to figure out?Dimitri smiled at me. Would you be a believer if shed given you a more interesting reading?Maybe i f it was good. When he just laughed, I asked, But youre taking it seriously. Why? You really believe in that kind of stuff?Its not so much that I believe or that I dont believe. He wore a low knit cap over his head today and tugged it down to better cover his ears. I just respect people like her. They have recover to knowledge other people dont.Shes not a spirit user, though, so Im not really sure where shes getting this knowledge. I still think shes a con artist.Shes a vr?jitoare, actually.A I wasnt even going to touch that one. A what? Is that Russian?Romanian. It meanswell, theres no real translation. Witch is close, but thats not right. Their brain of a witch isnt the aforesaid(prenominal) as an Americans.I had never expected to have a conversation like this with him. I just didnt think of Dimitri as the superstitious type. For half a mo workforcet, I thought that if he could believe in something like witches and fortune-tellers, maybe he could handle me seeing ghosts. I co nsidered apothegm something to him but promptly decided against it. I wouldnt have had a chance to say anything anyway because Dimitri kept talking.My grandmother was like Rhonda, he explained. That is, she pract scumd the same kind of arts. Personality-wise, theyre very different.Your grandmother was a v-whatever?Its called something else in Russian, but yes, same meaning. She used to read political machineds and give advice too. It was how she made her living.I bit off any comments about frauds. Was she right? In her predictions?Sometimes. Dont look at me like that.Like what?Youve got this look on your face that says you think Im delusional, but youre too good to say anything.Delusionals kind of harsh. Im just surprised, thats all. I never expected you to buy into this stuff.Well, I grew up with it, so it doesnt seem that strange to me. And like I said, Im not sure I buy into it 100 percent.Adrian had joined the group by the plane and was protesting loudly about us not being a ble to board yet.I never thought of you as having a grandmother, either, I told Dimitri. I mean, obviously, youd have to. But stillits just weird to think about maturation up with one. Contact with my own mother was rare enough, and Id never even met any of my other family members. Was it weird having a witch grandma? Scary? Was she eer, like, baneful to cast spells if you were bad?Most of the time she just threatened to send me to my room.That doesnt sound so scary to me.Thats because you havent met her.I noted the wording. Is she still alive?He nodded. Yeah. Itll take more than old epoch to kill her off. Shes tough. She was actually a guardian for a while.Really? Much like with Ambrose, my fixed ideas about dhampirs, guardians, and stemma whores were getting muddied. So she gave it up to become a uh, to stay with her kids?She has very strong ideas about family ideas that probably sound kind of sexist to you. She believes all dhampirs should have and dedicate in time as gu ardians, but that the women should eventually return home to raise their children together. But not the men?No, he said wryly. She thinks men still need to stay out there and kill Strigoi.Wow. I remembered Dimitri telling me a little about his family. His father had popped back every so often, but that was about it for the men in his life. All of his siblings were sisters. And honestly, the idea didnt sound so sexist. I had the same ideas about men going off to fight, which was why meeting Ambrose had been so weird. You were the one who had to go. The women in your family kicked you out.Hardly, he laughed. My mother would take me back in a second if I desireed to come home. He was smiling like it was a joke, but I saw something in his eyes that looked a lot like homesickness. It was gone in a flash, though, as Dimitri turned around when Adrian started whooping about how we could finally board.When we were settled on the plane, Lissa could hardly wait to tell our friends about the n ews. She started off with how Id been called in to see the queen. That wasnt a consequence Id trusted discussed, but she pushed forward, excited that the queen had call fored to praise me. Everyone seemed impressed except Adrian. The look on his face told me that he was sure that she most unimpeachably hadnt called me in for that. However, there was enough of a puzzled look in his eyes to make me think he had no clue about the real reason. It was about time I knew something he didnt. I had a feeling he would have been as shocked by the idea of him hooking up with Lissa as Id been.Lissa then told them about the offer to live at Court and go to college at Lehigh. I still cant believe it, she mused. It sounds too good to be true.Adrian knocked back a glass of what looked like whiskey. How had he gotten a hold of that so soon? Coming from my great-aunt? It is too good to be true.What do you mean? I asked. After being accused of being engaged in a fictitious romance by Tatiana and fi nding out she had a dhampir lover/feeder, nothing about her would surprise me anymore. Is Lissa in trouble?What, bodily? Nah. Its just, my great-aunt doesnt do things out of the kindness of her heart. Well, Adrian amended, sometimes she does. Shes not a total bitch. And I think she means it about worrying about the Dragomirs. Ive heard she liked your parents. But as to why shes doing this I dont know. Youve got radical ideas. Maybe she does want to hear different opinions. Or maybe she wants to keep an eye on you, keep you from causing trouble.Or maybe she wants to marry Lissa off to you, I silently added.Christian didnt like any of this. Hes right. They could be trying to rein you in. You should go live with Aunt Tasha. You dont have to go to a Moroi school.But shell be safer if she does, I admitted.I was all for fighting the system and keeping Lissa away from royal plans but if she went to a college that wasnt one the Moroi protected, shed be in danger, and I certainly didnt w ant that either. I started to add more, but just then, the plane took off. As soon as it was up in the air travel, my business organisation from yesterday returned. It was like all the air around us pressing on my skull.Son of a bitch, I groaned, putting my hand on my forehead.Youre sick again? asked Lissa, worried. I nodded.Have you always had trouble flying? asked Adrian, gesturing for person to refill his drink.Never, I said. Damn it. I dont want to go through this again.I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore the trouble, as well as those black shapes again. It took some effort, but if I focused hard enough, I actually got it all to lessen a little. Weird. Still, I didnt want to talk much after that, and everyone left me alone. The college conversation dropped off.Hours passed. It was almost time to arrive back at the Academy. One of the Moroi flight attendants walked down the aisle to our group, a frown on her face. Alberta instantly snapped to attention. Whats wrong?An ice storm just blew through the area, the flight attendant said. We cant land at St. Vladimirs because the runway isnt accessible with the ice and the winds. We need fuel, however, so were going to land at Martinville Regional. Its a small airport a few hours away by car, but they werent as affected as much. Our plan is to land there, refuel, and then fly into the Academy once theyve cleared the runway. Its less than an hour by air.It was annoying news, but it didnt sound too bad. Besides, what could we do? At the very least, Id get some relief soon. If my headache behaved like before, itd go away when we were on the ground. We settled back into our seats and put on our belts, readying for the landing. The weather looked miserable outside, but the pilot was good and landed with no difficulties.And thats when it happened.As soon as we touched the ground, my world exploded. The headache didnt go away it got worse. Much worse and I hadnt thought that was possible. It felt like my entire skull was being ripped open.But that was just the beginning. Because suddenly, all around me, were faces. Ghostly, unmistakable faces and bodies just like masons. And oh God, they were everywhere. I couldnt even see the seats or my friends. Just those faces and their hands. Pale, shining hands reached out for me. Mouths opened like they would speak, and all of those faces looked as though they wanted something from me.And the more they came at me, the more of them I started to recognize. I saw Victors guardians, the ones who had been killed when wed rescued Lissa. Their eyes were wide and terrified over what? Were they reliving their deaths? immix in with them were children I didnt recognize right away. Then I knew. They were the ones Dimitri and I had found dead after a Strigoi massacre. These children had the same washed-out look Mason had, but their necks were covered in blood, just as theyd been at the house. Its scarlet hue stood out in stark contrast to their shadowy, luminescent bodies.Thicker and thicker the faces grew. While none of them actually spoke, there seemed to be a buzzing in my ears that grew louder as more and more of them came. Three new figures joined the crowd. They should have blended into the rest, but they stood out almost as sharply as the blood on the childrens necks had.It was Lissas family.Her mother, her father, and her brother Andre. They looked exactly as they had the last time Id seen them, just before the car accident. Blond. Beautiful. Regal. Like Mason, they wore no marks of their deaths, even though I knew the crash had done horrible things to them. And like Mason, they just stared at me with sad eyes, not oratory but clearly wanting to say something. Only, unlike with Mason, I understood the message.There was a large patch of blackness behind Andre that was steadily developing bigger. He pointed at me, and then he pointed at it. I knew, without understanding how I knew, that it was the entrance to the world of d eath, the world I had come back from. Andre whod been my age when he died pointed again. His parents joined him. They didnt have to speak for me to know what they were saying You shouldnt have lived. You need to come back with us.I started hollo. And screaming.I thought someone on the plane was talking to me, but I couldnt be sure, not when I couldnt see anything but those faces, hands, and the blackness behind Andre. Every so often, Masons face materialized nearby, solemn and sad. I appealed to him for help.Make them go away I yelled. Make them go awayBut there was nothing he would or could do. Frantically, I undid my seat belt and tried to stand up. The ghosts didnt touch me, but they were all too close, still reaching and pointing with skeletal hands. I waved my arms to fend them off, screaming for someone to help me and make this all stop.There was no help for me, though. No help for all those hands and hollow eyes or the pain that consumed me. It grew so bad that glitteri ng black spots began to dance across my field of vision. I had a feeling I was going to pass out, and I welcomed that. It would make the pain go away and save me from the faces. The spots grew bigger and bigger, and soon I could no longer see anything. The faces disappeared, and so did the pain as sweet black waters dragged me under.