Six

Half an hour later, after everyone had seen their rooms and had all their stuff situated, the three girls were seated in the waiting area of the day spa. Each of them had a palette of colors on their lap, picking out which one they would like the most. "Absolutely not," Rose said, sneaking a peek through Lissa's eyes as she pondered between two very natural shades.

"I don't know," Sarah pondered. "What do you guys think?" She held two of the fake nails up to her hand, comparing how they looked against her skin tone. One was a pale pink that would look very sophisticated and natural, while the other was a deep, dark blue that sparkled under the light.

"Well, that depends, what are you going for?" Lissa asked. "If you want something professional and pretty, you want the pink. But if you're looking for a bit of fun, go blue."

"Blue all the way," Rose agreed. She took one more look at the palette on her lap before she settled on a dark, sparkling red. "It's not often you get your nails done with Princess Dragomir. Why go boring when you can go fun?"

"Not all of us are best friends of the princess, either," Lissa added. "You know how weird it is when you've suddenly been sucked into the royal world."

"Except that I didn't get sucked in, I've always been a part of it," Rose bickered. She gave a small smile to Sarah, who barely returned it. Nevertheless, the timid Moroi released the pale pink nail in favor of the blue like Rose suggested. Lissa even took a step out of her comfort zone and picked a sparkling silver color. Surely Tatiana would frown upon the choice when they had their meeting, but that was not as much a concern to Lissa's mind as it would have been normally.

"Dragomir party?" The Moroi who called out to them was exceptionally thin, even for a Moroi. The three girls stood, each clasping their color choice tightly in their hands. As they followed the Moroi receptionist, Lissa naturally took the lead. Sarah followed her closely, almost like Lissa was her lifeline in this unfamiliar world. Rose held back with just a hint of jealousy and took up the rear of the group.

Not only had Lissa managed to pull off manicures for all three of them, she got a full package for them all. They were led back to a changing room, where they stripped from their street clothes and changed into the fluffy white robes provided by the spa. After they emerged from the changing rooms, they were led to the manicure benches. Lissa sat in the middle, and angled her chair slightly to face Rose's. As with the first time they were here, Lissa noticed almost immediately that the majority of those that worked in the spa were dhampir.

"What do you think Guardian Belikov meant, when he said we weren't going back?" Sarah asked tentatively, as her manicurist gestured for her to start soaking her hands. "I mean… Unless I can't know…"

"I'm not really sure," Lissa said, turning to face the girl.

"Dimitri wouldn't tell me anything," Rose grumbled. "I tried to get answers from him, but he flipped into the whole anti-social god thing."

"I thought the whole anti-social god thing was his default setting?" Lissa teased. "Isn't that why you rose back to the top of the class so quickly?"

"Rose. I rose to the top? Please tell me that was an intended pun, Liss."

"Happy coincidence," Lissa quipped. "But seriously, though…"

"I'm top of the class because I'm good," Rose said. "The only real competition was Eddie."

"And Mason," Lissa added softly.

"And Mason," Rose agreed somberly. The two dropped off into silence, and Sarah gave them each a confused look, which neither of the girls even noticed.

"Mason Ashford?" She asked finally. "He was a friend of yours, wasn't he?"

"Something like that." Rose glanced over Lissa's slight frame at the other Moroi. "You know what happened?"

"Officially, all I'd heard was that he died," Sarah whispered. The topic seemed almost too heavy to discuss in this setting. "I didn't go to the service or anything, but I did hear rumors."

"He snuck away from the Academy, and went to the mall in Spokane. It wasn't just him; a whole group went with him." Rose pulled her hand out of the water, and the manicurist inspected her cuticles. "They thought they could get some experience with Strigoi. As soon as I figured out what happened, since it was all my fault, I followed them. The whole group got captured, and…"

"During the escape, Rose killed two of the Strigoi that were holding them captive," Lissa summed up, saving her friend from telling the rest of the story. "Mason was killed in the struggle."

"I'm so sorry," Sarah whispered. "That must have been awful."

"It was," Rose said bluntly. "Dimitri had to literally pull me off his body when the guardians came." With her free hand, Lissa reached over to give Rose's forearm a gentle squeeze. "Let's just agree not to talk until the manicures are over."