He shot Adrian a wry look. “Don’t act so high and mighty. I told you—I heard about you. You and your . . . human wife.” Rand came to a sudden halt as it dawned on him. His gaze fell on me, then turned back to Adrian. “Wait . . . her? The Alchemist? And you’re just . . . out in public like this? No shame at all?”

Adrian remained remarkably calm. “Her name is Sydney. And we have nothing to be ashamed of. Humans and Moroi used to marry. They still do in the Keepers. Sydney and I love each other. That’s all that matters.”

Rand shook his head in disbelief. “Well, welcome to the family then, Sydney. At least this way I’m not the most scandalous anymore.” He glanced back at Adrian. “I tell you, though, our aunt would be rolling in her grave if she knew what you’d done.”

“I think she’d be okay with it. I know her pretty well,” said Adrian. A moment later, he seemed to realize what he’d said. “I knew her pretty well, that is.” I watched him carefully, trying hard to determine if it had been an honest slip of the tongue. Ever since he’d admitted hearing his aunt in his head to me, he’d been reticent about elaborating on how often she spoke to him. Seemingly unfazed, he kept his attention on Rand now. “Why weren’t you at her funeral?”

Rand shrugged and slowed his pace as we came to a stop in front of a building labeled GUESTS. “I don’t like funerals. That, and there wasn’t enough time to get back by the time I heard. I was in Europe when it happened.”

“Russia?” I asked. I’d spent a fair amount of time in Russia and was pretty sure I would’ve remembered seeing someone as obnoxious as Rand Ivashkov in the Moroi circles.

“France,” Rand corrected. “I haven’t been in Russia in a while.”

“You were there at least once,” Adrian pointed out. “If Dimitri really is your son.”

Rand straightened himself up. “He is, and I was there lots of times. That family never appreciated me, though. So I stopped coming around.”

Adrian eyed him carefully. “Really? That’s all there is to the story? Despite his badass exterior, Dimitri’s a pretty forgiving guy. I guess you’d have to be, to go on with life after being a Strigoi. But you? He’s pissed off at you.”

Rand looked away from us. “His mother and I stopped getting along. Boys overreact to that kind of thing, that’s all.” He stepped up onto the cabin’s porch. “You coming in? Might as well claim your room now before the other guys staying overnight show up.”

“We’re not staying here,” said Adrian.

Rand gestured to the darkening western sky. “You’re here for the night. This is their only free guesthouse. Where else you going to stay?”

Adrian and I exchanged brief glances. Staying overnight hadn’t come up in any of our planning. “Not here,” he said adamantly. “Not with you.”

“Dismiss me all you want, but I’ve made the best of what I’ve got,” Rand said angrily. “I never fit in, never played by their rules, and one by one they rejected me. That’ll happen to you, just wait. That’s the price of marrying her. You lost everything you could have had, could have been, as an Ivashkov. Soon you’ll see what it’s like, drifting from place to place.”

“We have to go check on my friends,” Adrian told him, taking my arm and steering me away. “Nice running into you.”

“You’re a terrible liar, boy,” Rand called after us.

“Is he right?” I asked quietly, once we’d put some distance between the guest cabin and us.

“That I’m a terrible liar? No. I’m a fantastic liar.”

I came to a halt, forcing him to as well. It was dark enough that our only light came from strategically placed lanterns along the camp’s main path. “Adrian, I mean what he said about me . . . did I really cost you all that? We always talk about me being on the run from humans, but you gave up the life of a royal to—”

“Sydney,” Adrian interrupted, cupping my face in his hands. “Never, ever think like that. I don’t regret anything we’ve faced. Being with you is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, the one perfect decision I’ve made in a lifetime of fumbling and poor judgment. I’d go through it all again to be by your side. Never doubt that. Never doubt how I feel about you.”

“Oh, Adrian,” I said, letting him wrap me in his arms, surprised at the bubble of emotion welling up within me.

He held me tightly. “I love you. If anything, I can’t believe you gave up everything you did to be with me. You changed your whole life for me.”

“My life didn’t even begin until I met you,” I told him fiercely.

Adrian pulled back and looked at me closely, shadows on his face. “When you see someone like him, like Uncle Rand, does it make you nervous? That I might turn out like that?”

I felt my eyes widen. “No,” I said adamantly. “You’re nothing like him.”

I could tell from Adrian’s face he wasn’t so certain and was in danger of falling into one of those terrible depressions of his. His recent spirit usage with Nina would only make him that much more vulnerable. Adrian might not have any doubts about me and our love, but the future Rand had predicted—us bouncing around with no place to live—might very well be a real one. That scared me, and it had to scare Adrian too. With great effort, I watched as he tried to force his dark thoughts away and put on a cheerier expression.