[4] After a long and taxing journey to Dimitri's birthplace in Siberia, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir's and has been reentered student life.

The final exams are set to start in a short time and she resolves to stay focused and pass them to the best of her abilities and hope it will be enough for her to get assigned to Lissa.

After Abe's network relayed a message from Victor Dashkov that there was nothing he could be bribed with while he was behind bars, Rose plots with Lissa and Eddie to break him out of his high-security vampire prison.

Victor agrees to lead them to his brother, Robert, a reclusive spirit user who is rumored to have once returned a Strigoi to their original state.

They manage to escape and upon their arrival at court Eddie and Rose are punished for endangering the Moroi and sent to do physical labor.

Deciding to kill him for good and eliminate a threat to Lissa, Rose leads a group of guardians to his hiding place.

She fights her way over to him and is about to kill him when Christian encircles him in a ring of fire, effectively cutting all movement while Lissa stakes him.