Twenty-Three Summary

Dimitri is being given an impromptu investigation in public by several Guardians and gathered public citizens. Tatiana has decided that a sideshow distraction such as news that Dimitri is being given a litmus test will dampen rebellious talk owing to her new, unpopular decree. Various citizens and Guardians attempt to trick Dimitri into revealing his is actually still a Strigoi who is merely posing as being a Dhampir again. But each new test is met with proof of his turning back to Dhampir by Dimitri, who grows more confident as the ordeal progresses, especially when a small child breaks the tension with is insistence that Strigoi have devil horns and fangs, which Dimitri assures him they do not.

Rose turns the tables definitively for Dimitri when she intervenes and asks a series of questions in his favor. Chief among them is asking Dimitri...