The Fiery Heart

A young female voice answered. “No, he’s not the one.”

I could tell from a slight stiffening in Eddie’s posture that he recognized Zoe’s voice too.

“This is for your own good,” my dad growled, not sounding altruistic in the least. “It’s for your soul. For your humanity. We know everything. We found the phone. Come with us so that we can save you from further damnation and defilement.”

The phone. Adrian’s missing phone. I’d been so afraid it would come back to haunt us, despite Adrian’s flippant comment that it would mean nothing unless someone knew it was his. He was right because apparently, someone had known. Someone had known it wasn’t a lovesick random stranger’s phone. How? Had someone followed him at school and stolen it there? It was a mystery I had no time to ponder.

Silence fell as they all waited for me to give myself up. Eddie and I barely breathed. Suddenly, a light shone into our hideout. Eddie sprang up before the guy could even shout for help. Eddie punched him with a force that knocked him to the ground, and then seized hold of me without a moment’s hesitation. Another guy was right there and actually managed to land a hit on Eddie’s face. Eddie knocked him aside and kept going with almost no delay, dragging my stumbling self along. He must have assessed the least surrounded route because I saw no lights ahead of us. A gun went off again, and I heard my dad yell, “Hold on, or you might shoot her! Don’t fire unless you have a clear shot on him.”

My eyes weren’t much use out here, and I had to trust in Eddie’s. “I think this area just gives way to foothills and more wilderness,” he said. “We’ll lose them and hide out there as long as we need to.” For Eddie, surviving off the land for a few days was probably easy work. “Then we’ll go home and figure out something.”

Figure out something. What exactly would that be? An attempt to negotiate with people trying to abduct me and kill Eddie? He made an abrupt turn left, and I understood why when I caught sight of a light in the direction we’d been headed. There was no telling how far their net extended. The next gunshot we heard was closer, far closer than I would have expected. It meant that someone had gotten a sight on Eddie and was catching up to us. That was remarkable, since it wasn’t easy overtaking a dhampir on foot.

No, not a dhampir. Me. Eddie wasn’t running at his normal pace. He was going at mine. Maybe on his own, he could have eluded them and run off to the wilderness, but not while I was with him. I was human, and one of my feet still ached from my ungraceful landing in the alley last night.

Eddie won’t leave me, I thought frantically. He’ll never leave me. They want me, but they don’t care about him. He can live or die, and it won’t matter to them. But if he’s what’s keeping them away, they’ll shoot him and destroy his body.

“Eddie,” I said, panting. “We need to split up.”

“Never.”

That answer wasn’t a surprise. What was a surprise was that out of all the things rattling around in my mind, Abe Mazur’s words popped up in the forefront:. Don’t think for an instant that I wouldn’t do terrible, unspeakable things if it could save someone I love. Because it was Abe, I’d naturally assumed he was talking about doing terrible, unspeakable things to other people. But as Eddie and I held on to each other, the words took on a whole different meaning. In that moment, I knew I would do anything to save Eddie—my friend—whom I loved.

Even if it meant doing something terrible and unspeakable to myself.

I could hear shouts and feet pounding on the earth. They were getting closer. So were the guns. And even in the throes of terror, with my heart ready to explode in my chest, I managed an effortless Alchemist lie.

“You saw what I did with the fire? I can do another spell like that. Not the same but just as good. I have an object—a charm—but it has to be used from a distance. If we split up and I distract them, you can cast it. It’s a sleep spell. It’ll knock everyone out, except me because I’m protected.”

“I can’t cast a spell,” he said. “Why don’t you do it, and I’ll distract them?”

“Because it’d knock you out too if you’re in its path. You can do it. The magic’s in the artifact. You just say the words to make it work.”

With my free hand, I managed to fumble in my purse while still running. I pulled out Hopper, in inert form, and handed him to Eddie, along with my keys. “Take the keys since you can start the car faster when we escape. For the spell, hold up the dragon,” I panted. “And say centrum permanebit.”

“Cen—what?”

“Centrum permanebit,” I said firmly. “Say it three times, and face toward us, but make sure you’ve got some distance. If someone catches you and interrupts, the spell will backfire.”

“I can’t! I can’t leave you. We’ll find a different way.”

“No, we won’t.” I could feel myself tiring, and my foot ached even more. If Eddie found out, I knew he’d try to carry me, and it’d only make things worse. “This is our chance. There are too many, but we can take them out in one blow. Please, Eddie. You said you’re my friend. I’m your friend. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

Another gunshot, and dirt kicked up only a foot away where the bullet struck the earth. “I’ll go over there,” Eddie said, gesturing with Hopper. “You go left. None of them seem to be there. If you try to draw their attention, they won’t have time to get to you before I cast the spell . . . right?”

“Right.” I squeezed his hand and had to try not to choke up. “You can do this. And remember, I’m your friend.”

“Centrum permanebit.”

“Centrum permanebit,” I repeated. He let go, and we split off. He ran at an angle to our right, but instead of heading in the opposite direction, I turned around and ran straight back the way I’d come from. I hit my captors almost immediately.

“I won’t fight you,” I said in a low voice as they grabbed me by the arms. “But you have to take me to my dad right now. Get me out of here. I’ll only talk to him.”

I prayed they’d listen and that we’d cover enough distance before Eddie realized I’d lied to him and walked right back into danger. My captors practically dragged me but listened to my request and ended up making good time. It was part of that Alchemist efficiency. They had a mission. They wanted to complete it quickly and thoroughly.

My dad and Zoe, unmasked, stood near where the field met the parking lot. I was so exhausted, I wanted to fall over, but I held myself straight, even when my escorts let go and pushed me forward. I met my dad squarely in the eye.

“Eddie’s off calling for help,” I said coolly. “If you want to avoid a major bloodbath with the guardians, you’ll leave right now.”

He grunted. “At least you have some sense.” He jerked his head toward the van. “Take her there.”

My captors hauled me over and shoved me inside, onto a long seat. The van had a weird orientation, and the back of my seat touched the back of the driver and passenger seats so that I faced the van’s rear. Another Alchemist sat beside me, and two others took the front, out of my sight. Moments later, my dad and Zoe slid in and sat in the seats opposite me, allowing me to see their faces. I had the impression there were other vehicles for the other raiders hidden on the property. I’d barely fastened my seat belt when the Alchemist beside me grabbed my hands and zip-tied them behind my back. The van started, and we peeled away in a storm of gravel and dust. I prayed the other Alchemists would hightail it out of there before Eddie came calling. I wanted no confrontation that might endanger him.

Silence hung heavy in the van. Only my dad and Zoe kept their faces uncovered, and I turned my gaze on her. “You sold me out.”

She hadn’t been prepared for the hardness in my voice and eyes. She swallowed. “Y-you sold yourself out. You’ve done horrible things. You’ve let them corrupt your mind.”

“Is that what this is really about?” I asked. “Or is it because I was going to testify for Mom?”

My dad flinched. “This is about us showing you what family really means. I take responsibility, of course. I should’ve known when you ran off with that dhampir girl that this would happen. I should’ve intervened then, but I was blinded by sentiment.”

I gave a harsh laugh. “Really? Sentiment? I can’t believe you said that with a straight face.” I turned back to Zoe. “Did you steal the phone?”

She shook her head. “I found it in the car when I was practicing those turns.”

Any other laughter, mirthless or otherwise, withered inside of me. Of course. Adrian had noticed the phone was missing the day after my birthday. It must have fallen out of his pants when we’d strewn our clothes all over the backseat.

No, I realized with a start. It hadn’t fallen out. It had been taken out. By me. When I read Adrian the William Morris quote, I grabbed the first phone I could find, which wasn’t hard since we had four of them between us. I hadn’t paid much attention to whose it was, and I certainly hadn’t been careful when I tossed it back into the pile of clothes so that I could go back to being naked with Adrian.

“But there were other things too,” Zoe was saying, her eyes glittering with tears. “Just the way you talked and laughed around them. The way you always disappeared. The cupcakes.”

My defiance faltered, mostly due to confusion. “The cupcakes?”

“You said you bought them. But in the cafeteria that one day, when Angeline was complaining about the cake, she started going off about the chocolate-peppermint cupcakes Adrian had made. Something about waiting until they’re cool to frost them.”

It was another horrible yet almost laughable moment. Cupcakes and birthday car sex had been my undoing.

No, Sydney, I thought. Don’t think too highly of yourself. You slipped up long before this.

Her voice was tremulous. “We’re going to save you.”

“I don’t need saving,” I said. “There’s nothing wrong with me. You should’ve come to me first before unleashing all of this.” I tried to wave my hand for effect, but it was stuck. “We could’ve talked. I’m your sister.”

“No, Sydney.” The hard, flat look on her face was frighteningly close to our dad’s. “You’re just another Alchemist, and I’m treating you like one—just like you told me to.”

Her words struck me deeply, and my dad was quick to jump on my moment of weakness.

“You’ve been brainwashed, and we’re going to undo it,” he said. “This’ll be a lot easier if you cooperate.”

“I told you, there’s nothing wrong with me!” Anger I hadn’t known I held burst out, shoving aside my fear and sadness. “You’re the ones deluded by centuries of bigotry and superstition. The Moroi and dhampirs are just like us—well, except they’ve got more honor and decency.”

I didn’t see the slap coming. For all his faults, my dad had never struck us, but the blow he delivered then made me painfully aware that he had no moral qualms about that kind of discipline. My head snapped back, and I bit my tongue.

“You don’t know the sacrifices I’m making here for you,” he hissed, his eyes cold. Keith’s glass one had more feeling. “You have no idea how lucky you are that we’re doing this for you. The darkness has corrupted you so much that I don’t know how long it’ll take to fix. But we will. No matter how long or how difficult, we will undo whatever that Moroi boy has done to you.”

I managed a wavering smile, tasting blood in my mouth. “You sure about that, Dad? Because he’s done everything to me.”

My dad’s eyes flicked to someone in the seat behind me. I flinched as I felt the sting of a needle in my neck. The world spun, and I felt light and tingly all over. His and Zoe’s faces swam in my vision for a few moments, and then I fell into darkness.

Chapter 23

ADRIAN

IF EDDIE WAS THE DRINKING TYPE, I’m pretty sure he would’ve joined me at a bar. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he was as upset as me about the disaster we’d fallen into, but he probably took the next spot on the list.

After he’d burst into Jackie’s with his story that night, we’d immediately tried the obvious things. We’d called Sydney’s phone, multiple times. We’d driven out to the closed-down restaurant. There wasn’t a trace of her there—or even at Amberwood. In barely two hours, her room had been completely cleaned out, and the administration had been notified that Sydney Melrose and Zoe Ardmore were withdrawing, effective immediately. No forwarding address. Our confusion was understandably perplexing to the staff, seeing as we were all supposed to be related.