The Fiery Heart

The day dragged after that, mostly because I missed her and wanted to see her. I took care of some assignments and went to the coffee shop, which had disappointing results when my phone didn’t turn up. My only hope was that someone had found it in a classroom and turned it in to Carlton’s security office. Otherwise, Sydney and I would have to get new Love Phones.

When I went to Jackie’s later, Marcus actually answered the door with two guys behind him I didn’t know. They both had golden lilies on their cheeks with no indigo seal. I wondered if these were his guinea pigs.

“Adrian,” Marcus said, striding forward to shake my hand.

“Marcus,” I returned. It was hard to believe we’d reached this point, since I’d tried to punch him sixty seconds after the first time we met.

“This is Jamie and Chad; just picked them up in New Mexico.”

I shook their hands too, and Jackie strolled into the living room. I grinned, genuinely happy to see her. “Always a delight.” She set down a tray of tea and lemonade and kissed me on the cheek.

“No hot date tonight?” I asked.

Her eyes sparkled with amusement. “Well, I could hardly go out when I was hosting some sort of clandestine meeting, could I? Rest easy, you’ll have your privacy, and if you’re worried about my relationship with Malachi, be assured that we’re going out later and that things are still going wonderfully.”

“Worried? No. Puzzled, slightly disturbed? Yes. But I’m not surprised things are going well. I’m sure you have him eating out of your hand, heartbreaker.”

She chuckled. “Oh, Adrian, I’m glad Sydney keeps you around for entertainment.”

“I supposed it’d have to be that,” said Marcus, nodding in thanks as he took some lemonade. “And speaking of her . . . I’m surprised she wasn’t here an hour beforehand.”

I glanced at a clock. It was actually five minutes before the designated time. “A month ago she would’ve been. But now her sister’s been assigned here, and life’s a little more . . . difficult.”

Marcus’s eyebrows knit together. “Yeah? Want to elaborate?”

Jackie scooped up a tabby cat. “I think this is my cue to go in my workshop. Come get me if you need anything, and make sure Sydney says hello before she leaves.”

I sat down in the living room with Marcus and his Merry Men. I strategically took over a whole love seat so that no one else could sit there until Sydney came. Well, no one human, at least. As soon as I sat down, three cats jumped up with me and made themselves comfortable.

“They recruited Sydney’s sister,” I explained to Marcus. “And made her part of the Amberwood act. She’s got a lot to prove and has been extra suspicious of Sydney’s activities—like if she’s gone too long or seems extra friendly with any Moroi.”

Marcus’s face darkened as I spoke. “I warned her. I told her this would happen. She should have come with me.”

I pointed to the pail of ink that Jackie must have brought out. “If she had, she wouldn’t have been able to do this. She may have changed the whole way you do business, Robin Hood. Ink that permanently breaks the Alchemist hold but that they can’t see? You can put double agents everywhere.”

“I know.” He glanced over at Jamie and Chad, who were watching their leader with rapt eyes. “And believe me, I’ve thought about it. But it’s so dangerous. The Alchemists are good at sniffing out traitors.”

“Sydney’s good too,” I said staunchly.

“I know she is. But like I told her before, you can’t be on your game all the time. Eventually, you slip up. Little things. Little bread crumbs.”

I kept my own game face on and pretended to be very interested in a calico purring on my lap, but inside me, unease stirred. Little things. Like sex in a car. Or staying the night. Or picking me up from a pawnshop. Any one thing that some spy for the Alchemists could find out about. We’d gone in with good intentions, but Marcus was right. We’d grown careless. When I looked up, I saw him studying me with his bright blue eyes. He might not know about the specifics of Sydney and me, but he knew what I was thinking: that she’d slipped up.

“Would you be able to get her out of here?” I asked. “If she would go?”

He nodded. “I should be able to.”

“Where would you take her?” West Virginia. Rome. New Orleans.

“I don’t know yet. Somewhere she can still be useful but safe.” Marcus grew silent for a few moments, and I could tell he really did care about her and all his other recruits. “Would she go?”

“She’ll go,” I said firmly, in no way letting on how difficult it would be to talk her into running away. And I’ll go with her.

Marcus fell into his own thoughts for a bit and then checked his cell phone. “Where is she? I’m dying to know about this ink.”

I looked at the time as well. She was fifteen minutes late. I couldn’t remember Sydney ever being late in her life. Taking out my own phone, I tried to think of a neutral message and texted: Everything right in the world? When no answer came right away, I took that as a good sign.

“She’s probably on her way,” I explained to Marcus. “She won’t text and drive.”

He wanted to know about the ink, so I gave him a very vague overview that didn’t mention Sydney using magic. I couldn’t recall the geological specifics, but it was enough to intrigue him, as did the news about the spirit “Strigoi vaccine.” I figured that wasn’t going to stay a secret for long, and Marcus was no friend to the Strigoi.

When another fifteen minutes passed, I started to get uneasy. I actually called her, knowing the Bluetooth in her car would pull in the call. Instead, I went to voice mail. Marcus’s eyes watched me sharply.

“Adrian, what’s going on?” he asked.

“I don’t—there.”

We all listened as a car pulled up into the driveway. Almost immediately, its door slammed and was then followed by frantic and loud knocking at Jackie’s door. I was a little surprised that Sydney wouldn’t just come on in. Jackie appeared at the commotion, but I made it the door first . . .

. . . and found Eddie.

His clothes were dirty and torn, and the right side of his face was swollen and red. There was a wild, half-crazed look in his eyes I’d never seen before. A feeling of dread settled over me, and the darkness and despair and fear that had left me alone for so long began to rear their collective ugly head. I knew, even without Eddie saying a word, what had to have happened. I knew because of that terrible look of pain on his face, a pain similar to when he hadn’t been able to save Mason. I knew because I had a feeling my face looked the same as Eddie’s.

“What’s wrong?” exclaimed Jackie.

But Eddie’s eyes were on me alone. “Adrian,” he gasped out. “I tried, I tried. There were too many. I couldn’t stop them.” He came forward and gripped my arm. “I tried, but they took her. It was a setup. I don’t know where she is. She tricked me, damn it! I never would have left her if she hadn’t tricked me!”

With his free hand, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a tiny golden dragon. He offered it to me, but I couldn’t touch it.

Marcus had come over to join us. “What are you talking about? What happened?”

I closed my eyes briefly, trying to steady myself. I didn’t know the details yet, but I knew the ultimate result.

“Things have fallen apart,” I said, finally taking the dragon. “The center didn’t hold.”

Chapter 22

SYDNEY

ZOE WAS STILL IN BED when I got back from Adrian’s, sullen and curled up with a book she didn’t seem to be reading. For half a second, I thought maybe she just had some normal high school angst problem, like a bad grade or no date for the dance. But from the glare she shot me, it was obvious who was responsible for her bad mood. She hadn’t liked me always being busy, but I realized that was nothing compared to me siding with Mom. To Zoe, that was unforgivable.

“Zoe,” I said pleadingly. “Let’s go out for lunch or something. Get away from cafeteria food.”

“Don’t you do plenty of that already?” she snapped. “Coffee breaks with Ms. Terwilliger. Cupcake runs.” The animosity in her gaze made me wince.

“It’s not about the food. It’s about you. I want us to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.” She rolled over with her book, putting her back to me. “Go away. Go do whatever it is you do.”

The thing was, I actually didn’t have anything pressing for a change, not until the meeting with Marcus later that night. My ink was done, and there was no magical work with Ms. Terwilliger that needed my attention. I really had hoped I might patch things up with Zoe, but that looked like it wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. There was always homework to be done, I supposed, so I packed up my bag and headed to the library. I certainly wasn’t going to stick around with all the hostility in my room.

I was halfway through an acid and base assignment when a shadow fell across my table. Looking up, I saw Trey and Angeline standing over me, hand in hand. I didn’t know why, but I just started laughing. Maybe after all the tension and danger that had suddenly filled my days, their relationship had actually become something refreshing, no matter how complex.

“You okay there, Melbourne?” asked Trey. “You didn’t get hit in the head last night, did you?”

I smiled and gestured for them to sit down. “No, no. Just a little slaphappy, that’s all.”

Angeline yawned. “We had a good time staying out all night. You should’ve come with us. Eddie said you saw Adrian or something?”

“Yeah, I had to go over something with him about Jill.” Another beautiful lie, and from the way neither of them even blinked, I knew they didn’t doubt me for a minute.

“Is everything okay with her?” The sudden seriousness in Angeline almost made me smile again. She really was in this for the long haul.

“Fine, fine,” I said. “Aside from her running off on a dangerous Strigoi hunting trip last night.”

“Crazy stuff last night,” said Trey, a gleam in his eyes. “Crazy but awesome.”

“I had no idea you were so good with a sword. You work on that between chemistry homework and football practice?”

He grinned at me. “Just part of the way I grew up.”

“And how are you going to reconcile that with that?” I looked down meaningfully at where their hands were clasped together.

They both sobered, and Trey squeezed her hand. “This means more. I told you I needed time to figure out what I should do? Well, it turns out I already knew. I’ve known for a long time.”

“It goes against how you were raised,” I reminded him. “Against the beliefs of your group.”

He seemed unconcerned. “Things change. They’re not my beliefs anymore. They’re not even my group anymore. They’ve made that clear.”

I felt the need to keep playing devil’s advocate. “It’s that easy to break away?”

“Am I really breaking away that much? The Warriors’ original purpose was to actively seek out and destroy Strigoi. The leaders just kind of went astray over the years.” That earlier delight returned. “What we did last night . . . I mean, it was terrifying as hell. I was scared, especially when that one had me on the ground. But at the same time, it felt so right. Like that’s what I was born to do, help smite evil from the world.”

“Did you seriously just say ‘smite’?” I asked.

He shook his head in amusement. “The way I see it, I’m not doing that much different from what I was taught. Strigoi are evil. We need to stop them. I can do that in my own way, without the Warriors. I can do it the way it should be done.”

“And I can help,” declared Angeline. They stared into each other’s eyes, and I thought they might start making out then and there. “We’ll start our own group.”

“The guardians have strict rules about what dhampirs do,” I warned.

“I’m not a guardian,” she said simply. “I don’t answer to them. And anyway, wasn’t there talk with the Moroi about going after those monsters?”

“Yes.”

The queen had so many problems right now that I think that one had slipped through. But there had indeed been growing interest in actually doing preemptive strikes against Strigoi—with both guardians and Moroi. For centuries, the Moroi had argued that it was immoral to use magic as a weapon. As time went on, it was becoming more apparent that magic might very well hold the key to their nation’s safety.