. . . 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 thatmuch? 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.

“Okay,” I continued, surprised to hear myself getting a little combative. “So the Warriors let you go all freelance. But what do you think they’re going to do when they find out you’re involved with a dhampir? You aren’t really keeping it secret.”

He shrugged. “No, but it’s not like they have spies here. Even if they find out, all I have to do is put up with the ranting. They won’t punish me or anything. Why are you so worked up about this? What’s with the twenty questions? Weren’t you helping us?”

“She’s an Alchemist,” said Angeline, looking uncharac‑teristically wise. “It’s just how they are.” Even more surprisingly, she suddenly grew hesitant and withdrew her hand from Trey. “Sorry. This is probably like . . . really gross to you. We should’ve been more considerate.”

It was hard to say which was more ludicrous: Angeline actually being conscious of something like this or the fact that it was completely untrue.

Because honestly, the reason I was giving them such a hard time was that I was jealous. That wasn’t an emotion I experienced very often, but here it was, alive and well in me. I was so, so envious that they could do this, be together so openly. No sneaking around. No fears of retribution. Trey had been so casual about being caught by the Warriors. A month ago, their rebuke would’ve been awful for him. Now, having come to terms with his feelings, he saw their wrath as a small thing. After all, it seemed they’d mostly berate and condemn him. For all their savagery, the Warriors weren’t like the Alchemists, who felt a need to eliminate and sanitize their problems. I wanted to cry and scream to the world that this was unfair, but I knew I had no right. Life was unfair to a lot of people. I wasn’t special, and this was the fate I’d been given.