The Fiery Heart

“No,” I murmured, feeling baffled. A pawnshop? Why would Adrian go there? And which one? There had to be a dozen in the area.



“He took a cab,” added the first girl. “Then he said he’d walk home.”



Ah. That was something I could go on. I took out my phone and did a search for pawnshops within walking distance of his apartment. There were two. I then texted Adrian, asking, Where are you? I didn’t know if I could expect an answer, but in the meantime, it wouldn’t be hard to check out both shops.



“Thanks,” I told the girls. I was halfway to the door when the lavender-haired one caught up with me.



“Hey, wait,” she said. “You’re her, right? Sydney? The girlfriend?”



I hesitated. We weren’t supposed to acknowledge our relationship in public, but clearly, he’d been divulging a little. “Yes.”



“I’m Rowena.” Her face grew grave, and from the clear look in her blue eyes, I realized she wasn’t as drunk as the others. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”



“No idea what?”



“No idea that he had a problem. He almost always turns down going out, and the few times he has, he hardly has anything. I was kind of blown away when he jumped in tonight, and then . . . the more I watched, the more I got it. He had this look my stepdad used to get whenever he fell off the wagon. Like he’d been living in a desert and suddenly stumbled across an Evian machine. Then the more it went on tonight . . .” She sighed. “I knew. I’m sorry. I should’ve gone with him, but he seemed so confident.”



The earnestness and concern in her words nearly made me choke up. “You have nothing to apologize for. It’s not your job to look after him.” It’s mine.



“Yeah, I know . . . I just . . .” She faltered, and I understood why Adrian spoke so highly of her.



I gave her the best smile I could muster, despite how dead I felt inside. “Thank you.”



“I hope he’s okay,” she added. “He drank a lot.”



“I’m sure he will be,” I said, trying not to wince.



The first pawnshop I drove to was empty, and the guy working said no one had been by in an hour. I hoped my pawnshop deductions would actually prove right. Otherwise, I was out of luck since Adrian hadn’t answered my text. But then, sure enough, when I arrived at the other shop, I found him. He stood just inside their entryway, blocked by a metal grating that they worked behind at night. I could understand it, since night probably brought out sketchy people. And studying Adrian, he certainly seemed like one.



“I need it back!” he exclaimed. “I need it back. She needs it back. It’s a royal heirloom!”



The scruffy-looking guy behind the grating met him with a level look. “Sure it is. If you can’t buy it out, I can’t give it back.” I had the distinct impression he’d told Adrian this many times.



“Adrian,” I said. He spun around, and I flinched at the wild look in his bloodshot eyes. His normally perfect hair was disheveled, his clothes wrinkled. If I didn’t know him, I’d want a grating between us too.



“What are you doing here?” he asked.



“Looking for you.” I forced calm, trying to still the panic rising within me. “Come on. We need to go. I’ll drive you home.”



“You can’t! Not until we get it back.” He pointed an accusing finger at the pawnbroker. “He stole it!”



The man sighed. “Kid, you hocked it for cash.”



“What?” I demanded. “What did you sell?”



Adrian raked a hand through his hair, messing it up further. “I didn’t sell anything. I would never sell it. I just lent it to him. And now I need it back.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out ten dollars. “Look, just give it back, and you can have this. It’s all I’ve got, but I’ll get you the rest in two weeks. I promise. That’s a perfectly reasonable deal.”



“That’s not how it works,” the guy said.



“What did you—lend?” I asked.



“The ruby. One of the rubies from Aunt Tatiana’s cuff links. I shouldn’t have left it here. Not in a place like this. It’s . . . sacrilege! Something like that has no business here. She told me to do it, but I know she doesn’t mean it.”



A chill ran over me. “Who told you to do it?”



“Her. Aunt Tatiana.”



“Adrian, she can’t tell you anything. She’s . . . gone.”



He tapped his head. “No, she’s here. I mean, not right now, but I know she’s waiting. And when I’m sober, she’ll be back and give me hell for this! I have to get the ruby back!” He turned with startling speed and pounded on the grating.



The shopkeeper took a step back. “I’m going to call the police.”



“No, wait,” I said, hurrying forward. “How much does he owe?”



“Two fifty.”



“It was two hundred!” cried Adrian.



“Plus fees and interest,” said the man, with far more patience than I probably would’ve had.



I reached for my wallet. “What credit cards do you take?”



“All of them,” he replied.



I paid for the ruby, and while the man went to get it, Adrian called after him, “There better not be a scratch on it!” When he got the ruby back, he held it up and scrutinized it with narrowed eyes, as though he were a master jeweler.



“Come on,” I said, taking hold of his arm. “Let’s go.”



He stayed where he was, clutching the ruby in his fist and bringing it to his lips. His eyes closed briefly, and then, with a deep breath, he followed me to my car.



He chatted a lot on the way home, relating antics and stories from the night, and going on and on about how he’d been wronged by the pawnbroker. I said nothing and barely heard a word he said. My hands clenched the steering wheel with white knuckles, and all I kept thinking about was that frantic look in his eyes when he’d pounded against the grating.



He began to quiet as I hunted for parking in his neighbor-hood. When we got inside, I saw that the full effect of what had happened was sinking into him. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or feel bad for him.



“Sydney, wait,” he said, when he realized I was about to turn right around and leave. “We need to talk.”



I sighed. “No. Not tonight. I’m tired, and I want to go to bed. And I don’t want to talk to you when you’re like this. There’ll be plenty of time tomorrow.”



“Will there?” he asked. “Or will you have to keep your distance and stay with Zoe?”



“Don’t start with that,” I warned. “You know we can’t help that. You knew it when this started, so don’t try blaming me for us tiptoeing around.”



“I’m not,” he said. “But why do we have to keep doing it? Let’s make a real escape plan. Let’s leave. We’ll go to the Keepers or something and be together without all this bullshit.”



“Adrian,” I said wearily.



“Don’t ‘Adrian’ me,” he snapped, a surprising glint of anger in his eyes. “I don’t know how you manage to do it, but just by saying my name like that, you make me feel like I’m five years old.”



I nearly said he was acting like it but managed to bite back the comment at the last minute. “Okay. We can’t go to the Keepers because the Alchemists visit there all the time. And you wouldn’t last one hour in those conditions. Besides, could you abandon Jill?”



The pained look on his face answered for him.



“Exactly. We’re stuck here and just have to manage as best we can until . . . I don’t know. Something changes. You know that. You’ve always known that.”



“I do,” he said. He ran a hand through his hair again, and by this time, it was beyond hope. “I do . . . and I hate it. And I don’t have to be drunk to feel this way. How long, Sydney? Where is this all going? At what point do we get out? When you and Marcus pull off your revolution against the Alchemists?”



“It’s not that easy.” I averted my eyes for a moment. “We’re also pulling off a revolution against the taboos both our races enforce.”



“What’s going to happen to us?” He leaned against the back of his kitchen and stared off at the dark window, lost in his own thoughts. “What is our escape plan?”



Silence fell. I had no answer, and I did the cowardly thing by shifting the topic back to him. “Is that why you did this tonight? Because of us? Or was it because of spirit? Jill mentioned that you used a lot of it.”



“No, Sydney.” It was a little disconcerting that he kept using my first name. It made it hard to stay angry. He walked back to me and caught hold of my hands, a haunted look in his eyes. “I didn’t just use spirit. It was like . . . I was spirit. It filled me up. I had to look into that girl—Olive—to find out what had happened to her. Spirit infused every part of her, and I had to summon so much to see it. Then I had to confine it. Do you know what that’s like? Do you have any idea? The only thing I’ve ever done that required more was saving Jill.”



“Hence your backlash,” I said.



He shook his head. “I tried. I tried to hold out. But when I swing up like that . . . well, eventually the pendulum swings back. It’s hard to explain.”



“I’ve been down before.”



“Not like this,” he said. “And I’m not saying that to be a smart-ass. The way I feel . . . it’s like the world starts crumbling around me. Every doubt, every fear . . . it eats me. It weighs me down until I’m swallowed in darkness and can’t tell what’s real or not. And even when I know something’s not real . . . like Aunt Tatiana . . . well, it’s still hard . . .”



I went cold all over, recalling his words from the shop. “How often do you hear her?”



His voice was barely whisper. “Not often. Although, once is too much. It’s so weird. I know she’s not there. I know she’s gone. But I can imagine what she’d say, and it’s just so real . . . it’s like I can practically see her. I haven’t yet, though, but someday . . . someday, I’m afraid I really will, and then I know I’ll really be lost . . .”



I was so floored, I didn’t know what to say. There’d been lots of talk about madness and spirit, but I’d rarely thought it was more than his moodiness. I drew him to me and finally found words.



“Adrian, you have to get help.”



His laugh was harsh. “What help is there? This is my life. Jäger shots are about as good as it gets. At least they take the edge off.”



“That’s not a solution. You need real help. Get a prescription like Lissa did.”



He abruptly pulled away from me. “What, and kill it altogether?”



“Stop spirit, you stop the depression and . . . other things. Like needing to drink until you’re yelling at a pawn dealer.”



“But then I don’t have spirit.”



“Yes, that’s the point.”



“I can’t. I can’t cut myself off from it.” Lines of pain were etched on his face.



“You can do anything you want,” I said firmly. There was a pain welling up inside of me, and I summoned as much steel as I could to keep it hidden. A concerned Hopper was sitting nearby, and I picked him up as a distraction, stroking the golden scales. “Do it, and you’ll save yourself. And Jill. You know the darkness can bleed into her.”



“I did save her!” he exclaimed. A bit of that desperate, frantic gleam returned to his eyes. “She was dead, and I saved her. With spirit. I saved Rowena’s hand. I saved Olive’s blood. Do you know how much effort that was? It wasn’t just the amount—the magic was so intricate, Sydney. I don’t know if anyone else could’ve done it. But I did. With spirit. With spirit, I can actually do great things for a change!”



“You can do plenty of other great things.”



“Yeah? Like that?” He pointed at his latest self-portrait attempt, which even I had to admit was pretty bad.



“You’re more than the magic,” I insisted. “I don’t love you because of the magic.”



He faltered a moment at that. “But how can I just let go of the ability to help others? I asked you this before. Should I have let Jill die? Let Rowena ruin her career? Lose our chance at saving people from becoming Strigoi?”



My control finally snapped, and I set Hopper back down. “There’s a line! At some point, there’s a line you can’t cross! Yes, you’ve done amazing things, but you’re reaching a point where you’ll have to pay a big price. Are you ready to pay it? Because I’m not! There comes a time when you have to step back and balance yourself with the needs of others. What happens if you do some major feat of spirit that pushes you over the edge? That gets you locked away? Or dead? Then what? How much else will you accomplish? Nothing. You don’t know what the future holds. You don’t know what you can do if you break free of spirit’s influence.”