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“You scared me.”

“And you scared me.” He came closer and gave me a stern look. “I told you not to take my pain.”

“Yes, I broke my promise because you needed help. You said you haven't felt pain like that since Stylos. What did you mean? What happened last night?”

“I don't know. Usually, when I feel the Pull, it's for a few people at most. But last night, I felt hundreds of people, all at once, all across the city.”

I went still. “I felt them too.”

Tristan bent his head to mine as he hugged me. “Thank you for helping me, and you did ease the pain, but it could have gone wrong. Very wrong.” He leaned back to look at me. “What if you'd taken too much? It was almost too much for me.”

“I saw that. Which is why I had to help you. I can control how much I take.”

“You're not listening.” Tristan stepped back. “Last night was different. Something was wrong with Heartbreak. And you touched it. Don't do it again.”

I wasn't going to promise that, so I ignored it. “Do you think it has something to do with the silver piece?”

“It's a good possibility.”

“Despite me experiencing some of it, you still nearly passed out from the pain.”

“Yes.” He said it without self-pity, which somehow made it worse. “That scale isn't natural. Even when Heartbreak's Pull is strong, it's targeted. Personal. It finds a fracture and it presses on it. It doesn't usually reach that wide unless there is something like a mass—”

My phone rang from the other room, Ride of the Valkyries growing louder until the horns blared.

“Damn it!” I hurried for my purse, yanked the phone out of my bag, and answered. “Hello?”

“Destiny.” Alexandra's voice had the clipped, over-controlled quality of someone working very hard to sound calm. “I need you to come in. Someone broke into your lab last night.”

My hand tightened on the phone. “What? When?”

“Security saw someone enter the lab around one in the morning. They went to check but the thief was gone by the time they got there. They went right for the cabinet with the reliquary and pried it open. The security camera shows them opening the cabinet, bending into it, and then leaving.

“So they took the reliquary?”

“No, that's the strange thing. The reliquary is still there and nothing's missing from the inventory. But I want you to come in and look, because you know exactly what was in that cabinet, and I want you to verify that nothing is missing before we send the police officers away.”

“I'll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Thank you.” She took a breath. “This is not how I wanted to start my day.”

“You and me both.” I hung up and met Tristan's gaze. “Someone broke into the cabinet where I keep the reliquary last night. My boss says nothing's missing, but she wants me to check.”

“Nothing she knows about.”

I winced. “The silver piece.”

“Yes, I think Osric stole the silver piece and used it to magnify Heartbreak. It would explain the massive Pull I felt last night.”

“Why leave the reliquary?”

“Because he knew the reliquary didn't work. It failed to contain heartbreak. The silver piece is different. It's connected to me directly, in a way the reliquary never was.” His attention turned inward and his shoulders loosened. “Heartbreak will allow me to tell you more.”

“You can talk to it?”

“It's more like I sense what it's communicating. I don't actually hear a voice.”

“All right. So are you going to tell me what was on the back of the silver piece?”