Page 122 of Harnessed in Gold

“Don’t play dumb,” Juniper snarls. “You know what it is.”

“We already told you we don’t have it,” Topaz counters.

River narrows his eyes. “Then what were you doing down here?”

Avery shrugs. “Looking for outdated encyclopedias?”

Behind me, Leo’s whole body wavers, his heart hammering and his breath coming out in short, ragged gasps. He holds me with one arm while his other hand brushes back and forth between his stomach and my lower back.

“Whatever you found, we want it,” River demands.

Rime takes another step closer. “You’re not getting anything until you give us the girl.”

“Oh, no. We need collateral.” Burdock bravely stares him down. “Until that ring is in my hand, she stays with us.”

“Unless you want to give us the other one,” Juniper offers, shooting me a wicked smile. “Hawthorn would give up anything for her.”

Eyeing Leo, Burdock steps around Rime. “Not working, plant weaver?” He kicks the stone wall with his black boot. “Walls a little too thick?”

Leo is trying to weave? Down here?

“You!” The female points to Avery. “Come here. You either let me search you, or River takes a little slice out of Olivia’s neck.”

Avery takes her sweet time stepping forward, hands raised like a criminal about to be frisked. What happens when they find nothing on her?

“Betts,” Leo whispers against my head. “Help me.”

Alarm surging in my chest, I try to spin around.

“No.” He grips me firmly. “Give me energy.”

Give him energy—like I did with the jasmine. I harness emotions, he harnesses me.

Half-panicked, I grope for a source. Liv. I reach for her terror as though by harnessing it, I can take it away from her. Tears burn my eyes as I welcome it in. It’s sharper than the dagger at her throat, sharper than my betrayal. I draw it to my center, letting it slice into my heart. Because it’s what I deserve.

When I’m full to the point of fainting, I reach behind me and wrap my hands around Leo’s arms. The now-familiar tingle jabs my palms.

“Juniper!” Burdock jumps back. “Behind you!”

The ground along the righthand wall appears to be moving—a flowing, shimmering darkness, like oil.

“Snakes!” River shouts.

Liv screams as a slithering tide of glittering scales rushes their feet.

Meanwhile, above River’s head, in a growing fissurewhere the plaster ceiling meets the opposite wall, more snakes squirm and snap their tails. They stretch and extend, literally growing before my eyes.

No, they’re not snakes; they’re roots. The work of Leo’s subtly moving hands.

Burdock backs into the wall, eyes on the ground as two splotchy brown snakes rear up.

Copperheads.

He takes a dagger to one, slashing it across the chest. It hisses and drops into a heap on the floor. Undeterred, the other slides closer, its tongue flicking menacingly, tasting the air around its prey.

High-pitched squeals like a hundred deflating balloons attack our ears. The copperhead turns away, it’s attention diverted.

Holy fuck, what is that?