Page 147 of Harnessed in Gold

Limitations.

With my shoulder, I knock him aside, flames of rage bursting from my center and licking up my limbs.

“Betts!” Hands seize me. “Dissociate! This is Ember, not you. These aren’t your emotions!”

The hell they aren’t.

Fuck you and your dumbass cooler. Nobody owns me.

I kick and bite as I try to wrench free. Brown eyes flash gold with fury.

Go ahead, look at me. Look at the freak. Look at the abomination.

He spins me and holds my chin in a vise, trapping my head against his chest. Viciously, I dig my skull into his sternum, waiting to hear the delicious crack.

They’re stronger than me now, but later they’ll regret this. Regret everything they’ve ever done to me.

There’s a moan. Someone in pain. Beautiful, excruciating, crippling pain.

He growls words that make no sense to me, but still he doesn’t let me go.

The fire inside me weakens, and the flames that scorched my cheeks withdraw, leaving behind a gentle, soothing heat, like the sun on a spring day.

The scent of books and leaves, the chest pushing against my back with each breath, the hands—they’re familiar. Strong, safe, reassuring. His fingers slide off my chin, and the tension drains from his arms. On impulse, I lean into him, tipping my head back onto his shoulder.

“Betts,” Leo whispers, turning me in his arms. “We can’t keep going.”

I blink in horror at two bright red scratches on his cheek. “Oh my god.” There’s no fighting my tears.

“This is what I was afraid of.”

“I tried to harness.” Didn’t I? “No.” Shamefully, I shake my head. “No, I didn’t try. I didn’t want to.”

“She’s hitting too close to home.”

Sniffling, I run gentle fingers over the marks I gouged on his face. “Can you heal them?”

“I can’t heal myself,” he says, like it’s an apology. Like he’s failing me. When I nestle my face in his neck, he stumbles backward into atree, taking me with him. He’s pale and limp, utterly exhausted. From calming me. “I’ll be okay in a minute.”

There has to be some harnessed energy in me; I was burning in a furnace of emotions. And if none of those got in, there are my own and Leo’s. There’s enough to revive him. I place one hand on his chest and the other on his jaw, just below those heartbreaking scratches. With his chin resting on the top of my head, he holds me while I send whatever chaotic vibrations there are inside me down my arms and into him.

Energy pulses through his limbs and quickens his breath. His muscles flex and the color returns to his face. My beautiful Leo. I kiss the angry red marks on his cheek; he kisses my breathless mouth.

“You’ve done enough. Let me take you back.”

“No.” I grit my teeth. “We keep going. But if I go off the deep end again, just let me. You can’t be burning up your power.” He needs to knock me out, tie me to a tree, kick me into the underbrush—anything to get me out of the way. “Just leave me and get the bracelet.”

He’s getting that look again, that no-fucking-way fire in his eyes.

I push on his chest and snarl, “Just do it.” I’d rather throw myself into the river than hurt him again. He needs to complete this mission.

He sets his jaw, determined to argue, but I shove past him and walk on.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Leo hurries to my side,his profile glowing in the light of his phone. “We’ve gone past the pin.”

I hope that means the bracelet is right under our noses, because there’s not much of his calming magic left in me.