Page 161 of Harnessed in Gold

Liv and Rime return from the kitchen. “I’ll be right back,” he mumbles through a mouthful of PB&J. He slips outside and Liv joins us by the couch.

Leo is about to call and leave a message on the church line when an Instagram notification pops up on the screen. Jean has responded to Avery:

What can I do for you, my dears?

I can almost hear her saying it in her soft, crackly voice. Can almost see her keen blue eyes and her gnarled, sensitive hands.

Leo combs his fingers through my hair and plants a kiss on top of my head. “It’s okay.”

I must’ve shuddered.

Taking the laptop from Avery, he messages Jean back, telling her, in his beautiful, erudite way, that we’re yet again in need of her wisdom.

We freeze as her reply comes across:Meet me at the church at ten.

“Uh—” Aaron side-eyes the screen. “Anyone else think that sounds a little shady?”

Liv nods. “Like a Mafia movie.”

I picture myself at the bottom of the river again, only this time wearing concrete shoes.

“You need calming again,” Leo says when a manic giggle ripples out of me. His arm goes around my waist, warmth radiating from the hand he rests on my hip. I’m like a grilled cheese sandwich right now, a liqueous center of exhaustion squeezed between crispy, grating layers of emotional energy. Part of me wants to melt against his shoulder and rest; the other part needs to go for a six-mile run.

Leo asks Avery to type back to Jean:I’ll be there.

She does as he asks, but hesitates to presssend. “Those other Nàdarians she supposedly knows—they could be Brier’s followers.”

Liv gulps. “And you’re walking right into their trap.”

“I know,” Leo replies sensibly. “I don’t think she’s one of them, but yes, I’m aware there’s a chance.”

I don’t think Jean’s a bad guy either, but that doesn’t keep me from wrapping both arms around Leo and inwardly begging him not to go.

He hitssendbefore reassuring me, “It’s okay, a chroí. Rime will be with me.”

Rime and the gun.

Tears trickle from my eyes and drop off my nose. One lands on his thigh, leaving a dark spot on his knee.

“Betts,” he breathes, kissing me in a way that sends our friends scattering to the four corners of the room. “Come on.” He stands and offers me a hand. “Let’s go clean up the mess we left in the bathroom.”

Once we’re in Avery’s room, he shuts the door behind us. In two strides, he backs me up against the bed, catching me and easing my fall. He wedges his hips between my thighs, and I automatically wrap my legs around his back. His kiss is desperate and demanding, his hands buried in my hair and his tongue sliding against mine.

“We don’t have enough time,” he laments as he scorches my neck with his lips. “But if I can just feel you—” His hands run up my back under my sweatshirt, pulling me up so that I’m arching into him and there’s barely enough room between us for air. “If I can just feel your skin?—”

On the other side of the wall, the front door slams, signaling Rime’s return. Leo barely reacts, but my heart leaps into a frenzy. Resigned, he helps me from the bed.

In the bathroom, we confront the heap of muddy, river-soaked clothes we left on the floor.

“I’ll go get a plastic bag,” he says.

I stare at the mound, at the pale pink hoodie River tried to choke me with. I crouch down and gingerly pick it up, pinching just a small bit of material between my finger and thumb. It’s filthy, torn, and already starting to smell. Unsalvageable. But like my broken faerie wings, I don’t think I can bring myself to part with it. I’m not sure why, but I like to collect items from the worst nights of my life.

Leo returns and quietly stuffs everything into a kitchen trash bag, pulling it tightly closed by the red plastic handles. He doesn’t linger over the items; in fact, he hardly seems to notice them. Probably on purpose.

We rejoin our friends all standing in the living room, leaving the bag by the front door. But my eyes keep drifting to it. I need to wash those clothes, the sooner the better.

But not until Leo is gone.