Page 163 of Harnessed in Gold

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

“I want to see it,”I demand before we’ve taken even one step out of Avery’s stairwell.

Leo hesitates, shooting me a pleading look.

“She found it,” Rime says, pulling the box from the inside pocket of his jacket. “If she wants to see it, she should see it.”

With Leo’s last calming already wearing off, this might be my stupidest impulse yet. For the last hour, I’ve been battling Ember’s rage and indignation, grabbing their lashing whips and harnessing them before they can snap. I know the energies in that box are probably going to hit me like a cat-o’-nine-tails. But I have to see it—the bracelet I nearly drowned for and that Rime killed for, the trinket that turned my universe upside down, the macguffin we’ve all risked our lives to retrieve.

“I don’t like this,” Leo warns. “I’ll take it away if I have to.” But I know, Ifeel, that he understands. He shifts to stand at my back, no doubt to catch me or restrain me if Ember’s emotions overtake mine. A familiar warmth emanates from his hand on my hip as Rime carefully opens the box, its hinges creaking like a horror movie coffin lid.

I’m not sure what I expected, seeing as the bracelet has beenunderground for hundreds of years. A thick bangle encrusted in jewels lying on a bed of blue velvet? Engravings of triskelions, Celtic knots, and dragons’ heads? Whatever notions were lurking in the back of my mind, they’re quickly shot down by the sight of a dull, cuff-style band, half-buried in moss and algae.

Rime lifts it out and holds it up to the anemic light above Avery’s door.

“Is it—” I squint. “—gold?”

“It looks like it.” He wipes it on his jeans and holds it up again. It’s about a quarter-inch thick and definitely gold, with Nàdarian carvings, sharp edges, and perfect form. Browne’s attempt to melt it down didn’t leave a single scar.

With shaking hands, I take it from Rime, the horror already pushing on my ribs and a ghastly darkness slithering between my bones. Leo’s fingers sink into my hips, his magic waging war with the bracelet’s. I don’t want to drain him. Just a few more seconds, just one up-close look?—

I grab Rime’s jacket, dizzy and swaying like I’ve had an entire six-pack of beer. My heart drums a pounding death march in my skull.

Arms wrap around me and someone barks an order.

Terror seeps into my tongue, swelling it until I’m choking. My legs give out and a horrible sound—a keening wail—erupts from my chest.

I grope in the darkness, searching for any last shreds of life. A pulse. I felt a pulse. I reach for it, for the vestiges of warmth among the rotting cold. A grief like I’ve never known consumes me, robbing me of my will.Lie down, just let me lie down alongside them. It’s my time too; I’m one of them.

The throbbing in my skull dulls to a gentle buzz as numbness overtakes the terror. The edges of my vision shimmer and go gray.

Warm, healing hands splay on my cheeks. “Harness, Betts. Put your cloak on and harness. It’s heavy, velvet, damp…”

…It hangs on my shoulders, so long it sweeps the earth, so thick the hood blocks out all light and sound. I withdraw into the silence and funnel the black terror and grief into my center, letting it fill me until it has nowhere to go but up my throat. I gag and step back.

“Give it to me.”

I blink into Leo’s dark eyes.

He presses my hands to his chest. “Give it to me.”

The energy.

I gather the emotions liquefying me from the inside out and vomit them out of my hands, so violently Leo jolts.

“You’re getting good at this, a chroí,” he pants, stumbling back against the wall.

Our breath freezes white as we heave in the cold night air.

“I don’t think that was Ember,” I say. “I think it was one of her victims.”

Leo’s brow knits. “Are you sure?”

“No?” I’m not sure of anything anymore. I moisten my lips. “Where’s Rime?”

“He took the bracelet to the car to get it away from you.” He holds out a hand. “Are you ready? We really need to go.”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”