Page 61 of Harnessed in Gold

And for a beat, one little beat, Leo’s eyes flash with mischief and heat. Like he’s about to spring from his seat and grab me, hug me, tickle me.

But in a blink, it’s over. He slides aside his empty plate and rests his elbows on the table, expression serious. “I need to tell you more about Ember.”

“Okay.” I set the last bite of my sandwich down, mouth suddenly too dry to eat. “How come?”

“Well, like I said, her energy is in that ring, and that could be dangerous for you.”

“More dangerous than the ring itself?”

His tone is careful, “There’s a good chance, yes.”

I bite my lip. “What have you learned about her?”

“Not as much as we would’ve liked.” He scrapes a hand through his hair and glares at the mounds of ‘research’ beside us. “We had to collect random clues—a few from one source, a couple more from another—but we managed to piece together something of a narrative.” He lifts the corners of books and papers, searching for I-can’t-even-imagine-what. “We know she wove with nightshade at fifteen, but soon after that, she started manifesting Calleeyah powers.”

Before I have the chance to ask what the hell that Gaelic-sounding word is, he unearths a pen and scribbles it on a post-it:Cailleach. “It’s what we call our priestesses.”

“Oh!” I say. “I’ve seen that word before. How do you say it again?”

“Call-ee-ock,” he repeats, but the ock is no more than a breath.

I bite back an embarrassed smile and snag a pretzel from the bag lying between us. I always thoughtCailleachwas pronounced Cay-leech.

“Humans know the Cailleach as a winter goddess, the Cronearchetype. But the word is actually derived from caillech, which just means ‘veiled one.’” He rewrites the word, minus the A. “That’s how we spell it in Nàdar.”

“And they have different powers than the rest of you?”

“Yeah, their magic is elemental. They can’t conjure or control their element, but they can sense and use its energy. That’s why they can feel and work with the snáithe.”

Because the snáithe isall the elements combined.“Earth, air, fire, water,” I recite.

Leo nods. “Gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines.”

“Which was Ember?”

“Salamander.”

Fire magic. Of course. All the best villains have fire magic.

I ask, “Do the caillecha weave with their element?”

“No, it’s inborn. They don’t weave with anything.”

“But Ember did?”

“Yes, and thus why the caillecha wouldn’t let her join them.” He fills his palm with pretzels. “Since she was born with her elemental magic, she shouldn’t have been able to weave with belladonna. That’s already considered an abomination. But the fact that she still wanted to be a Caillech, and wanted to use both types of power, well, in most eyes, that’s downright heretical.”

I almost feel sorry for her. “That seems a bit harsh.”

“It’s not, really, when you think about it. We’re forbidden to weave with more than one species because it violates the bond.”

“Because you can only be fully loyal to one species,” I reason aloud. “Double weaving would be like… like adultery.”

“Exactly. And nearly impossible to do, even if it weren’t forbidden. In recorded history, there have only been four fae who have tried to weave with more than one species. Two of them were banished for it, one died during the second weaving rite, and the fourth is Brier.”

“Holy shit. Seriously?” No wonder Brier has a superioritycomplex; he’s achieved the unthinkable. “Is it common knowledge that he’s done this?”

Leo nods, frowning in disgust. “He flaunts it.”