Page 84 of Harnessed in Gold

“So, are y’all, like, what—a coven or something?”

I turn just in time to catch her look of distaste. “No, we’re not a coven or anything like that.” Just a group of faeries and psychics trying to save a realm. “They’re perfectly nice, perfectly good people.” Yes, even Topaz.

I take a seat at my desk to do an email clean-out and to google sixteenth-century metalworking. I need something to keep my mindoff Leo. Every time I blink, I see his gold and brown eyes gazing up into mine. And every time I breathe, I feel his hands in my hair and his lips on my neck.

But apparently, Liv isn’t through with our discussion. She sits frozen on her bed, frowning. “If they’re good, nice people, then why are you hiding them from me?”

“I’m not.” Am I?

Her frown deepens. “Are you hidingmefrom them?”

“What? No.” My heart twists. Her confusion and hurt reach for me like grasping hands. “No, I just… I didn’t think you were interested in any of the stuff we’re into. I mean, like, we don’t go to parties or?—”

She cuts me off, “So I’m a bimbo.”

Oh god, the hole I’m digging. “Absolutely not. Who’s the one who’s always telling you how smart you are and nagging you about your grades?”

She sits up a little straighter. “My advisor said if I can manage at least a 3.4 this semester I can still get into Pi Epsilon.”

So that’s why she burst out of the advising offices looking so excited. “That’s the Environmental Science honor society, right?”

She nods, trying to hold back a smile. “But that’s a 3.4 in all my classes, not just my major.”

“You can do that, easy-peasy.”

“If I get in, I can take honors classes.” Her eyes light up. “Like that four hundred level one on invasive species.”

“Oh! More ten-legged frogs?”

“Those are mutations,” she informs me. “Not invasive species.”

I chuckle humbly. “Yeah, duh.”

A wild thought occurs to me as she hops up to get her computer. “Hey, question for you—” I flick my screensaver on and spin in my chair to face her. “You’ve done field studies in some of your classes, right? Have you found any weird stuff around here, like those frogs?” You know, plants growing sideways and fuzzy snakes?

“Oh yeah, all sorts of weird shit. In the woods, we found mossthat didn’t have spores and… and these freaky mushroom things that were just—” She shudders. “Oh, and last semester in River Ecosystems, Casey swore she saw a water strider with gills.”

A thrill ripples through me. “But they’re bugs, aren’t they?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Holy shit. Did Leo and Robin come across any of those anomalies in their research? He said they didn’t know what was a normal mutation and what was a truly aberrant mutation. But Liv would, wouldn’t she? Or she could lead us to someone who could help.

If I let her.

If I told her the truth.

But I can’t.

She wrestles with her tangled charger cord. “Why do you ask?”

Because I’m foolishly daydreaming.Selfishlydaydreaming. Liv is finally getting her life together. Her grades are improving and she’s not taking any more of Braden’s BS. I’m not going to shake up her whole world just because I want her help and commiseration.

“Just curious,” I say with a shrug. “It’s been a while since you’ve grossed me out.”

She giggles as she settles at her desk. “Okay, the next disgusting thing I see in my textbook, I promise to show you.”

“Thank you,” I joke. “You’re a true friend.”