Page 134 of Harnessed in Gold

“They’re a lot alike,” he adds, absentmindedly winding a lock of my hair around his finger. “Both strong and physical. Both loyal militiamen.”

The subtext here is obvious, although Leo doesn’t want me to catch it. His voice is even, his expression nearly blank, but he can’t hide his emotions from the clairsentient lying on his chest.

“What about you?” I ask gently, swimming in his pain.

“What about me?”

“You’re strong and loyal, too.” Leo might not be a trained soldieror go around buying guns, but it was his quick thinking and his roots that saved our asses tonight. Twice. I mean, for god’s sake, he’s the leader of this entire retrieval mission. He’s risking everything.

“Me?” He lets loose a bitter laugh. “I’m just a useless saoi.”

Indignant, I push up to look him in the eyes. “Useless? Seriously?” What the fuck?

He inhales and looks away.

I take hold of his jaw and turn him back to me. “You know that’s bullshit, right?”

“My father doesn’t see it that way.”

“Then your father’s an idiot.” For the hundredth time today, I blink back tears. I love him—so much it hurts.

“It’s okay, a chroí.” He tightens his arms around me and tucks my head under his chin.

“It’s not okay.”

“Yeah, you’re right, it’s not okay. But I’m not going to let it stop me from doing what I want to do.” He tips up my chin and kisses me so tenderly that after a moment or two I forget.

We dress and snuggle under the blanket, relaxing in one another’s warmth. When I wake with my cheek on his chest, the sun is shining weakly on the table above our feet.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Leo looksup from Browne’s journal. “It’s a bracelet.” He pops the last bite of his donut in his mouth and dusts the strawberry icing off his fingers. “Look.”

Avery sits beside him, oblivious to the pink flakes fluttering down on her sofa. She was the first up this morning, eager to decipher Browne’s code. By the time everyone else was awake, she’d determined that the alphabet was Enochian and had found a website with a key. It isn’t exactly a straightforward letter-to-letter code, but fortunately, nearly eighty percent of the journal is in English, enabling us to corroborate details.

She leans closer to see the page Leo’s pointing to. “He’s right. The macguffin’s not a ring, it’s a bracelet.”

Aaron shrugs. “So basically just a reallybigring.”

“Is that why it’s so powerful?” I ask, licking a blob of vanilla creme filling from the corner of my mouth.

Leo shakes his head. “The ring’s size doesn’t matter, it’s?—”

Rime blurts, “‘That’s what she said!’” He grins proudly as we all groan. Topaz shoves a donutin his mouth.

Fighting a smirk, Leo goes on, “It’s whatever Ember put in the bracelet that makes it so powerful.”

I huff out a sigh. “And that’s the one piece of information no one seems to have.” We can’t even make an educated guess. Nothing in nature is that pernicious or self-destructive. Nature seeks to right itself, not hurt itself. Even when it’s destructive, it maintains balance.

“Well, I can tell you one thing—” Rime stands, stretches, and starts gathering dirty coffee mugs. “We now know more about it than Burdock and his cronies do.”

Avery springs to her feet. “My turn for the bathroom!” As if anyone would argue with her when we’ve all invaded her home. She curls her lip at the journal as she squeezes past Leo. “Seems like Browne was a much better scryer than he was an alchemist.”

Chuckling, Leo flips page after page. “June eleventh, fail. June sixteenth, fail. June twenty-ninth, fail. He never gets past the ‘Separation’ stage.” He goes back to poring over the journal while the rest of us clean up the donut boxes and argue over who gets the bathroom after Avery.

“Betts! Aaron!” he gasps a minute later, eyes flashing up from the book. “You two were right. Browne says two of the Englishmen who came west with him were killed by ‘Indians’ on the banks of the river.”

“Really?” In disbelief, I raise an eyebrow at Aaron. He laughs and shrugs, looking as surprised as I am.