Page 144 of Harnessed in Gold

Rime mirrors Leo, shoulders squared and forehead low. “What do you mean,no way?”

“Betts isn’t going anywhere without me.”

“One of us needs to stay here with the other humans. It’s not safe to leave them alone.”

“Then you stay.”

Rime takes one heavy, menacing step closer. “I’m thefighter.”

“And I’m not, so why leave me here?”

“You did your job, now it’s time for me to do mine.”

“Stick to the books, right?” Leo sneers, pissed off and hurt. “That’s all I’m good for.”

Liv, bless her heart, cowers in her seat on the other side of the table. Meanwhile, Avery is starting to look as angry as Leo.

“Enough, you two,” she huffs, arms crossed and chin raised. “No chest thumping in my living room.”

No one acknowledges her command.

Rime jabs a finger at Leo’s chest. “Now is not the time for your daddy issues. We have a job and we need to get it done. In the most efficient way possible.”

Leo throws up his hands. “And what in the gods’ name do you think I’ve been doing?”

Rime looks at me, then back at Leo, a snide curl to his lip.

Leo’s eyes blaze. “Don’t,” he warns, voice deadly low.

Topaz tears off her jacket again and slaps it onto the chair. “I’m staying here.” She shoves right between the angry men. “Leo’s roots dig better than my snakes,” she tells Rime. “You need him.”

“If he goes, there won’t be anything to dig up!” Fuming, Rime tries to swerve around Topaz. “He won’t do what he needs to do. He won’t let her—” He swallows his last words.

Fury blasts off Leo, so hard it snatches my breath. “Won’t let her what?”

Rime turns away and clasps his hands behind his neck.

“Won’t let herwhat?” Leo shouts.

“You won’t let her suffer!” Rime spits out. “There, I said it. I said the quiet part out loud.” He stomps up to Leo again, hissing through gritted teeth, “If you go, you’ll pull her out the second she starts to struggle. I know you will?—”

I try to intervene, “Guys—,” but Leo and Rime’s lifetime of competition, jealousy, and resentment choke me like a sooty, sticky fog.

The latter is still snarling. “It’s gonna be bad and you know it, and that’s why you don’t want her going with me. Because you don’t trust me to know her limit.” He turns the accusing finger he had pointed at Leo onto himself. “Even though I’ve beenthe one watching out for Summer all these months, while you’ve been here playing frat boy.”

Leo’s anguish floods me, wiping out Rime’s indignation. His chest heaves with every breath, but he rallies and snaps back, “Andyoutrustme?”

“I don’t trust you one fuck.” Rime’s eyes are pulsing, his lips curling back from his teeth, and his muscles twitching. “What was that tunnel you made, huh? Were you ever going to tell me about that? What other secrets are you keeping?”

“Enough!” I spring upright—so fast I teeter. “Whatever I have to do to find the bracelet, I’ll do it.” I hold Leo’s gaze, not shrinking back from the savage fear in his eyes. “And I need you to let me,” I tell him before I turn the same burning glare on Rime and insist, “Bothof you.”

“Then go.” Wisely, Topaz doesn’t give us time to think. “Now!”

It’s a mad scramble to get Leo and Rime out the door before they start fighting again, or before I shatter like a wineglass hurled to the floor. My hands are shaking so hard Avery has to tie my shoes.

And Liv is crying.

“I’ll be fine,” I tell her. “Neither of them will let anything happen to me.”