Page 158 of Harnessed in Gold

“Gods.” Leo shakes his head in disbelief. “I didn’t know what happened to you. One minute you were there, and the next you were gone. It wasn’t until you came up for a breath that I realized you were in the water.”

“And you jumped in to get me.”

His arms stretch across my back and his voice comes out gruff. Anguished. “I thought you were drowning.”

“I was,” I admit. “I stayed under too long, digging out the box.”

His brow dips. “How on earth?—?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “When I came to in the water, I thought for sure I was going to drown. I mean, it was so cold. But then… but then once I stopped panicking, I just started swimming, like I’d been swimming all my life. I can’t even explain it. It was like there was this voice telling me what to do.”

“You could swim even though you were feeling the bracelet?”

I nod, toying with the stubble on his chin. “This might soundcrazy, but I could swear the water was protecting me. Like my velvet cloak. The emotions were there, but they couldn’t really get in.”

He’s quiet for a long moment, so long I look up into his eyes. He’s considering me, wearing his putting-the-pieces-together face. A crease forms between his brows, and his teeth gnaw at his lower lip. I reach up and free it. Kiss it.

Three hard raps on the bedroom door have us jumping apart.

“Topaz is back!” Avery calls out.

Both relief and anxiety sweep through me. Topaz is okay.

But now it’s time for the fae togo on the lam.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Rime takeshis turn in the shower while Leo heals Topaz’s various wounds: scratches from rolling in the underbrush, teeth marks from dogs, coyotes, and—oh god—are those small ones from rats? She has a nasty dagger slash on her thigh and a bruise already forming on her left cheekbone.

“Juniper ended up in the river,” she reports. “And I lured Burdock a good half-mile up the mountain and bit him.”

Leo passes a hand over the gash in her thigh. “How much time do you think you’ve bought us?”

She shrugs. “Two hours, maybe? Depending on how far downriver the current took Juniper. Even if she washed up close to where she fell in, it would take her at least an hour to hobble to Burdock.”

Avery and Aaron tell her about River. She shrugs again. “I thought I heard a gunshot.”

Beside me on the sofa, Liv nibbles on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She’s calmed down since I emerged from the shower healed and no longer spattered in blood, but she hasn’t left my side. I cling to her too, like she’s a security blanket. A warm symbol ofnormality, even though I’ve dragged her into this never-normal-again life.

“Is Rime gonna be alright?” I ask her. Apparently, the two of them spent the last half-hour out in Avery’s stairwell, talking.

“Yeah. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I guess, that River guy wasn’t the first person he’s killed.”

I croak, “He wasn’t?”

“No.” She shakes her head, eyes on her knees. “Just a couple of months ago, some guys tried to take hostages from his clan, and Rime ended up having to kill one of them.”

Hostages? For Brier, I’m guessing, but I don’t ask. Because right now I can’t face what Leo’s going back to in Nàdar. Rime and Topaz, too, for that matter. I watch Leo as he sits at the dining-room table, talking—healthy and alive—and I start to panic.

Like he can sense it, he looks over at me. “What’s wrong?”

My throat is so tight, I can’t answer. The moment he reaches my side, I grab him and kiss him. I should tell him what Liv just told me, but he probably already knows. And shit, I don’t want to talk about it. I just want it all to go away.

He asks, “Do you need me to calm you?”

Mutely, I shake my head.

Avery’s bedroom door flies open with a thunk, and Rime appears, damp blond hair combed back from his high forehead. Wasting no time, he perches on the armchair and rests his elbows on his knees. “What’s the plan?”