Page 64 of Harnessed in Gold

“Nowhere is any of this written,” he admits. “But all the clues are there, and corroborated by the legends the caillecha have passed down for centuries.”

“So if they were sympathizers, did they finally let her become one ofthem?”

“There’s no record of her ever becoming a caillech. I suspect once she declared herself queen, she had all the power she wanted.”

“And you don’t know what’s in the ring?” I ask, foolishly hoping this time for a different answer. “What they wove her with or how they made it?”

“No. If that information is in one of the caillecha grimoires, no one knows where. I’m sure over the centuries more than one person has tried to find it.”

No doubt Brier has tried to find it. Let’s hope once Ember was executed, the rebellion enacted a scorched-earth campaign on all the evil she left behind. At least they had the sense to bury her psycho ring in a whole other realm.

I chew on my lip Leo-style as I process all this information. “Wait a minute, what’s the plan? Because Rime said the macguffin couldn’t be destroyed.”

“It can’t be. Not if it’s a weaving ring.” Leo slides his ring off his finger again and holds between his thumb and forefinger. “Even if I melted this down, the bond would still exist. Energy can’t be created or destroyed.”

“So trying to destroy the macguffin would more or less unleash it?”

“More, not less. But theoretically speaking, the weaving ritual could be reversed, like any other spellwork. Reversing wouldn’t destroy the bond’s energy, but it could render it unusable.”

“Theoretically.”

He shrugs. “As far as we know, the caillecha have never tried to reverse a weaving spell.”

“Because it’stheoreticallyimpossible?” That may’ve come out a little snarky.

“No, because it’s unnecessary,” Leo quips back, a hint of a smile on his lips. “We preserve the bond and maintain the balance of nature by burying the weaving ring with its owner when they die. There’s never been a need to reverse one.”

I snatch his ring and hold it up. “Could Rime use this? Or Topaz?”

“Absolutely not.” His eyes darken with indignation. “Only the fae bonded in a ring’s ritual can use it.”

“Then why worry about Ember’s ring? She’s dead.” I set Leo’s band on the table with a smug flourish. “Why would Brier even want it if he can’t use it?”

“Because Ember’s ring obviously doesn’t follow the rules,” he counters. “It shouldn’t have allowed her to control any species she wanted, either.”

I give in with a sigh. “Touché.” If anyone is convinced he can break the rules without suffering the consequences, it’s Brier—double-weaver, caillech-seducer, deoraí-turned-dictator.

Leo carefully closes the lid of his laptop and drums his fingers on the lid. “Our plan is simple: find the ring, take it back to Nàdar, and have the caillecha who’ve joined the resistance try to reverse it.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

Rime emerges from the kitchen, carrying a sandwich on a plate and a bag of Tostitos. “Then we go on the lam.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Go on the lam?”I echo. “Seriously? That’s your plan?”

“Until Brier is defeated, yes,” Leo replies. “What other choice do we have?”

“On the lam, where?” My eyes cut back and forth between the two men. “Nàdar or here?”

Rime, mister-oh-so-logical, shrugs and takes a seat at the table. “Anywhere he can’t find us. We’re stuck in the Subworld until the equinox, so here is where we would start.”

Topaz comes out of the kitchen, crunching an apple, and disappears down the hall without so much as a glance our way.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to reverse it,” Leo says, no doubt trying to reassure me. Maybe himself, too. “And it won’t be an issue.”

“So, how was church?” Rime asks, before he chomps into his sandwich like an alligator. I guess the so-called plan isn’t up for discussion.