Page 65 of Harnessed in Gold

Leo helps himself to a tortilla chip. “Informative.”

“So the granny lady knew about Browne’s Hill?”

“She did.” Leo relates Jean’s theory that the crossroads might have been a forge, while I hold my breath and study the crumbs onthe table, acutely aware of what heisn’trelating: that Jean saw through his glamour, that she knows about Nàdar, and that she thought I might be pregnant with a halfling.

“Jean said there were reports of demonic activity at the forge,” he tells Rime. “So she suspects Stone built his seminary there to counteract it.”

“So the forge is on campus?”

Leo nods. “Most likely the chapel.”

Rime sits up and drops his sandwich. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go have a look around.”

“We will,” Leo assures him. “But we need all three psychics. Robin and I already checked it out once and couldn’t find anything.”

“Then tomorrow.”

They both look at me.

“I can go in the late afternoon,” I offer.

Rime takes his phone out of his back pocket. “I’ll send a message to Aaron and Avery.” He taps at the screen, scowls, wipes his greasy fingers on his shirt, then tries again. “How do I send one message to two people?”

I get up to show him, but suspiciously, Leo beats me to it.

Finished, Rime sets the phone aside, guzzles some water and asks me, point blank, “Where can I get a gun?”

My whole body locks up. “Gun?”

Leo stiffens too, and lays a firm hand on my knee.

I breathe, “You can’t be serious.”

Rime leans over his plate like he’s sharing state secrets. “We need to be prepared. Who knows what weapons Brier’s team has.”

“But… but a gun?” I turn pleading eyes to Leo.

His jaw ticks as he considers it. “Rime’s right. If they have a gun and we don’t…”

Oh my god.

“Betts—”

I cut him off with a glare, then cast the same alarmed look at Rime. “Do you all even have guns in Nàdar? Do you know how to usethem?” I sound a little hysterical, but for fuck’s sake, we’re talking about firearms here.

Both guys admit their ignorance.

“I don’t know what the laws are in North Carolina,” I say. “But I don’t think you can just walk into Walmart, slap down some cash, and walk out with a rifle.”

“They have guns at Walmart?” Rime asks, interest piqued.

“Yes.” As crazy as that sounds.I think I’ll pop in and pick up some shampoo, a box of Mike & Ike’s, and a shotgun.“But you can’t just take one off the shelf and buy it. They’re locked in cabinets, and they have to do a background check on you before they’ll sell you one.” At least I think they do. “That way a convicted felon can’t just walk away with a gun”

Rime rubs his scruffy jaw, thinking.

“You don’t have a background,” I inform him. “And I don’t see how you can glamour up one.”

Leo explains to Rime, surprisingly accurately, what a background check involves.