Page 76 of Harnessed in Gold

Leo has his phone out again, his eyes cast down to the screen. He knows we’ve reached the spot, but he doesn’t interfere.

Because I’m in charge.

A blast of fear comes next and, hot on its heels, horror. I halt and quickly throw up a hand, signaling for Leo to stay back. Resisting the urge to reach for him, I curl my fingers into fists instead. In my mind, I hear what he would say:Concentrate.

I meditate on my energetic cloak, feeling its weight on my shoulders and the damp velvet hood on my head. The emotions are outside it, I’m safe inside.

The emotions are outside it, I’m safe inside. The emotions are outside it, I’m safe inside…

Sounds grow muted and my vision blurs as all my senses but my clairsentience power down. I pour all my strength and focus into it, into keeping the emotional energy out until I’m ready to let it in.

When a strong arm braces me, it occurs to me I’m swaying. Apparently, my vestibular sense has shut down too. I lean into the sturdy man beside me, but I don’t otherwise acknowledge him. Nor does he acknowledge me. Once I’m steady enough, I inhale long and slow, and in my mind, I open my cloak, just a little, directly over my solar plexus. At first, there’s nothing. I’m braced so stiffly against the potential onslaught that I momentarily stop breathing.

Then the first ripple of sensation slips in. Horror. It’s warm and viscous, like blood, so that’s what I imagine it to be: a ribbon of crimson suspended in the air. I begin winding it onto an imaginary spool, the spool growing thicker as I gather more and more until I’ve formed a ball of energy I could squeeze with my hand. Then I draw it in, directly into that pool under my ribs. Heat threatens to burst open my ribcage, but I hold on to the blood ribbon through sheer force of will until the boiling ceases and the threat is contained.

After a slow, deep breath, I reach out again to the other energies outside my cloak. And one by one, I gather them in: acidic rage, hollow sorrow, icy fear.

My solar plexus is a bubbling cauldron. A psychic stew. There’s a good chance I’m going to barf. I fight desperately to keep it down, questioning what’s worse: holding the energies within or letting them assault me from without.

Yet, although I feel physically unwell, I seem emotionally unaffected. And unlike at the mill town, I know who I am, where I am, and who is standing beside me.

I’m in charge.

Leo whispers my name. I nod and meet his eyes.I did it, I want to say, but I’m afraid more than words will come spilling out of my mouth.

“You harnessed it.” He clutches my hands. They’re shaking. All of me is shaking.

I nod again, letting another wave of nausea pass. “It’s all right here.” His eyes follow as I lay my hands on my stomach.

“Are you scared? Angry?”

I shake my head, gulping as saliva builds in my throat.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m a little pukey.” I don’t remember feeling this way when I harnessed his emotions, but maybe they weren’t strong enough, or maybe I didn’t hold them in as effectively.

Fighting a smile, he steps even closer. “Let me fix that.”

I don’t resist as he slides one cool hand along my clammy cheek and rests the other just under my sternum. Warmth emanates from his palms as he holds my gaze. Golden-brown faerie eyes blink back at me, and faerie ears peek through his windblown hair. But only for me. Should anyone pass by, they’d see two normal college kids getting a little too close. But I see the faerie. His glamour magic is no match for my power when I choose to use it.

The power I thought was a curse until he believed in me.

“Better?” he murmurs.

“Yes.” My hands cover his, holding them in place.Don’t take them away. Don’t ever stop touching me.

“I can feel all that energy inside you.”

“Can you? What does it feel like?”

“A thunderstorm.”

I smile. “It feels like the river to me.” Thrashing against my bones and organs like the water does the rocks and banks. It needs out. “I should ground.”

“Come on.” He takes my hand and leads me from the massacre site to the riverbank. “If you sit on the grass, you can get rid of it even faster.”

I plop down at his feet, not minding a cold butt if it means I can get this shit out of me. He sits beside me, bringing his warmth and sheltering me from the wind. With my eyes closed and my palms planted on the grass by my hips, I send the mass of energy down my arms and out through my hands, imagining it shooting like bolts of light deep into the earth.