Page 79 of Harnessed in Gold

On my fourth try,I’m able to harness the confrontation’s energies so quickly and effectively that they don’t have time to make me sick. From the first inkling of horror, I coiled them in and held them fast, not letting even a drop escape from the space under my ribs.

“Are you nauseous?” Leo asks.

“No.” I steady myself with a hand on his shoulder as I close my eyes and shoot the energy into the ground through my feet. “Of course, I know where the emotions are now,” I qualify, glancing at the three scraggly blackberry bushes huddled under the sycamores and birches. They’re the warning sign. I know, as soon as I approach them, that I’m walking into a dangerous energy field. And I know exactly how the emotions there will make me feel.

That’s a luxury I’m not likely to have when we stumble upon the macguffin.

Leo nods thoughtfully. “The weapon will probably catch you off guard for a minute or two, but if you harness quickly enough, it shouldn’t have time to deeply affect you.”

I sigh. “That’s my hope.”

“Keep practicing anytime you pick up an emotion.” He chuckles. “Sit between those two guys in your class and try harnessing all that lust.”

My eyes flash up to his. Lust? “Is that such a good idea?”

He shrugs. “It’s good practice. You don’t want to feel it, right? So you’ll be motivated to work quickly.”

I’m suddenly too hot in my coat. “You can’t be serious.”

“Perfectly serious.”

Then why are the corners of his mouth twitching? And why do I have the irrepressible urge to stop them—with my lips?

“You know I need to be listening to the lecture, right? Not playing catch and release with some guys’ sexual urges.” That did not just come out of my mouth. Can I throw myself in the river?

Leo smirks and looks away, but not before I catch the heat in his eyes. His glamour is working on me now that I’m not harnessing, but I wish it weren’t. The wind whips his hair from his face, and the waning sunlight glints orange off his dark lashes. Yet again, I’m stunned by the beauty of his profile and the perfect proportions of his body.

I inch closer, just enough to grasp his energy.

Desire. Not the purely physical kind that I’ve been picking up from the guys in class, but something deeper. Liquid and warm. Undulating.

Or is that mine?

He looks back at me, nods across the river at the setting sun, and says, “It’s going to be dark soon. We should go.”

“Yeah, it’s getting really cold,” I say, even though I’m burning up.

We walk briskly, in silence, each of us pretending to take in the scenery, though there’s not much to look at during these last weeks of winter.

“Aww.” I slow to a standstill at the sight of low, white flowers browning like aging paper. “The snowdrops are already fading.”

Rime’s snowdrops. I may be pissed off at him, but I love his flowers.

“Can you perk them up?” I ask Leo. He opens hismouth, but I answer my own question. “Never mind. I don’t know why I asked. It’s probably not good for them.”

“I could ask them,” he says, crouching to get a closer look. “The fading is irreversible, but maybe I could persuade some of these to open.” He slips his fingers under a cluster of buds half-hidden by the leaves. “There’s nothing wrong with them. They probably just didn’t get enough sun.”

I kneel next to him. “Can I help again? Like with the holly bush?”

“Of course.” His smile is broad and oh-so-pleased. “Here.” He scoots so that he’s kneeling behind me, framing me in his arms.

I hold out a chilly hand. “Same thing as last night?”

His “mhmm” rumbles against my back, sending butterflies slamming against the confines of my stomach. He’s warm and smells even better than the pine trees.

As he sets my hand face-down on top of his, I say, “I want to see if I feel it again.”

His jaw moves against the top of my head. “Feel what?”