Chapter 2 #2
I can’t not help. I hate to admit it, but Leo’s idea to use human psychics is a good one.
His recruitment method was questionable—especially how he went about ‘recruiting’ me—but the plan itself is solid.
My power, combined with Aaron’s clairaudience and Avery’s psychometry, appears to be the faes’ best chance of finding this weapon.
So I’m still in. But I’m checking my heart at the door. Leo can have my brain and my clairsentience, but that’s all. And when this mission is over, I’m going back to normal life.
Even though I’ll probably never feel normal again.
That afternoon, I spend more time sleeping than studying.
Liv, however, has suddenly become a super-scholar.
I’ve never seen her so absorbed in her homework.
If she weren’t stealing glances at me every few minutes, and if I couldn’t sense her indignation and worry, it might be a convincing performance.
I feel terrible for shutting her out, but what am I supposed to do? There’s a huge faerie-sized crater separating us, and I have no idea how to bridge it. So we both sulk, not mad at each other, but wounded all the same.
When it’s finally time to leave for Avery’s, I’m relieved, and considering who’s going to be there, that’s no small thing. I dash through the sleet as I head downtown, ice decorating my wool peacoat like seed pearls on a dark wedding gown. Thankfully, Avery’s living room is toasty warm.
No sooner do I shimmy out of my coat than Aaron jumps up to wrap me in his long arms. “Betts! You’re on board.”
“I’m on board,” I affirm, hugging him back.
Avery greets me with a grin. “Leo told us you saw Brier’s team at the hotel.”
“Yeah. Kinda freaked me out.”
“But you used your power. You saw through their glamours and everything.” She gives my arm a proud squeeze as she escorts me to the crowded living room. I wave a reluctant hello to Topaz, who merely blinks in return. Rime offers me a broad smile.
When Aaron gestures for me to take his spot on the couch next to Leo, I shake my head and hop onto the sofa’s arm instead.
“I’m good, but thanks.” I know I’m being juvenile, but the ride home with Leo this morning was more than enough closeness for the week.
I need to focus this evening, not sit here worrying about keeping my arm from brushing his.
The squeaky desk chair groans as Rime leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Betts, we already have a job for you.”
My stomach clenches. They’re not going to ease me into this, are they? “Okay. And what’s that?”
“Have you ever walked along the river, out past where the sports grounds are?”
Sports grounds? I love Rime’s American English. “You mean, like the lacrosse and softball fields?”
Rime looks to Leo, who nods and says, “Yeah. Behind the gym.”
“I don’t think so. Is there a path down there?”
“Only part of the way,” Leo replies.
“Then I probably haven’t.” Alderford may be a fairly safe little town, but I’m a sensible woman. I don’t go wandering around a river in an area not designated for walking.
Rime asks, “Can we persuade you to go?”
“Probably. Why?”
“Because we think that might be where Browne’s settlement was. The one he started when he came inland.”
Leo leans back to get a better view of me around Aaron.
“Dr. Logan had a Jamestown bride’s journal that confirmed Henry Browne settled here.
She wrote a whole entry about meeting a blue-eyed Cherokee man who said he was the son of Henry Browne of the Roanoke Colony.
He told her he’d been raised on the settlement started by his father on the banks of the Zillicoah. ”
“The French Broad?”
“Yes. This particular section of it.”
Avery comes out of the kitchen carrying a pitcher of what looks like sweet tea. “Aaron and I went down there this weekend.” She sets the tea and a tower of Solo cups on the coffee table. “He heard some stuff, but I didn’t see anything.”
I ask Aaron, “What did you hear?”
“Gunfire.”
“Gunfire?!”
“Yep. Musket fire, to be specific.”
“How do you know it was a musket?”
“Higher pitch. And they were single shots, with a long time in between.”
Leo tells me, “There’s no archeological evidence for a settlement, but that area is where the river would’ve been shallowest and narrowest in Browne’s time.”
Hence putting the ford in Alderford?
Aaron takes a cup off the top of the stack and pours himself some tea. “The gunfire doesn’t prove anything. I’m sure they hunted all over this area. But it’s a start.”
Leo explains, “We’re trying to pinpoint the settlement with the hope that Browne’s Hill is close by.”
“So you want me to go down there and see if I feel anything?” I ask.
“Anything at all,” Rime says. “Signs there was a settlement, a reason for the gunfire—”
I cut him off, “The weapon?”
Leo drags in a breath and licks his lips. “Possibly.”
Rime’s hopeful eyes flick to me. “So you’ll go?”
I hop off the sofa arm to pour myself some tea, stalling for a moment to think. Memories of the mill-workers’ accident have me hesitating. And shuddering. Am I going to end up collapsing again?
“By myself?” I ask. If I’m gonna go down, I need someone there to catch me.
“Absolutely not,” Leo blurts.
“Absolutely is right,” Rime asserts with a glare and a decisive nod. “She’s going with me.”
Leo freezes, and for a moment no one breathes.
I clear my throat. “Okay, yeah. That’s fine.” I don’t know that it is, but I’ll say anything to ease the tension.
“So, Leo—” Avery tries to hide her amusement. “Did you show Betts the necklace?”
“Necklace?” I ask. “What necklace?”
When Leo shakes his head, Avery frowns at him. “Seriously? Why wouldn’t you show her?”
Jerking to his feet, he mutters, “I haven’t had a chance.” He blinks for a moment, looking confused, then points to the kitchen. “Mind if I get a snack?”
Avery shrugs. “Sure. Whatever.”
Try as I might, I can’t keep from watching him as he makes his way around us, his stride lacking its usual grace and ease. As he disappears into the kitchen, he rolls his neck and shoulders.
“It’s a Secotan necklace,” Avery says to me. “From the time of the Roanoke Colony.”
“What?” I turn my attention back to her. “Secotan?”
“Yeah. I used my psychometry on it, and holy crap, it’s legit. I saw two Englishmen in breeches. And let me tell you, they needed a good bath and a shave. Ugh.”
Leo reappears, a sac of Doritos under his arm and an open bag of frosted animal crackers dangling between his pinched fingers. “I’ll show her next time she’s over,” he tells Avery as he drops the chips onto the coffee table.
“You’d better,” she warns.
Eyes on mine, he holds open the bag of animal crackers, an appeal in his expression.
A peace offering.
I mumble my thanks as I scoop out a handful, my eyes prickling at the mere sight of them. Throat tight and burning, I put one in my mouth and chew. It tastes like sweet lies, but it’s much harder to swallow.
“So, uh, Rime,” I cough. “What’s your newest slang expression?”
Topaz snorts. I’m pretty sure it’s the only sound she knows how to make.
Rime grins. “I’m vibing with this tea.”
Avery, Aaron, and I laugh. Topaz rolls her eyes.
Rime winks at me. “Did I use that correctly?”
“It was perfect.”
“He’s been bingeing Euphoria,” Leo says, settling back onto the couch.
“Euphoria? Are you kidding me?” If Rime is trying to familiarize himself with American culture, there are better resources than Euphoria.
Leo sighs and shakes his head, like a dad who’s given up on teaching his kid good judgment.
“I’m not saying it’s not a good show,” I tell Rime. “But it’s not realistic. At. All.”
Actual words come out of Topaz’s mouth. “He’s not watching it for the realism.”
Beside me, Aaron snickers. Smiling unapologetically, Rime crosses one big foot over his knee and adjusts his weight in the small chair.
I pick at some lint on my jeans to hide my pink cheeks. Nudity is not a subject I want to discuss, no matter how obliquely, with Leo close by. Between the animal crackers and the memories of what happened a few weeks ago in the bedroom down the hall, I’m unravelling.
“So we’ve got Betts and Rime going to the river,” Aaron says, forcing a straight face. “What else do we need to do? Any other leads to follow?”
“I’ll tell you what leads they have,” Topaz drawls. “Absolutely none.” She goes right back to looking bored, eyes glazing over and her chin in her hand.
If I’ve learned anything in the past several months, it’s that I have a very low tolerance for catty women. I snap, “And what leads have you found, Topaz?”
She looks at me like I’m something that fell out of the trash can. “I’m not here to do research.”
No? Then how does she expect to find the weapon?
Unbothered, Rime answers Aaron’s question, “We’ve been talking to the locals.”
Avery asks, “Which locals?”
“Librarians, professors, high school history teachers,” Leo replies.
“We even talked to the local law enforcement,” Rime adds with a defeated sigh. “No one knows anything about Browne’s Hill.”
Avery huffs and rolls her eyes. “You know, for faeries, you two think like typical human men.”
Rime raises a brow, and Leo looks mildly offended.
She plants her fists on her hips. “You’re so myopic. Cops and professors aren’t locals. You need real people.”
Aaron chuckles. “Cops and professors aren’t people?”
Arguably, no.
“It’s the women you need to talk to,” Avery says. “The ones in the trenches. The ones who’ve been here raising families for generations. They’re the keepers of the local lore, not some snooty professors.”
She’s absolutely right. It may’ve been the men who recorded the tales, but it was the women who told them to their children and shared them with one another over their work.
Not the stories of big heroes and battles, but those of everyday life, of local and family history, and of the land where they lived.
I nod vehemently. “I agree.”
Aaron chimes in. “She has a point.”
“She does,” Leo admits. “But where are we supposed to find the kind of women you’re talking about?”