Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The front door swings open again, this time for Rime and Liv. They seem less distressed than Topaz, but more alarmed.
“Burdock must’ve been near the river,” Rime reports, determination flashing in his blue eyes. “He sent ospreys after us while we were working with the hawks.”
Liv adds, “The hawks were willing to attack them, but it got ugly.”
“Where’s Topaz?” Rime cranes his neck to look around the room. “We need to call some guardians.”
Gripped by a jolt of fear, I reach for Leo’s hand.
“It’s okay,” he whispers. “That doesn’t mean Burdock knows we’re here.”
When Avery tells Rime about Topaz and the coyotes, he curses under his breath and charges into the bedroom.
Liv hangs up her coat and comes up behind me, bringing razor-edged waves of anxiety along with her. I get to my feet and hug her, letting her fear mingle with mine and with everyone else’s in the room. When Leo offers to calm her, she shyly accepts.
Five minutes later, she’s asking what’s for lunch.
Eager for the distraction, Avery opens the food delivery app on her phone. By the time Topaz and Rime come out, we’ve ordered enough Taco Bell to feed all of Fraternity Row.
“How do you get out there?” Rime asks Avery, pointing to the dining-room window that overlooks a postage-stamp backyard.
She directs them to the alley that leads around the back of the row. “Be inconspicuous,” she calls after them.
Liv bursts into a hysterical laugh.
When they return ten minutes later, I sneak a peek out the window. I can’t see any snakes, but two hawks stand sentinel on the dilapidated privacy fence.
No, not conspicuous at all.
Over the crinkle of fast-food wrappers, Rime elaborates on his strategy. “I’ve got sparrows out there, too.”
“Oh?” I say. “I didn’t notice them.”
“Exactly. They’re unassuming and they have the perfect camouflage. Burdock would never expect me to use them.” With a mouth full of burrito, he adds, “I can’t take credit for the idea.” He winks at Liv, who squirms beside me on the couch.
“Genius,” I tell her.
She shrugs. “The sparrows are the real scouts; the hawks are just the heavies.”
Rime tilts his head, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Heavies? What’s that?”
“What you are,” I answer.
Aaron chuckles, and Leo barks a laugh.
We detail for Rime, Topaz, and Liv what we found in Browne’s journal while they were gone.
“So, we have to find a bracelet. In a lead box. Buried in a stone house,” Topaz says, crossing her arms and revealing two Hello Kitty bandaids on the tip of her middle finger.
“With no other way to locate it besides what Betts might feel,” Liv adds, voice thin.
“We still have a few more pages to decode,” Leo says. “Maybe there will be more clues in there.”
Avery hops to her feet, crumpling her taco wrappers in her fist. “Then let’s get back to work.”
Wanting to contribute to the taco fund, Liv and I slip into Avery’s room to find our wallets and dig out some cash.
“How are you doing?” I ask her.
“Well, considering twenty-four hours ago I had no idea faeries even existed, I’d say I’m doing pretty well.”
“Better than I did,” I say with a sympathetic sigh. “Ugh, Liv, I’m so sorry.”
“If you don’t stop saying that—” she fake-growls.
“But you’re supposed to go out with Liam tonight and you’re stuck here.” Eating cheap tacos, decoding Enochian, and hoping evil faeries haven’t followed you to the door.
“Yeah, I texted him this morning. We’re gonna reschedule.” She avoids my eyes and waves off further questions with a dismissive flick of her hand. “But hey, I got to pet a hawk today, so that was pretty cool.” She unzips the front pocket of her backpack. “They’re incredible.”
“The hawks or the fae?”
“Both.” She shrugs and shyly looks away.
I make like I’m counting the bills in my wallet. “So, uh, were you okay out there with Rime? You felt safe and all that?”
“Absolutely,” she declares, an unmistakable sigh in her voice.
Between the two of us, we manage to scrounge up six dollars and eighty-nine cents. “Not enough,” I say, frowning. “When this is all over, we’ll have to take Avery out to lunch. Every day for a week.”
Liv drops onto the bed and looks up at me with anxious eyes. “When this is all over, what happens with you and Leo?”
“I don’t know.”
She pats the mattress until I sit down beside her. “He hasn’t told you how it’s supposed to work, like with faeries dating humans and stuff?”
“He says he’ll come back, but… but what if he can’t?” My entire body shudders with my exhale. “What if something happens to him?”
She wraps her arms around me. “It won’t. He’s too smart.”
I nod feebly, choking on a sob.
“Knock, knock.” Leo stands in the open doorway. One look at my face and he rushes to my side.
With a motherly stroke of my hair, Liv rises and gestures for him to take her seat. As she leaves, I hand her my money, then I bury my face in Leo’s neck.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Nothing.” Why bother talking about it? It is what it is.
“Betts—” He tips my head up and brushes away the tear clinging to my lip.
“Take me with you,” I plead.
His brow furrows. “Take you where?”
“To Nàdar.”
He heaves a breath, his momentary surprise giving way to defeat. “I can’t.”
“But—”
“You need to stay here, where you’re safe.”
I trap his face between my hands. “But what about you?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“How can you say that? There’s a war brewing over there! It’s not like Brier is going to give up if he can’t get this weapon.”
“Betts, a chroí.” He covers my hands with his. “I’ll be back. I’ll be okay.”
“But what if—but if I’m there with you, you can use me. I can double your magic.”
His voice drops two octaves. “And that’s exactly why I don’t want you in Nàdar. If anyone, and I mean anyone, finds out what you can do, they’ll—” He rips his gaze from mine and shakes his head. “I shouldn’t have even used you in the library.”
“But why not? Why not use me if I can help?”
“Because we don’t know anything about your power, where it’s coming from or what it could do to you.”
“It didn’t do anything to me. I’m fine. All it did was give you a boost.”
A hollow laugh erupts from his throat. “Oh no, it did a lot more than that. Betts, you’re not just intensifying my power, you’re accelerating and honing it.
” He clutches my hands to his chest. “That tunnel? I could never have made something that intricate alone. It’s like I wished it into being.
One second, the idea popped into my head, the next, the roots were weaving. I wasn’t even using my hands.”
“But that’s good, isn’t it? That’s how much I can help.”
“No, that’s how easily you could be abused. It’s bad enough that Rime and Topaz are suspicious, but if River and the others find out—” His hands strangle mine. “No one can know. Do you understand me? No one.”
“But—”
“Betts.” He dips his head, putting his dark eyes inches from mine. “In the wrong hands, you’re a weapon, too.”
The truth of his words hits me like a punch, knocking the breath from my lungs. My fingers sink into his chest, his fear bleeding into my hands with every thump of his heart.
“If anything happens while I’m gone, if you need answers that Avery can’t provide, go to Jean West.”
“Don’t leave me. Don’t go without me.”
“Promise me, a chroí.” He sweeps my hair behind my ear. “Promise me you’ll go to Jean.”
With tears spilling onto my cheeks, I nod. My fingers slide into the curled ends of his hair, tugging on his neck until his mouth meets mine.
“I love you,” he whispers. “I promise I’ll be back.”
Lips quivering, I reply, “You make the boldest promises.”
“I know. I promise what I want to happen, not what I know will be.”
And judging from the determined set of his jaw, he’s not sorry about it.