Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Silently, we charge across campus, three hawks and a half-dozen sparrows circling discreetly overhead.
Leo takes my hand, but his grip is tense and tight, his posture defensive.
Rime walks ahead of us, shoulders rigid and arms stiff.
Meanwhile, I match their pace and try not to think too hard.
Do the next thing, right? The next thing, and don’t worry about the rest.
We cross the practice fields and arrive at the culvert, but instead of going right, toward the massacre site, we head left, into the woods.
After speed-walking more than a quarter mile along a dirt path, we come upon a footbridge spanning the river.
It’s a sturdy but narrow structure, its steel rails hemming us in, forcing us to walk single-file.
Leo leads the procession, and behind me marches Rime, his eyes alert. And red.
The river’s current, churned up by recent rains, is so fast and strong it makes me dizzy to watch it rushing underneath us.
Clouds briefly block the sun, abandoning us to a grayness that turns the bare trees into menacing slashes in the sky.
I shiver and keep my eyes forward, dismayed that when we reach the other side of the river, the path abruptly stops and dumps us into the underbrush.
As we enter the woods, I’m consumed by a closed-in feeling, the trees looming over me on each side. I should be grateful for the cover, considering the chances we’re being followed, but I’m so freaking creeped out. Twigs and branches crack under my feet and whip at my legs.
“Get us through, Hawthorn,” Rime orders. “I’m watching our backs.”
Leo traps me behind him with a hand on my hip. “Hold on to my jacket and follow me; that’s all you need to do right now.”
He sweeps his free hand at the ground in front of him. Shrubs bend away from our path like parted hair, and the brambles and vines flatten into a carpet at our feet.
“Warn me when we get closer,” I remind him. “Like, within fifty feet.” I don’t know how far from the bracelet Ember’s emotions extend, but the more time I have to prepare, the easier it’ll be to dissociate from them.
Leo stops and turns, shocking me when he presents his phone to Rime. “You heard her. Can I trust you with this? We can go faster if I use both hands.”
Rime’s unblinking red eyes meet Leo’s. “Yes.”
Satisfied, Leo steps forward with me hanging onto the back of his jacket and Rime close enough behind me that I can feel his body heat.
We trudge through the woods, the hazardous brush parting for us like the Red Sea as Leo raises one hand, then curls the other, flicks his right wrist, then twists his left.
All the while, the river races past us on our right.
I watch it between the trees, the peachy orange of the sunset casting a shimmer on the unbroken waves.
For what feels like miles, we carry on in our little three-person train, the silence wearing on my nerves. Every snap and rustle has my heart running riot in my chest. When Rime whispers, terrifyingly close to my ear, “We’re almost there,” I nearly jump out of my skin.
I clench Leo’s thick jacket, trusting him to guide my body while I focus my senses.
I drop my head between his shoulder blades and close my eyes, not caring that I’ve slowed us to a totter.
I visualize my velvet cloak enveloping my shoulders, thick and heavy and damp.
It shields me from the anxiety of the men I’m sandwiched between, but unfortunately, it traps me alone with my paranoid imagination.
Reluctantly, I leave the safety of Leo’s shoulders and open the front of the cloak a mere sliver, exposing myself to the energies. To my surprise, nothing other than Leo and Rime’s emotions worm their way into my chest.
Were we wrong about the bracelet’s location? Is the lead box doing a better job than we expected?
Rime tugs on my sweatshirt, bringing me, and subsequently Leo, to a halt.
“I see something,” he whispers, red eyes like fire in the light of the setting sun. He hands Leo back his phone. “Keep going.” With that, he takes off, snaking through the underbrush.
I grab Leo’s arm. “What did he see?” Has Brier’s team found us?
Leo’s eyes dart back and forth, almost as bird-like as Rime’s. “I don’t know. Do you feel anyone?”
“Only you.”
“Come on.” He shuffles me behind him again. “He said keep going, so that’s what we do. Whatever or whoever he saw, he’ll take care of it.”
Alone? Or will he call Topaz? I hold my breath for a millisecond, listening. No leaves crunching, no birds screeching. Maybe it was just a deer he saw, running through the forest.
In the dawning twilight, the trees are no more than silhouettes, but I can still see the vines, bushes, and saplings making way for Leo and me, bowing gracefully as we pass by.
Over the low roar of the river, I ask, “How close are we? I don’t feel anything.” The bracelet can’t possibly be here. Rime is risking his life for nothing.
“Close,” Leo says, peering down at his glowing phone. “Very close.” Undeterred, he leads me onward.
With every step, I grow more frustrated. Nothing, nothing, and nothing.
We were wrong.
“Leo, call Rime. We—” A blast of defiance swallows my words. Heat explodes in my chest, a raging fire of greed and defiance. I laugh out loud, so low and deep and menacing, I cower in fear—from my own voice.
“Betts!”
Harness it, harness it! Inside my mind, I flail, grasping at the flames: fury, resentment, fear—
The fire closes in on me, searing me with raw power. Exhilarated, I laugh. The young man’s lips part in shock. Scared? He’d better be.
“Get off,” I snarl when he traps me in his arms. I’ll burn him to cinders.
The craving for revenge fills my mouth with hot saliva. He tackles me to the ground. The weakling. He can’t keep me down. I call on my fire, hissing at him as he grips my shoulders.
“Betts. A chroí.”
My body melts into the cold earth. Who is this pretty man? What is he doing to me? A warm calm spreads from my chest to my fingers and toes, clearing the fog of my rage. “Leo?”
He exhales, but his hands don’t leave my shoulders, even when I grab his wrists and pull.
“I’m okay,” I assure him.
Dread mars his features. “It’s Ember,” he says, finally loosening his grip.
“I know. I’m sorry. I tried to harness, but I didn’t have the chance to dissociate first.”
“It was sudden,” he agrees, sliding off me to kneel in the underbrush.
“I let my guard down. I was starting to think the bracelet wasn’t here.” A stupid mistake I won’t make again.
To prove how strong I am, I spring to my feet. Fortunately, he beats me to it, steadying me as I wobble. I clutch his arm, tight enough that he won’t question what I’m about to say. “You have my permission to do whatever you need to do if I go crazy again.”
“If you go crazy again, I’m getting you out of here.”
“No! That’s the one thing you don’t have my permission to do.”
“Betts—”
“Shake me, hit me, knock me out, but—”
“No.” He bends close and glares at me with wild, tormented eyes. “I won’t hurt you.”
Tears scald my throat. “But if I’m trying to hurt you—”
He shakes his head. “I still won’t do it.”
In the distance, birds of who-knows-what-kind let out an unearthly screech.
We both look up, but the densely packed trees obscure our view of the midnight-blue sky.
Burdock has to be out here somewhere, and I doubt he’s alone.
Or are those Rime’s birds—a decoy to draw Brier’s team away from the riverside?
“They sound far away,” I say.
Leo nods.
“Come on.” I nudge him forward. “We’re almost there.” We have enough time to dig up that bracelet and get back safely to Avery’s before anyone sees us.
We race through the forest, Leo’s weaving magic hasty and slapdash. Overlooked vines snag our ankles and thorns tear our clothes. We’re moving too fast for me to easily hold on to him. Only the glow of his phone guides me through the dusk.
Why is he in the lead? Why am I doing what he wants? I don’t need him; he needs me. I’m the powerful one here.
Rules.
Demands.
Limitations.
With my shoulder, I knock him aside, flames of rage bursting from my center and licking up my limbs.
“Betts!” Hands seize me. “Dissociate! This is Ember, not you. These aren’t your emotions!”
The hell they aren’t.
Fuck you and your dumbass cooler. Nobody owns me.
I kick and bite as I try to wrench free. Brown eyes flash gold with fury.
Go ahead, look at me. Look at the freak. Look at the abomination.
He spins me and holds my chin in a vise, trapping my head against his chest. Viciously, I dig my skull into his sternum, waiting to hear the delicious crack.
They’re stronger than me now, but later they’ll regret this. Regret everything they’ve ever done to me.
There’s a moan. Someone in pain. Beautiful, excruciating, crippling pain.
He growls words that make no sense to me, but still he doesn’t let me go.
The fire inside me weakens, and the flames that scorched my cheeks withdraw, leaving behind a gentle, soothing heat, like the sun on a spring day.
The scent of books and leaves, the chest pushing against my back with each breath, the hands—they’re familiar. Strong, safe, reassuring. His fingers slide off my chin, and the tension drains from his arms. On impulse, I lean into him, tipping my head back onto his shoulder.
“Betts,” Leo whispers, turning me in his arms. “We can’t keep going.”
I blink in horror at two bright red scratches on his cheek. “Oh my god.” There’s no fighting my tears.
“This is what I was afraid of.”
“I tried to harness.” Didn’t I? “No.” Shamefully, I shake my head. “No, I didn’t try. I didn’t want to.”
“She’s hitting too close to home.”
Sniffling, I run gentle fingers over the marks I gouged on his face. “Can you heal them?”
“I can’t heal myself,” he says, like it’s an apology. Like he’s failing me. When I nestle my face in his neck, he stumbles backward into a tree, taking me with him. He’s pale and limp, utterly exhausted. From calming me. “I’ll be okay in a minute.”
There has to be some harnessed energy in me; I was burning in a furnace of emotions.
And if none of those got in, there are my own and Leo’s.
There’s enough to revive him. I place one hand on his chest and the other on his jaw, just below those heartbreaking scratches.
With his chin resting on the top of my head, he holds me while I send whatever chaotic vibrations there are inside me down my arms and into him.
Energy pulses through his limbs and quickens his breath. His muscles flex and the color returns to his face. My beautiful Leo. I kiss the angry red marks on his cheek; he kisses my breathless mouth.
“You’ve done enough. Let me take you back.”
“No.” I grit my teeth. “We keep going. But if I go off the deep end again, just let me. You can’t be burning up your power.” He needs to knock me out, tie me to a tree, kick me into the underbrush—anything to get me out of the way. “Just leave me and get the bracelet.”
He’s getting that look again, that no-fucking-way fire in his eyes.
I push on his chest and snarl, “Just do it.” I’d rather throw myself into the river than hurt him again. He needs to complete this mission.
He sets his jaw, determined to argue, but I shove past him and walk on.