Page 11 of Darkhan

Harmony drew a deep, not-as-steadying-as-she’d-hopedbreath, squared her shoulders, and led the way up the short, cracked concrete walkway to the front door. Her nerves were rampaging again by the time she found herself struggling with whether she should knock.

Then the front door flew open, nearly swinging into her face, and her mother stood in the entryway. Her nostrils flared and she planted her hands on her hips. “Harmony Lace, where in the devil’s name have you been? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

Harmony swore she could feel Zeno’s disapproving exhale at her back, despite that—at least for the moment—he continued to hold his tongue. She held tight to the courage she’d gathered moments earlier. “Do you really want to hash that out on the front stoop where all the neighbors can see?”

Linda’s brow furrowed and her stare finally lifted in Zeno’s direction. The glare wavered for a second before she dropped the entire expression back onto Harmony and demanded, “And who is this? You run away in the middle of an important transaction, then come home hours later—”

“Transaction?” Harmony barely kept from shouting the word. “Dad literally shoved me into Ricky’s arms and you just stood there!”

“You weren’t moving.”

“Of course I wasn’t moving,” Harmony snapped. “You know how uncomfortable he makes me, and then after the things he was saying—”

“You’re right,” Linda interrupted sharply. She twisted to the side. “We should take this inside.” Her eyes dropped to Harmony’s feet. “Those look new. Be careful taking them off so you can return them.”

Harmony found herself hesitant. This was what she’d come out there for, more or less, but suddenly she was unsure.

In her moment of uncertainty, Zeno broke his silence.“The boots are hers. She has no need to return them.”

Linda snapped her gaze out again, her glare a bit steadier this time. “I appreciate you returning my daughter home, sir,” she said tightly, “but this is a family matter. I hope you’ll forgive me for insisting you take your leave.”

Harmony stiffened. She’d expected this, but hearing it out loud made the fear worse.

Zeno laid his hand at the small of her back and stepped close enough to warm her with his presence. “I won’t be doing that.”

Linda’s eyes widened. “I beg your pardon?”

“Well, look who decided to come home,” a different, unfortunately familiar voice called from behind them. It slithered into Harmony’s ears and made the hair on her arms stand up.

Zeno let out a low sound of displeasure and turned so he could see Ricky without losing sight of Harmony’s mother. The expression on his face perfectly matched the growl he’d emitted. “You must be Patrick Eades.”

Harmony shifted her weight to move again closer to Zeno, not wanting her back exposed to Ricky, but her mother shot out a hand and latched onto her already bruised forearm.

At the same time, Linda said, “What wonderful timing, Mr. Eades. This man only just returned Harmony home to us.” Her words were once again soaked in sugar, but she leveled a glare on Harmony that dared her to utter a single sound of objection.

Harmony felt her heart crack. It was as if her mother didn’t understand at all.

“Mrs. Lace,” Zeno said, something like a warning in his voice.

The metal porch railing squeaked the way it always did when Ricky leaned too heavily against it. “Interesting. It smellsto me like the big guy here got a little handsy with my Harmony first.” He paused just long enough for Linda’s brow to pull tighter. “Did you help yourself to my prize, Grandpa? That’s real gross, you know.”

Harmony barely heard Zeno’s next growl over the thunderous beating of her heart. She’d known coming back would be hard, but she had naïvely thought she would at least get inside before the argument really started.

“You little whore,” Linda said in a low, poorly whispered hiss, her lips curling back. “Is that why you ran? Just to spread your legs for someone else?” Her fingers dug into Harmony’s arm, the nails biting Harmony’s skin.

Harmony stared at her mother, mouth slightly agape. Shock fizzled through her system. “Are you serious?” She tugged on her arm, but her mother’s grip didn’t budge. So she raised her voice. “Youbarteredmy virginity to the neighborhood bully, behind my back, butIwould be the whore if I had chosen to give it away instead? How dare you!” She surged forward and swung her open palm across her mother’s face.

It was enough to startle Linda into rearing back and releasing her arm.

Harmony stumbled free, adrenaline and too many emotions burning through her. “That’s so outdated, so outrageous, and so completely unacceptable!Idecide my life, do you hear me? Not you, not Dad, and not Ricky Eades!”

A chuckle that had never once meant anything good for her carried on the air from somewhere over her shoulder before Ricky said, “You sure about that, Princess? Because I think you might wanna rethink it.”

Harmony whirled around only in time to see Ricky’s feet leave the ground. Her eyes widened and whatever she might have snapped at him died in her throat as she watched her longtime tormentor tumble end over end down the short stretchof half-dead lawn toward the street. Behind her, her mother gasped dramatically.

Zeno stepped just in front of the porch, almost as if guarding it. “Get on your feet, vermin. This is your neighborhood. Let’s see you fight for it.”

Ricky released a long, strained groan and flopped onto his back. Seconds passed before Harmony was sure she heard him curse, and seconds more passed before he pushed to his knees. He wiped blood from his obviously broken nose, glaring openly at Zeno. “You’re gonna have to challenge a lot more than just me if it’s theneighborhoodyou want, old man.”

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