Page 80 of Dark Night Golden Dawn
She lowered her eyes. “Okay.”
“You should do the same. It’s not your place to be madforher. She told you what she did because she needed someone to tell, and she thought she was helping you. I think she feels genuinely bad that what she said caused you to be so angry with him.”
Harlow’s voice died in her throat for a moment, then she coughed. “I don’t really know why I flew off the handle like that. I’ve been trying to figure it out for days. I mean, I was frustrated with him, but I was out of control…”
“You’ve been holding all that in for a long time.”
Harlow set the plate of fries down. “Yeah, but I do actually know Finn and Petra weren’t the reason things got so bad,I am. I’ve been working on this stuff for a while now. Something about the whole incident doesn’t feel right.”
Enzo arched an eyebrow. “You’re sure you’re not just repressing stuff?”
She shrugged instead of trying to convince him. There was only one way to know for sure. “You tell me. You’re the empath.”
He held out a hand to her. “If you really want to know, come inside.”
She took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.
“You’d better get that plate, or your cat will be eating fries. I don’t think they’re supposed to have garlic.”
Dutifully, Harlow picked up her plate and followed Enzo inside, tucking it into the oven before sitting with him on the floor. He and Axel were sitting in a patch of sunshine peeking through the haze.
“He likes you,” Harlow murmured as she sat, facing Enzo.
Axel made his way into her lap as Enzo took her hands. “Breathe with me and try not to resist. Since your anger is likely rooted deep, it may take a while for me to find.”
Harlow nodded, closing her eyes, trying to focus all her attention on the air moving in and out of her lungs. She felt the pressure of Enzo’s magic, as he pushed deeper into her mind. Empaths, even ones as talented as Enzo, mostly read surface feelings without effort, needing to probe more deeply to uncover older emotions, or something that wasn’t being actively felt.
She relaxed into the feeling, letting herself picture Enzo’s gentle search as a connection between them. When she imagined it as part of the thread between them, a magical link forged by their years of friendship and connection, she felt the pressure ease off. Instead of Enzo’s empathy feeling like an attack, it felt more like having a visitor.
When he let go of her hands, he sighed. “That was amazing, Harlow. Did you use your magic to help ease my way?”
She opened her eyes. “I think so.” They both looked down at her fingers, which were now stained inky blue. “What did you find?”
Enzo’s expression clouded. “It’s strange. I found the spot where your emotions about what Finn and Petra did reside… And all I found was a deep well of sadness. Some self-hatred, but no rage, not even any anger… At least…” He trailed off, creating a hollow in his cheek as he bit it, making his prominent cheekbones look even sharper on one side of his face.
“What?” she prompted, anxious to know what he’d found.
“It’s almost like there was something left over. Not a resolved emotion, that’s different…” he sighed. “I’m not explaining this well.”
Harlow smiled encouragingly. Sometimes Enzo got flustered when he couldn’t be as precise as he liked to. She’d always found it best not to interrupt his train of thought when he was like this.
He stared up at the ceiling. “Resolved emotions are like healed wounds. They leave silvery scars, but they are healed. I can tell what they were, how deep they ran, and many times how much damage they caused. But this was something else… A remnant of rage, but it wasn’t like anything else in you.”
When his eyes drifted back to hers, she saw the fear in them. “What does that mean?”
He shook his head. “I’d rather not guess.”
Her arm shot out and she took his hand. “Try. Please.”
Enzo grimaced. “It doesn’t look like it belongs to you, Harlow.Youranger, even your rage, looks completely different. Everyone’s emotions have similarities, but they have their own signature. This didn’t belong to you.”
She knew he wouldn’t want to answer this, but she had to ask. “What could cause something like that?”
“I’d like to talk with James Quinn, Riley’s dad, before I answer that. He and Riley’s mom are kind of experts about this stuff. She’s a researcher specializing in parapsychology and they often work together on cases like these. Is it all right if I talk to them about what I saw inside you?”
Harlow didn’t like the sound of what Enzo was suggesting might be wrong with her, but what choice did she have? If there was something inside her that wasn’t hers, she had to find out how it got there and what to do about it, or there was no way she could move forward with Finn.
“Sure.” She needed to change the subject. The idea that some alien remnant of rage was festering inside her was too disturbing. “How are things with Riley?”
