Page 44 of Dark Night Golden Dawn
“You don’t want one to share?” Brennan asked, grinning deviously. Harlow wondered how often Finn brought dates to Brennan’s cart. She could just imagine how charming it would seem to all the high society immortals he’d been linked with in the past. Her heart stammered, unsure. That wasn’t a fair assumption. And why should she care who he brought where?
Finn shook his head. “Nope, we’re not at the sharing stage yet, but vanilla bean with sprinkles is Harls’ favorite.”
The words struck her hard, slamming into her, a truckload of memories she’d worked hard to repress since things went wrong between them. After every test she failed, every time she disappointed Selene, all the times she’d embarrassed herself trying out for plays she never got into, he’d brought her vanilla bean ice cream, her favorite, and a bottle of sprinkles to shake onto every bite. Her chin threatened to quiver, so she bit her bottom lip hard.
When Brennan handed the big cones over, he also gave them wooden spoons. As they walked away, she heard, rather than saw the photographers following. They’d catch up soon.
“I should have been there to give this to you when some asshole treated you like shit in secondary.”
She looked up at him and started to say he didn’t need to say anything else tonight, but he shook his head. His words came out in a tumble. “I shouldn’t have been that asshole. I’ve done a lot of work on myself since back then, and maybe I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I hope at least when I explain things on Solon Mai, you’ll get any closure you still need…”
“Okay.”
He looked down at her, his brow furrowed in surprise. “What?”
She didn’t want to hold grudges or act out in ways that made her feel like a monster. That path was dangerous. Harlow wasn’t the least bit sure that she could trust Finn, and she was positive they weren’t starting anything real, but she could hear him out and let this go for good. She could try to heal, and then start over. She didn’t know how that would work with everything she’d committed to doing for the Order and her family, but she was finally willing to try.
“Okay,” she said, so quietly she was afraid he might not hear her. “We’ll talk. I’ll get closure, and then we’ll figure out what to do next.”
His face was open and she saw how surprised he was. How hope lit softly in his face, flickering weakly as a candle in a windstorm. “Yeah?”
Harlow nodded as she took a big bite of the ice cream, and started walking towards the subway. She didn’t want to be the one to douse that light. Not tonight, even though she knew anything more than this between them was utterly impossible. “Yeah. Wanna ride to my stop with me?”
Finn smiled. “I do.”
Behind them, the sound of cameras followed until they disappeared into the subterranean stairway.
ChapterTwenty-One
The days after the White Oak party were a riot of news about Harlow, Thea, and the Illuminated men courting them. Section Seven and the socials all but quit talking about Mark and Olivia. Instead, photos of her at the whiskey bar, and on the street with Finn, circulated everywhere, along with commentary about her clothes, about how long she and Finn had known one another and if she or Thea were to be considered the season’s swan.
The nearly unanimous conclusion was that despite the entertaining showing she and Finn put on as a couple, the glamor of Thea and Alaric’s fairytale match was too good to pass up. Their burgeoning love story was all anyone following the season closely—which according to Indigo and Meline was literally millions of people—were talking about. Harlow spent the entire morning in bed cuddling Axel, catching up on gossip sites and socials, drinking tea and laughing to herself at all the speculation.
A few times, she’d thought of texting some of the funnier memes people were making about her and Finn to him, but she refrained. They’d reached a truce the night of the White Oak party, but she still didn’t completely trust him. She was almost certain he wasn’t in league with his parents, but she didn’t know if they could even be friends, let alone anything more.
Still, the realization that she wanted closure and to move on from their sad past remained, and that was enough for her. That and getting his parents off the Order of Mysteries’ back for good. She had to remember that was the real goal here, not making herself feel better.
An alarm went off on her phone, reminding her to get going. She’d promised to get ready for the Solon Mai ball with Enzo and her sisters at his place, and she’d been trying to take a nap with Axel but had gotten sucked into her phone. She hadn’t slept well all week, between monitoring socials and practicing with her shadow magic. Harlow hoped to Aphora that Thea could glamour away the dark circles under her eyes.
The alarm rang again, insistently. Harlow shut it off and fed Axel, who was fast asleep, sprawled out on her bed. She kissed him and he purred, but did not wake. He was doing much better, sleeping comfortably now and eating regularly. He’d even started to play with the toys Larkin had brought over, to Harlow’s surprise. Axel had never been interested in toys before, but perhaps that was because he’d known what she hadn’t at the time—that they hadn’t been safe at Mark’s.
She gathered her things and went downstairs to hail a cab, which was blessedly easy to do. She fell into the back seat, feeling drained and anxious about the evening ahead. The ever-present spring drizzle in Nuva Troi draped the world in a comforting blanket of grey and she dozed a little in the back seat.
When they came to a stop on Mulberry Street, she paid the cabbie, tipping generously, and entered the atelier from the back. Enzo’s parents had owned the entire building, and at one time rented out the top floors as office space. Now, Enzo resided here, above the shop.
Harlow pressed her palm to the metal plate next to the door, as Enzo had instructed her to do, and it opened—a stunning bit of magical tech that must have cost Enzo a fortune. Her own combination of lock and wards worked similarly to let in who she wanted to, and keep out anyone else, but this single piece of tech seemed to do it all in one go. Her eyes narrowed slightly as the door opened and a soft voice said, “Welcome, Harlow Krane.”
The muffled sound of blaring pop music from upstairs suffused the stairwell. Harlow took a deep breath; they were already having a good time and she didn’t want to be a downer, but the past few days had been draining. Her feet moved slowly as she reluctantly headed up. She hadn’t been upstairs since Enzo spent a year remodeling the building, but the limewash blue paint felt familiar. Her memory of Enzo’s blue bedroom in the Weraka townhouse was still as vivid as though she’d been there yesterday.
She smiled as she trailed upstairs, where she found all four of her sisters, Enzo, and Riley Quinn dancing in the great room to the music she’d heard below. Harlow hesitated for a moment. They were having fun and she wasn’t sure if she could have fun today. She wanted to, but her whole body felt heavy and sluggish, as though she were having an emotional hangover.
Larkin spotted Harlow and left the group to pull her into the living room. Everyone was singing the words to the popular song as loud as they could. Awkwardness flooded Harlow’s body. She felt as though she’d forgotten how to move. Larkin took her hands and started to sway with her, singing in an exaggerated fashion that made Harlow laugh.
Slowly, her body began to move along with Larkin’s. She was a terrible dancer, unlike her athletic, spritely sister, but she was starting to have fun. Larkin twirled her and Thea bumped her hip with her own. Soon, Harlow was singing along too, with the same abandon as her sisters. She felt the infectious magic of the moment in the shadows that pushed power into the filaments of magic surrounding them. Everything in the room began to glow slightly in Harlow’s second sight as the tightness in her chest dissipated into the music.
The song ended and a slow song came on. Enzo turned the music down as she went to greet him. He was a little breathless as he pulled her into a hug, and looked so satisfied that it made it hard for Harlow not to smile when he ordered her to “Come chat with Riley. I want them to feel welcome.”
Harlow’s heart swelled with happiness for Enzo. She knew that look; he was falling hard for the talented shifter. Riley was in the kitchen, their locs wrapped in an intricate half-up style that was punctuated by jeweled gold combs. Their ears were slightly elongated, as with all the Trickster’s Chosen, and they wore earrings in each ear that coordinated with the combs in their hair.
