I swallowed. “I’ll tell her.”

Tink was right—Mr. Alvarez did call to ask for my input on the Harrower attack the previous weekend. But since he’d been informed of Iris’s involvement, most of his questions revolved around her: when I first heard her; what I thought I heard; why I thought she might be contacting me. I came up with a hasty excuse to get him off the phone.

Leon wasn’t quite as easy to dissuade.

We spent Monday morning in the basement of the house, where Mom’s exercise room functioned as our training space. When we’d first begun our lessons, Leon had taught me the basics of fighting as a Guardian and defending myself against Harrowers. Then, after I’d started amplifying, the focus of our sessions shifted. Most of our time was spent practicing fighting together, working side by side. We’d concentrated on learning to move in sync and to anticipate one another’s actions. Recently, we’d gone back to sparring.

Now that I could share Leon’s powers, we were more evenly matched, but since the Amplification meant he was still stronger, he was wary of injuring me. I felt no such compunction. I doubted I could hurt him even if I tried. But the best part of training together was that Leon could no longer just vanish and reappear across the room. He flatly refused to teleport while I was amplifying. Ever since he’d accidentally transported us to Iowa a few months ago, he’d decided it was too dangerous to even attempt.

That also meant he wouldn’t consider letting me try it on my own. Sharing his powers technically meant that I could have teleported—if I’d known how. But if there was a secret to it, Leon wasn’t telling.

How do you Know? he’d asked, the one time I’d brought it up. How do you breathe? It’s not something I can explain. It’s instinct. I just do it. Then he’d paused. And even if I could explain it, I wouldn’t.

His newest training idea involved trying to break my Amplification. He claimed this was to help me work on maintaining the bond, even under duress. To me, it seemed more like he was just trying to see if he actually could break it—and it had turned into something of a competition between us.

I was expecting another round of our ongoing contest when we began our session, but Leon wasn’t concentrating. Or at least, not concentrating on training. I managed to throw him almost immediately, and instead of going on the offensive, he just lay there on the exercise mat, his forehead knotted in a frown.

I nudged his shoulder with the tips of my toes, then pulled back quickly in case he decided to catch my foot. “All right, what’s your strategy here? Are you trying to lull me into a false sense of security?”

“I’m thinking,” he said.

“Horizontally?”

He hopped to his feet in one smooth motion. “I’ve been trying to figure it out. Iris has been gone for six months, so why has she come back now? What is it she wants from you?”

“You said you thought it was revenge,” I replied.

“You said you thought it wasn’t.” He paused, his frown deepening. There was a slight hitch in his voice. “Do you think she’s still trying to unseal Verrick?”

“It wasn’t Verrick she wanted,” I said quickly. “It was his knowledge of the Remnant. And the Remnant is gone.” I hadn’t seen Brooke Oliver since the day Leon and I had killed Susannah, but I knew the elders had sealed her powers, and that she and her mother had been sent away from the Astral Circle. As a Remnant, Brooke had had the ability to open new passages Beneath—an ability that Harrowers coveted, and the Kin feared. An ability that had been deemed too dangerous to even be allowed to exist.

“Iris might not be aware of that,” Leon continued. He ran a hand through his hair. “Or she might just want to unleash him anyway.”

I didn’t want to talk about Iris, and I definitely didn’t want to talk about Verrick. “Or maybe she just decided that spending the rest of eternity in a realm overrun by reptilian hellbeasts wasn’t such a good plan, after all.”

Something in my tone must have alerted him. His hand came down on my shoulder. His words were quiet. “Do you know something?”

Instead of answering, I turned and threw him again.

From the ground, he made a noise that was half-laugh, half-sigh. “Audrey.”

“What? It’s not my fault you’re not paying attention.”

“I’m trying to have a conversation.”

“And I am trying to train. Isn’t that why we came down here?”

He stood once more, but now he was on his guard, observing me closely. I studied him back. His tie was askew and his hair was in disarray, but he still had that easy grace and confidence in his stance. He was all vigilance, watchful and ready for any movement I might make. His blue eyes were intent on mine. A smile tugged at his lips.

“That’s better,” I said, grinning.

When I attacked again, he was prepared for it. He caught me in a hold as I went for the throw, and though I still managed to unbalance him, we both ended up on the floor.

I rolled away, laughing, and scrambled to my feet. Leon was half a second behind me.

Though I was already amplifying, I hadn’t really been using his powers until this point. Now, as we circled each other across the exercise mat, I felt the hum of the bond and the surge of strength in my veins. It burned between us, crackling, almost tangible. Leon gave me a crooked smile. He feinted, but I didn’t react. I waited, watching for an opening.

When I saw an opportunity, I didn’t hesitate. I rushed forward with all the accelerated speed of my borrowed Guardian powers.

This time I didn’t attempt a throw. Instead, I caught his shirt at the shoulders and steered him backward, shoving him against the wall. Hard. Then I jumped up, pushing my body against his, and kissed him.

For a long moment, he kissed me back. Eagerly. Hungrily. His arms tightened around me, one hand tangling in my hair. I pressed my fingers to his chest and inched even closer.

Abruptly, he lifted me from him and set me on the ground, moving a few steps away. His face was flushed, but all he said was, “That isn’t working this time.”

“Kissing you?”

“Distracting me.”

“You seemed pretty distracted,” I said.

“Audrey, we need to be serious here.”

I felt a flash of annoyance and let it flare. “I don’t know what Iris wants with me, okay?” I said, clenching my hands into fists. “She didn’t send the Harrowers out with some secret coded message—two snarls for peace and friendship, three for impending doom. I don’t know why she’s targeting me. And I’m not to blame for it.”

“I didn’t say that. I’m just trying to—”

“To protect me. I know.” I stalked toward him, erasing the distance between us. “But I’m fine. If she sends another Harrower, we’ll take care of it. I won’t hesitate. I promised you that already. You protect me and I protect you, that’s how this works, remember?” Still amplifying, I pushed him with such force that he stumbled and sat down on the mat.

He raised an eyebrow. “You have a strange notion of protection.”

“Sorry.” I reached out a hand to help him back up, but he hooked a foot around my leg and sent me hurtling down to the mat beside him.

“Sorry,” he echoed, smirking.

It was the smirk that did it. Something inside me snapped. Furious, I whipped around and launched myself at him. He’d been climbing to his feet, but I bowled us both over. I landed awkwardly, the breath rushing out of my lungs, but I didn’t relent. We grappled a moment, rolling. My elbow connected with his ribs. He grunted, trying to thrust me away from him. When that didn’t work, he caught me, clasping me against his body. I stilled.

“Okay,” I said. “You win. Are you going to let me go?”

Leon wasn’t fooled. He didn’t relax his hold. “That depends. Are you done going crazy?”

In response, I wriggled and kicked, trying to free myself. Finally, he flipped me over, pinning me to the ground with my hands above my head.