I froze. “How?”
“A number tied to one of the Trust cameras pinged a data path around the same time. Could be nothing. Could be the malfunction Dad found. Could be something else entirely.”
My jaw clenched. “Great. Did Dad tell you about one of the failed cameras at the festival?”
“Yes,” Becket answered. “It may be connected but we don’t have solid proof yet.”
Harmony looked pale again, her arm brushing mine.
“I’ll keep digging,” Becket said. “Keep her close.”
He hung up. Harmony stared at the ground, breathing shallowly.
“Harmony,” I murmured, tilting her chin up, “talk to me.”
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “I just… need a minute.”
But her eyes told the truth. She wasn’t okay. She was unraveling and hiding something. The look on her facereminded me of the other night when it looked like she planned on taking matters into her own hands. A cold wind swept through the festival, rustling banners overhead.
Harmony looked toward the ridge, toward Maple Valley property, as if it were calling her. In that moment, I knew. She was planning something she didn’t want me to stop. I stepped closer, hand cupping the back of her neck.
“Sunshine… whatever you’re thinking?—”
“I’m not thinking anything,” she said too quickly.
A lie.
A soft one.
A scared one.
A determined one.
I didn’t push. Not here. Not in a crowd this dense. Not with the whole damn Laurentian region milling around us. But a weight settled deep in my chest. This wasn’t over. Not even close. And Harmony, my brave, stubborn, brilliant Harmony was about to walk straight into the storm again.
CHAPTER 37
Harmony
The house was dim when we got back from the festival, the kind of dim that swallowed sound and made you hear your heartbeat in your own ears. Eric locked the front door behind us, his movements calm and too steady. Controlled in a way that made the hair on my arms rise.
I stepped out of my boots, rubbing my palms together to shake off the cold.
“I’m going to grab some water,” I whispered, already moving toward the kitchen.
“Harmony.”
My name stopped me mid-step.
Eric stood in the hallway, jacket still on, hands braced on his hips, shoulders stiff with something he hadn’t let out yet. His eyes, which were usually warm even when worried, were darker and heavier. The kind of heavy that said whatever was bothering him, he wasn’t letting this go. At least not tonight.
I swallowed. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t answer immediately. He nodded toward the kitchen.
“Come sit down.”
My pulse fluttered uneasily. “Eric, I’m fine?—”
