Chapter 6 Quinn
Quinn
My first manager, a woman not that much older than me but perfectly made up with layers of makeup and an adorable pixie cut that put my more casual styling to shame, called me into her office.
Her smile didn’t touch her eyes. “I’m sorry, Quinn. I know this is your first job, but we have to let you go.”
“But I need this job.” I tried not to cry. Crying always made things worse, but tears slipped out anyway. It didn’t seem to matter how much my dad begged me not to react. I did. I couldn’t stop my emotions, like I couldn’t stop my blackouts.
“I don’t know what you need, but it’s not a job stocking shelves,” my manager said as her voice grew cold.
“I don’t know why you filled the canned tomato section with metal, tomatoes, and whatever the powder was, but whatever political statement you tried to make only made all our jobs harder.
No one cares, and not only do we have to replace everything, but it’s going to be hours of cleanup. ”
I didn’t have a response. I’d blacked out on the second day of my first job ever. Like always, the security cameras went on the fritz at the same time, as if I was some genius hacker who knew how to control that stuff.
For all I knew, Miss Q was.
I hadn’t stuck around to watch Cayden and Seth duke it out.
After my interactions with Brody, Seth terrified me.
I didn’t need another Brody. And Cayden, well, he confused me.
He’d been an ass. In his defense, I’d hammed it up a bit to get under his skin.
But despite all my hair-twirling stupidity, he kept feeding me the information I needed.
And then he kind of defended me from Seth.
A little bounce I didn’t analyze accompanied my next step before I pushed made-up boys out of my brain and focused on made-up magic.
It had never occurred to me that magic caused my blackouts, or that not doing magic would make them worse. Because magic wasn’t real, but here it was. Cayden’s words clicked into place. The pattern fit not just these scenarios, but my life.
As a kid, I broke things without knowing why.
I didn’t realize it was magic, or that it was wrong, so I kept doing it.
When I tried to stop, the blackouts started.
Medication gave me more control, but it also brought something worse: waking up in strange places, no memory, heart racing like I’d been running for my life.
I took a deep breath of cool air and rounded a corner to keep walking toward Grady Hall.
An object in motion stays in motion: Newton’s Law of Inertia. It applied to magic. I spent my life trying to stop the unstoppable, and all it did was mess me up. Boy, Miss Q was having fun today, and I was diving after her without a care in the world.
I touched the Wundarboard, attempting to ‘assert my will,’ and instead, I destroyed it. But I’d been paying attention this time, and I swore I felt something I didn’t have words for.
My fast walk turned into a run. I was desperate to test my theory.
After three flights of stairs and almost crashing into two fellow residents, I slid to a halt in front of my dorm.
The modified tablet, which locked and unlocked my door, took up my full attention.
I held my breath, focusing all my senses on myself, and dropped my hand onto its surface. My door unlocked with a click.
I felt nothing.
I stood there, opening and closing the door to lock and unlock it repeatedly until someone walked by, giving me an odd look.
I waved before slipping into my room. There were two kinds of magic inside me.
There had to be. Cayden said my door pulled magic out of me automatically, and if my magic only destroyed, then the door pulled from a different source.
My stomach growled.
Right. I needed to calm down. The door wasn’t going anywhere.
I dragged myself up the stairs. A welcome basket from all the businesses on ‘The Royal Mile,’ whatever that was, still sat on my little kitchenette.
Which apparently would do more than look pretty if I could figure out how to use it.
I found a few more fancy cheeses and the last of my crackers.
It wasn’t really enough to eat, but I’d had less on the road. I would make do.
With a better understanding of what I needed to read about, I opened Rowan’s book and found that my theory was indeed true. Magic existed in two states. There were a few exceptions that referenced a book I didn’t have. Hopefully, those weren’t important.
The first was raw energy, which anyone could harness in quantities based on their individual capacity. Apparently, I was supposed to feel it in the air around me. It was in every breath I took, and the flow changed with geography and population density.
But I didn’t feel anything flowing around me.
‘Think of it like a pool of water,’ the book read. ‘Anyone can disturb the surface, creating ripples that change the currents [the flow of magic], but to actually take meaningful amounts of water out of the pool, only using our hands is inefficient. This is where Majekah comes into play.’
Brody’s oily commands.
Cayden’s runes.
My destruction? Was that my Majekah?
Not totally thrilled with that thought, I kept reading.
‘The amount of magic a person is able to channel is directly linked to how many generations removed they are from the tremors. This is an undisputed fact, also found in Williamson’s Levels of Magic Theory, and Robert’s Our Changing Philosophies. ’
How many generations removed from the tremors am I? I’d been born before they happened.
The sound of knuckles rapping on my door startled me, and I opened it to Brody, who stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
He smiled at me. “I missed you at the party last night.”
“Right, the party.” I bit my lips together. If I’d known where it was, I still would have avoided it. My evening with Ezra, to be repeated tonight, had been way better.
“I should have come and picked you up. You probably didn’t know where it was.” Brody smiled shyly. “I noticed you haven’t picked up your uniform or TB, and your orientation meeting with Valentino is coming up. We can go together.”
“Brody.” I didn’t open the door any wider. “I’d be happy to, as you actually know where you’re going. But.” I gave him what I hoped was a sweet smile. “Just as friends. I’m still figuring all of this out…”
He held out his hand to stop me. “I was too pushy. I don’t really get to talk to girls much. Their families usually keep them close.”
“I’m starting to realize that,” I said dryly, remembering Seth’s statistics.
There was an awkward silence between us. One I wasn’t going to fill.
“As friends,” he said. “I’ll keep pretending you’re a boy to make my boss happy. No strings attached.”
I narrowed my eyes. “If you push once, I’m out.”
Brody nodded so hard his hair flopped on his head. “Promise.”
I narrowed my eyes at him before letting out a skeptical breath.
Not wanting to drag this out, I stepped into my shoes, grabbed my imaginary purse, and exited my dorm.
Despite the uneasy energy around us, Brody’s entire face lit up, and I cringed.
The kid didn’t seem to notice. A bad feeling settled in my gut, but it was too late now.
The day was overcast but clear as we headed toward Hope’s office. I could easily make out The Happy Rooster across the way. People ate and chatted in the outdoor seating. A few groups loitered outside Hope’s office. My discomfort with Brody eased in the safety of the general public.
“Hey, that’s the new guy who manifested a dragon.” A stranger pointed at me. “Why’s he trailing behind a work-study if he’s here to climb?”
I slowed, not understanding any of that.
“Maybe he likes his twinks young,” a different voice answered. “Everyone knows he likes it up the ass.”
Well, I did understand all of that and wished I hadn’t.
“Don’t let them get to you.” Brody slowed. “We know the truth.” He tried to reach for my hand, but I quickly pulled away.
If Brody noticed, he didn’t show it. With a smile still plastered on his face, he led me into Hope’s office, where I got a stack of clothing.
The woman herself smiled at me and confirmed I received my TB, the little cube I’d found on my desk.
Apparently, the devices were handmade by the Architect for his family.
She handed me a glowing sheet of baby blue, explaining how to use it.
I dumped all of it into my void, unwilling to let Brody know I needed help with anything.
Next, he rushed me to a hexagon-shaped building where I found myself crammed into a small room with six men, not including Brody, thankfully.
I recognized two faces, but I didn’t know their names.
Neither spared me a glance. Although a different pair was chatting, the rest waited, looking as out of place as I felt.
I shuffled to a back wall and leaned against it. A vivid memory of Rowan made heat rush to my face, and I let myself enjoy it.
“I’m supposed to have seven in the office. I only see six.” A man’s voice came from the opposite side of the room I was in. Everyone was so much taller than me; all I could see were shoulders and a few vivid pops of hair. Maybe Miss Q was running out of stock images to base her characters on.
I swallowed a dark chuckle and stuck my arms in the air. When he still didn’t say anything, I added a little jump and a wave.
“Ah, I see, on the short side,” the same man said.
A few people chuckled.
I couldn’t argue with that, so I kept quiet and waited.