Chapter 13 #2
I tried very hard to look unimpressed, but I’m sure my jaw was already on the floor. He raised an eyebrow, and the window across from the first also opened, filling the room with fresh, if chilly, air. The heat cone burst to life with his coral magic, counteracting the cold in seconds.
My new roommate flexed his chest, his hand on his hips, dominating the space he’d mastered in seconds.
“How long have you been here?” he asked too casually.
I wrinkled my nose. “Four days.”
“I guess I won’t have too much competition then if you’re the average.” He draped himself over the couch. “Do we have any food?”
I gave him a flat look.
“Oh, let me guess, you haven’t figured that out either.
” He shook his head. “You're skinny enough for me to believe it. If you want to be such good friends, then let’s start with finding you a way to pay me back for cleaning your clothing and the inconvenience of me having to see it when I first arrived.” He smiled sweetly.
“I’ll have a think on what your scrawny, broke-ass can do for me.
I am an Adler Michelson, after all. My friendship’s worth a little extra work, no? ”
I had no idea what being an ‘Adler Michelson’ meant, and I didn’t care.
I turned my back on him without answering.
Of all the things, my heart went out to Rowan, dealing with his own Erick in the shape of Lady Moore.
My roommate laughed, utterly unaware of my thoughts. The smallest of smiles cracked my lips.
I rubbed my eyes and found Matt's blurry shape behind the bar.
“Moose,” I said eloquently. “And coffee.”
“A bit early for your work-study?” Matt said, his burnt-caramel hair tied at the nape of his neck coming into focus. “And you don’t have any money for coffee.”
I thumped the bar. “My new roommate snores, and my TB is my alarm clock, so once I saw the light, I stayed up.” I put my hands together. “Put it on my tab?”
He grinned. “Not until you’ve paid the one you’ve got.”
I wanted to argue, but I didn’t have any ground to stand on.
Matt handed me a dish towel and motioned toward the back, but I pushed it back toward him and let it drop on the bar. “I saw my TB last night. I don’t need to work yet. Nothing’s changed.” I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “Horax said you would give me a note for Moose.”
Matt cocked his head to the side and scanned me up and down. “You, really?”
I blinked rapidly.
“Ah, sorry. I mean, yes. Moose.” He raised an eyebrow, and a scrawl wrote itself in his burnt caramel. “It’s only six. If your work-study starts at the same time as yesterday, you’ll find him, no problem. He’s usually in his spot next to the portcullis. You’re looking for crocodile hair.”
I swiped the note, surprised this Moose person was already up, and trotted off.
The portcullis was around the corner from the Happy Rooster.
Fifteen feet across at most, a tall arched entry filled the center.
Large iron gates kept anyone who wanted in, out, and anyone already in, in.
Two enforcers, dressed in blacks, sat on either side, with another standing at the top, looking out.
None of them had green hair of any shade.
Matt had said ‘in his spot’, which made it sound easy to find.
To the right, a walkway slowly narrowed until it reached the buildings on the back side of the coliseum.
And to the left, a tall wall followed the cliffside.
I put my fingers against the ancient masonry and walked.
A break in the stone, hidden by its odd angle, had a barred gate.
Weeds growing from the cliffside came up almost to my waist, and the remains of what could have been a guardhouse peeked at me.
I touched a rusty padlock, keeping it shut. Interesting, but definitely not Moose.
As I rounded the bend, the cannons came into view. An enforcer gave me a nod, and I nodded back. If Moose was at the cannons, Matt would have said cannons. I wrinkled my nose and turned around.
Before I made it back to the portcullis, Ezra slid into my path.
Not Ezra, Commander Ezra. The second-in-command of this entire place, according to Brit. Despite his black leather uniform, my gaze still slipped down to where I knew the most drool-worthy set of abs I’d ever seen lived.
With a shake of my head, I looked at his face again, and he smirked.
“Are you looking for something?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I pursed my lips. I’d technically stolen from the Happy Rooster. Ezra was an enforcer. What if Horax was doing me a favor by not involving the authorities? “I couldn’t sleep, and I was thinking of going into town.”
Ezra’s smirk fell off his face. “No.”
I bit my lips together. “No?”
Ezra nodded and jerked his head, getting us walking. The cannons sparkled with dew in the morning light as we walked toward them.
The Architect has big plans for you. Chancellor Morgen’s words filled my mind.
Unable to shake them, I gave Ezra a skeptical look. “Why can’t I go into town?”
Ezra motioned for me to walk at his side, and I did. “Edinburgh doesn’t belong to us. Neutral territory, it’s still too dangerous. You are safe in our walls.”
I opened and closed my mouth. “Am I trapped here?”
Ezra shook his head. “No. But for now, yes.”
I stopped walking and grabbed his arm. “Why? Explain it to me.”
To my surprise, Ezra took my hand and pulled me forward. The shadows from the cannon shifted unnaturally, making a blanket on the ground. We sat, our knees brushing. The touch was simple, yet somehow more intimate than it had any right to be.
He brushed a stray hair away from my face. “The Architect healed you. He risked his own life to save yours. I want you to be safe, and here when he wakes.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Quinn, what happened to you on your journey here?” Ezra asked softly.
My stomach twisted. I hadn’t traveled here; I just appeared.
If this were all a delusion, then the trauma was imagined, too.
The three spots on my lower back ached in protest. If every scenario were connected, this entire world would be nothing more than an anesthesia dream I’d eventually wake from.
No reason to relive things that never really happened.
I took a frustrated breath and condensed all of that into two words. “Nothing good.”
He waited.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I finally added.
Ezra put his hand on my shoulder. “My family was attacked when I was small. I was taken as a slave.” He met my gaze. “I killed my slaver and came to Edinburgh a free man, only to find a different side of horror. People make terrible choices, or worse, don’t get a choice at all.”
My heart cracked. He was too close to what happened to me. The spots pulsed painfully, and the last face I saw in each delusion flashed across my memory. Instead of denying their existence, I let myself hurt.
Ezra slid his hand down my side and pulled me close.
I wrapped my arms around his middle. “My life wasn’t like this before.”
Ezra rubbed my shoulder. “Mine wasn’t either.”
“I still don’t want it to be real.” I squeezed whatever material was under my hands. “It might not be. Every time it got too bad, I’d black out and wake up somewhere else.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “I keep waiting for another blackout.”
Ezra pried my face away from his side so he could capture my gaze. “I don’t want you to black out. If you go into town, that will happen.” His plum-purple gaze bore into me. Concern I didn’t understand swirled in their depths.
Concern he shouldn’t have after only a few days.
We never talked about my blackouts. He didn’t know what they were, yet going into town would cause one?
Suspicion bloomed to life in my chest, slicing through the sweet trust his words filled me with.
Ezra barely knew me. I should be a nobody, a random trainee.
“Did you open up to scare me into staying in the castle walls?” I asked quietly.
“No.” Ezra reached for me again.
I stood. “You’re second-in-command of this entire place.
Your staff is trying to pick my friends for me.
” I balled my fists. “The first man I met in scenario one invited me into his home. He fed me and took care of me while I tried to figure out what was going on. Everything he said was nice. He justified my every emotion. I could do no wrong.” A tear slipped down my cheek.
That first week had been so confusing, but the old man with fairy lights in his hair had made me feel loved, no matter how bad it got.
“He picked every word so I would trust him. And it worked.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and let his betrayal run through me again. I’d been a trusting idiot. Too afraid to leave the cave I’d woken up in and too broken to understand the difference between caring and manipulation.
I opened my eyes. “He had two sons who helped me with every task. I woke up one night with them on either side of my bed and the old man blocking the only exit.” Angry tears fell down my face.
“I trusted him, and he watched as his sons tried to rape me.” I scrubbed my face. “He gave them fucking directions.”
My anger blotted out the ache in my lower back. The little Pagen community had duped me just as thoroughly, and by the time the man with gold teeth and coal black hair found me, I’d been so sick and injured, I couldn’t have defended myself if I wanted to.
I didn’t know if this was real or not, but I would not make the same mistake again. Trust was earned.
Ezra stood and reached for me, and I stumbled back, my hands out. “Don’t. I don’t want your help or your sympathy.” I straightened my back. “I need to go into town.”
Ezra clenched his fists. “You will not get past a single guard. I will not see you hurt.”
I took a slow breath. “They called you this morning, didn’t they?”
Ezra nodded. “They saw you wandering and let me know. My enforcers are loyal.” His shoulders dropped. “I only want you safe.”
Councilor Morgen’s words flooded me. “For when the Architect wakes up?” I crossed my arms over my chest.