Chapter 24
Cayden
A message on my TB woke me early. I didn’t recognize the color.
Greige
This is Adam (train). Quinn didn’t show up for her work-study.
Forest Green
Why are you telling me?
Greige
Because she talks about you more than anyone else.
Command is swamped. I doubt my message will get through to anyone until this afternoon.
Forest Green
Understood.
I was lying on my bed, staring up at my simple ceiling. I had a vague memory of Adam from the technology booth, where I remembered groaning at a bad pun, but that was it. I wasn’t sure I acknowledged his presence.
And yet this person, unrelated to me or Quinn, had reached out to me.
When I first arrived here, I’d been so sure I was better than everyone else.
My Prophet’s teachings instructed us to act for the betterment of all.
Adam should not have reached out beyond his chain of command.
By telling me about Quinn, he demonstrated a lack of faith and created a problem for an individual rather than the group.
And yet, I’d never been so grateful to receive a message in my entire life.
How many of my family had suffered because we refused to look beyond my Prophet’s teachings? I rubbed the white runes on my wrist, the ones that connected me directly to my Prophet.
Quinn was suffering. No one else carried the workload she did. It reminded me of when I’d been learning my runes, day in and day out. No breaks. Each mastered pattern only led to the next. Only Quinn wasn’t mastering anything. She was too busy to think.
If I reconnected, I’d have my family's fortune at my fingertips. I could take her away from all of this.
My stomach twisted.
I couldn’t go back. There had to be something else I could do to help. My Prophet, no, the Prophet, couldn’t always be my answer; he should never have been in the first place.
I messaged Erick, who took his sweet time, but eventually responded, letting me know that Quinn was still sleeping in their dorm.
My worry eased. I gave her a few hours before crossing to her wing of Grady Hall.
When I knocked, no one answered. I’d given her too much time.
After a soggy search in the rain of all her favorite haunts, I finally ended up at the Happy Rooster, the place she only went to if one of us dragged her along.
But I didn’t see her, or any of our usual friends.
I slid to the bar and drummed my fingers against it.
“No food served at the bar,” the burnt-caramel-haired bartender stated, handing a tray of coffee to a server.
I cleared my throat and flipped back the pink hood of my standard-issue cloak.
“Oh, ah, Cayden,” the bartender said. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize you without your, uh usual attire. Yeah, I’ll get your usual right away.”
He darted off.
I self-consciously touched my bare neck and the simple forest-green tunic I’d put on over my uniform pants. Only my emerald earring remained of my usual display of wealth. My family was rich. Not me.
A large man strode up to the counter. “Matt, where did you seat Quinn?”
Quinn. I looked up. He wasn’t just big, he was built.
Muscles swelled under a soaked football jersey; the fabric tucked into a blue tartan kilt.
Cleats clung with tufts of mud. Just one of his legs was the size of some of the trainees here.
He looked like he could break someone in half, an enforcer for sure, but they all blurred together to me.
I rested my hands on the bar, brow furrowing.
Quinn had once mentioned a “handsome” enforcer when we first met, then never brought him up again. Was this him?
The man ran his fingers through his white hair, squeezing out water.
White. My heart skipped a beat. The exact same shade left in Quinn’s dorm when I found her bleeding on her couch. Fury changed my vision to red. This wall of muscle had hurt my best friend.
Each of my fingers worked with its own mind. I traced the runes, which ran along my body, activating enhancements that increased my strength and speed. Power infused my legs first.
“Um, ah, Rowan, man. I haven’t seen her this morning.” The bartender's voice barely registered. With my legs strengthened, I shifted my focus to my arms.
Rowan and the bartender studied each other.
“You’re lying to me,” Rowan said lowly. “Why?”
I finished the strength rune on my muscles and stood. My fingers burned as I drew runes faster than I knew possible. Two balls of pure force grew in my palms.
When the bartender didn’t answer, Rowan strode past him and into the back, leaving the bartender pale-faced and shaking.
I didn’t waste the opportunity to slide past him as well.
A tight hall slowed down my casting, but didn’t stop it.
A few paces later, my magic clicked into place, and the two balls of raw magic sizzled in my palms, brightening the hall.
Rowan cursed and spun around while I let out a roar and charged forward.
Raw magic seared through the air, scorching his jersey until the fabric melted away.
The massive mage went flying backward and crashed into the room at the end.
Stacked boxes toppled, tumbling with the force of his impact.
In seconds, I had him pinned, the remnants of his shirt clenched in my fist, and I drew my arm back.
Breaking glass rained down on the room. Whatever he’d hit created a chain reaction, and the sound of shattering glass tinkled like rain.
Movement at my side made me hesitate, and the world slowed. Quinn stood in the middle of the falling glassware. Wine balloons sparkled as they hit the ground and shattered, bits bouncing back into the air. A stem flew toward her ankle.
Wind whipped around Quinn’s legs, knocking the stem away and creating a shield around her.
I looked down at the man in my grip, who focused not on me, but on Quinn.
The raining glass eased, and his glowing white gaze turned back to me.
His fist connected with my face. Time sped back up.
I flew backward. Pain radiated while blood dripped from my broken nose.
Rowan flipped to standing and lunged for me again. I blocked. The impact jarred my magic-infused strength. A begrudging respect filled Rowan’s gaze before he punched again and again.
It didn’t take me long to realize I was in over my head, but an image of Rowan’s massive body, leaning over Quinn on her couch…
suddenly my vision changed. Instead of her couch, I saw a bed of red silk.
The Prophet’s light kissed Quinn’s skin as he straddled her against her will. Blind rage became my world.
I blocked and dropped. Glass cut into my hands before I donkey kicked with both my legs. I hit Rowan hard; my magically infused muscles sent him staggering backward. I pushed off the ground and took one step closer to him.
Quinn slid between us, her arms out. “Stop! What are you doing?”
Glass crunched under our feet. The sounds from the pub murmured in the background.
I drank in Quinn’s face. Here with me. A breath of wet air, smelling of too many different foods, ran over my taste buds, nothing like the Prophet’s compound.
The rage drained out of me. Behind Quinn, Rowan picked himself up.
His white hair focused my thoughts. This fight had never been about the Prophet.
Pushing Quinn behind me, I faced Rowan again. “Explain yourself.”
I cringed at the sound of my nasal voice through my broken nose. My adrenaline rush ebbed, making my face throb and the cuts on my hands burn.
“Explain myself?” Rowan slid back into a fighting stance. “You attacked me, Lawson.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Your magic was all over Quinn’s dorm the night I healed her.”
“You healed her?” Rowan brought his hands to a front guard position. “I’m surprised you didn’t take her back to your compound to do it.”
“She will never set foot in that place,” I snarled. “I will die before I let the Prophet see her face.”
Rowan blinked. “Ah. Did you agree with me?”
“You were in my room?” Quinn put her hand on my arm and came out from behind me. “Rowan. What’s going on?”
I stuck my arm out to keep Quinn from moving any further forward.
Rowan clenched his fists and let out a frustrated breath. “It’s complicated.”
Quinn gripped my arm. “Try, because you came flying in here with my best friend beating on you. It doesn’t look good.”
“You messaged me,” Rowan growled before gesturing to me. “And one of us definitely looks more beat than the other.”
“You messaged him? Who is this guy?” My arm drooped, and I turned to Quinn, confused. “Did you find your TB?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the bartender sliding out of the doorway.
“I did, but I lost it again.” Quinn nodded really big and twirled some of her hair around her finger.
I pursed my lips, and pain shot to my nose.
“Yeah, no,” Rowan said. “That’s not gonna fly anymore. I can’t believe anyone believed it in the first place.”
I dropped my arm. Though I still kept myself between Quinn and Rowan, I released the runes, which strengthened my muscles, and started drawing healing ones on my nose.
“What were you doing in my room?” Quinn asked again.
Rowan scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “I found you after you fell, in the back of a shop. You were out of the castle and a mess. I took you back to your dorm. I assumed you’d wake up and message a medic, not...” Rowan shoved his hand toward me.
“She doesn’t have a TB, you buffoon.” The final word went up in pitch, destroying my insult. “How could you leave her bleeding?”
Guilt flooded Rowan’s face. His shoulders lowered, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
“Right.” Quinn came out from behind me and looked between us. “I’m not saying this again. I fell. No one hit me. It sounds like Rowan found me in a bad place and brought me to a good one.” She smiled at him. “Ezra might have locked me in a cell if he found out, so thank you, Rowan.”
Rowan bit his lips together. “Don’t thank me.”
My healing runes clicked together. My nose cracked back into place before all the pain in my face vanished. I glared at Rowan, silently warning him never to touch my girl again, before fixing my bleeding hands.
Rowan straightened and focused on Quinn, though he kept one eye on me. “What was the favor you needed?”
Quinn blew out a breath. “I need to go to The Green. Ezra banned me from leaving. But I can’t live like this.
I need to be able to take care of myself.
” Quin rubbed her arms, her gaze focused on Rowan.
“You’ve been really good to me, and I need…
” She struggled with herself. “I need help. My last attempt didn’t go so well. ”
“I’ll take you.” I pulled a shard of glass out of my thumb. “You should have asked.”
Rowan held up a hand. “You’re no enforcer. As one of Ezra’s five, what Quinn’s asking is still a tall order.”
A knot of jealousy I didn’t know I’d been holding loosened in my gut.
Quinn hadn’t messaged him because he was better than me, just because he had connections I didn’t.
Ezra had her training with his five; this man wasn’t a friend, only a tutor.
Except… he’d found her after her fall, before the tutoring ever began.
I’d bet money he was the ‘handsome’ enforcer who gave her the book.
I didn’t trust any of this.
The last cut on my right hand sealed shut. “Then we’ll all go together.”
Rowan scowled at me, and Quinn bounced, making the glass under her feet scrape. “Might I suggest we go now before Matt comes back?” Quinn batted her lashes at us.
I scowled. Those should have been my eyelash battings and mine alone.
“I need to change into my blacks.” Rowan looked at me. “And I suggest something less bloody. The Green is civilized.”
“I know what The Green is.” I slid my hands into my pockets.
Rowan grunted. “Be at the stables in thirty.”
“We will.” Quinn shifted to Rowan’s side and squeezed his arm. “Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me.”
Rowan looked like he wanted to hug her back, but pulled away and walked down the hall. Quinn chewed her lower lip and watched him go.
I didn’t kiss Quinn when she gave me the chance, and I stood by that decision. Quinn needed the best at her side, and an enforcer who left her bleeding was not it.
I would make sure he understood his place.