Chapter 22
Rowan
After spending the afternoon planning and the evening eating with her friends, Cayden and I escorted Quinn to her PT with Ezra.
Quinn stopped in front of the door and turned. “Guys, chill. I’m fine, really.”
“You’re not.” Cayden reached over and laced their fingers together.
I hadn’t spent time with them before, and the amount they touched was... surprising. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they’d been in a contract for months. They swore they were just friends. But the way Cayden looked at her? Bullshit. I wanted to know why.
“You spent three days trapped in their apartment.” Cayden pulled her close. “I’ve been reading, and even if the Architect wasn’t a mentalist, Stockholm syndrome is real, Quinn.”
Quinn groaned. “Didn’t you hear anything I said during dinner? I wasn’t trapped. They didn’t abuse me.”
No, but they’d done something, I wanted to say, but letting Quinn know I peeped on her every emotion wasn’t the right way to come clean… but what fucking was?
“They were polite and very focused on education.” Her cheeks heated, and her gaze darted to me before focusing back on Cayden. “Talk to Rowan; he’ll tell you all about it.” Quinn pulled her hand out of Cayden’s grasp.
My eyes flew wide. Fuck. What the hell was I supposed to say? I felt everything, but she couldn’t know that.
“He’s loyal to your captors,” Cayden hissed.
Quinn’s gaze softened. She leaned forward and placed a kiss on the underside of Cayden’s neck. “Not so loyal that he didn’t help you.”
The door to the gym opened. My commander’s plum-purple gaze took in the three of us.
A few weeks ago, we’d chatted about possibly lifting weights as a group.
Ezra put his hand on Quinn’s shoulder and guided her toward him, glaring at both of us.
Yeah, that wasn’t going to be happening any time soon.
“I’ll see you for training tomorrow.” Quinn smiled at me. “And breakfast? At the library?” Quinn said, turning to Cayden. “No more train duty!” She all but jumped with joy.
“I’ll be waiting outside your dorm,” Cayden promised.
Ezra pulled Quinn into the gym, and the door shut with a thump.
Cayden and I exchanged a look, both clearly debating whether to wait and walk her back.
“Ezra will make sure she gets there safely,” I finally said.
Cayden scowled and shoved his hands in his pockets. I fingered my TB. The night was still young. I didn’t need to slink off to my dorm. Joe was on a date with Brit, but I had a few other friends I could message to get a drink. And I needed a drink after today.
For some reason, instead of pulling out my TB, I opened my mouth. “Want to get a pint at The Rooster?”
Cayden’s scowl deepened, but for some reason, he also opened his mouth. “No. But I don’t want to be alone either.”
I brought my arm around Cayden’s neck and rubbed my fists into his cheek. “That’s the spirit!”
Cayden attempted to break my headlock, which turned into the world’s shortest wrestling match. We broke apart, with the rune mage literally inspecting his tunic for damage. I laughed. “Come on. You remind me of my little brother, and I could use some bro time.”
I woke the next morning and hit the gym hard. Quinn’s crystal magic still lit the space. For better or worse, imagining her using the equipment made my blood rush, and I was able to hit personal bests I hadn’t meant to try for.
She probably had no idea what she did to me. Thank the gods she couldn’t feel me the way I felt her.
“Your quads are going to get as big as mine soon.” Joe slapped me on the back.
I grinned. “As long as it’s not your gut.”
Joe chuckled, along with a few morning regulars.
As I hit the showers and put on my leathers for guard duty, Quinn’s tether bloomed to life in my chest. It wasn’t the sheer hatred of her alarm, followed by the heavy dread of her train duty I was used to.
Instead, her groggy morning haze bloomed into excitement for the day.
I felt myself grinning in response.
With the Architect, she was calm. Not like last night with Ezra, thank fuck. Quinn’s body had bounced from straining muscles to spikes of lust that made my dick twitch. Whatever she felt for my commander burned. I tried not to think about it, or I’d end up asking questions I didn’t want answers to.
This morning, her training with Xan was smooth. Her emotions spiked with excitement and joy as, I assumed, she successfully made her magic work. A few times, she used enough of it that my tether prickled with power. I wasn’t sure if that was normal, and I didn’t know who to ask, so I left it.
I couldn’t wait for our combat training, and despite knowing better, I “ran” into her coming out of the Alun. She wasn’t as surprised as I’d hoped.
“Do you have a tracking spell on my TB?” She twirled a piece of her crystal hair around her pointer finger.
Something quick and bright flicked through the tether as she said it, there and gone before I could get a grip on it.
I grinned, unable to comment on the emotion. “Yup. It’s called being one of Ezra’s five and peeking at your schedule.” Which was a lie, but also something I probably could have easily done.
Quinn quirked her lips and sighed. “Game on, Rowan.”
My grin faltered. I didn’t know what game she was referring to, but if she was involved, I was in. “I’ll play anything with you.”
Quinn snorted.
We grabbed a bite from Wicked Wich before eating it in the coliseum. A few enforcers practiced their sword work, and I pointed out their moves and the weaknesses in their stances. Quinn nodded like every word I said was priceless, but her tether told me she’d rather chew rocks.
“You’re not really interested in this, are you?” I finally asked.
Quinn hooked her hands around my bicep, pulling herself close. “Why would you think that?”
I froze. “Um.”
Quinn pointed to the same guy I’d been talking about and excitedly asked. “What did he do wrong now?”
I looked at the guy taking a water break, and she nodded encouragingly, which did not match the faint thrum under my ribs.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Maybe we should just get started.”
Quinn squeezed my bicep and nodded encouragingly, while her tether filled with humor.
I was missing something, maybe an inside joke I didn’t know about, or remember? I didn’t always have the best memory. But she wasn’t laughing out loud, so I couldn’t join in either.
Shaking off my confusion, I stood and herded her toward our close combat training.
Soon enough, my world righted itself. Quinn’s emotions and facial expressions perfectly synchronized as she broke out of holds and rolled until her arms hurt.
As we finished up, a runner in the purples and pinks of the Moores found me.
“Rowan Tate?” he confirmed.
I grunted.
He held out a scrawl in Angela’s familiar blonde, and I took it. Quinn leaned close to me. Instead of pushing her away, I lifted my arm and pulled her close so we could read it together.
Warmth curled through the tether at my touch before turning to annoyance.
“She’s contacting you directly?” Quinn asked.
I grunted unhappily. “She’s not supposed to be. It’s the heads of families who draw contracts.”
Short note. Sharp message. The Moores weren’t letting me go.
Quinn’s breath hitched—barely—and a thin line of tension hummed across the tether before she smoothed it out.
“Wow, she must really like you,” Quinn said with too much enthusiasm, while her actual emotions fell.
Angela didn’t. This was about control and money. Quinn knew that.
I scowled before shaking the scrawl, making the magic vanish into the world while studying Quinn’s face. Her tether was taut with held-back emotions I couldn’t pick apart.
The runner sighed, as if he’d seen the fruits of his labor disappear after days of travel too many times, and took his leave.
“She doesn’t,” I finally responded. “None of them do.” I squeezed Quinn into me before releasing her.
“But my family’s unique. My great-great-grandfather was one of the oldest humans to live through the tremors.
” I swallowed my next words. He’d been one of the first men to tether a woman, but I didn’t want to bring that up with Quinn.
“There’s only been a few generations of Tates.
We still hold more power than the average person, and I embody that. ”
Quinn skipped to my front. “And some of you think deeply, right? Your brother wrote an entire book. Smarts can be genetic.”
I snorted. “He did. He’s taken, though, Q-tip. He’s got one contract, and that’s the only one he wants.”
“I wasn’t looking for a contract with your brother!” Quinn exclaimed.
I let out an overdramatic sigh. “One will just never be enough for you.”
I said it to be funny, but her friendship with Cayden lingered in the back of my mind, and I found myself less upset than I’d been in the past.
Quinn made an adorable little squeak of outrage that matched her tether perfectly.
I faked another dramatic sigh. “My second-oldest brother is a cooper who loves the forge. You could approach your contracts from a practical standpoint and make an army. Lark’s good with logistics; he could organize our supply chain.”
Quinn rolled her eyes. “Lark, like the skinny fifty-something-year-old with a hook nose, who’s Ezra’s logistics officer?”
I grinned.
Quinn batted me on the arm. “You know I’m supposed to sleep with my contracts, right?”
I smiled. “That’s the best part. Angela taught me that’s not true. So, Q-tip, do you want to build an army with me?”
Quinn giggled. As she laughed, something featherlight brushed the tether—a whisper of warmth that didn’t reach her face. I frowned. Maybe I was just tired.