Chapter 31
Quinn
Awareness seeped in before I realized I was awake.
The world felt underwater. My pulse, a whisper I couldn’t locate.
Breath found me before sound did. I didn’t hurt.
Still, somewhat stuffy air moved through my lungs.
I was under the coliseum, in the Architect’s castle, high atop a mountain in the remains of Edinburgh.
I hadn’t died. Or woken up in another reality. Or on Doctor Oz’s table.
The memory of the train smashing into a wall made me flinch.
A hand gripping mine squeezed. The pressure was the first real thing, the thump of another heartbeat reminding me I had one.
“You’re okay, thank the Sun God,” Cayden said.
In one swift motion, he pulled me to his chest. My tears came instantly. I could have lost everything. My body folded against his before my mind could catch up. Instinct, not thought.
“I’m here,” he murmured, fingers sliding into my hair. “You’re here. You’re okay.”
I pulled away just enough to breathe. He took it as his cue, slipping behind me and caging me gently to his chest with strong arms. I felt the heat of his breath, the quiet reverence in each kiss he pressed to my shoulder.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “You’re my world, Quinn. The reason I keep moving forward when everything’s crumbling.”
His arms tightened. “Watching you stumble through this world and still fight… it makes me want to be better.”
He kissed my neck again, then rested his forehead there. “I didn’t mean to tether you. I didn’t even know I was doing it. I just, couldn’t let you go.”
The warmth in his arms. The rawness in his voice. This was love. Raw, real, and undeniable. It hit like gravity—terrifying, inescapable, and far too soon.
But one word stuck out.
Tether. Of course. I was turning into a magical pincushion.
“If you don’t want this,” Cayden turned to steel. “I will kill myself to fix it.”
His voice cracked on the word kill. I felt it vibrate through my ribs like a vow he’d already made.
“Don’t,” I said softly but firmly.
Another tether. Another chain. A part of me recoiled, but it was Cayden. My Cayden.
I pulled his forearm tighter across my heart. The warmth of his skin seeped through my ribs; part of me wanted to disappear into it, the other part screamed. “You saved my life. And if I had to choose someone to be tethered to, it would be you.”
He exhaled shakily behind me. He would accept my words, but they would weigh on him.
“I’m… not someone who should be allowed to tether,” he said quietly. “My Prophet had me with his daughter. And in turn, he bred me with my sister. I didn’t know… I didn’t understand until I left and learned. I’m a genetic mistake who shouldn’t even have lungs.”
I rubbed slow circles on his thigh, trying to ground him.
“I had no idea… about my daughter,” he continued. “She came early. She was small and twisted and broken, but she cried, Quinn. She cried.”
He shuddered. “One arm. Half a chest. Forest-green hair. But she cried.”
My fingers twined with his. Our hands fit like a promise neither of us had asked for. I kissed each one as his voice cracked.
“My Prophet put a knife through her spine. I tried to stop him, but I was relieved when her tiny wails cut off. I didn’t want to see her die slowly.”
He spoke in fragments, each word a blade.
I could feel every cut through his shaking breath.
A scream built in my throat, quiet and strangled.
The cruelty he’d survived, and carried, was too much for one soul.
I pressed closer, as if my body could absorb some of it for him.
“You loved her. She knew. That’s what matters. ”
Silence wrapped around us. I wanted to turn and kiss his face, to wipe away the tears. But I understood. He’d only shared this because I couldn’t see him. So, I stayed facing forward, pressing into him wherever I could.
His breathing calmed. His grip softened.
“…Think Rowan would cut my dick off if I asked him to?”
“No. But Ezra’s got the temperament, and the knives.” I turned my head and pressed my lips into his hair. “There’s nothing wrong with you. Where I’m from, kids are just an unfortunate side effect of sex. Maybe don’t cut your dick off yet.”
He didn’t reply.
Which meant I needed to drop it.
He relaxed his arms further and wiped tears off his face. “We have incoming.”
The air shifted. My body remembered weight and time again, right before the door slammed open. Rowan bolted into the room and swept me out of Cayden’s lap into his massive chest. He kissed me soundly, wrapping me in his burly arms before setting me back on the bed.
Without him manhandling me, my body moved sluggishly. Desperate thirst clawed at my throat.
The two men stepped up. Cayden grabbed a cup while Rowan formed a little ball of water. They studied each other, silent tension crackling, before Rowan let the ball fall into the cup and nodded to Cayden, a quiet peace offering.
I took the drink. “Quite civil.”
“A lot has changed in the last week,” Rowan said, leaning against my bed.
I spat out the water. “Week?”
“Healing takes energy,” Rowan said. “Xan had Cayden and me to help, or he’d be unconscious too.”
“The Architect.” My jaw clenched. “The man who sent me down there in the first place.”
“Xan didn’t change your schedule.” Rowan reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “He’s devastated by all of this.”
“To put it mildly,” Cayden interjected.
I jerked away from him. Cayden wouldn’t defend Xan if the world were ending.
Rowan cupped my cheek and steered my gaze to his. “For two days, we didn’t know if you were going to make it.”
My chest tightened as the truth settled. Xan had saved me again, while I thought the worst of him.
“The four of us didn’t leave this room.” His gaze smoldered. “The family didn’t matter, his plans didn’t matter, the world could have burned. Ezra didn’t let a soul past your door while Xan took control of our magic and saved your life.”
His words hit where the bruises ended. My heart ached in the hollow spaces his magic had held. I’d pushed him away, hard. And still, he’d chosen me.
“Don’t get too excited,” Rowan smiled. “No one became friends, but trauma bonding’s real. It’s part of the stress test you ran from. This time you made us do it.” Rowan leaned down and captured my lips. “Please, don’t put us through that again.”
The panic hit like whiplash, weightlessness, the jolt of impact, pain so loud it went silent. “Good plan. If I never step in a tunnel again, it’ll be too soon.”
“You won’t,” Cayden said, sliding closer.
Rowan still hadn’t moved his hand from my cheek, and his minty breath tickled my nose. Cayden ran his hand over the curve of my ass, and Rowan dropped his massive palm to my neck. Need flooded my system. Both men looked ready to kiss me; the only question was where.
The door burst open. Again.
“What the hell, Quinn?” Everly shouted.
As if sharing a brain, Cayden and Rowan retreated in perfect unison.
Everly rushed me, scattering Rowan and Cayden like a flock of birds, and pulling me into her arms. Brit was right on her tail.
“You scared us.” Brit’s voice cracked on ‘us,’ and that broke me faster than any pain. “I can’t handle her solo.”
“I’m sorry.” I wiped a tear from my eye. “I made a bad call; I couldn’t drive the train.”
The laugh slipped out like a reflex, brittle and wrong.
“You were set up,” Rowan said. “Someone planted a void on that curve.”
The words hit like shrapnel. Someone wanted me dead.
“It would’ve derailed no matter who was driving.” He punched his fist into his palm. “Same person probably messed with your schedule. Hope has negative security. Hell, if Angela could break in, anyone could. And right now, more than a few families want you dead if they can’t have you.”
“Can I help?” I stood. My legs worked, but my hands shook. Power didn’t mean control, not yet.
“No,” Everly said. “The Mixer’s tomorrow. We need to glitterize.”
The world almost killed me, and Everly’s answer was sequins. Maybe she was right.
“This isn’t about Xan,” Everly said. “This is about you taking control. Riots have started because no one’s seen you.”
I looked at her skeptically.
“Okay, no riots.” Everly wrinkled her nose. “But there is a lot of talk, and if you don’t show your face soon, people are going to assume the worst. The Architect’s going to have a problem, which means all of us have a problem.”
She hesitated. “I saw him cry over you. I don’t understand everything, but maybe his heart was in the right place.”
Something in my chest twisted. I didn’t want to care, but I did.
“Did you and Xan talk?” I asked.
Brit flashed a manic grin. “Fists were involved.”
“He has too many good answers,” Everly muttered. “But I’ve never seen a man crumble and rebuild like that.”
She pointed at Rowan and Cayden. “You’ve not given her Intentions. Cayden, your family’s hunting you. Rowan, the Moores are furious. Quinn, you’re a political explosion waiting to happen.”
She snapped her fingers. “We’re going to make you the most giltterized bitch in the ballroom, but you won’t be alone.”
Brit winked. “Hey, suitress.”
Everly was on a roll, and I’d just woken up. I needed coffee.
I hadn’t even said it aloud before a warm mug landed in my hands. Rowan released it with a wink. The tether wasn’t mind-reading, but this was very close. Maybe this connection wouldn’t be so bad.
Everly and Brit both leaned toward me.
I took a sip of coffee. I wasn’t good at social events. No. Old Quinn was horrible at social events; she would have crumbled. But she didn’t survive the crash. I did. And this version of me? She wasn’t going to be anyone’s pawn again.
I turned to Brit and gave her a toothy grin. “I’ve heard I’m a handful.”
“Fuck yes,” Brit said. “It’d be boring otherwise.”