Chapter 27 #2
She flipped it around, and a piece of paper covered in scribbles of different colors met my gaze. “Ezra, what if they connect the dots like this? Look at the purple. I made it purple so you’d see it better. Please. What if my answers go pear-shaped?”
I put my hand on her paper; only it was Ezra’s calloused fingers. “Ezra called in reinforcements.” I patted my throat, assuming something was stuck there, then remembered Ezra’s voice sat a register lower than mine.
“Xan?” Quinn whispered.
I raised my hand as if she were taking attendance.
Quinn’s entire being lit up, and she threw herself forward. I wrapped her in my—well, Ezra’s—arms and hugged her tight. “What’s going on?”
“I just don’t know if I’m proving anything.” The tears I was sure she held back for Ezra’s sake burst to life.
“You’re doing amazing.” I rubbed her back and let her cry.
“Brody needs help. I’m looking for his family.
You’re not wrong about Matt. It was bold and brave of you to recommend that I do what everyone fears, as if it were a good thing, but it was very much you.
And Erick, honestly, you know more about him than I do.
He was your roommate, and I think everything you said only proves that not only are you under your own will, but not everything that happened to you is about me. ”
“I was me,” she whispered.
I didn’t understand why she said it, but I hugged her harder. “You’re unique and every one of your answers was genuine and you.” I took an annoyed breath. “Cayden said the same,” I added, knowing she’d like to hear it. “You did amazing.”
Quinn squeezed me again.
Her tears slowed enough that she could talk. “Is Seth okay?”
“Yes,” I said. “He and Erick both returned to my walls.”
“You let Erick back in?” Quinn kept her face hidden in my very bare chest.
Why was Ezra shirtless?
‘She likes my abs. Thought it would help,’ Ezra answered.
I forced myself not to laugh and focused on my girl, pouring her heart out in my arms.
“Yes,” I answered her question. “He’s an Adler Michelson, and I am in no position to invite trouble from the Royalty of London.”
“But he left. Why would he go back to you?”
I raised an eyebrow. “That is the question of the hour. Maybe something you said stuck with him?”
Quinn turned her head, and a small, hopeful smile curled her lips.
She scooted forward and pressed herself under my arm.
“I missed you. I thought I wouldn’t. I thought after all my mistrust and anger, walking away would help me let go.
But it didn’t. And then hearing Deirdre Grierson pretty much say the same things Everly and I accused you of.
” She trembled and looked up. “I’m an idiot, and I’m scared, and it was easier to be angry with you than admit what I want. ”
“And what do you want?” I asked. Ezra’s low voice came out breathless and needy.
We gazed into each other’s eyes. I needed to hear her say it. I didn’t want to make assumptions or live on my hopes. If she wanted all four of us, I needed physical words to pass through my ears.
Before she could answer, someone shook my real body.
I sighed, knowing too well who it was. Instead of bringing the heavy tension back, I booped Quinn on the nose. “Cayden’s shaking me. Don’t traumatize my lover while I’m gone. He doesn’t do ‘what-ifs’ and speculation. Your purple notes almost stopped his heart.”
Quinn giggled, and I returned to my body.
“Let it go, Cay.” Rowan was saying. “If you can’t stand looking at him, you can peel potatoes. Shepherd’s pie waits for no man.”
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
Cayden scowled. “Are you with Quinn?”
I moved my gaze to Rowan. “Defend my body.” Gave Cayden the finger and returned to Ezra’s body.
“Are you with Cayden?” Quinn asked the moment my baby blues replaced Ezra’s. Instead of sitting under my arm, she was across from me again. I mourned the loss immediately.
I rubbed my cheeks, or more accurately Ezra’s very scratchy cheeks. “He just asked me the same thing.”
Quinn’s face brightened.
“Yes. Rowan’s making us dinner,” I admitted.
Quinn sat up so her knees were tucked under her and looked up at me so adorably I thought my heart might explode. “You three are having dinner… together?”
“Unless Rowan is keeping Cayden from murdering me instead of cooking, then yes, that is the plan. Somehow.”
Quinn bit her lower lip. “Is there some way Ezra and I can join you?”
The hope in her voice physically hurt. Ezra grunted in the background, feeling it as well.
She’d been doing so well without the four of us. The Westwaters always had something to keep her entertained, but being busy wasn’t the same as being loved.
I pulled her back into my chest. “The only reason we can talk is the connection I carved between Ezra and me. You’re miles away; I can’t touch you.
” Quinn took a few deep breaths against me, and I rubbed the back of her head.
“We need to get you past these trials, and then you can be with us in person if that’s what you want. ”
“Unless Cayden murders you tonight,” Quinn said softly, still not admitting what she wanted.
“It’s fifty-fifty.” I pulled her away from Ezra’s chest—God, it even looked good from this angle—and cupped her cheek. I couldn’t wait for her to say it. She needed a prompt. “You want all four of us, don’t you?”
Quinn’s cheeks turned scarlet. “I do. Is that okay?”
Ezra mentally fist-pumped, and my heart fluttered. “Yes, Quinn. It’s more than okay.”
She bit her bottom lip and squirmed before freezing in place.
“Wait. Hold up. Alex created that hospital room for me while I was still inside the Lawson compound. I was still in it when you moved me to your castle. That was way more miles than, what are we, like a mile and a half away from the castle? There was no way Alex stayed close to me that entire time.”
I inclined my head before brushing the collar fused on her neck. “The two of you have a bridge.”
Instead of accepting my explanation, she peered at me and brushed the collar above Alex’s. “And the four of you are keyed to my new collar.”
“Don’t you even think about using your Majekah on it.” I leaned toward her.
She waved her arms. “No. That seems rather permanent. I like um.” She bit her lips together.
“Look, can you make a room like Alex’s and then bring everyone into it so we can talk about this?
” She bit her lower lip. “I’m not from here.
Sharing more than one lover is not really socially accepted in my time.
” A tear slipped down her cheek. “But, you and Ezra are perfect, and Rowan and Cayden are getting along so well… I don’t want to be my Majekah and destroy everything. ”
I flapped Ezra’s jaw a few times, making Quinn giggle. “I didn’t know the muscles on Ezra’s face could do that.”
Ezra growled in the background.
“You are not your Majekah.” I finally found words.
“And yes, you’re right, we all should talk.
Ezra and I have failed at that enough times.
I think your request is reasonable.” But, I ran my fingers through my hair, thinking.
“That’s not how the collars work. Alex’s collar is dysfunctional.
Magic is going out instead of in. I can’t replicate that. That’s not how mental magic works.”
My thoughts kept churning.
“But,” Quinn said, over-enunciating the ‘t.’
“Rowan’s tether to you was born of pure need.
The energy of the world manifested it, which hasn’t been seen in fifty years.
It’s different.” I took a deep breath. “I don’t understand Rowan and Cayden’s link, but it similarly formed around you.
” I kissed her again. “Even I was unnaturally drawn to your magic during my trials. Tethering you was effortless.” I frowned.
“I don’t think the collar will help us, but give me a few hours? ”
Quinn clasped her hands together as if in prayer, which also squished her breasts together in her low V-neck sweater, which I currently had the perfect view down. It was one of the single most erotic things I’d ever seen in my life, and I seared it into my memory.
“I will wait, Knowledge Daddy.” Quinn twirled a strand of crystal hair.
I didn’t know if it was my dick, Ezra’s, or both that stiffened, but I had to leave before I badly abused my lover’s trust and used his body to make all my dreams come true.
“That fucking name,” I growled before high-tailing it back to myself.
To my surprise, I came to with my unstabbed body in one piece, though my hand dangled in a bowl of warm water. Rowan and Cayden were cooking away with the door propped open.
“Um,” I said, sitting up and taking my fingers out of the bowl.
“Did you wet yourself?” Cayden asked.
I looked down at my dry pants. “That would be a negative.”
“Doesn’t work,” Cayden snapped.
“Told you, it didn’t.” Rowan laughed. “I’ve got three brothers; we tried everything to make each other piss the bed. You’ll have to get more creative.”
Cayden scowled.
Before I could stop myself, I pushed the last image of Quinn into both their minds.
Rowan stopped stirring, and Cayden dropped his wine glass, sending it crashing to the floor.
“Quinn asked me for something I don’t yet know how to do. Get to a stopping point and assemble in the Alun, now.”