The Architect turned to me. “She’s dying.”
“She needs a medic.”“Iama medic.” He tried to move forward again. Again, I pushed him back.
‘He saved her life after the trials. He wouldn’t do that just to let her die now,’Rowan said, though I hadn’t felt his chest rumble at my back or heard the words with my physical ears.
I looked at the Architect again. “You sent her here. Why?”
The man aged twenty years in a single second. “I didn’t. I didn’t change her schedule.”
‘Let him save her, or I’ll shove my hands so far up your ass they will come out your mouth.’Rowan’s grip on me tightened, no longer supportive but painful.
I met the Architect’s baby-blue gaze and jerked my head toward Quinn. The moment he touched her, the pain making my bones throb eased. Like us, the Architect’s magic twined with hers, keeping her safe and stemming the bleeding so her heart had something to pump.
“Don’t let go of her,” the Architect warned. “You’re the only thing keeping her alive.” Baby blue-power twined around Quinn like a glowing fishing net. “We’re going to have to pull her off and pray I can patch holes faster than she can bleed out.”
My runes were too slow. I’d help, but her life was in his hands now. I wanted to fight, to argue, but she couldn’t stay like this.
‘Trust us.’The words echoed inside my skull, not in my ears. For the first time, Ifelthim there.
I didn’t like this, not at all. Ezra stepped forward, ready to help, and on the Architect’s signal, we pulled.
Chapter 31
Quinn
AwarenessseepedinbeforeI 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 wordkill. I felt it vibrate through my ribs like a vow he’d already made.
“Don’t,” I said softly but firmly.
