“Whatever you want, I will support you, Quinn.” Xan released me and tilted his head to the side. “But, in case I’ve not made it clear enough, happy with me and Ezra is my desired outcome. You will notcome between us.” His promise landed between threat and invitation, and my pulse answered both.
“Emotionally,” he added. “Physically coming between us is the goal.”
I bit my lips, and my sex flared to life.
“Architect!” a man called before the next song could begin. “Is this the Quinn you wrote to me about?”
I forced a breath and recited turtle facts in my head, anything to avoid replaying the fantasy I almost lived. Because if I didn’t, I’d drown in the space he’d just left.
Xan winked before turning me around. Dance music started up again, but we left the floor behind. I caught a glimpse of Ezra, stone-faced, leading a wall of Enforcers through a side door. My stomach dropped. Duty always came for us, but it shouldn’t have felt like doom. Something was happening while I spun in circles and smiled for strangers.
“Lady Miles steps?” I whispered to Xan, remembering Ezra’s cryptic remark earlier.
Xan put his finger over his lips. “I’ll fill you in later; no more secrets, I promise.”
Promises were how men like him began wars.
The closest I’d ever been to euphoria was when I let my crazy brain exist in the forest. Just like then, I found myself once again spinning as joy filled my soul.
The music came to a stop, and I struggled to catch my breath. My partner bowed and handed me a scrawl. At least it didn’t come with apitch. I smiled and tucked it into the stack growing in my pocket-void, probably taller than me by now. Exactly as we intended, I cackled with joy.
I stepped off the floor and froze. Professor Holiday’s skeletal form waited for me. His grin scanned me like an X-ray. Goosebumps prickled across my skin. This was one of the Architect’s monsters, one with a lab that I’d broken into, filled with dead animals and sewn-together body parts.
“I don’t believe we’ve spoken since your placements,” Professor Holiday said.
“Ah.” I managed before Brit emerged from the dance floor.
Cayden appeared at my elbow and stuck to me like Velcro.
“Professor,” Brit said, patting his shoulder.
I flinched, half expecting it to fall off. It didn’t.Professor Holiday’s grin didn’t change, and he didn’t look away from me. “How’s my menagerie treating you?”
“I, ah.” I took a drink of water and controlled my fear. “Why do you keep sending me stuffed animals?”
Holiday laughed, brittle as bone dust. “Oh, Quinn. You will. I know you were in my lab. I fixed you, and we will fix the world, starting with me.” He finished his glass of wine and leaned on his staff, though he wobbled precariously instead of staying upright.
I didn’t know where to start with any of that. Was he drunk?
Chancellor Morgen stepped around a group on our left and let out a huff. “You’ve barely got blood in your veins, Holiday. Ezra’s demanding our presence.”
She scowled at me like I’d been the one feeding him wine, before addressing Cayden. “Sober him, now.”
Cayden raised an eyebrow but drew his rune and sent it toward the professor’s stomach. For a moment, nothing happened, then theprofessor pressed his hand against his bladder. “I’m not drunk, Morgen. Why are you always where I don’t want you?”
“Let’s go.” The pink-haired chancellor grinned. “Before your dick falls off from holding in your piss.”
Professor Holiday didn’t need much encouragement, and the two vanished back toward The Great Hall. The fear prickling my skin suddenly felt like overkill. Brit laughed first. The sound eased my anxiety enough to join her.
Cayden pulled me close and whispered, “Go, have fun. You’ve got this,” before melting back into the crowd. I watched him with a smile tugging at my lips.
“All right, lover girl, it’s back to the dance floor for us.” Brit tugged my hand, and after a brief hesitation, the music took over my world once more.
I spun through a whirlwind of partners, Rowan’s brother, Erick, Everly, and back again, each with a laugh or a wink that made the world blur. Brit twirled past, dragging some poor boy behind her like storm-tossed debris.
An arm linked with mine, pulling me into another group. Instead of the do-si-do I expected, another arm linked with mine, and I was twirling again. I laughed. “No idea what I’m doing. Hold on.” I’d barely finished speaking before Cayden linked my arm and pulled me in close. Only he’d changed into a bright-orange robe of tie-dyed silk.
Another Cayden linked arms with me. He wore the same robe, but his long hair was up in a half-ponytail, just a few shades too light to be forest green. He smiled, as if he already knew me, and swung me around. I pulled away and flew backward, only to hit another man’s chest. The same tie-dyed orange made my vision spin. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close and swaying like lovers, which we most definitely weren’t.
