‘Are you with Quinn?’my lover asked over our mental link.
‘Yes,’I responded.
I was in the gym, and he could feel her location, also in the gym. The question was redundant, which means he wanted something—seconds ticked by. Quinn started shaking in earnest. My lover didn’t speak; maybe I’d drawn the wrong conclusion.
“Release,” I commanded Quinn. The word left my throat heavier than it should have, a command dressed like a prayer.
Quinn sagged, resting face down on the floor, panting. Sweat slipped down her skin, pooling in the tank top and spandex covering her slight frame. I looked away too late; heat climbed anyway.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she slowly sat. A little imprint of the floor pressed into her cheek.
“Ezra.” Quinn wrinkled her nose.
“Quinn.” I echoed her inflection.
Quinn rolled her eyes before clasping her hands in front of her. Whatever she was going to say next made her uncomfortable.
“Do you remember the placement test where I destroyed that pebble?”
I did. Over the last few days, she’d destroyed everything she could touch, attempting to connect with raw magic. I had a feeling I knew where this question was going. I grunted, communicating all of that in a single vocalization.
“Okay, that grunt had a slight rise in pitch at the end, so I’m going to assume it means yes.” Quinn grinned. “I’ve been testing my Majekah a lot, and I need to try it on something with power inside it.”
I inclined my head. “You want access to the Alun.”
Quinn nodded. “No one talks about the Alun, and when I asked Cayden, he had no idea what I was talking about.”
“We do that on purpose,” I explained. “The Alun is a place outside of time, a void where magic remembers itself. It’s extremely powerful, but we treat it like any other cellar to make it seem unimportant.”
“I guess that works,” Quinn tossed her hands up. “So, can I go in there and touch something with power inside it?”
A younger me would’ve joked about my balls. I forced it away.
“Come.” I stood. For a heartbeat, I almost said her name instead. “Night is the perfect time to visit.”
“Right now?” she blinked, as if expecting some elaborate approval process.
“Got somewhere better to be?” I asked. We both knew the answer.
Quinn scrambled to her feet. “No. I just didn’t expect… I mean, I’ve been waiting on the Architect for days. So, it just feels weird that this can happen immediately.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. My lover was buried in work, correcting my mistakes, and pushing forward our plans. He hosted a Mixer every year in the name of transparency and peace. This year, it would serve a third purpose. One that required his expert finesse.
He wanted to meet the woman he bound. I could see it in his body language and the longing in his eyes as he read his reports on her. But he didn’t act, and I didn’t know why. Her emotions lived beside his heart. He could feel her, even now, watching me with doe eyes, waiting for me to explain his silence.
But I couldn’t. My lover’s choice to save her created a chasm between us we couldn’t cross, much less talk about.
I pulled her into my chest. “Hold your breath.”
Quinn did, and I stepped into my shadow.
Taking another person with me was challenging. I’d only done it a few times before, with my lover. The cold slide thickened, more syrup than air. Weightless nothing stretched two heartbeats before we came out the other side.
Her pulse thundered against my chest; for a moment, the world existed only in that echo. She shook, trying to catch her breath. I didn’t give her the time. It took me three more steps before we stood next to the trapdoor.
“That was intense.” Quinn put her hand over her heart and trembled.
I grunted and gave her a moment to catch her breath and acclimate to suddenly being in a new space, while I opened up the Alun. We dropped down. The world of crazy colors and ancient graffiti surrounded us.
