I nodded. “We’ll have to break in, and we won’t do it blind.” I hated the next question, but I had to ask it. “Do you want your friends to help you?”
If she said yes, I wouldn’t resist. I would jail Professor Holiday and take half my trainees on a tour of his secrets if it meant helping her.
“Do we need their help?” Quinn asked softly, rubbing her hands together. “It’s not that I don’t want them to help, but just that they’ll ask questions, and Rowan will definitely tell Ezra, who will lock me away rather than let me break the rules.”
I made a mental note to give Rowan a raise. I didn’t like his tether to her, but I couldn’t blame either of them. He’d kept her safe while I slept, and for now, that’s all that mattered.
“We don’t need your friends.” I flattened my lips into a line. “The fewer people, the better, honestly. It can be you and me. If you trust me.”
Quinn rocked back before looking up at me with her big green eyes. “Just you and me.”
My heart thumped in my chest. Trust. Maybe not the faith she had in Ezra, but it was a start. However, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to understand her better, so I opened my mouth. “Not even your roommate?”
Her brow tightened. “Yeah. No. Erick probably has someone wiping his own ass for him. Breaking and entering is far too much work, especially as it doesn’t involve his dick.”
My grin stretched wider, making my cheeks ache. When I first woke up, Ezra made Quinn’s situation sound so bleak. But she clearly hadn’t bonded with my enemy from London in the slightest. Her instincts were good.
“We need to make a plan after I have more information,” I said. “I’ll message you this evening.”
“No!” Quinn put her hand on my knee, just like I had on hers. “The Architect gets every message sent on a TB. He’ll find out. I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
I made a humming noise to cover my humor. “Then meet me at The Rooster tomorrow morning. We’ll need to eat, though, to make it look normal while we plan.”
“I’ll be there. What else do you need me to do?” she asked.
Quinn was so focused that she missed my very obvious breakfast trap.
“Stay away from The Old Fortress so nothing looks suspicious,” I said. My mind raced. She needed a task, or else she’d get antsy and dosomething both of us regretted. “How many precious stones have you touched?”
Quinn tilted her head to the side. “Cayden had a few emeralds, and I poked a bunch of Everly’s jewelry.”
“Precious stones were in the world long before the tremors,” I explained. “They are like the Alun, timeless, powerful, and with our unique memories literally carved into them. The Architect uses a combination of gems and conductive metals to help amplify his entry tests. You made a dragon, right?”
Quinn scrunched her face up and looked down at the floor.
I put two fingers under her chin, so she’d meet my eyes. “I did not bring that up to make you feel bad. We’re all on our own journey. You impressed the Architect enough that he let you in regardless. He saw potential, and so do I.” I smiled, and her lips twitched up with mine. “I’ll have Ezra take you to the Architect’s coffers. He probably keeps his test tools there. Try not to destroy too many; they are priceless.”
I released her chin, and she nodded.
“Eat; I’ll be right back.” I slipped my shoes back on and found her a book on minerals and alloys.
The pasty was gone by the time I came back. My heart warmed.
“Some reading until Ezra’s free.” I placed the book on her lap. “Magic’s all about flow and motion. Copper, silver, aluminum, all those metals that used to conduct electricity now manipulate magic, while gems can store it, though that could be its own book.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for trusting me, Quinn. I was trapped once, and I never want anyone to feel that way. We will fix this.”
Quinn put her hand over mine. Dark unease filled our tether that didn’t match her simple thank you.
If I learned nothing else from this conversation, Quinn was skeptical of altruism. She needed to be on equal footing. I squeezed her shoulder. “We are helping each other. Professor Holiday’s secretive, and his experiments are growing in frequency.”
“The rose smell?” Quinn asked.
It was so much more than that. The monster was leaching magic out of the very air, but Quinn couldn’t feel it. Instead of explaining, I nodded. “The Architect can’t do anything because of their deal, so taking a peek can only make me look better in his eyes.”
My words had their desired effect. In a heartbeat, the last of Quinn’s unease died in our link.
She squeezed my hand and gave me a conspiratorial smile. Releasing her shoulder and making my exit was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.
I didn’t make it two steps out of the library before I sent a flurry of commands through my TB. The moment Ezra got his, his voice came across our mental link.
