Brody stepped forward, and I fell into his arms.
“It will be okay, my love.” Brody’s whisper was the last thing I heard before the world went dark.
Chapter 16
Alexander
LeavingQuinntoherfriends was harder than I expected. She was discovering her magic, and I wanted nothing more than to be beside her. But I wouldn’t press or go where I wasn’t welcome. At least I had eyes on her. My people kept me updated on her progress and with whom she interacted. I spared a single thought for Rowan, the other man in her life, who had none of the information I did, but could freely interact with her.
I still didn’t know how to respond to Rowan’s new behavior, especially now that he was exiting his contract with the Moores. Part of me wanted to murder him for tethering her without consent. But I’d done the same. While I slept, he’d kept her safe. Even now, he showed his loyalty by keeping my true identity to himself.
It was a mess I wasn’t ready to touch. My lover already weighed on my heart. I didn’t need to add people I couldn’t control.
Time marched forward.
While I wasn’t watching, she dumped her magic into the Grierson’s forge, almost breaking it. The sheer amount of raw power confirmed every rumor about her potential. Her first Intentions arrived at my walls and now sat in a pile in my office. She wasn’t ready; she needed to understand the world before diving headfirst into it.
Days later, she slipped past my enforcers, disguised as a trainee. The only reason I knew she was outside my walls was our connection, and I hated how grateful I was for it.
Ezra slipped into the shadows around her before she exited The Mile and became her silent watcher. I donned the rich colors befitting the Architect and followed him with a small team of my own.
I should have guessed she’d want to see her friend fight. I should have reached out and offered to take her, but I hadn’t. I’d watched from a distance, contemplating the right and wrong of my actions.
I’d never been this indecisive in my entire life. It was destroying me.
Quinn’s emotions fluctuated while I waited outside the old train station. I honestly hoped she and her friends would leave without any issues, and my confused strike force and I would journey home.
That’s not what happened. Fear filled my bond. Our connection made it easy to isolate her thoughts among the sea of people. Someone named Brody rendered her unconscious, forcing me to abandon her mind. The single-minded surface thoughts of two unknown men caught my attention. They easily overpowered Brody before heading to a side door with my unconscious girl.
I moved my strike force around and waited. When the men emerged with Quinn limp across one shoulder, there was hell to pay.
Breaking my own rules, I invaded their minds and extracted the information I needed. Body snatchers. Slavers who prowled every pit fight, looking for anyone too drunk to defend themselves. I left themfor Ezra to finish off. Their screams only added to the roar of the pit fight inside.
I pulled Quinn tight to my chest. The darkness couldn’t obscure the fake beard, which was half falling off her face. Her chest rose and fell in steady breaths. An oily olive-green paralytic kept her asleep.
My tether violated her free will, something I hated as much as I depended on. We had to walk a line. I wasn’t her keeper. She needed to live her life and make her own choices, but I also needed her to be safe.
With my officers watching, I forced myself to relax my grip, though I couldn’t put her down.
Three of my remaining team fanned out around me while the other two positioned themselves on either side of Ezra, just in case my lover lost one of his slavers before he could finish his art.
“Body snatchers,” I said, turning to Jamie Abernathy, Ezra’s and, by extension, my information officer. “May I?”
To his credit, Abernathy didn’t act on the fear behind his eyes. “You may.”
I simplified everything I’d gotten from the slavers into facts and forced the memory into my information officer, as if shoving a piece of laundry into an already overstuffed pile.
The man winced and pressed on his narrow temples. I’m sure a headache ripped into his skull, but this wasn’t his first dance. He swayed on his feet as my memories settled into his to call on when needed.
“Find the Lawson and the twins,” I commanded. “Make sure they return to my castle unharmed. Their only crimes are youth and stupidity.”
“And Brody?” Abernathy asked.
“Leave him.” Cold fury made me want to do more, but I held it in check. “If he lives, he’s never to enter my walls again.”
Abernathy nodded. I couldn’t tell if he thought my punishment was harsh or not, and I had to remind myself it didn’t matter. Right now, I wasn’t Xan; I was the Architect. To run a family, I needed people to obey me, not praise me.
“And when her friends ask about her?” Abernathy asked.
