I narrowed my eyes at her. “Maybe we should just get started.”
Quinn squeezed my bicep and nodded encouragingly, while her tether filled with humor.
I was missing something, maybe an inside joke I didn’t know about, or remember? I didn’t always have the best memory. But she wasn’t laughing out loud, so I couldn’t join in either.
Shaking off my confusion, I stood and herded her toward our close combat training. Soon enough, my world righted itself. Quinn’s emotions and facial expressions perfectly synchronized as she broke out of holds and rolled until her arms hurt. As we finished up, a runner in the purples and pinks of the Moores found me.
“Rowan Tate?” he confirmed.
I grunted.
He held out a scrawl in Angela’s familiar blonde, and I took it. Quinn leaned close to me. Instead of pushing her away, I lifted my arm and pulled her close so we could read it together.
Warmth curled through the tether at my touch before turning to annoyance.
“She’s contacting you directly?” Quinn asked.
I grunted unhappily. “She’s not supposed to be. It’s the heads of families who draw contracts.”
Short note. Sharp message. The Moores weren’t letting me go.
Quinn’s breath hitched—barely—and a thin line of tension hummed across the tether before she smoothed it out.
“Wow, she must really like you,” Quinn said with too much enthusiasm, while her actual emotions fell.
Angela didn’t. This was about control and money. Quinn knew that.
I scowled before shaking the scrawl, making the magic vanish into the world while studying Quinn’s face. Her tether was taut with held-back emotions I couldn’t pick apart.
The runner sighed, as if he’d seen the fruits of his labor disappear after days of travel too many times, and took his leave.
“She doesn’t,” I finally responded. “None of them do.” I squeezed Quinn into me before releasing her. “But my family’s unique. My great-great-grandfather was one of the oldest humans to live through the tremors.” I swallowed my next words. He’d been one of the first men to tether a woman, but I didn’t want to bring that up with Quinn. “There’s only been a few generations of Tates. We still hold more power than the average person, and I embody that.”
Quinn skipped to my front. “And some of you think deeply, right? Your brother wrote an entire book. Smarts can be genetic.”
I snorted. “He did. He’s taken, though, Q-tip. He’s got one contract, and that’s the only one he wants.”
“I wasn’t looking for a contract with your brother!” Quinn exclaimed.
I let out an overdramatic sigh. “One will just never be enough for you.”
I said it to be funny, but her friendship with Cayden lingered in the back of my mind, and I found myself less upset than I’d been in the past.
Quinn made an adorable little squeak of outrage that matched her tether perfectly.
I faked another dramatic sigh. “My second-oldest brother is a cooper who loves the forge. You could approach your contracts from a practical standpoint and make an army. Lark’s good with logistics; he could organize our supply chain.”
Quinn rolled her eyes. “Lark, like the skinny fifty-something-year-old with a hook nose, who’s Ezra’s logistics officer?”
I grinned.
Quinn batted me on the arm. “You know I’m supposed to sleep with my contracts, right?”
I smiled. “That’s the best part. Angela taught me that’s not true. So, Q-tip, do you want to build an army with me?”
Quinn giggled. As she laughed, something featherlight brushed the tether—a whisper of warmth that didn’t reach her face. I frowned. Maybe I was just tired.
Chapter 23
