When I finally decided to open up, we’d left the children at home, and we walked through Elysia under a twinkling night sky.
“Knowing Scott, she probably did,” Erik muttered, and I slapped him upside the head.
“Even if she did, she’s not wrong. We are selfish. And you’ve been called worse,” Sloan pointed out.
“I don’t want her to think of me as worse,” I grumbled.
Erik lit up. “Why?”
“Curiosity killed the cat, Erik.”
He was eager to hear my thoughts. Not only the ones that rattled around my head, but the ones that were buried in my heart and threatened to spill with every single beat.
“Satisfaction bought it back,” he quipped, looking pleased with himself.
“Have you thought anymore about what you want to do?” Sloan asked, cutting through the argument before it started.
My head pulsed painfully. Foolishly, I thought I could leave her behind. Part of me still felt like that may be a possibility. What other choice did we have? There couldn’t possibly be a future for us. My thoughts had me running in circles until I wanted nothing more than silence. Or Quentin. She calmed the racing thoughts.
“Wait,” Erik hissed, flinging his arms out and stopping us from continuing down the street.
“What —”
“Shh,” he said quietly, and pulled us to the side.
It took a moment before I realised why my brother had stopped up in our tracks. The walk had taken us close to the reflecting pool and, rather than crystal clear waters that should have mirrored the night sky, the water was a deep forest green.
After a few silent minutes, the surface of the water broke, and Archer’s head rose from the depths as he sucked in deep breaths. The look on his face was one of confusion before he waded up to the shore, clothes dripping wet and clinging to him.
“What is he up to?” Sloan mumbled quietly.
Archer glanced around before he wrapped himself in his aura and disappeared from the spot.
“What was he doing in the pool?” I asked, confused.
It was used for gifting. Other than that, there was no need for us to enter it. What was Archer looking for?
“I don’t know,” Erik mused. “But we should get back in case it’s something to piss off Hunter.”
As we passed the pool, I glanced at it. The surface was peaceful and reflected the stars in the sky. Was Archer trying to change his responsibility? Was he trying to barter with the pool to have something more useful under his belt?
The smart move would be to tell Hunter what we’d seen. He should know that someone was messing with the pool out of the usual use. But the resentful nature I was built upon won out. I didn’t owe Hunter a single thing.
Whatever Archer was doing, we’d find out eventually in a blaze of fiery glory.
Hunter could deal with it when the time came.
I felt like a lost lamb when I got home. What was I going to do for two weeks? Banished from the lab, I was left with reams of data, spreadsheets, and databases. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than being stuck with non-stop analysis. It was all part of research, but it was tedious and repetitive, and I lacked the focus to get through large portions of it in one sitting.
Concentrating on work would be easier than focusing on what a terrible person I was. There was no way to justify my actions, and I wished I could turn back time and stop myself before causing all the hurt.
When I finally looked at my phone, I saw the messages that Matt had left me that morning to tell me he'd swing by and pick me up. If I hadn't been so swept up in Gray...
A knock on the door made me jump out of my skin. I opened it to see Charlie standing there, looking confused, and I mirrored her expression.
"Do you want to tell me what's going on? Matthew and you are both on two weeks of leave. That doesn't sound right. And when I spoke to him, he said to ask you. He's pissed, Quen," Charlie said. “What’s happened?”
Even though Gareth had given us some cover by not labelling our absence as suspension, anyone with half a brain cell could see this wasn’t a normal holiday from work.
