Xan said he needed a few hours. I didn’t really understand what I was waiting for. My ill-timed realization meant stayingwith the Westwaters two more days, maybe more. Two more trials, and I’d never asked what came after.
I joined Ravana and her people for dinner, letting their questions distract me, along with the string of ideas about what the McDonald's had in store for me. Based on the number of jokes, tomorrow should be much easier than today. I chose not to point out that Alex and Teivel were working with the McDonalds; that was where my worry sat.
By the time we finished, I realized I hadn’t seen Ezra since we’d left my little tent.
I didn’t know whether that was good or bad.
As conversations died down, I made my excuses, curled up in my tent with a Barbie-pink scrawl binding, and lost myself in a love story from a time I never lived.
‘Quinn?’Xan’s voice in my head woke me.
I sat up, having fallen asleep. Barbie pink still softly lit my enclosed space, but the outside was dark and quiet. Ezra was still very absent.
I didn’t know how to talk back in my head.
‘I’ll hear your thoughts.’
My heart raced. My thoughts, everything? Insecurities I tried not to think of bloomed to life. Wait. I wore a collar. He shouldn’t be able to reach me. My hand shot to my neck… nothing. The metal glinted on my pillow. Alex had access again. I started shaking and put my hands over my ears, waiting for whatever came next.
I could almost see Xan shoving my panic aside like a physical thing.‘Ezra’s taken care of Alex. The old mentalist will sleep deep and long tonight.’
I brushed the spot on my lower back… Teivel. His tether would’ve flared the moment I was uncollared.
‘Ezra couldn’t locate him. If you don’t want to do anything…’
‘No!’I screamed it in my head.‘Teivel has felt my emotions for months.Knowing who he is changes nothing. I won’t let him control me.’
I swear I felt pride that wasn’t mine settle into my bones.
‘You’re incredible, Quinn. I wish you didn’t have to be, but you are so strong. I will kill him. Ezra would’ve tonight if he’d found him, damn the consequences with the McDonalds.’
Guilt flickered, then died. I remembered the cellar, the women, the hundreds before me. I breathed deeply and let resolve take its place.
‘Okay. My collar is off. Does that mean I get to see you all?’I asked before my anger or memories could derail our goal.
‘Honestly, this is a bit of an experiment,’Xan admitted. ‘I’m the only mentalist. But when Horax took you’—his mental voice shook before he controlled it—‘the three of us shared magic to find you. It was Cayden who slipped into your head.’
There was a pause.
‘We’re attempting the same thing now. I’m shaping a specific room in your mind the three of us can find. With luck, that focus will bring us together.’
Worry flooded my gut. I suddenly had a thousand questions.
Xan’s mental powers were limited by range, unless he was in the Alun. He must be there now; it’s the only reason he could talk to me like this.
What if Alex figured it out and blew up my tests? The magic of a mentalist wasn’t physically provable. That was the problem with this entire circus the families were putting me through.
Every question collapsed into one: trust. Did I trust Xan? A picture bloomed, me in Xan’s apartment, asking myself the same question. At the time, the answer was no. But that wasn’t true anymore.
My heart warmed.
‘Are you ready?’he asked.
I wasn’t sure what I needed to do to be ready. The only thing I could think of was lying down, in case I lost control of my body the way Xan had. The image of strapping myself down as he’d strapped his horse made me snort.
‘I saw that,’Xan said.
My blush heated my little domed tent. I crashed back onto my bed and covered my face with my pillow before fluffing it under my head.
