“I don’t truly know what the families want,”Xan had explained while I got dressed.“But I’m sure it has to do with you and free will. Be strong, answer their questions, and don’t mention your collar, either of them, if possible.”
We were halfway down The Mile when the sound of hooves racing came from behind us. I turned, almost falling off my horse, only to find Brit and Joe sliding to a stop.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight again,” Brit said, sidestepping her horse next to mine. “I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s trouble, and we need to talk.” She pointed at her stomach.
I nodded, happy to have her back at my side, though unsure what I had to do with her gut.
The short journey down The Mile went by in anxious silence, which made the horses prance. The skull, eternally trapped inside the Abernathy’s thick walls, drew my attention before we turned left, following the wall. Less than a minute later, a much smaller crumbling barrier made aT, with a narrow break between it and the massive battlements.
“We’ve set up the meeting in the Abbey.” Abernathy pulled his mount to the front of our party and gestured to the opening, much too small for a horse.
There would be no mad rushes out of here.
After dismounting and leaving the horses tied to the husks of two carts, clearly repurposed just for this, we entered. A small courtyard opened up to something that could have been out of the movieTron. The ruins of a great stone medieval abbey were stitched back together using glass, wood, and gold, glowing curved beams. The same glowing bits recreated the flying buttresses, which stood out against the bright blue afternoon.
My breath puffed white as we entered ruins older than Technology itself. Despite living in Xan’s castle for months, I still gaped at all of it. Old stone fused with magic blew my twenty-first-century city-girl mind.
Crisp sunlight bathed the room through the transparent or possibly nonexistent ceiling. Groups stood apart, pods of mismatched clothes like oil drops refusing to mix.
A gruff man with braids in his hair and a long carrot-red beard stepped forward. “Nice of you to finally join us.”
Xan’s lessons on the families kicked in. This must be a McDonald.
“I had a late night, as you’re all very aware,” Xan said mildly. “Or we wouldn’t be here.”
A low chuckle cut through the crowd. The McDonalds parted, revealing a man I recognized far too well. My heart skipped a beat. For a brief moment, I was back in that sunless cellar, chained and surrounded by tears. I couldn’t tell if my neck burned from the current collars, or the one that haunted my memory.
One of the tethers in my back burned more than the others, as the body snatcher with coal-black eyes and gold teeth made my stomach twist.
Ezra growled and stepped in front of me. Rowan and Cayden boxed in my sides while Brit and Joe stood at my back. Xan, with his hair slicked back and his formal Architect attire, didn’t move, though the air vibrated with his unhappiness.
The man walked forward and pulled a cigarette out between his gold teeth. “Good to see you, girly. There’s been a lot of speculation about you, especially these past few days.”
“What’s a body snatcher doing here?” Xan asked, his voice terrifyingly neutral.
The tension in the air twisted into something dark. Almost in unison, the group of McDonalds pulled out honest-to-god tinfoil hats and put them on their heads.
“You’ve broken your code,” the same McDonald said. “Men ran out of your castle screaming, one of your own trainees even. You don’t have a leg to stand on.”
“You were only defending your family.” Jamie Abernathy held out his hands. “However, that justification can be used for anything.”
Xan said even his allies were turning against him, but seeing his information officer do it hurt.
“You’re too powerful,” Abernathy continued. “We knew it when you took the castle, and you’ve shown your cards once again.” His gaze flicked to me. “Life in your family is hard. Quinn could be enjoying luxury anywhere else, but she’s not, and none of us can think of a single reason she would stay by your side unless…” He trailed off.
Anger boiled my blood. No one could think of a reason I would rather stay and work than be a pampered baby mill? Really?
“She needs to see her options.” A man dressed in dark purple and red velvets off to my left said smoothly. “To our knowledge, she hasn’t even received our Intentions.”
I had! Sorta. Well, I got the ones at The Mixer, not that I’d had a moment to look at them.
Before I could open my mouth, the man continued. “She knows nothing but you and your family. Think about how that affects the rest of us.”
“Us,” Xan repeated, looking at the pods of people, all keeping space between them and the next group. “Because the main families of Edinburgh work together.”
Every person in the room shifted uneasily.
“In this, we do,” Jamie Abernathy said for the group.
