Ravana clapped. “Save it. We’re exposed, and your big man’s a beacon.”
I glanced at Joe, decked out in his blacks and leathers with his massive, gleaming ax on his back.
Brit grinned. “My man.”
Ravana inclined her head. “Well done, now get. It’s time Quinn understood this world instead of being tossed around in it.”
Chapter 18
Alexander
Ijerkedawakefroma dream I couldn’t remember, but it hadn’t been good. For a moment, I didn’t recognize the squares of gold and black above my bed. I hadn’t gone to sleep here. I reached for Ezra’s side of the bed, only to find it cold. The smell of coffee still lingered in the air. I found a lukewarm cup next to my bed, along with a plum-purple scrawl and the TB I’d fallen asleep making last night.
You fell asleep in your office. Go back to bed. I’ve got this.
I took a sip of coffee and shook Ezra’s note, releasing the magic back into the world. My unintentional extended sleep left me feeling recovered, physically if not emotionally.
Quinn was no longer within my walls. I’d lost control… I could lose everything. I let the terror, desperately trying to crawl out of me, shake my frame once before I squashed it.
I was the Architect. No one ruled my destiny but myself. I could still fix this.
My TB system filled my subconscious with messages. The vast majority I didn’t touch; they weren’t my business. But my officers, and now Brit and Joe, were essential information.
The clash of the families still buzzed in their words. Somehow, we’d managed to disengage from our unexpected fight without any bloodshed, during which Quinn vanished with Ravana. I would have been beside myself, but Brit was at her side. I had no choice but to trust.
The next few hours had been painful at best. The families would not let go of their need to test Quinn’s free will, even the Abernathys. I’d given my allies at the bottom of my Mile everything, and they still turned against me.
My heart hurt.
In ten days, Quinn would go through four tests, one devised by each family.
I had two options. I could use my magic to make everyone believe she’d passed, even though she didn’t take a single test. Alex would make that very complicated, but I trusted my creativity. Like when I took my castle: it would work at first. However, under scrutiny, assuming I did everything perfectly, we’d still be back exactly where we started.
It was a short-term solution with long-term consequences.
Option two, I could sit back and let Quinn take their tests. No one wanted to hurt Quinn. Although I doubted the McDonalds had her best interests at heart, they at least wanted her physically healthy and ready to pop out babies. The tests wouldn’t prove anything. But if she passed, maybe this nightmare would end. Maybe… Should.
I groaned.
The tests were a farce, a setup. There was no way to assess whether I had altered her memories. The only speculation available was to compare a person's memories to physical evidence.
I ran my fingers through my hair before pulling.
What was the right thing to do here?
I grabbed my TB, focusing on something simpler: Joe’s messages to Rowan, half gushing about Brit, half mapping Westwater’s Assembly Hall.
Unlike the Griersons—or even my own family—no one had personal space in the Assembly Hall. Each massive room belonged to a different branch, with families living communally, mostly in mini tent cities among food stores, makeshift comforts, and necessities.
Joe’s map showed a few shared private rooms, loosely controlled at best. Power defined placement: the family head at the center, the weaker branches pushed outward, all locked in constant competition.
Ravana kept Quinn at her side, quartered in the room farthest from the center, closest to The Pit. Ravana belonged to Silas—the Master of The Pit—who wasn’t a Westwater, but a power in his own right.
Deirdre hadn’t objected. Ravana’s loyalty lay with Silas, not the Westwaters, and that made Quinn someone else’s problem.
I turned to Brit’s messages next. Unlike Joe, she’d directly contact Ezra and me.
Moss Green:Quinn’s safe. We’re with Ravana.
