Rowan bumped Cayden’s shoulder. “One looking for a third wheel. A young, scrawny twink we can break between us.”
Heat rose to my cheeks. Rowan was baiting Cayden. Despite the rune mage not being remotely scrawny or twinkish, the picture burned into my fantasies.
‘Cayden and Rowan are straight. Cayden and Rowan are straight,’I chanted to Ezra.
‘Yes,’my always practical lover responded.
I missed whatever comeback Cayden gave Rowan, but as a trio, we headed to my apartment. Rowan marched into my kitchen while Cayden wandered the rest, no doubt checking for booby traps and torture devices.
After completing a full circle, he pulled out a bottle of wine. “Got a bottle opener?”
The question was so normal after literally weeks of fighting, I almost didn’t know how to respond. “It’s in the kitchen. I’ll grab it and some glasses.”
Moments later, Cayden and I held glasses of wine while Rowan clattered around, probably destroying Ezra’s careful organization.
I took one sip, and the rune mage looked at me expectantly. “Um, it’s very red? With some dark fruits and tannins, if I remember correctly, that’s the stuff that makes your mouth feel dry.”
Cayden took a deep breath. “I’m surprised you don’t know more about wine.”
“Why?”
“You’re the Architect. You host, you schmooze.”
“I’m also the son of a blacksmith.” More red slid down my throat. “Who sold me to the body snatchers so he could move his entire family farther south and start over without the taint of a mentalist haunting him.”
Cayden’s eyes narrowed, but before either of us could move forward, my lover’s voice filled my mind.‘Quinn’s upset, and I don’t know how to fix it. Can you talk to her through me?’
‘Of course, let me in,’I responded immediately.
I lay down on the bed. “I’ll be right back.”
“Wha—” Cayden began, but I was out of my body before he finished the word.
I slipped into Ezra and found myself in a dark dome, settling onto something soft. Quinn sat cross-legged in front of me; she wasn’t crying, but wild flyaways frizzed from her hair, and she had a book with metal spirals on one side that didn’t look like it was from our time in her hands.
She flipped it around, and a piece of paper covered in scribbles of different colors met my gaze. “Ezra, what if they connect the dots like this? Look at the purple. I made it purple so you’d see it better. Please. What if my answers go pear-shaped?”
I put my hand on her paper; only it was Ezra’s calloused fingers. “Ezra called in reinforcements.” I patted my throat, assuming something was stuck there, then remembered Ezra’s voice sat a register lower than mine.
“Xan?” Quinn whispered.
I raised my hand as if she were taking attendance.
Quinn’s entire being lit up, and she threw herself forward. I wrapped her in my—well, Ezra’s—arms and hugged her tight. “What’s going on?”
“I just don’t know if I’m proving anything.” The tears I was sure she held back for Ezra’s sake burst to life.
“You’re doing amazing.” I rubbed her back and let her cry. “Brody needs help. I’m looking for his family. You’re not wrong about Matt. It was bold and brave of you to recommend that I do what everyone fears, as if it were a good thing, but it was very much you. And Erick, honestly, you know more about him than I do. He was your roommate, and I think everything you said only proves that not only are you under your own will, but not everything that happened to you is about me.”
“I was me,” she whispered.
I didn’t understand why she said it, but I hugged her harder. “You’re unique and every one of your answers was genuine and you.” I took an annoyed breath. “Cayden said the same,” I added, knowing she’d like to hear it. “You did amazing.”
Quinn squeezed me again.
Her tears slowed enough that she could talk. “Is Seth okay?”
“Yes,” I said. “He and Erick both returned to my walls.”
