His impassive face didn’t shift. But the weight of his next breath told me everything I needed to know. With a resigned nod, he slid behind me. Always ready to support my worst of decisions.
Chancellor Morgen walked in, shutting the door firmly behind her, her bright pink hair a jarring contrast to her stern, wrinkled face. Rage, or possibly fear, radiated off her in waves. I didn’t look at the ancient monster posing as an administrator within my castle.
“She’s to be trained,” I said, lacing the words with my will.
Morgen’s gaze swept over the woman’s broken body, calculating.
“She’s to be trained, no matter her circumstances,” I repeated, sharper.
My chancellor narrowed her eyes. “Yes, Architect.”
I didn’t let my relief show. This was my family, my castle, but without their support, I was nothing.
The dying woman’s back arched, and her thrashing stopped.
Now or never.
Ezra wrapped his arms around my waist, and I gripped both her bare ankles.
Her pain surged into me, locking my hands to her like shackles. My magic poured through the connection, seeking out the source of her ruin.
Three tethers of foreign power clung to her, ugly and incomplete dark cords stretching north. They weren’t strong enough to fully control her, but they bound her all the same. Death, hers or the men who had placed them, was the only way to break them.
My heart splintered, but if I wanted any chance to destroy them, she had to live.
I was a skilled healer. My talent for weaving flesh back together was second to none, but this would need more. Closing my eyes, I formed a cord of my very essence and slid into her. Her agony became mine. My body spasmed, and only Ezra’s grip kept me upright.
I pushed deeper. My magic wrapped her closer than any lover, stitching months of damage into wholeness. I wept, though I couldn’t feel the tears. There was no room for me, only her pain and the work of mending it.
One injury at a time, I knit this stranger back together, my soul taking its place beside hers.
The tether solidified. Her emotions should have flooded me, but her unconscious mind was silent.
I gave her everything I had until the world went black.
Chapter 2
Quinn
“Don’tdothat.”Myleast favorite words came out of my dad’s mouth once again. “Honey, you need to fit in. I know you have issues, but you need to try. Remember the last time you came home crying?”
The growing anger heating my face cooled. I didn’t want to, but I remembered every time I came home crying. This time, my hair was too frizzy, and when Scott pulled it, I batted him away. Except, when I’d batted him away, I touched the massive, priceless watch on his wrist. In front of both our eyes, it unraveled into pieces. I’d destroyed it... but I didn’t know how. He’d started yelling, and I’d started crying about “magic.” But magic wasn’t real, and now I was in trouble for lying and destroying something valuable. Worse, everyone laughed at me. Again.
I clasped my hands together to keep them from shaking.
“I love you, sweetie, but we’ve talked about this. You’re too sensitive. If you don’t react, Scott will lose interest in you. Kids can be mean, especially if someone is different. You’re sick, Quinn. It’s not your fault, but they don’t understand that.”
I didn’t want to be sick. I wanted to be normal and make my dad proud.
“They were mean to me, too, when I was young.” My dad ruffled my hair. “But they stopped because I didn’t react. You still react. Don’t do that.”
He made it sound so easy, but it wasn’t. Nothing was easy.
I woke from another round of dark dreamless unconsciousness but didn’t open my eyes. My logical brain knew I still lay on my surgeon’s table, but my sick brain wanted me to believe something completely different and filled its delusions with details.
The air was stuffy and—ick—almost moldy. This definitely wasn’t a bright, clean hospital room. But it also wasn’t the rolling hills and dense forest that centered around my last delusion. I couldn’t hear any birds or bugs. Actually, I couldn’t hear anything but the sound of my breathing.
I jerked. It didn’t hurt to breathe. Whatever infection had settled in my lungs over the last few months was gone.
