“Don’t we have placements?” Quinn asked.
I pursed my lips. “You’ve been excused due to injury, and my final one isn’t until the afternoon.”
“What is the point of the placements? I’ve missed half of them.” Quinn wrinkled her nose adorably.
I couldn’t help myself and kissed her forehead. “I don’t really get it either, but I think the point was to show us all our options and for the family to see if we were good at any of them.”
Quinn snorted.
I shrugged. “It really does sound like it’s a combination of what we are good at and what we want to do, as long as they need people in that job. We’ll see all the options tonight, at the Mixer.”
“What’s a Mixer?” Quinn looked at me skeptically.
“How are you so out of the loop?” I let out an exaggerated sigh. Though if I hadn’t seen the reminder on my TB this morning, I would not have remembered it either. “A Mixer is the Architect’s version ofa party. And this one’s specifically for us to mingle with the various departments that our placements are going to be in.”
“I don’t think I want to go to a party.” Quinn wrinkled her nose.
I scowled. “You’ll have to take that up with Everly. She said you agreed to spend the afternoon preparing for it with her.”
Quinn’s face lit up. “I’m going with Everly?” She chewed on her bottom lip, and a bit of excitement filled her eyes. “I’ve been to exactly one party, alone, and it’s not a good memory. But maybe if I’m with friends…” A smile played on her lips.
I raised an eyebrow, not sure if I believed her, but also not sure why she’d lie about something like that. “Just one, and alone?”
Quinn bit her lips together. “I, ah, lived a pretty sheltered life.”
ThatI did believe. “Let me guess. You had a personal chef. Explains why there’s not a crumb in here for a mouse.”
Quinn snorted. “The Grinch took all my toys.”
I narrowed my eyes, suddenly angry with this Grinch. “Who’s the Grinch?”
“Never mind.” Quinn squeezed my hand.
I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. I added the name to my shit list and squeezed her hand back before pushing her toward her bed. “Get dressed. We have some knowledge to get through that thick skull of yours.”
I’d meant it to be funny, but the moment the words came out of my mouth, I remembered her ‘fall.’ Quinn was too sweet and trusting. She’d jump off a cliff for Everly, which made me worry who else was in my best friend’s life.
My heart thudded in my chest. I had a best friend, not someone assigned to me or praying at my side, but a woman who chose to spend her time with me. I suddenly wanted to wrap her in every protective spell I knew and demand she never leave this room.
But that was wrong. My instincts were wrong, so I kept my lips shut and my back turned while she dressed.
My attention moved to the inactive cauldrons hanging from the four corners of her skylights.
There was no way my best friend had simply fallen. Or, if she had, someone helped. Someone hurt my girl. I was sure of it. Her magic hadn’t brought her back to her dorm. Someone had carried her here in their cloak. The massive bloody thing was still on her couch.
I drew, sending a magic tracking rune into her room. Energy signatures burst to life in her cauldrons and heat cone. My forest green, Erick’s coral, and a pure white drift lazily under her skylight before vanishing in the sun's rays. I burned the color into my memory.
Chapter 17
Quinn
“Don’tdothat.”Mydad threw a tennis ball at my hand before I could touch anything. “You know you're coming up on your time.”
“God, Dad, you make it sound like I’m dying.” I grinned, but my dad didn’t grin back.
We’d celebrated my twenty-third birthday. I hadn’t gotten a lemon drop this year. I wasn’t sure I would ever again. Our new system of ‘releasing Miss Q’ wasn’t really working.
I mean, it was. Instead of blacking out, I ran around in a forest like a crazy person, but both of us were starting to think maybe the blackouts were better. Fact and fiction were blurring. I struggled to hold long conversations and often found myself sitting for hours, reliving the highs of my mental breakdowns… because they were better than real life.
