Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(33)

"Yes, mother," Sasha murmured, bowing her head as the mother left them for the evening.

"Please don't make this difficult," Jayesh and Sasha said at the same time after Mother Raghavan’s footsteps faded in the distance.

~~~





CHAPTER

ELEVEN





Quinn: Fall


Atlanta, Georgia


“Why are you so twitchy?” Santi scowled at Quinn across the kitchen island.

“I’m not.” Quinn fidgeted with his breakfast. It always bothered him to eat in front of her, knowing she was never getting enough.

“You’re like a five-year-old messing with his cereal. Eat and get out of here. You know Livia’s a stickler for the schedule. And God help you if you mess up Lennox's day. She'll tear your face off.”

“I’m going.” Quinn drained the last of his juice and went to rinse his dishes. He hated making Santi clean up after him.

“You know you’re sweating, right?” She frowned up at him, checking his forehead.

“I’m just … off today, I guess.” He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, leaving her to her chores.

He caught a glimpse of himself in the foyer mirror on his way out of his penthouse prison. He looked like shit. He felt weird, too. Like a newly Awakened kid on the cusp of touching his power for the first time. He hadn’t felt like that in ages.

It wasn’t that long ago, Quinn. Just a year ago his last gift had manifested, but with four unique gifts in his arsenal, it wasn’t likely he’d ever have to go through that again.

Quinn stepped onto the empty elevator to make his way down to the training center. His life had settled into a new normal over the last few weeks and it surprised him how easily he had slipped into the routine of Soma. After a morning with James, they’d hit the gym to work with Lennox. He knew Livia only had them working together so he would get attached. That way, when she was ready to remind him who was in charge and what she wanted from him, she could use Lennox against him and it would hurt that much more.

Lennox came to Soma before she could even remember living anywhere else. Ryan found her wandering around the first floor lobby. She couldn’t have been more than two at the time. James suspected her parents feared raising a child as powerful as Lennox would likely be. To Quinn, she wasn’t much more than average. But to those who hadn’t grown up with someone like Aidan, in a family as powerful as theirs, he supposed Lennox could seem intimidating--especially to a young couple. They probably thought they were leaving her with people who would see she was trained properly. But they couldn’t have known they were sentencing her to a cold and clinical life that would never be her own.

“You’re late,” James said the moment Quinn arrived at the enormous training center where counselors worked with the Soma kids in residence. These kids were slated to hit the slave market in a few years and few of them realized it. Most of them came to the Fold for help and, in exchange, they’d lost their freedom. There were other kids, in a different part of the building, who hadn’t made it this far in yet. They lived in dormitories and thought they were lucky to be accepted into the program.

“Sorry. I’m not feeling up to my usual today,” Quinn said. “Had a bad night.” His dreams were leaving him restless. He dreamed of home almost every night he slept now. It was getting easier to remember he’d only been at Soma a few months, but he still missed his home and his family as if he hadn’t seen them in years. The ache of missing Sasha haunted him. So many times, he woke in a sweat after chasing a phantom of her through his dreams, reliving those final confusing moments with her. That last dance. Their last words to each other. The kiss. He’d wake up wondering what that kiss meant to her. What it meant to him now that he felt like he had five years’ distance from that night. Other times, throughout his day, he would get an overwhelming sense that she was in trouble and needed him. The separation from her was almost worse than anything he’d suffered at Michael’s hand.

“You’re training with Lennox this morning.”

“What, no pep talk today?” Quinn gave his trainer a shove.

“You don’t listen to anything I say anyway.” James returned the shove with a grin.

“What’s with the change in my schedule?” Lennox burst through the door looking like a street urchin, with her ratty hair in a messy braid over her shoulder and a smear of blood on her chin. “I have training at eleven on weekdays, not nine.” She didn’t like it when her routine changed without notice. She was a mouthy little kid with a tough skin. She needed it, living at Soma.

“Have you been fighting again?” James frowned down at her.

“Isn’t that what we’re all here for?” She crossed her arms.

“Depends. Were you the bully in whatever scrape you’ve gotten yourself into now?”

“No comment.” She wiped the dried blood off her chin.

“We’re working out, and then you and Quinn are going to spar,” James said.

Lennox wrinkled her nose at that. “He’s a giant ox. You want him to put me in the infirmary?”

“My aunt isn’t much bigger than you and I spar with her all the time,” Quinn said, thinking of Chloe. Her Awakening would have happened recently. The realization that he'd missed it and hadn’t even realized knocked the wind out of him. I’m missing everything.