Xan waved back, just as stupidly, before shaking his head and gesturing to the little table under the window. “Ezra said you had questions.”
I looked around the room for Ezra, but the dark mage wasn’t present. I suddenly realized I hadn’t seen either of them together, not once. What if this were some weird Fight Club spin-off? What if they were the same person?
Had I slept beside one guy… or between two?
My cheeks warmed. Instead of asking foolish or maybe not-so-foolish questions, I moved to the small table and sat down. Xan placed a mug of steaming tea in front of me. I took a sip and gazed out thewindow. Rare, bright blue, clear skies stretched over a world spanning more eras than I could count. Tall, crumbling skyscrapers from my time stood among stones from centuries ago and sleek new magical structures. In the distance, the estuary of the river mouth shimmered almost black.
I took another sip of tea and finally turned back to Xan. “Your place is nice.”
Xan’s lips quirked up. “I’ve done what I can. I like the wood. I found it on the top floors of The Old Fortress before Professor Holiday took it over and brought it here to restore it.” He wrinkled his nose. “I think there’s more, but my freedom to search is limited.”
Our little adventure replayed in my head. “I know a guy. Maybe we could break in for a peek at the top floors.”
Xan’s face lit up before he schooled it. The door to the kitchen opened, and Ezra spilled out with his arms full of food. I let out a relieved sigh. These were two different people; this wouldn’t be a Fight Club situation. He filled the small table with scones, sausages, and fruit before telling both of us to eat, then vanished back into the kitchen.
“I guess it’s good to know he’s just as abrasive with you,” I said.
Xan laughed.
Both our stomachs growled. I took a few bites and organized my thoughts, not letting my gaze leave Xan, who, in his defense, did the same with me.
“The reason you’ve not been assigned a place in the family is complicated,” Xan suddenly said. “But every nuance boils down to: we didn’t know what you were capable of or the best way to incorporate it.” He wrinkled his nose. “I’m your new tutor.”
I took a bite of the scone, which was buttery and filled with piping hot blueberries, as if it had just come out of the oven. The cake I’dshared with Xan at the library came back to me. Xan had said Ezra made it, but if the tall, dark, and stupidly hot mage could bake too, I was pretty sure I’d go back to believing none of this was real.
“I thought everyone got to choose what they did here?” I picked up a sausage and pointed it at him. “Why am I here instead of with medics? And why are you tutoring me? Your Majekah is healing, right? Mine’s the complete opposite.”
Xan took a delicate bite of fruit. I could almost see my questions compiling in his head as he thought. Silence stretched. Both of us ate a few more bites and chewed, watching each other. There was no way Ezra’s partner was just some random person, especially if the Architect had assigned Xan to tutor me. Xan said he wanted information from Professor Holiday to impress the Architect. Rowan didn’t avoid talking about Xan; he literally stopped talking whenever Xan’s name came up.
Xan was someone important to the Architect. My gut twisted. Had I been subtly steered into this friendship, too?
“What’s a tether?” Not the question I wanted to ask, but the one Ezra was sure Xan would answer.
Xan locked his baby-blue eyes with mine. I couldn’t read the conflict in them.
“A tether binds a man and a woman together,” Xan explained. “He can sense where she is, what she’s feeling. It makes him her protector, her shadow, and her anchor.”
I read between the lines. “It doesn’t work both ways.”
Xan threw up his hands, then clenched them into fists. “It does not. Nor does it work between two men.”
I suddenly understood his conflict. He wanted a tether with Ezra. I felt like an ass. Xan had helped me, and now I was sitting here, being suspicious of everything, when he’d been super clear from the start.He had engineered our first meeting. He even told me that because he wanted to fix things with his partner.
Xan took an uncomfortable breath. “Some men use the link as a leash. I hate it.” He swallowed. “But it’s how our world works.”
The three stabs of power in my back burned. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Three sets of eyes flashed through my memory—coal black, hot orange, and Gandalf’s cool white.
I hadn’t gotten away. They’d left a piece of themselves inside of me. Hot tears welled in my eyes but didn’t fall. I dropped my gaze so Xan wouldn’t see them. “Can a tether be broken?”
“If the man who made it dies, so does the tether.” Tight anger laced his every word.
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it was something. I rubbed my back, suddenly desperate to scrub it over and over. But the marks weren’t on my skin; they were ties to my very essence. A wave of panic tried to overwhelm me again, and I pushed it away. I’d been living like this for months. I just had to pretend, like if there was a spider in the room. Out of sight, out of mind. I was fine. Totally. One hundred percent fine.
I finally looked up, only to find Xan’s usual expressive face as neutral as his lover’s.
I couldn’t ask about the stabs of power. Not yet. Instead, I asked, “Why does the Architect want me working with you?”
Xan leaned forward. “Because I’m powerful, Quinn. I have unrestricted access to the Alun, which, after your almost explosion of the forge, it’s clear we desperately need. And”—a blush destroyed his attempt to hide his expression—“I want to work with you.” Xan took a deep breath. “When those men carried you out of that pit fight unconscious, I lost it.”
