I bit my lips together. “You’ll have an answer for everything, won’t you?”
To my surprise, Xan nodded. “I will. It’s what I do, Quinn. I didn’t build this family from scratch by sitting. Right or wrong, I prod the world into action.”
“Like you did with Professor Holiday? You could have just walked in there. Why bother with the show?” I asked bitterly.
Xan waved his hands in the air. “There was no show. I could not have walked in there—and I was as shocked as you. My deals with my monsters are very specific. I made our night easier.” Xan tilted his head toward Ezra. “And I had Ezra shadow us, so we were never truly alone, but the rest was all us.”
I bit my lips together. “Are you and Ezra even having problems?”
“Yes,” Ezra said harshly before Xan could answer.
Guilt flooded my stomach for asking. Their working relationship seemed functional, but beyond that, yeah. I shouldn’t have poked that one.
Xan dropped his gaze to the sheets.
My anger at the Architect was slipping through my fingers, but I wasn’t ready to let it go.
“And all the steering of my life before you wokeup—”
Ezra dropped onto the bed, making me bounce. “Is a big part of why Xan and I are struggling. I’ve already told you that it was my incompetence. Do not lay that at Xan’s feet.”
I pursed my lips but nodded. “Hanlon’s razor. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
Ezra grunted like I’d hit a nerve but stayed silent.
I brought my legs up to my chest and hugged them to me. Xan wasn’t who I thought he was… but if I admitted that, I also had to look at my view of the Architect. A man I’d never met, but one I’d painted quite the ugly picture of in my head.
Xan put his pointer fingers together and rested them against his full lips. “You’re powerful, Quinn. You’ll tip the balance for whoever you choose. But you belong to no one. Not even me.”
I put my hand over the pendant. The sleeping cat pressed into my skin. “You’d train me up and let me go?”
Xan nodded. “Yes.”
The tension I’d been carrying for weeks released. For better or worse, I believed him.
“And if I want to leave right now?” I asked evenly.
Silence stretched between us. I could almost hear him screaming ‘no’ over and over in his head.
“Then you can go,” he said evenly. “I’d like to give you provisions and assist you with making a plan, but my family is not your prison.”
Ezra slid to Xan’s back with his hands on his lover’s shoulders. It took me a moment to realize the purple-eyed mage was physically supporting Xan, who trembled. He didn’t want me to go, but he would let me. If I stood up right now, he’d give whatever orders he needed to make sure I walked through his front gates without breaking my stride.
The three tethers in my lower back burned.
Only three. Not four. And none of those three would have even pretended to offer me freedom.
I pointed at the still-steaming coffee, and Xan handed me one. I took a long sip. The roast was dark, though still not as rich as coffee from my time. I was pretty sure Ezra added milk and chocolate to it, though I couldn’t picture that as his regular coffee routine.
“Would you kill yourself to break the tether?” I asked.
Xan met my gaze. “Would you ask me to?”
I shook my head.
Xan handed Ezra his coffee, and the stud of a mage downed it in one pull while we watched. Yeah. He definitely didn’t usually put chocolate in it.
I sighed. “I want to ask why you didn’t introduce yourself as the Architect, but based on this conversation, I get it.”
