“Dammit.” I grabbed the smaller mage. “You literally just said you’d let the world burn for Quinn. You’d let Xan scrub the minds of as many people as he needed if it meant saving her. Pull your head out of your ass. If we don’t fix this, we can’t help Quinn.”
Cayden’s gaze ignited with familiar righteous indignation as he shoved me away. I savored his first sign of life.
“Cayden. It’s fucked up, I know,” Xan said calmly.
I jerked back. The Architect never swore.
“This world, what you’ve been through…” Xan leaned forward. “The Silvers sold me to slavers.” He clenched his fist. “They taught me to make collars. I was twelve.”
The anger in his voice echoed through my gut.
“I didn’t understand what I was making, but once I did.” Xan’s gaze blazed. “I killed thirty-seven people with just a thought and walked over their bodies to get out of that hellhole.”
Cayden’s eyes widened, and he stepped back.
“You didn’t choose your parents, but you can choose your family. I need you now.” Xan pressed his hand against the stone. “The Alun lies behind this wall. You’re a rune-master. You see patterns that the rest of us don’t. And Emil, your brother, is using the same rune magic you wield.”
Cayden nodded as if slowly digesting Xan’s words.
Xan clenched his fist in front of him. “I’ve unleashed a monster I can’t contain above us.”
As if on cue, the world shook. More acid rained down on us. A drop hit Cayden’s cheek, and he flinched away.
“That monster is our distraction. We need to get into the Alun right now. Or I lose everything, and we lose Quinn.”
Another bit of acid splashed onto Cayden’s other cheek. The rune mage grimaced and wiped it away with his sleeve, obscuring his face. When he lowered his arm, his eyes burned with determination. My magic danced, and my adrenaline surged.
Xan extended his hand, palm facing Cayden. “Let me share my knowledge with you. Stop hating yourself. What’s done is done. I spent years wondering if the men I killed had families and if I had made the right choice. How many of them were truly evil? How many just had no other options?” A tear rolled down Xan’s cheek. “I will never know. You will never know. What matters are the choices we make here and now.”
Cayden’s chest rose and fell once, twice. “I raped my sister. I raped all of them.”
His voice was so calm, so matter-of-fact, I almost didn’t understand. My lungs locked. Bile scorched my throat. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t fucking believe what I’d heard. Every rumor I’d ever heard about his family slammed into me at once, jagged and undeniable.
“You bowed to your Prophet,” Xan responded with more understanding than I could imagine. “You did what you thought was right until you knew it wasn’t.” His voice hardened. “You have two paths in front of you. Wallow in what has already happened, or create a better future.”
Two fat tears streamed from each of Cayden’s eyes as he flung himself forward, dropping to one knee in front of Xan, who nearly stepped back in surprise.
Cayden pressed his forehead into Xan’s palm. “You’ll protect Quinn from me?”
“I’ll train her so she doesn’t need protection from anyone,” Xan promised.
I’d already sworn my loyalty to the Architect. It was just a simple exchange of a scrawl and a handshake. But at this moment, I was seconds away from dropping to one knee as well. Xan said he wanted to create a world of equals, and for the first time, I truly felt it.
Cayden’s eyes widened, and the life behind them reignited.
Xan turned to me. “Drill forward as straight and as fast as you can. Don’t stop and don’t look back.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I lunged at the wall, stone groaning under my grip. Heat and earth roared through me, rock melting to slag as I forced it aside, clawing a path forward inch by brutal inch.
Power radiated at my back.
Cayden let out a low whimper. “This is too much information.”
Magic glowed off the rocks around me.
“You’re the product of a hundred years of breeding, Cayden.” Xan's words rang with power. “And a lifetime of training more detailed and intense than I can fathom. Control it. Did you lie to Quinn when you told her Majekah was imagination and will?”
The first foot of my tunnel dented into the wall. Thick, dusty air coated my lungs and stuck to my skin. I had to go faster.
