Pain split my lip, though not my real one.
‘No. We go ahead as planned. Take her mind now,’ Teivel snarled.
Despite the distance between us, I found the old mentalist’s gaze. Teivel loomed over him, his fist already raised to strike again. The Pit vanished from my view. I looked down at a kid, no older than twelve, with a swollen black eye, who studied me with a fear-filled gaze.
I was in Alex’s memory. The kid was me. Alex, starved of friendship, showed me everything. I cried for the family that never loved me, and he soaked it up like salvation. Too quickly, I realized the toys we made were weapons, the collars for slaves. My stomach twisted.
To Alex, young me was clever, but naïve. The compound meant food and safety. It was the only thing he’d ever known. He tried to keep me safe in his world, but I couldn’t stomach his reality. One day, I snapped, reached into every mind and erased their very breaths. In a minute, only the old mentalist and I were still drawing in air.
Alex had frozen—no food, no way out, terrified. I pushed, pulled, begged, but he wouldn’t move. So, I left him.
Guilt hit me again, but Alex layered it in pride. I’d run. He’d stayed, terrified and hating the life he begged to keep.
He’d all but forgotten me until Quinn broke his collar, connecting us. Suddenly, a lifetime of regrets became his world.The twelve-year-old version of me was now a man in Quinn’s memory, and all Alex wanted was that connection once more.
He’d gone about it the wrong way.
He knew that now.
He hadn’t seen Quinn as a person, just another Bert and Ernie.
He understood differently now.
The Pit returned, and Alex’s cerulean-blue gaze still locked with mine.
‘Alex, did you hear me?’ Teivel demanded.
“Xan, please snap out of it,” Rowan pleaded.
I looked away from Alex.‘Quinn. Alex is going to give you instructions. I need you to follow them. Trust me.’
‘Go unconscious. Now.’Alex demanded, but not with his mental powers, only his words.
Quinn, still sitting in pain and swirling with her inner turmoil, managed to take a single deep breath and “collapsed.”
‘Excellent,’ Teivel hissed, savoring it like blood in his mouth.
The sound of steel rang, and I looked down to see a Grierson drawing a sword against a McDonald. The Pit was a powder keg—one spark from exploding as allies and enemies screamed over each other.
Movement caught my eye. Figures pressed forward, women. Their magic flared as the crowd jeered and shoved, half cheering them, half trying to drag them back.
The first one put her hand out and sent her magic into the metal, followed by the next and the next, until at least fifteen channels of various colors made a rainbow, fighting against the spells keeping them out. Steel and magic groaned, then exploded, rocking my seat. Whatever power held the cage in place died, and pieces hit the floor in massive chunks.
‘Unexpected,’ Teivel sneered. ‘But skirts tear easily. Cut them down. Take what’s left.’
A horn blasted from his box. The stands erupted, spectators tore off cloaks and coats, revealing a sea of body snatchers, orange-haired McDonalds glaring like sparks in the dark. Slave collars bit into their necks.
My heart raced. The women were already boosting themselves onto the raised fighting ring with Quinn, while their brothers and friends surrounded it from the ground. I found Brit’s glowing moss-green skin, baring her teeth at a group of men who clearly intended to charge forward but were surprised by the turn of events.
It was something—women rallying, allies rising, but the mob still dwarfed us, three to one, their roar shaking the ring.
Rowan shook me. “Xan. I know you’re in there. Can you take care of yourself? I need to get to Quinn.”
“Go.” I managed to use my vocal cords. “You can do nothing here.”
Rowan squeezed my shoulder once before turning and leaping out of our box toward his family below. Wind came at his call, controlling his descent as he rallied his brothers.
Instead of following him to what certainly would have been a broken leg, I locked my gaze on Teivel, still looming, still pulling every string. Alex was noise. Teivel was the serpent, and serpents are cut off at the head.
