Random waves of agony have hit me since he’s been in their custody. The mark on my hip is the same pale peachy white as his skin. It means he’s alive, but it doesn’t tell me what condition he’ll be in when I find him.

  There have been more patrols than we expected, though security has grown thinner this high in the building. I keep waiting for Cato’s strength to wane, but he leads the way with fire, even coated in blood from the bodies we’ve left behind like a crumb trail of death.

  We move to the next hallway, and another guard rounds the corner. She’s too far to reach, but Ego whips her arm out as a metallic whistle pierces the air. The guard stumbles backward with a knife lodged in her throat, and Cato curses and runs over to finish her, guiding her to the floor.

  “Nice shot,” he mutters as he jogs back and hands Ego her knife. She looks pleased as she wipes it clean on his pants and tucks it into the holster on her belt.

  “You never taught me that move,” Sakane complains, frowning at her collection of knives.

  Ego clicks her tongue and tosses him a glare. “Because you said, and I quote, ‘Daggers are too boring when you could use ninja stars instead.’”

  “Am I wrong?”

  Ego rolls her eyes as we proceed past the body. “Considering you don’t know how to throw them? Yeah. You’re wrong.”

  “I’ll figure it out eventually,” he mutters.

  We step into a larger room, and my eyes land on the doorway splitting the far wall. A guard stands watch outside it, but he’s quickly silenced by Cato’s hands snapping his neck. My palms sweat as Ego gets to work picking the lock, unsure of what we’ll find inside.

  The lock clicks, and Ego steps aside.

  A faint ray of light splits the darkness as I push the door open, and the world tilts beneath my feet.

  Xeni’s hands are chained to the wall high above his head, leaving barely enough slack for his knees to brush the ground. His uniform is filthy, and a shock collar gleams around his neck. His white hair is matted with shades of pink and red from drying blood, and it’s knotted and wild as it curtains his face.

  His name tears from my throat as I rush forward and drop to my knees before him. His single eye is bloodshot and unfocused as his head lifts slowly, as if the effort costs him more than he can spare.

  Bruises mar his fair skin in violent blues, purples, and sickly greens, while a fresh cut slices through his swollen lip. His body trembles uncontrollably as we kneel there, face-to-face.

  In this moment, I want to burn the world to ash.

  “What did they do to you?” I whisper, voice breaking as my hands hover, afraid to touch him and cause more pain.

  He stares at me for a few long, disoriented seconds, not comprehending the reality of my presence.

  “Bash? Darling? Are you… are you really here?”

  I nod, fighting back the tears burning my eyes as I brush his tangled, blood-crusted hair from his face. “Yeah, princess. I’m here. It’s me. We’ve gotta get you out of here, okay? I know you’re hurt, but we have to move fast.”

  Alertness crashes over him as panic surges into his voice, and his chains clang and rattle as he scrambles to his feet, forcing me to stand with him.

  “You can’t be here,” he says, shaking his head in jerky, confused motions. “He’ll… gods, he’ll kill you. Go, Bash! Leave! Get out of here!”

  “Not without you,” I insist. “I came for you, and I’m not leaving you behind.”

  His entire face crumbles as his forehead falls onto my shoulder. “Please,” he begs into my shirt, the muffled word coming out raw. I’m not sure if he’s begging me to run or to drag him out of this hell, but there’s no question which is happening.

  My palms smooth his matted hair back before carefully cupping his bruised cheeks and lifting his face to mine. “I know it’s hard to focus right now, but I need you to try. Where do they keep the key to the shackles?”

  He shakes his head, dazed and swaying.

  Ego steps closer with a gentleness I’ve rarely seen from her. “Here, let me take care of that,” she says.

  She makes quick work of the bands around Xeni’s wrists, and I gather his hair and hold it aside as he leans forward for her to work on the collar.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper as my fingertips trace the back of his neck, loathing the cold bite of metal against his skin.

  “Why are you sorry?” he asks, his gaze meeting mine with a vulnerability that pierces straight through me.

  What a loaded fucking question.

  I’m sorry for so much.

  For spending so long hating him, and for allowing that hate to put him in this position. For refusing to believe there was a reason for his actions, even if I couldn’t understand it.

  He was always the best part of me. Those hollow, uncertain spaces inside me were full when I was with him. He saw every side of me and loved them all, and without him, I’ve grown cold.

  I’m so tired of missing his warmth.

  The lock clicks, and Ego pulls the collar away as Xeni stands tall, stretching his neck as he waits for my answer.

  Audience be damned, I want to tell him I’ve loved him every minute of every day, even when I swore I hated him.

  I open my mouth to find the words, but his ears twitch and he freezes. His gaze shifts over my shoulder a split second before I hear it, too.

  Footsteps.

  A single pair that moves with utmost confidence through a hallway littered with death. It sidesteps bodies without changing its cadence, unconcerned with the destruction left in our wake.

  Xeni’s head whips around frantically, searching in vain for an escape. Even if we weren’t hundreds of feet in the air, the windows are barred. The only exit is the door, and those footsteps are seconds away.

  “Get behind me,” he orders, throwing his shoulders back as he makes himself appear larger. His presence takes up the whole room, his magic suddenly stifling.

  Xeni has used his powers around me before, but it never felt like this.

  Never suppressing and foreboding, and never this intense.

  A shadow fills the doorframe, shaping a silhouette illuminated by the faint light in the hallways. They step forward, and I blink in surprise at the person who stands there.

  It’s a reflection of Xeni, only one that’s been twisted into something grotesque. His shoulders and chest are broad, and every inch of his uniform is decorated.

  Stripes and stars, insignias.

  Symbols I recognize as important, even without knowing their meaning.

  Long white hair is pulled into an intricate network of braids that are secured behind his neck, and his horns are enormous, twisting things that nearly brush the top of the doorframe.

  But my eyes lock on his smile.

  That familiar, measured tilt of his lips as he stares with grim satisfaction.

  “Holy fuck,” Ego breathes from beside me. “That’s The Architect.”

  My blood runs cold as those lips curve higher, edging into a smirk.

  The identities of the High Commanders have long been guarded secrets within the military, limited to the strictest need-to-know basis, but over the years rumors have circulated about the one who started it all.

  The ruler who wasn’t satisfied with his reign of terror on the other side, so when the pathway between our worlds opened, he unleashed his armies on our cities. He slaughtered mercilessly while wearing that same smile he wears now.

  Ruthless, with an unquenched thirst for more.

  “I didn’t know we were expecting company, Xenesis,” he muses.

  His voice is softer than I would’ve expected. It’s velvety and rolls over me like silk. His solid white eyes never leave Xeni as he tilts his head with predatory interest that makes my skin crawl.

  “Don’t be rude,” he continues. “Introductions should be made in these types of situations, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “We’re leaving,” Xeni says with a threat spiking every word. “Turn around and walk away.”

  “Now, why would I do that when this is such a special opportunity to meet those important to you?”

  His eyes shift beyond Xeni, clocking Cato, Sakane, and Ego before landing on me.

  For the first time, his composure slips.

  “You—” he begins.

  Xeni takes a step forward with a growl that rumbles from deep in his chest. “Don’t look at him!” he shouts.

  The Architect’s eyebrows flicker up in momentary surprise. “He’s dead,” he responds, low and dangerous as he stares at me for a few long breaths. His attention moves back to Xeni, eyes wild and voice climbing with each word.

  “He is supposed to be dead!”

  His fury fills every empty space, and the loss of composure unleashes a wave of power so oppressive it closes my windpipe. He charges forward as Xeni releases his own power and meets him step for step, and they collide with a force that shakes the air.

  There’s no oxygen left in the room. My throat is full of sand, and my lungs are heavy as concrete. My head swims, but I don’t dare look away.

  The Architect grabs Xeni by the wrists, unblinking as he pushes them almost nose to nose. “Stand aside,” he commands, and the force of it coasts over my skin like ice.

  Xeni’s body quivers as he fights the magic. His arms jerk as he takes a half step back, but he doubles down with a howl that sounds pained and pours even more of his power into the room.

  “No,” he grits through clenched teeth, his feet inching forward despite the strain. “Get out of here and let us go. Leave.”

  The Architect laughs, a droplet of crimson blood dripping from his nostril as he leans closer. “You dare to think you could ever overpower me? You are nothing more than a cheap imitation of what you could’ve been. We could’ve had the entire fucking world, Xenesis. Together, they wouldn’t have stood a chance against us, but you wasted every opportunity. The child of a king who gave everything up for his human mate. You are pathetic!”

  The world slows to a crawl as his words hit me, and my eyes dart between the two of them standing off before me.

  Grim satisfaction crosses The Architect’s face as he notes the surprise on mine.

  “He never told you who he really is, did he?”

  Xeni snarls as he shoves him back a step, but the older Cavese is unbothered as he flashes another of those familiar smiles.

  “It would seem my son has been keeping secrets from us both, wouldn’t it?”

  So many things make sense in that moment.

  Unanswered questions and half-truths. Excuses that brushed me off or distractions that changed the subject. His words flash through my mind, my heart breaking further with each memory.

  Please understand that when I say I didn’t have a choice, I mean it.

  Watching you go changed me, Bash. It fucking destroyed me, but I did it for you.

  Don’t throw me away. I just wanted to protect you.

  And the one that grinds the last intact pieces of my heart to dust. The promise he made when we were curled up together in those sheets, as tightly woven as two people could be.

  The vow as I slid a ring onto his finger.

  You are my forever, Sebastian. The great love of my life. If you ever doubt that, remember us right now in this moment. Remember that I would go to any lengths to protect you, and nothing in this world could ever change that.

  I doubted, despite my oath to remember, and that doubt was poison.

  I made him less when he had always been more.

  He had always been everything.

  “Bash.” Xeni twists his head to meet my eyes with a searching plea for forgiveness.

  It should be me groveling.

  Should be me on my knees.

  The lapsed attention costs him, and his grasp on his father slips as Xeni is knocked aside. He stumbles and collapses, palms hitting the ground too hard as he fights to hold himself up. Ragged gasps fill his chest as tremors rack his frame, the exertion too much for his weakened body.

  A hand wraps around my neck, so much warmer than it should be given the iciness of its intention. It squeezes until my breath rattles in a desperate struggle for air, fingers firm as steel bars.

  Cato rushes closer, but Xeni’s father lifts his free hand in a silent, commanding gesture, and Cato freezes in his tracks.

  “How did he hide you from me?” The Architect demands, his face so close our lips nearly touch and his breath hot against my skin.

  I fight to recoil, to pull away and run, but my body betrays me and melts into his grip as my muscles go slack under the insidious lure of his power.

  “No one knew,” I grit, my lips trembling with the struggle to keep the words inside. “We didn’t tell anyone.”

  “How long did this deceit last?”

  I fight, biting my lip until it bleeds, but he is unyielding, and I am powerless against the compulsion.

  “Three… years.”

  Fury contorts his face again as he squeezes harder, and my skin heats as blood pools in my cheeks, trapped by his iron grip. My mouth opens in a silent plea, but no sound emerges.

  I can’t gasp for the oxygen my body so desperately craves, and my vision pulses in a field of white static that threatens to swallow me whole.

  “Let him go,” Xeni demands in a voice I’ve never heard from him, unnaturally deep and echoing in multitudes that come from every corner. The grip on my throat loosens, and I suck in a gasping breath that burns all the way down.

  The Architect whirls to face his son. “You dare to use my own powers against me?”

  The sheer volume makes my head swim, and Cato stumbles to my side to hold me up.

  “Pitiful,” The Architect spits as the hand that bound my neck closes around Xeni’s instead. His thumb swipes over Xeni’s cheek in a motion that feels almost affectionate as he leans closer.

  “I sensed it when you were born, you know. That weakness. Your mother tried to love you, but it was just such a fucking chore, and she grew bored of it soon enough.”

  Another swipe of his thumb lingers on the edge of Xeni’s eyepatch before he shoves him away. “What a waste.”

  Blood pools in Xeni’s nostrils as he sets his jaw. “You’re the weak one,” he grits through clattering teeth.

  His body quakes as he forces his knee to lift, and his foot drops to the ground as though it’s encased in cement, heavier than what should be possible.

  Xeni tilts his head, and a droplet of blood rolls down his lip as he sneers. “Look at what you’ve become. A king who lost his kingdom. Nothing more than a washed-up old man who can’t face the fact that he’s obsolete.”

  He kneels before his father, a cruel smile pulling on his lips as he gives a mocking bow.

  “All hail King Zadeus, ruler of nothing.”

  His father reaches for his neck, but Xeni catches his wrist and holds fast, fingernails clawing at the leather of his uniform to pull himself to his feet.

  “Xeni!” I shout as I rush forward to help him.

  Zadeus’s head whips toward me with his eyes illuminating the dark.

  “I said don’t look at him!” Xeni bellows.

  The power of his voice booms through the room in a wave that knocks me back a step. His father’s face contorts, twitching and jerking as he turns to face his son again.

  Xeni trembles from head to toe, and I’m helpless to do anything but watch.

  “Pathetic,” Zadeus spits, the veins in his neck bulging and his body shaking to his very bones as he tries to look away.

  Xeni doesn’t allow it.

  Blood forms rivers across his face as it pours from his nostrils and ears, and the entire floor quakes as his feet move, impossibly heavy.

  “Leave,” Xeni commands. “Walk… away.”

  His father takes a step back before opening his mouth in a shout that sends tremors through the walls. Dust scatters and a crack splits the ceiling as he charges, breaking free from Xeni’s hold.

  He doesn’t rush his son, though.

  His anger is directed at me.

  It’s a slow-motion bullet barreling in my direction, one that’s impossible to stop and no longer meant to taunt or maim.

  A kill shot, locked on its target.

  I blink as I watch it happen, my breath a hurricane in my ears as my heart thumps once, then again. Rage like I’ve never seen lines his face as he gets closer, and my arms fall to my sides, useless.

  My eyes shift to Xeni’s. “I love you,” I whisper.

  His lips part, not a response, but a command.

  One word.

  “Move.”

  Fuzziness overtakes my body as my limbs obey, moving with a speed I shouldn’t possess as this slow-motion world catches up to real time.

  Without me there to stop his momentum, Zadeus stumbles. In the split second he takes to correct his balance, Xeni rushes to Ego and snatches a throwing knife from her belt.

  Zadeus whirls, furious, as the blade slices the air.

  His eyes grow unnaturally wide as it pierces the side of his neck, and the next sound that leaves him is a rasping inhale. Shock lines his face as his fingers trace the weapon, and as he yanks it loose, blood gushes down his uniform.

  He slaps a palm over the wound and tosses the blade to the ground with a clatter as he stares at his son.

  “This isn’t finished,” he rasps, then bolts from the room.

  The quiet is crushing.

  A thud breaks the silence as Xeni collapses to his knees, trembling as he fights to stay upright. I run over, hitting the concrete with a jolt that barely registers through the haze of adrenaline and fear. I wedge myself under his arm, and he leans on me as he wavers.

  Every line of his body carries the toll of what he’s just done.

  Bloodshot and too heavy, his eye lifts to mine. Dark rings have formed above his cheekbones that are stark against his pale skin, and his veins stand prominent in sharp relief, pulsing visibly beneath the surface. Sweat and blood mix to streak his face and neck in gruesome rivulets.

  He opens his mouth as if trying to speak, but only ragged gasps for breath escape.