Page 94 of The Amber Sunburst

“What is it?” Kallias asks, badly masking his curiosity.

“Zeno, Eudo…xos, and a friend of theirs. I heard them talking…” Alexander trails off. How can he best phrase this to get Kallias to say yes?

“And?” Kallias prompts.

“And they’re trying to leave. The Academy. They have to, or else something bad will happen, and I was thinking they could help us.”

Kallias rolls his eyes. “You mean we could help them. Eudoxos isn’t a complete idiot, but there’s no way he has a plan when we don’t even have half of one.”

“Fine, Kallias. However you want to look at it. But I think we should fill them in.”

Now that the possibility of bringing his friends along is being dangled in front of him, he can’t imagine leaving without them. He hadn’t even realized until now how much he would miss them.

Kallias zones out, calculating. “What does that do for us? It’s just more mouths to feed.”

“We’ll have more mouths, period. More hands. Everything we’ve come up with so far would be easier with more people.” Alexander closes the distance between them and grabs Kallias’ chin, turning it toward him so they’re making eye contact. “I’m not selfless, Kallias. I’m not saying we should recruit them because it’s ‘the right thing to do.’ It’s strategy. It’s all strategy.”

He doesn’t feel guilty for the lie. In fact, it’s not even really a lie—it is a good move to get more people on their side. But also, he knows this argument will appeal most to Kallias. Telling him he’d be sad without his friends wouldn’t get him anywhere.

He must be hallucinating, because he thinks he sees Kallias’ eyes briefly dropping to his mouth before flicking back up.

Kallias glares, and Alexander has to force himself to let go of his chin instead of pulling him into a kiss and letting a hand drift to his perfect waist and⁠—

“Fine,” Kallias says. “Tell them. But know that I have a priority, and that priority is you and me.”

You and me.

Alexander nods with an involuntary grin, and Kallias’ eyes widen, head tilting to the side.

“Yay,” Alexander exclaims. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He kisses Kallias on the cheek repeatedly until Kallias yanks his hair back so they’re nose to nose. Kallias’ cheeks are bright pink.

“I’m not your keeper, dumbass. You can do whatever you want.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just your luck that what I want is whatever you want.”

Kallias glares again, and then his eyes drop, and Alexander is definitely not hallucinating. Alexander lets his eyes do the same, dropping to Kallias’ lips.

Are they about to⁠—

“Okay, get out, you dunce,” Kallias says, pulling on his hair harder.

One day he’ll work up the courage to make this boy his. But today, Alexander just laughs and backs up to let Kallias open the door.

“See ya, gorgeous.” Alexander beams from the hallway.

“Goodnight, dolt,” Kallias says, glare melting into something softer that Alexander doesn’t really have a name for yet.

“You’re back,” Zeno says, staring up at him from the floor like he’s not sure if he should be relieved or terrified.

“I’m back.” At the sound of his voice, Ophelia and Eudoxia shoot upright from where they were curled up in Zeno’s bed. “I didn’t tell anyone,” Alexander starts, before amending, “Well, I did, but not how you think.”

“What does that mean?” Eudoxia asks.

“I had to talk to Kallias.”

“Kallias?!” Eudoxia and Zeno yell at the same time.

“Why, dude?” Zeno begs. “Why?”