Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender

Author:Kacen Callender
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Ash didn’t know where to go. He walked through Hedge until he reached the docks. There was a glow of light in the distance, turning the sky gray. Dockworkers would start arriving within the hour. Something in him screamed to forget Tobin, to get out of there, to leave while he still had the chance. He could gather supplies on his way to House Lune. But this betrayal had rocked through Ash. He’d never felt more alone than he had in that moment.

He sat on the concrete edge, feet dangling over the gray water. He looked up only when he heard footsteps. He didn’t have the will to fight, and was glad when Callum didn’t seem set on fighting him, either.

“How did you find me?” Ash asked as the other boy stopped beside him.

“Reds questioned a few people. Someone saw you walking toward the dock. I said I’d come alone.”

“Are you going to have me executed?”

“It’d be a lot easier than arguing for a life you seem hell-bent on throwing away,” Callum said.

Ash looked back at the ocean. “Are you in trouble for letting me escape?”

Callum sighed. “Yes. My father—well, it doesn’t matter, and I don’t think you really care, anyway.”

“You’re right. I don’t.”

“Then why ask?”

Ash shrugged. Maybe he’d cared more than he let on. He was surprised when Callum sat down beside him, allowing his boots to dangle over the water’s edge, too.

“Why did you run away?” Callum asked.

Ash played with his hands, staring at the old scar on his palm. “I wanted to find Ramsay.”

“Redguards across the state are searching for her now,” Callum said. “What makes you think you can find her, when hundreds of others haven’t?”

Ash knew where she was going, but he wouldn’t admit to that. “Everyone thinks that she’s evil—that I am, too, just because I’m an alchemist.”

“There are a lot of assumptions about alchemists in Kensington.”

“Is that why you hide that you learned alchemy, too?”

Callum clenched his jaw. “I ask that you keep that to yourself.”

“There’s a lot that you want to hide, isn’t there?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“You’re a coward.”

“Surviving isn’t cowardly,” Callum said. “And I don’t know what Ramsay told you, but you don’t know me well enough to judge me. You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know that you abandoned Ramsay.”

Callum’s mouth snapped shut.

“I know that, when she needed friendship the most, you hid her away like you were ashamed of her—that you wouldn’t admit, and still won’t admit, that you loved her.”

Callum stood and took several long steps away from Ash, his back turned. He took deep, slow breaths. Ash watched him, unimpressed with Callum’s display of emotion. If he really cared so much, then he wouldn’t have been able to hurt Ramsay again and again.

Callum finally spoke. “I’ve been thinking about what you said.”

“You’re going to need to be more specific.”

“About thinking I’m the hero, I mean,” Callum said softly. “And you’re right. I want to believe I’m a good person, but …”

Ash waited.

“What do you think it takes to change?” Callum asked him.

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