Page 236 of Storm of Secrets and Sorrow

Axel nodded, he and Katya climbing from the car. They both rounded it, and he pulled her into him.

“I’ll try,” he whispered. “I promise I’ll try to come back for you, but only if you promise me you’ll try to be happy.”

She didn’t promise. She only clung to him tighter.

Lifting his gaze over her head to Tristyn, Axel said, “Swear to me she will be safe.”

“I swear it, Axel.”

“And you’ll tell no one where she is? Not even me?”

An unreadable expression crossed the male’s face. “I know what it means to sacrifice for love. You have my word this sacrifice will not be wasted.”

Tilting her face up, he brushed his lips across hers one final time. “Remember that living isn’t just logic and knowledge but feeling too, kitten,” he murmured onto her lips.

“Remember that you are agoodperson, Axel St. Orcas,” she whispered back. Some of that fiery determination was back in her eyes as the effects of Pavil’s power started to wane.

Then Tristyn was whisking her away through a glamoured door into the building, and Axel was left standing in an alley with jasmine, citrus, and spices in the winter air.

41

THEON

The knock on the door had him stirring. The bed shifted, and he opened his eyes to find Luka stalking across the room, stopping to pull on some undergarments. He hadn’t been lying to Tessa all those weeks ago when he said he only slept naked.

Glancing at the clock on the bedside table, he found it wasn’t even dawn yet. Who the fuck was at the door at this hour?

Tessa sighed in her sleep, drawing his attention. She’d been out since they returned from the third Marking. Sleeping for two to three days seemed to be what she needed afterwards, so it wasn’t a surprise. What was a surprise were the random thoughts that drifted down the bond at times.

You will be the beginning of endings.

More than a bond.

In all things, there must be balance.

The balance.

Those thoughts were accompanied by mixed emotions of…resignation? Determination? Fury? Acceptance? They were so muddled, he couldn’t decipher them all.

The door shut, and Luka made his way back, tossing an envelope at Theon before carefully settling onto the mattress once more.

“You know, if you had an actual bed, it would be easier to get in and out of,” Theon grumbled, turning the envelope over. He was still pissed at the male for the years of secrets he’d kept from him. He didn’t trust easily and godsdamn Traveling? That was a big secret. Not to mention his feelings for Tessa and how he’d been drawn to her all along.

“A bigger mattress would have the same results,” Luka retorted, stilling when Tessa edged closer to him.

Theon ground his molars, but he couldn’t say anything. Not as he felt her entire being calm when she settled into Luka’s side. He knew what the bond did, what it required, and the fact that Luka’d had to help with the third Mark only made their connection stronger. Theon hated it, but he’d let it go for now if it was what she needed. If Axel and Kat were right and the first three Marks weren’t Source Marks at all, maybe there was a way to sever whatever bondwasthere. They just needed to figure out where the three Marks were derived from.

His brother hadn’t said much when he got back to the townhouse stabbed and covered in blood yesterday. They’d given him extra rations, and when he was cleaned up and behind the closed door of Luka’s room, he filled them in with the barest details. Their father’s demand. The stabbing. Killing Pavil and Metias to keep Kat from Julius and Mansel. Tristyn fucking Blackheart helping him. Not knowing where she was hidden.

He’d let her go to keep her safe knowing the cost of that action was going to be horrific.

If their father knew, he hadn’t let on yet. He’d been in meetings all day yesterday regarding the citizens’ concerns with the recent attacks, and later this morning was Theon’s hearing.

Which was apparently what this envelope was regarding if the Devram seal on the back meant anything.

Sliding his finger beneath the seal, he opened it, withdrawing a piece of paper. He scanned it quickly, his pulse picking up with every word. “They can’t be fucking serious.”

Luka was on high alert now, propping himself up on his elbows. “What?”

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