Page 104 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“Why do you care?”

Brecken’s gaze flicked to the Hunter, who stood eerily still, waiting for orders.

Tessa turned to him. “Find me a Sefarina Legacy. He answers to Arlo. Bring him to me alive.”

“Yes, your grace,” he said with a bow before gliding away straight through the solid door.

When he was gone, she turned back to Brecken expectantly.

“There is much I can’t tell you, Tessa,” he finally said. “But you are right not to trust anyone.”

“But I should trust you?”

“I brought you here, didn’t I?”

“All the times you left the Estate, where did you go?”

“I was sent to find the hidden Fae. Those who have Legacy blood, and they don’t know it.”

“How do you find them?”

He hesitated before saying, “I can sense power and the strength of it.”

“How?”

“I cannot tell you.”

She nodded because an Oath would truly be preventing that.

“I worked around it as much as I could, Tessa,” he pleaded. “I slipped Darius’s name into the conversation so you knew it. I lured him to reveal crucial information for you to work with.”

She nodded again. “In two days’ time, I am going to let the Hunters loose here. I am going to instruct them to kill every single full-blooded Legacy inside these gates.”

Brecken nodded. “I will try to have some place for them to go.”

“Do not try, Brecken,” she said tightly. Before he could answer, her power struck, wrapping tightly around his throat. “If you are playing me, your death will be anything but short and painless.”

“Understood, Tessa,” he gasped out, but he wasn’t struggling. He wasn’t trying to draw a breath.

Submitting.

That was what he was doing as he stood before her.

The door opened, the Hunter herding Arlo into the office.

“And this one will die today,” Tessa said, releasing Brecken from her hold.

Arlo immediately turned, trying to flee, but the Hunter was there, sword raised. “My grace requested your presence. Now bow.”

Arlo slowly turned back to face her, and she smiled in delight. “Yes, Arlo,” she purred. “Bow.”

“You are not a Lady in the realm. I do not bow to you,” he sneered, but she heard the faint tremble in his voice.

“No,” she agreed, taking a single step forward. “Inthisrealm, I am a goddess, but to you, I am your ending.”

Energy crackled around her, and a glowing orb hovered in the air near her head. She knew she was pushing this too far. Any moment, her control was going to snap, and then there’d be no telling what would happen. That was when she became too wild and uncontrollable, and she could feel her magic straining, wanting to take. Always wanting more and more and more.

Which meant she needed to do this without her magic.

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