Page 178 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“Overconfident. All of you,” Dex repeated.

Luka didn’t have time to argue about trivial shit with him. Instead he said down the bond,Tessa? Do you want me to stay?

Go, she answered.We need the information.

We.

She’d said we, and that was…progress.

Reach out if you need anything,he said.

I know.

And don’t drink any more of that tea. Not a drop.

She didn’t respond, and when he left her room, something in him recoiled at the action. Because whether or not it made sense, hedidfeel like she was his responsibility.

And whether or not she knew it—whether or not he wanted to acknowledge it—a part of him also knew he was hers. He just didn’t understand why.

33

THEON

He checked his watch, then his phone again. Luka only had a few minutes to get here. The portal would wait. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was they needed every possible second in those catacombs. Last time they’d had an entire day. This time, the Falein Lady had begrudgingly only agreed to an afternoon, and if Tessa showed, she had to put bands on. Not the same bands everyone else would be wearing that would only suppress their magic, but the stone bands that would cut her off from her power. He hadn’t told Luka that, but he also didn’t expect her to show up either.

Tension bled out of him when he spotted Luka striding through the foyer. Unlike when he’d shown up at the manor a few weeks ago, he was dressed for business in his suit and tie. His hair was tied back, stoic and unreadable expression in place.

“Cutting it close,” Theon said, handing over the documents for the Fae, disappointed not to see Tessa with him, even though this was exactly what he’d been expecting. He could feel her though, as if she was gifting them this small glimpse of her emotions to be able to keep tabs on her when they couldn’t physically be with her. He couldn’t hear her thoughts, but justbeing able to feel her was something, even if right now she was more conflicted than anything.

“You already know why I’m cutting it close,” Luka answered, looking through the papers. “Where’d you get these?”

“Used Axel’s guy,” Theon answered.

“Tucker?”

“Yep.”

“And for the electronic records?” Luka asked, tucking the documents inside his suit jacket.

“Corbin took care of that for us,” Theon said, leading the way to where he’d left the others in a secluded area of the station. He needed them out of the public eye as much as possible.

Luka nodded. “And Kat? She was feeling up to this?”

Theon hesitated. “I needed her to come with us. She knows the Ekayan Island better than we do, especially the catacombs.”

Luka nodded again, understanding exactly what he was saying. He’d had to order her to come with them. It truly hadn’t taken much, but he hadn’t given the female the choice either. Eliza’s constant glares told him exactly what she thought about that. To be honest, Theon was more than a little worried about how this was going to go with Razik and Eliza. Eliza was one thing, but Razik not treating her like a Fae was expected to be treated here was a whole other worry. He’d observed them long enough now to know there was no way he was going to outright disrespect her.

And then there was the obvious tension between Razik and Luka that immediately thickened when they came into sight.

“Tessa didn’t come?” Eliza asked when they drew closer, and Theon sighed, rubbing at his brow.

Thankfully they were tucked far enough back into the secluded nook of the station that no one overheard them. “You can’t do that, Eliza. We discussed expected behavior,” Theon said.

Her brows arched. “Expected behavior?”

“Yes,” Theon snapped, because they really did not have time for this. “You cannot speak to a Legacy unless spoken to.”

“You were serious about that?”

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