Page 84 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“As far as I know,” Tristyn answered.

“Are you sticking around? Tessa was here this morning, and?—”

“Tessa was here?” Tristyn interrupted. “How was she?

Theon blinked at his concern. “I’d say she was channeling her Arius lineage this morning because she was the epitome of a death-seeking goddess. But shortly after that, she learned that being the most powerful doesn’t always guarantee victory. It has been a long day, to say the least.”

He gave him a brief rundown, and when he finished, Tristyn said, “Roan is stable, though?”

“Cienna was still there when I left.”

Tristyn nodded, relief flashing in his russet eyes. “She will be able to keep him alive.”

“Did you know they were Trackers?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “But there’s only so much we can say before we are tempting fate.”

Every time someone uttered those words, Theon wanted to punch something. Fate this and fate that. As far as Theon could tell, the Fates had abandoned their world as much as the gods had. If anything, the Achaz Lord was using the Fates to convince Tessa her purpose was to wipe out the Arius line.

But that was neither here nor there right now. He needed to talk to Corbin. He needed information about these supposed revolutionaries, and he was done playing games.

“I’m assuming you have news since you’re still here,” Theon said, heading for the door.

“Not so much news as a push in a direction,” Tristyn said. “You’re running out of time, Theon.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Theon snapped. “You know, you’ve never made it clear what stakes you have in this. Why does all this matter to you? You and Auryon pushed her to this state as much as I did.”

For the first time that he could remember, the male didn’t have a quick comeback. He was quiet as Theon led the way to the living area where the Fae usually congregated in the evening. When he got there, though, he only found Corbin and Lange.

“Where is Katya?” Theon asked.

“She didn’t say where she was going,” Lange answered. “But if I had to guess, she went to look through books. She was not herself today.”

He was seated next to Corbin, who didn’t look up from the computer he was typing away on. Theon had given him one to see if he could find his way into some databases and discover…well, anything really. But Katya hadn’t been “herself” for some time now. She kept pushing forward, her determination never wavering, but even Theon could tell she was starting to break.

“I am going to go find her, but then I’m coming back here,” he said to the males. “Tessa was here today and gave me some information, but you two need to start talking about what you know about the Underground.”

The males glanced at each other, but neither said anything.

Theon turned, nearly running into Tristyn. He’d forgotten the male was still here.

Sighing, he said, “Say what you need to, Blackheart. I’ll add your cryptic warnings to the list of shit I need to figure out.”

“You know I’d be clearer if I could, right?”

“Would you?” Theon challenged. “Because from where I’m standing, you hadplentyof time to interfere, to give your warnings, to do fucking anything, but you waited until Tessa appeared.”

“What was I supposed to do, St. Orcas?” Tristyn demanded, and Theon could swear his eyes had a faint light green glow to them. “What would you have done if I’d shown up here and told you a godsdamn thing? Would it have changed your plans? Altered your course of action? Would you have let her be knowing what she is? Somehow I doubt that. This is bigger than you. Bigger than Devram. There are so many moving parts to all of this, you have no godsdamn idea. One misstep and this realm becomes nothing but a memory.”

“What difference would it make?” Theon said. “That’s all we are to the gods anyway.”

“That’s not?—”

The soft sound of a throat clearing had them both turning to find Katya standing there, a book in her hand. It was the book Cienna had given her that Theon knew she had been painstakingly translating. Her curly black hair was piled atop her head, and Theon could see how tired she was in her amber eyes. He was positive that was Axel’s shirt she was wearing with her training pants, and he didn’t know where she’d found the chaosphere tee shirt she had knotted in the front.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she said.

“You’re not,” Theon replied. “I was actually just coming to find you.”

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