Page 117 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“Then send someone with me,” she insisted. “I’m part of this, Theon. I became part of this long before I took this Mark,” she added, lifting her left hand in emphasis. The Mark stood out, dark against her warm skin. “You can’t do it all yourself. You have to let others help, especially with Luka and Axel not here.”

“I’ll think about it,” Theon said tightly, this whole idea of compromising and conceding a foreign concept.

Katya nodded. “Please do. I’m going to make some food. Would you like something?”

“You don’t have to do that,” Theon said.

“But I am offering to. I’ll see what I can find.”

The kitchen would be sparse here, but he let her wander off. He knew it was more about her needing something to do rather than the need to eat. He’d learned that about her these past weeks. She kept herself busy to the point of exhaustion. He suspected it was to keep from thinking too much about Axel. If she let herself stop for even a moment, she felt like she was giving up on him.

At least that was how it felt when it came to Tessa and all of this mess.

“I think I remember this,” Theon said.

“Remember this? You would have been, what? Four years?”

Theon nodded. “I was forced to sit in on his meetings from the time I was three years. I vaguely recall mentions of a missing child.” When Tristyn only stared at him, he asked, “If you had found her, where would you have taken her?”

“To the Anala Kingdom,” Tristyn answered, watching him carefully.

Theon only nodded as he made his way to the alcohol cart because of course that was where he’d take her. To the kingdom that kept everyone else out. To the kingdom that had been content to let the Arius Kingdom take the brunt of the hatred for centuries so they could go about their own agendas as unnoticed as possible.

“What’s her name?” Theon asked, pouring the whiskey into glasses. “The one you haven’t seen in over four centuries.”

He watched Tristyn swallow thickly as Theon brought him a glass of liquor.

“Lilura,” he answered hoarsely.

Before Theon could comment, both his and Tristyn’s cell phones pinged with multiple incoming messages. The two glanced at each other, pulling their phones out. It was rare to get any kind of service in the Underground, but he suspected it hadsomething to do with the male he was currently sharing a drink with.

“By the gods,” Theon murmured at the same time Tristyn said, “Fucking Fates.”

Urgent message after urgent message came in. Some were texts. Some were messages left after missed calls. But all of them said the same thing.

There had been a massacre at the Sirana Villas. All the casualties had been Legacy, and the Fae housed there were missing.

22

AXEL

Axel? Axel, can you hear me?

He blinked as he watched the blood pool on the floor beside him, the puddle growing bigger and bigger the longer he stared at it.

Until he tried to dip a finger in it.

Then the fucking thing would disappear.

And now, apparently, this was a fresh level of fuckery. He could hear her. The one whose name he couldn’t remember.

Axel? Axel, please answer me.

She sounded so desperate. Or maybe that was just his own voice manifesting in his head. Because he was fucking desperate.

He shoved his hands through his hair, pulling on the strands that had grown out longer than he liked. Bree had someone shave his face a few days ago, but there was now a layer of scruff along his jaw again.

Axel? Where are you?

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