Page 130 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“Like this one?” Tessa said, stepping out from behind Luka despite his grumbled protests. “Is that how Luka is here with me?”

Lilura eyed Luka once more. “That I do not know, but he protects you even here.”

Another roar sounded, both Luka and Tessa looking to the sky. It took a minute to spot the silver dragon against the clouds, but his appearance had the female dragon cursing.

“I’ll handle it,” she said to Lilura. “Get them out of here.”

Then she ran, leaping from the cliff and shifting to her dragon form in midair.

“You need to go, but be mindful of your visions. They are not all truth,” Lilura said. “And tell him I’m still waiting for that dance.”

24

AXEL

“You should drink some,” Theon said, holding the bottle of blood out to him.

“No,” Axel said tightly, looking anywhere but at the bottle. It simultaneously made him want to vomit and chug the whole thing.

When Gia had deemed Kat safe to move, Theon had carried her to a point where Tristyn said he could Travel. They’d taken her to Axel’s room in the Arius manor where she’d apparently been staying. Corbin and Lange had a room across the hall, and two doors down from them was where Razik and Eliza were staying. He’d been given the barest of details on what had happened since he’d been gone, and quite frankly, he couldn’t have processed more than that anyway. He’d showered, put on clean clothing, eaten proper food, and then he’d slept for nearly an entire day.

In another room.

Every part of him had rebelled at the idea, but he didn’t trust himself enough not to wake up and immediately lunge for her.

Because warm blood, fresh from the source? That was far superior to the chilled blood Theon was currently offering him.It was intoxicating. A drug he wanted to lose himself in over and over again.

Axel squinted at the setting sun that was shining in the room. Walking over to the window, he pulled the curtains closed. He’d become so used to the muted light of the Underground, the sunlight physically hurt his eyes right now.

He’d been told Cienna had been here while he’d slept and checked on Kat. That had made him feel a little better, but he wanted to talk to the Witch personally. And not just about Kat. Gia had said he needed to speak to her.

“I need to go check on a few things at Arius House. Tristyn is taking me,” Theon said, capping the bottle of blood. “Do you want to go along? Or am I still waiting to inform mother you’ve been found?”

“Don’t tell her yet,” Axel said, sitting back in the chair at the foot of the bed. Not too close, but close enough to be able to see her. He hadn’t said a word to anyone about the possible child. Another thing he wanted to speak to Cienna about.

“I’ll give it another day or two, but then you need to go see her,” Theon said. “She’s been beside herself with worry over you and father.”

“Yeah, all right,” Axel muttered.

“Then I’m going to go. You have your phone if you need anything, right?”

He looked up, startled. “What do you mean go? You can’t leave me alone with her.”

Theon blinked slowly. “I’m not, Axel. Corbin and Lange are downstairs. Razik and Eliza are down the hall. They stay holed up in their rooms unless we are researching something together, but they are a formidable pair.”

“But someone else should be in here with me at all times to make sure I don’t?—”

He couldn’t say the words. At least someone had helped her clean up and change into fresh clothing. They’d told him she’d only been awake for a few minutes here and there though, and that was his fault. So much blood. He’d taken far too much from her.

“The fact that you are sitting here worrying about this tells me you are in the right mind,” Theon said. “Your power wells are replenished. Don’t use your magic, and you’ll be fine until I get back in a few hours. Tristyn will stop in, and Cienna will be checking in on Katya as well.”

Axel nodded, but he wasn’t fine with this in the slightest. Something dropped into his lap, and he looked down to find his earbuds.

“Listen to some music,” Theon said. “Put together a new playlist, yeah? Only the very best songs you can find.”

Axel nodded again, a part of him settling at the thought. It was Theon who had taught him to use music to stay calm and drown out the world when necessary. He’d said those same words to him when he was younger, on a day their father had been in a particularly nasty mood. Theon had given him his best pair of earbuds and told him to find him the very best songs. That was the first time he’d truly understood what Theon was protecting him from.

He slipped the earbuds in, flicking through songs on his phone, but he wasn’t focused in the slightest. Bree had let him go. He knew he should be suspicious of that, but he hadn’t told Theon any of that yet. He was too busy just trying to…survive? Wrap his mind around everything? Figure out what he was going to do about Katya and a child?

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