Page 139 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

She lurched forward, gripping his throat, and he let her.

“I’ll take your fury, little storm. I’ll take all your wrath and all your vengeance, but I will not accept that you are the cost for the balance,” he rasped out around her hold.

“I will not be the cost.Youwill be,” she sneered.

“You’re wrong, Tessa. We were wrong. I was wrong. So very wrong.” Her fingers squeezed, her power flickering around them and sinking into him, but he managed to get out on a breath, “Where is Luka, Tessa?”

“He’s mine,” she snarled. “He was always meant to be mine. Auryon said so herself.”

“You killed Auryon,” Theon gasped out, and his words startled her enough that she released him and stumbled back.

His darkness swarmed around his wound. Trying to heal him. Trying to save him while he gulped down several deep lungfuls of air.

A pointless effort, but she’d let him waste that power of his. It wasn’t as if she needed him as a Source anyway.

“I didn’t kill Auryon,” she gritted out.

“Your Hunters did,” Theon amended. “At your command.”

“Because she was trying to keep me from my destiny.”

Theon shook his head, damp hair from the misting clouds swaying with the movement. “I’m so incredibly sorry, Tessa.”

She shot forward once more, gripping his hair and yanking his head back. The tip of her dagger pressed beneath his chin. “Your apologies are too late. They fall on deaf ears.”

“I know, Tessa, but it changes nothing of how I feel for you.”

“Stop it,” she snarled as she felt his emotions flood down the bond.

She waited.

Because she should be feeling Luka right now too.

Where was Luka?

Three of them.

It was supposed to be the three of them bound to one another.

Connected in a way that was never meant to be, but couldn’t possibly be any other way.

Unless sacrifices were made.

Oh, gods.

Unless sacrifices were made.

“Where is Luka?” she whispered, releasing Theon and stepping back.

Theon’s face was full of anguish. “I think you know the answer to that, little storm.”

Wind swept through the clearing, stirring dead grass and scorched earth from a battle that had left hundreds dead. Fae and Legacy alike had fought in a war that should have been reserved for the gods.

Too many sacrifices had already been made.

Corbin.

Lange.

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