Page 224 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“Fine,” she parroted, and Lange barked a laugh.

“Well played, Tess,” he said, flopping onto the sofa. “Take a seat and tell us what you’ve been up to.”

Tessa perched on the edge of a chair while Corbin moved behind the sofa. His fingers brushed along Lange’s arm stretched across the back of the furniture. “I’m grabbing water. Need one?”

Lange shook his head before focusing on Tessa again. Once Corbin was back and settled beside Lange, they both looked at her expectantly.

“Theon is really treating you well?” she asked.

“I already told you this,” Lange said. “We have food and shelter. A little bit of freedom and the protection of the Arius Heir. Even if we weren’t bound to the kingdom, I don’t know that we’d find something better anywhere else.”

Tessa nodded, worrying her bottom lip as she looked around some more.

“Is the Achaz Lord treatingyouwell?” Corbin asked, his tone low and soothing.

“I can take care of myself,” she answered immediately.

“We never said you couldn’t,” he replied. When she didn’t say anything else for several seconds, he added, “You know you can talk to us, right? I know we’re not Dex, but?—”

“I don’t trust Dex,” she interrupted. “And you shouldn’t either. Don’t tell him anything if you see him. Or Oralia.”

Lange’s eyes were wide in disbelief. “But you and Dex are… Well, you just are.”

“And Brecken,” she added. “I’m not sure about him yet, but don’t trust him either.”

“Tessa, what is going on?” Corbin asked, leaning forward, his arms braced on his knees.

“So much. Too much,” she murmured.

She shouldn’t have come here. They were happy and safe. She shouldn’t involve them in this. All her friends had ever wanted was to find some place to be together, and they had that here. They had that here because ofTheon, of all people.

She shouldn’t have come here.

She said as much as she lurched to her feet. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I need to go.”

“Tessa, wait,” Lange said, somehow already standing in front of the door when she turned to it. She hadn’t even seen him move. “You can tell us, Tess.”

“I can’t involve you,” she said. “You deserve to be happy.”

“So do you,” Lange insisted, taking her shoulders in his hands. “We all do.”

“We all do,” she repeated, more to herself than to him. Her eyes snapped up then, meeting sky-blue ones. “If things… You trust me?”

“I do,” he said, and she could hear the sincerity in those two words. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be together. We wouldn’t have this place, this security. We owe you, Tessa.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” she said. “But I would ask…”

“Anything,” Corbin said, coming up beside them, his hands in his pockets as he studied her.

“I think something big is coming. There is a Fae being held captive in Faven, and if the kingdoms suddenly find themselves at odds with each other, I need you to free her,” Tessa said.

“How would we possibly do that?” Lange asked.

“Just…if you find you are able, don’t leave her behind. That’s what I’ll ask of you.”

“Who is she?” Corbin asked.

“Eviana.”

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