Page 225 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

He took a step back. “The Arius Lord’s Source?”

Tessa nodded. “No harm will come to you. Valter is locked up. He cannot be freed.”

“But she can?”

“Maybe? If the right things happen at the right time with people in the right places,” she said, knowing she sounded insane.

But something was coming. Soon. She could feel it in her bones, as if it was a vision trying to form, but couldn’t quite make it to the surface. Suddenly, she wished she was sleeping. Then that vision could find her. She could know what was coming. Prepare for it.

“Tessa?” Lange said gently. “You’re kind of scaring us, sweetheart.”

Her smile was weak and wobbly. “It was good to see you both. I miss you.”

“Tessa, we?—”

“I have to go,” she said, pushing past them and practically stumbling into the hall. She heard them call after her, but she was stepping through a light portal in the next breath. She didn’t even realize where she was going until she turned to find the rushing river.

The black rushing river.

The waters of Wynfell were dark and foreboding as they flowed, chunks of ice getting caught along the sides in thecurrent. Spring was coming, but it hadn’t been enough to completely thaw the river yet. There were still clumps of frozen snow in the trees. The banks were still frozen mud. She wasn’t sure how or why she’d ended up here, but she sucked in a lungful of fresh air. The clouds were few and far between today; the sun shining down and warming her face as she tipped it up to the sky. Seeing Lange and Corbin had been good for her soul. Now she just needed to figure out how to appease Rordan. Maybe going to dinner with Liam wouldn’t be the worst thing in the end, but he’d made it clear the Match Contract was the purpose. With the power plays lately, she could only assume Rordan had a plan to coerce her into signing the damned thing too.

Stepping closer to the water, she watched the darkness churn. She knew of the Night Waters in the Arius Kingdom. Those waters were black as night too, and she’d heard the Wynfell River had fallen to the same. What no one could figure out was how or why.

“After all that time I invested in trying to teach you, you never did learn to control yourself, did you?”

Every part of her body stiffened, her blood turning to ice. As if in slow motion, Tessa turned to face Mother Cordelia.

The Estate Mother looked down at her as she’d done her entire life, blue eyes full of disdain. Her hair was back in the tight bun as always. The only difference today was that she was in the black cloak of the Augury. She hadn’t bothered with a mask.

But those gathered behind her had.

Pearlescent masks stared back at her, more and more filing in, but one in particular stepped to Mother Cordelia’s side, silent as they watched on.

“Where have you been hiding?” Tessa asked, her head tilting as she watched the Estate Mother.

“Hiding?” Cordelia scoffed. “I haven’t been hiding, child. Simply…reassessing our strategy.”

“Our? Who leads you now with Valter gone?”

Cordelia clicked her tongue. “We all know he isn’tgone, Tessalyn.”

“If you know where he is, you should let the Arius Heir know. He has been searching for him,” Tessa said with faux sweetness.

“He has been doing no such thing,” said the figure beside Cordelia, a cold sneer to her tone.

Her.

A female.

A voice Tessa should recognize.

Her power was already winding up her arms, sensing that it was going to get to feast. It was in a frenzy, her body buzzing with energy. Her veins crackled with it, the magic straining and reaching in anticipation of being set free.

But then everything in her froze with shock as the female removed her mask, and the emerald green eyes of Cressida stared back at her.

“You?” Tessa gasped.

Truly, she should have known. Valter was the leader of the Augury. His wife being part of it shouldn’t have come as the shock that it was, but she had always seemed so…distanced from everything. Too preoccupied with societal standards and trends to care about the politics of the realm. A female who had won a Match Contract to elevate her status in exchange for having children with the Arius Lord.

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