Page 24 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“What, Razik?” she drawled as they entered the sitting room. She looked wholly annoyed and utterly unconcerned with his threats. “What, exactly, are you going to do?”

The Fae didn’t acknowledge any of them as she flopped down onto an overstuffed chair, but Razik was right on her heels. His hands landed on the armrests on either side of her, and he brought his face close to hers when he said, “I will haul your ass into the sky.”

Her grey eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Of course I would,” he scoffed, but his lips twitched into the smallest smirk that was clearly meant to infuriate the female.

And it worked, but not in the way Theon was expecting.

Eliza went still for a moment before she leaned forward, holding his stare. Whatever passed between them had Razik’s eyes shifting to vertical slits and glowing blue.

Theon cleared his throat as Eliza settled back in her chair, but she didn’t look at him. Instead, her attention turned to the two Fae on the sofa. “Do you two know Katya?”

“Doyouknow Katya?” Theon demanded.

She slid her gaze to him before looking pointedly back at Lange and Corbin. The latter shifted, clearly uncomfortable, as Lange said, “Yes, but not well. We were raised on the same estate, but I never interacted with her there. I didn’t interact with her at all until we were moved to the Celeste Estate.”

“Why were you moved?” Eliza asked, shifting her legs so Razik could sit on the arm of the chair.

How were they just…fine now? After what had clearly been some kind of argument and power struggle?

“We don’t really know,” Lange answered.

“Who would know?” she pressed.

Lange shrugged. “The Estate Mothers, I suppose.”

Eliza only hummed. Tristyn and Cienna had clearly briefed them on some of the inner workings of their realm, so they knew the bare minimum of what was being discussed.

“Katya mentioned theories. Does she have theories on this?” Razik asked.

Corbin rubbed at the back of his neck. “Kat and Axel are the ones with the theories. They’re better at explaining them.”

“But Axel is missing, correct?”

Lange glanced at Theon before looking away again and nodding.

“And your father has him?” Eliza asked, finally deigning to address Theon.

“Sort of,” he answered.

Eliza’s eyes rolled to the ceiling as if she was praying to the gods for patience. “How does someonesort ofhave a person imprisoned?”

“Tessa has my father, so I suppose, in a way,Tessahas Axel,” Theon snapped, irritated with the way this conversation was going.

Razik straightened at his tone, his eyes narrowing on Theon, but it was Eliza who scoffed, “It is no wonder this realm is damned.”

“It is damned because the gods didn’t follow their own fucking rules,” Theon spat. “It is damned because the balance was tipped long ago, and we are the ones paying for it.”

Elizalaughed. An all out laugh of disbelief.

“Is that what you believe?” she asked. “From my understanding, you just learned of that supposed betrayal between Arius and Achaz. How do you explain the imbalance in this world since its creation?”

“What are you talking about?” Theon gritted out.

She didn’t say a word, but her grey eyes flicked to the Fae who were watching the exchange.

“You cannot fault me for believing something to be true when that was all I’d been taught. All I have seen my entire life,” Theon argued.

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