Page 248 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“He may have let me know there were supplies gathered. I Traveled and grabbed them while you were in the shower,” Luka answered.

She stirred the yogurt. It actually sounded really good, and she was starving.

“Did you eat?” she asked.

He nodded. “I waited to make yours until I heard the shower shut off.”

Taking a bite, she said, “What did Theon want?”

All the lightheartedness drained from him. “Tell me again what happened by the river.”

That fucking river.

She was never going there again.

In between bites of yogurt, she told him everything that had happened. The argument with Rordan in the morning. The Augury and the Hunters. Cressida and Mother Cordelia. Auryon dying. She’d already told him all this, the two of them trying to piece things together with limited information while waiting for word from Theon.

She glanced over to where the bow still sat on the dining table, dark and ominous in the space, and fell silent as she finished speaking. Luka hadn’t stopped touching her the entire time. Toying with her hair. Brushing his fingers along her arm, her leg. Listening to her and watching her eat. She only managed a few bites in between words.

“We couldn’t get to you because an emergency Tribunal meeting was called,” Luka said. “With everything that’s happened since, and with what you just told me, it just confirms it was all a setup.”

“For what?” she asked in confusion. “And what has happened?”

“We’re not entirely sure. Theon was summoned to another Tribunal meeting in a few days to discuss the crisis in Arius Kingdom, particularly Dark Haven.”

Tessa swallowed thickly, suddenly not hungry. When she said nothing to that, Luka went on.

“Dark Haven had to be evacuated, but we lost hundreds,” he said solemnly. “Males, females, children. It didn’t matter. They all had Arius blood.”

“Because that’s what they were created for,” she whispered. “To hunt down Arius descendants.”

Auryon had told her. She’d warned her not to summon them inside the boundaries of Arius Kingdom, but she had panicked. She was under attack, and they were severely outnumbered. She’d had no choice. Almost as if?—

“Itwasplanned,” she said suddenly, her gaze snapping to Luka.

“Explain, baby girl,” he encouraged, as if he’d expected her to be the one to figure this out.

But her brow furrowed at his words. “Why did you stop calling me little one?”

He blinked at the odd question, twirling her hair around a finger again. “Little one was what I called you when I needed to remind myself you weren’t mine. Or that’s what it was supposed to do. It was a code only I understood. It worked for a little while, but by the end…” He trailed off, then sighed. “When I realized it wasn’t working anymore, I stopped using it, I guess.”

She nodded, mulling that over. “I still don’t know what this is.”

“Neither do I, but we don’t have to figure it out alone, right?”

She nodded again, stirring her yogurt just to have something to do with her hands. Clearing her throat, she said, “Anyway, Rordan was angry with me. Told me I was taking too long to fulfill my purpose, and I needed to start showing some effort.He told me I needed to prove I still understood my purpose, so I went to Arius Kingdom. I went to see Lange and Corbin while I tried to figure out what to do.”

“What did he want you to do?” Luka asked.

“Kill a prominent Arius Legacy. To prove myself to the cause, but I…”

“You couldn’t do it,” he breathed, and Tessa looked up to find him staring intently at her.

She braced herself, knowing this wasn’t going to be the answer he wanted. “I would have done it,” she said. “I still will do it, but I want it to be on my terms. When I’m ready. Not his.”

It was Luka’s turn to remain silent, so she went on. This was…nice. Sharing information. Working things out together. Not learning things when someone else deemed it necessary. Maybe her loyaltywaswavering.

“But Cressida is aiding Rordan,” she said. “Valter was leading the Augury; Cressida was obviously a part of that. She’s been reporting movements back to Rordan for decades. It’s the only explanation. When I was attacked by Night Children, when Roan was injured, she had set that all up.”

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