Page 253 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

Theon:You were here today, beautiful. I’m still healing from your attack, but for the record, you never need to be armed around me.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she scrolled down a little more and opened another.

Theon:I know Luka is giving you updates, but I’ll send them here as well, just in case you actually turn on your phone. Roan is being constantly monitored. The recovery will take a while, but they think he’ll make a full recovery.

Theon:No real update today. Nothing has changed, but he hasn’t gotten worse, so we’ll count it as a good day.

Theon:He opened his eyes today, beautiful. I wish you would have been here to see it.

Tears were streaming down her face now as she scrolled through several before clicking on another.

Theon:I started taking Roan outside with me when I visit my hounds. I tried to convince him to play fetch. He didn’t seem impressed.

She barked another laugh, looking over at her wolf and plunging her hand into his fur again. Returning to the phone, she scrolled some more, opening one from a few weeks ago.

Theon:I know I told you, but I need to say it again. You looked stunning tonight, Tessa.

She smiled through her tears as she scrolled some more, opening the one he’d sent a few days ago.

Theon:I’ve never lied to you, Tessa. Withheld information? Yes. Hurt you? Yes. But I’ve never lied to you.

She scrolled to the last one. The one sent this morning.

Theon:I want you to know that despite all of this, I’ll still come for you.

The phone slipped from her hand, plopping onto the mattress. He couldn’t mean that. She’d unleashed beingsspecifically created to kill his people. Theyhadkilled his people.Hundredsof them. To say he would still come for her after everything she had done? Impossible. This betrayal was arguably worse than keeping Luka’s father from him, and she knew that was unforgivable. The deaths of hundreds?

If being a villain required no remorse, she wasn’t one because she had caused the deaths of innocents and she felt every bit of that guilt. She was exactly the monster Luka had called her.

She swiped the phone back up, tapping out a reply. Then her thumb hovered over the send button for the next hour. She was still debating sending the message when her door opened.

Roan growled, but she hushed him with a pat to the head. Dex stood there, dark eyes hard. His lips pressed into a thin line as he stared at her before he slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out two bands.

She didn’t even fight it.

She let him slip the bands onto her wrists and watched the light that wound around them die out.

“I have to take you to the Pantheon. They will hold you there until they decide,” Dex explained.

Tessa only nodded.

Then he pulled a ring from his pocket. She’d seen ones like it among Theon’s things. A solid black band, and she gasped when Dex grabbed her wrist, forcing the ring onto her pointer finger. The bands may have separated her from her magic, but she could take them off. This ring was not the same. She could feel it digging its claws into her power. Feel her magic thrashing in her soul.

She lifted horrified eyes to Dex. “What are you doing?”

“You did this, Tessa,” he said, taking her elbow and leading her from the room. Roan leapt down, keeping pace beside them. “We’ll get what we need from you one way or another.”

“What does that mean?” she demanded, trying to dig her feet into the smooth floor, but Dex just dragged her along.

“It means you just had to do as you were told. Now, we’ll take what we’re owed.”

45

AXEL

Axel checked his watch again before returning to cleaning the windows.

Yep. That was what his life had come to. Cleaning. Because it kept him busy and let him free-fall into avoiding…everything. Currently, it was keeping him busy while he waited for a delivery of blood and groceries. He knew Kat was getting restless, and he wouldn’t be able to keep her convinced they needed to stay indoors for much longer.

---