Page 103 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
He stopped a few feet away, knowing she heard his approach, and he slipped his hands into his pockets, always letting her take the lead on these encounters.
“You have a wife,” she said, her gaze fixed on something across the river.
“I am required to take a Match to get back to you,” he answered. “Everything is always for you, little storm.”
“Always with the pretty words,” she muttered, her light coiling around her with those brilliant new black and gold embers and sparks flitting among it.
“I tried to tell you last time,” he replied.
Those words finally had her turning to him, a look of puzzlement staring back at him. “Last time?”
“The last time you pulled me to this place.”
The confusion stayed for a few seconds before it morphed into surprise. “Pulled you in… You’re not a phantom? You’re…”
She trailed off as he came closer, eating up the space between them in a few long strides. Lifting a hand, he cupped her cheek, and she tilted her head back to look up at him. Hetook in every piece of her. The bright violet eyes, suspicious yet with a glimmer of hope. The golden hair, unbound and drifting in the soft breeze. Her soft skin beneath his fingertips. The light and dark flowing around her. Courting her. Calling her to go deeper, to let go, to give it control. Finally understanding, after all this time, what she needed.
“Where is Luka, Tessa?”
She frowned, immediately tensing. “He doesn’t want us, so we let him go.” She stared up at him, earnest and imploring, when she said, “That’s what we do, right? When we love someone? We let them go when they don’t want us? We set them free and let worlds burn to nothing to make sure they are happy? It’s what…”
She trailed off as his thumb brushed along her cheek, a simple soothing motion that she leaned into. Her eyes fluttered closed for a few seconds, and when she opened them, tears clung to her lashes.
“He’s not here because we’re all too broken,” she whispered.
He leaned down, pressing his brow to hers. “Maybe we’re all broken, but maybe together we can form something new. Something whole.”
She was quiet, her eyes closing once more. Something flitted across her face, an expression of wanting something that was impossible to have.
But she was wrong.
He’d swore to always give her everything she needed. He’d failed on so many counts in delivering on that promise, but he would not fail in this.
“Look at me, Tessa,” he said, the order low and rough.
And like she always had, she obeyed. Her eyes fluttered open, holding his. Misery and desperation stared back at him in a rare show of vulnerability.
“I am yours. Every piece of me. In this life and all the ones to come,” he said. “I’m sorry it took me so long to figure everything out. I’m sorry, but we’ll fix it.”
“We?”
He nodded, still cupping her cheek, while his other hand tentatively fell to her waist, tugging her a little closer. Forcing himself not to groan at the contact, he said, “We. Because it’s not something I can do on my own.”
She bit her bottom lip as she thought. Then her eyes narrowed when she said, “How do I know this is real? That I can trust you?”
He couldn’t help the smirk that pulled at his mouth, admittedly something smug and satisfying. “How do you think I am here, clever tempest? You only pull people into your dreams that you trust implicitly.”
“I…” She trailed off, still uncertain. Still wary. And he couldn’t blame her after everything she’d experienced these last months. The entirety of her life.
“You’re not alone, Tessa,” he murmured, brushing his lips across hers in the lightest of kisses. He still felt her shudder at the contact. “Wake up, and I’ll prove it.”
21
THEON
He was on his feet before he was fully awake, still completely dressed from dinner earlier this evening. For days he’d been waiting for Tessa to pull him into her dreams. He hadn’t been able to get a moment alone with her. Rordan and Dex made sure she was never by herself, and at night, her room was guarded by seraphs and warded. Up until this moment, he hadn’t even been sure shewantedto talk to him.
He hadn’t lied to her. He’d tried to warn her about what was going to happen the last time she’d pulled him into a dream. But then she’d kissed him and he was powerless when she did that. When she clung to him like it was the only way she could survive. When she wasn’t fighting him and they were both grasping to keep something so fleeting and impossible.
