Page 115 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Tessa stretched an arm out, feeling the bed still warm from where he’d vacated it moments ago. He’d called Luka three days ago, but he hadn’t had much to say apparently. That was okay. The Ladies were supposed to arrive tomorrow. They would all approve of Theon’s new role as the Arius Lord, and they could leave this place.
This place full of haunting memories. This place with Dex or Rordan around every godsdamn corner. All the seraphs and too small spaces, even if she’d been given this suite. Every day she was ushered to a room with either Dex or Rordan, where she was forced to sit in their presence, because what else was she going to do? They had to know Theon was finding his way to her. Couldn’t they scent it?
She inhaled deeply, the smell of him enveloping her. It was on the sheets, the pillows, and she burrowed deeper into the blankets. These past nights she’d actuallyslept. Not as deeply as she once had, but enough to not feel utterly exhausted each and every day.
“Glad to see some things haven’t changed.”
His voice carried to her, and the smallest of smiles tilted on her lips. Not that she’d let him see it.
The bed dipped, a large palm smoothing down her hair, then down her back, and she rolled over, looking up at him. He was staring at her likeshewas the phantom now, as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
She shoved hair off her face, the cuff tangling in her golden strands. “I want this off,” she said, her voice still raspy from sleep.
“I know, Tessa,” he said. “One more day. After tomorrow, it’s off. Never again.”
“We’ve said that before,” she muttered.
He leaned in, his face inches from hers. “In one day, everything will be different, and you will be untouchable. Not from anything I did, but because you are the most powerful being in not only Devram, but in all the realms. Not even that cuff can fully contain you.”
He had a point. Her power still managed to escape. Not a lot. Embers here. A little light there. Nothing like what she should have access to. No, she couldn’t access it, but she could feel it all. That thing that prowled in her soul, furious at being caged yet again. It clawed at her, and until Theon had found his way to her, she hadn’t been sure she would survive it. She dreaded the mornings when he had to leave, for more reasons than one now.
“Where’d you go, little storm?” he murmured.
“My power is angry,” she said simply, tracing the etchings on the cuff. “We don’t like this.”
“We,” Theon repeated.
“It traps us, and we don’t like being trapped,” she went on as though he hadn’t spoken. “And when we are free again? We will seek out the ones who did this. It has been a long time since we took, and we are starving.”
“Tessa, look at me.” His tone was an order, and she blinked up at him in confusion.
“What?”
“I told Luka to take his time, but we are out of it,” he muttered, more to himself than to her. Then he cupped her cheek, his thumb swiping along her skin. “One more day, Tessa. I need you to hang in there one more day.”
“Rordan is cunning,” she said suddenly. “Remember that.”
His eyes bounced between hers, searching as he asked, “Do you know something I don’t?”
She shook her head. “No, but I lived with him for a time. He never fully confided in me, but he told me enough to make me feel important.”
“You are important.”
“You know what I mean,” she said, waving him off. “I know I have this power?—”
She started when he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Youare important, Tessa. Not your power. Not your bloodline.You.”
Her throat clogged, and she swallowed against the sudden onslaught of emotions.
“I’m sorry for ever making you feel otherwise,” he added, releasing her chin and letting his fingers skim her jaw. She gasped, and his eyes widened in alarm. “What is it?”
“I can’t decide if this is a dream,” she answered, and his brow furrowed.
“It is not a dream, Tessa.”
“Then you truly just apologized to me?” she asked with a wry smirk.
“You are a brat,” he muttered, leaning in once more to brush his lips along hers, but she kept him there, fisting his shirt to hold him in place. Deepening the kiss. Tasting him and taking what she could, knowing it would never be enough to get her through this day.
