Page 124 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“Didn’t you hear her?” Tessa asked, that unnatural delight creeping into her voice. “She was trying to trick you into a binding. I’m dying to know whatthatwould have entailed.”
“I just meant that I thought once he could see how good we were together, he would see that I am an asset, not a hindrance,” Felicity said, her voice trembling.
Tessa shook her head, pulling her arm from Theon’s grasp. “The thing about liars is we easily recognize our own,” Tessa purred, stalking closer. Her power skittered, far weaker than what it should be, but it was enough to make Felicity lurch back.
“I am a Lord’s wife,” Felicity said. “You can’t touch me.”
“No,Iam a Lord’s wife,” Tessa retorted. “I warned you. Months ago we sat at a table where I told you he was mine. Then when you came here, I told you to figure out your place. Moments ago I told you that you were not his Match, and yet you still continue to touch what is not yours.”
“You’re delusional.”
“Ask him,” Tessa purred again.
And it seemed to finally sink in as Felicity slowly slid her eyes to him. “Theon?”
“I told you the other night you’d do well to remember what this is. What I came here for,” Theon answered. “But I am curious to know how convincing me to fuck you would have bound me to you. A child? After one fucking? The odds are astronomical.”
Felicity was shaking her head, tears pooling in her eyes as she held up her hand. “I don’t understand. You’re my husband. It’s a Union Mark.”
“He’smyhusband,” Tessa hissed, whatever power had lingered from her earlier hit flaring again on Felicity’s cheek, making her cry out. “But there is the issue of you being bound to him and the bargain with Valter.”
“Tell me about this binding, Felicity,” Theon ordered, and she flinched when his power appeared, drifting towards her.
“Valter said… He had a way to ensure an heir would be born. That he’d done it before. As long as we slept together once, I didn’t need to conceive that night. We just needed to makeyoubelieve I was with child. Then he would take care of the rest,” she confessed, tears sliding down her face.
“The fuck?” Theon said. He should be shocked, but he wasn’t. His father had always ensured he got exactly what he wanted. After all, wasn’t he proof of her statement? Everyone had believed he was Cressida’s child.
“I’m sorry, Theon,” she said, fear and panic filling her voice. “I didn’t mean?—”
“You’re not sorry,” Tessa cut in, back to circling her. “You’re only sorry you got caught.”
“That’s not?—”
“You are a terrible liar,” Tessa said with mock pity. “But that’s what you were after? Trapping him with a child?”
“A child would ensure my place of power. It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” she retorted. “I didn’t care if it was Theon, Axel, or an heir in another kingdom.” Then her glare swung to Theon.“And now you’ve fucked yourself. They’ll never accept her as your Matchandyour Source. It’s an imbalance among the kingdoms they will never allow. You’ve thrown away everything, just like your mother said you would. If you were half as smart as you think you are, you’d turn her over and be rid of her. Let Rordan deal with her so the realm can move on and get back to business.”
Tessa moved then, and Theon’s eyes widened in surprise. Because she didn’t attack with her power. Not right away. No, this was all physical as she tackled Felicity to the ground. Felicity shrieked, trying to throw Tessa off her, but that training with Luka had clearly paid off. Tessa’s hand wrapped around her throat as she straddled Felicity. Her power flickered in and out, and she was right. Something was wrong. But she didn’t seem to care at the moment.
She swung her fist, marring Felicity’s other cheek. “That’s for being in our fucking room all those months ago,” she sneered, and everything in Theon heated at watching her. Feral and unhinged and possessive ofhim. She leaned closer, a few of her embers of power drifting around her. “Truthfully, I don’t care what you have to say about me. Your opinion matters as much as Cordelia’s rotting bones over there. But you kept fuckingtouchinghim.”
She lifted a palm, and Theon had no idea what she was doing until a staggered swirl of her power formed, leaving a dagger he’d never seen before in its wake. Felicity tried to scream, and Tessa loosened her grip a touch.
“You’re insane,” Felicity rasped.
“Indeed,” Tessa hummed, twirling the dagger in her hand. “It happens when people keep trying to take what is ours. We don’t like it.”
“Tessa,” Theon cut in, recognizing the spiral she was about to go down.
Tessa sighed, her fingers tightening on the dagger hilt. “But you are still bound to him, and I don’t like that. Especially not after learning you tried to trick him into having a child with you. But more than that, there is a bargain with Valter that all comes back to…you.”
“I have nothing to do with that,” Felicity said, squirming beneath Tessa’s weight.
“You have everything to do with it,” Tessa hissed. “And I know what it is to be trapped and confined and bound when you don’t want to be. Surely you can see the conundrum here. Because I know people like you. You’ll never stop until you get what you want, and unfortunately for you, that’s a problem for us.”
“You have the dragon!” Felicity cried. “You can’t have them both. It doesn’t work that way.”
Tessa reared back a little at her words, and Felicity took advantage. She twisted, throwing Tessa off her. In her surprise, the dagger came loose, and Felicity snatched it up, scrambling to where Tessa was pushing to her knees.
