Page 125 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“If he won’t do what needs to be done, I’ll do it myself,” Felicity said, determination filling her features. “You’ll be gone. The realm will be safe, and he’ll bemine.”
Theon lunged to stop her, his power lurching, but he didn’t need to. Tessa lifted a hand, her light wrapping around Felicity’s wrist and snapping it as Felicity brought her arm down. The dagger had been inches from Tessa’s chest, but it clattered to the floor.
“Stop touching my godsdamn things,” Tessa snarled, swiping up the dagger and slashing it across Felicity’s throat. Blood sprayed as she plunged it into Felicity’s chest. The female gasped, a hand reaching for the hilt as she fell onto her side, and Theon watched in fascination as she faded to embers that matched Tessa’s power before fading away altogether.
“You’ve been keeping secrets, Tessa,” he chided with a dark purr, striding to her and extending a hand. Her fingers slid into his, smears of blood gracing his palm as he pulled her to her feet. He gripped her chin in his other hand, forcing her eyes to his. “You are stunning,” he growled.
“Say it,” she rasped, the words harsh and rough as the high he’d experienced moments ago flashed in her violet irises. He knew what she wanted to hear.
“Yours, little storm. Only yours. Every piece of me.”
“I don’t regret killing her.”
“We do what needs to be done, and we don’t have regrets,” he replied.
“Am I a villain now?”
“I don’t give a fuck if you are. I’ll still sacrifice every star in the sky for you,” he said, reaching for her arm and pulling her sleeve back to reveal a brand new Mark.
It wound around her wrist, just below her bands of light. It was a Mark he’d never seen before, but after his meeting with Rordan and the Ladies—when they’d laid out his lordship requirements—he’d called Felicity.
Then he’d contacted Cienna.
He’d needed a fake Union Mark, yes, but he’d also needed something more. He’d needed a Union Mark to bind him and Tessa, and last night, Brecken had brought the Witch with when he’d taken Theon to Tessa’s rooms. Tessa had agreed to his plan. He would never have forced her. Would have come up with something else, but she’d agreed. A binding of her own choosing with conditions of her own. Conditions Theon had never imagined being even remotely agreeable to, but ones he hoped would eventually come to pass.
But that wasn’t up to him
He swiped his thumb along the black and white loops and swirls that wound around her wrist, matching the one on his.
“Are you all right?” he murmured.
“Something is wrong with us,” she said, lifting her palms and studying them.
“With your power?”
She nodded. “It’s like it’s…empty. There are only dregs of it in my soul, as if it can only appear in short bursts. It’s never been like this.”
“But you just killed Felicity,” he said. “Isn’t that how your power refills?”
“Yes, but my power didn’t take. That was…something else.”
“I’m going to need you to fill me in on that, or I can’t help, Tessa.”
Before she could reply, light flared, and it wasn’t hers. Theon shoved her behind him, but she didn’t stay there, because of course she didn’t.
Not as Rordan stepped from a portal with Dex at his side.
“What are you doing back here?” Theon demanded, his power immediately winding around Tessa.
“I see you figured out how to remove that cuff,” Rordan answered, gaze sweeping over the mess of Cordelia’s corpse on the floor. “Dexter thought you might have. So we have come to make a bargain. Give us the cuff and the two of you can leave.”
“Just like that?” Theon asked doubtfully.
“I’m sure we will meet again soon enough.”
“And if we refuse?”
“Ah, then we will have to detain you for murder,” he answered. “And kidnapping? Where is your wife?”
