Page 18 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
And then she was standing before a cell.
She’d been here before, and knew when she turned to the window, she’d be below the sea.
The same female was behind the bars, her fingers in her lanky black hair, tugging at the ends. Bright violet eyes snapped to Tessa, the female lurching forward, careful not to touch the bars.
“Did he send you?” she asked, sounding more than a little mad. “Is he finally coming for me?”
“I…don’t know who you are,” Tessa answered slowly, her head tilting as she watched the female slowly back away, shaking her head.
“But you do, child. But you do. We are one and the same,” the female said. Then she tipped her head back and laughed asshe shot forward, wrapping her hands around the bars of her cell.
Power rippled out, slamming into Tessa, and again she fell.
But it was faster this time.
Glimpses of visions as if looking through windows. Her soul being pulled in so many directions she wished it would simply tear apart.
A silver-haired female in a chamber surrounded by books. It took a minute to recognize Scarlett, worry etched on her features as she frantically flipped pages. Three males stood in the doorway, watching her. One was Sorin. All three shared a look of concern as her shadows coiled around her.
Another female with silver hair, a white snake around her shoulders as she slipped into the shadows of night.
The land in the sky.
A child with blonde curls and blue eyes, laughing as she ran before she shifted mid-step into a small feline.
A female with hair as golden as her own sitting on a balcony railing, legs swinging in the air and smiling as if she could see Tessa.
A male with long black hair tied at the nape of his neck. Wolves walked at his sides, a black eagle screeching in the sky above him. Pine green eyes honed in on Tessa, as if he, too, could see her.
As if Tessa was straddling two worlds. All worlds.
The thing in her soul whined, begging to be set free. The female tipped her head back, laughing to the dark clouds above her, while the male clenched his jaw, the wolves at his sides tipping their heads back and howling to a clear sky.
A land once pristine and now rubble, a male with black hair and piercing emerald eyes. Her feet finally found the ground again, rocks crunching beneath her boots. He palmed hercheek, his thumb stroking gently. “Go home, Tessa. He’s calling for you,” he said.
And before she could say anything in response, before she could tell him she didn’t have a home, he bent, pressing his lips to her brow. Everything in her soul settled, even as she fell into Chaos yet again.
“Tessa? Open your eyes, Tessa!”
Her name was a growled command, her shoulders shaking as her eyes fluttered open. Luka stared down at her, relief filling his face. He was kneeling on the ground, her body cradled in his arms, and she rolled from his hold, bile rising up her throat.
He reached over, gathering her hair back in case she vomited, but it never came. Her arms trembled as she stayed on her hands and knees, trying to reorient herself.
“Did it work?” Luka demanded.
“It worked,” Cienna replied.
“How can we be sure?”
“It worked,” Tessa said, lifting her head as the nausea subsided.
“What the fuck happened?” Luka asked, his attention on her now.
But Tessa just pursed her lips, sitting back on her heels. “I saw things.”
“Visions,” Luka clarified.
“Kind of. It was like I was falling through them in a way. They went so fast. Different worlds. Different times. Two worlds at once. I…”
