Page 180 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Everyone nodded, trailing from the room, but when Theon made to follow, Luka stopped him. “Not you, you idiot.”
Theon gave him a flat look, closing the door behind Xan. “I figured you wanted to?—”
But Luka cut him off. “If the three of us are doing this, we’re doing it together.”
Theon nodded. They were still working out how to navigate this thing, but Luka was right. It needed to be done together. Something they needed Tessa to understand.
He slipped his hands into the pockets of his pants and watched as Luka reached over and tipped Tessa’s face up with his fingers. “We have some things to discuss, but first, is this your blood or someone else’s?”
“It’s not mine,” she breathed, tears welling in her eyes as the fear was replaced with grief.
Theon was moving then, reaching to pull her up before he grabbed Luka’s hand to do the same. He swayed a little, a groove of annoyance appearing on his brow as he steadied himself.
“When I found her, she was with Blackheart and Brecken. Brecken was…” Theon hesitated.
“Brecken is dead,” Tessa said softly, one of those tears breaking free, and all those tears brought Theon back to months ago when she was shedding tears for different reasons. Those reasons he could have fixed. Was trying to fix so many things, but this… He couldn’t change this for her.
“How?” Luka asked.
“Oralia,” she spat, and Theon went rigid.
“You saw Oralia?” he asked.
She nodded. “She was… She stabbed Brecken in the back.”
“Where is she now?”
“The Pits of Torment.”
“You killed her?” Luka asked.
She nodded again.
“How?”
It was a growled command, and Tessa’s eyes flared at the order, her power appearing and snapping to attention.
“A blade,” she answered, her tone dark and cold. “I cut off her wings one at a time, and then I shoved it all the way through her chest.”
“So vicious,” Luka purred. “You keep doing these things when I’m not around, temptress.” His head tilted in a completelypredatory move. “Which raises the question, what were you doing there? So far from us?”
“I… I didn’t know this would happen,” she answered, lifting her chin as that defiance that Theon both loved and hated crept in.
“I don’t give a fuck that I almost died. Again,” Luka growled. “I just want to know why you were there.”
“To destroy a mirror gate,” she answered coldly. “I asked Tristyn if he knew where one was, and he invited Brecken because he has—had—found some of the exact locations.”
“And this goes back to the vision you were trapped in a few nights ago?” Theon cut in, putting the pieces together.
“Yes,” she snapped. “I don’t owe you an explanation.”
“Wrong,” Luka said in that same seductive growl, and Theon was glad he’d let Luka take the lead on this one. If Theon had done that, her defenses would already be too high, and she would have shut him down. “But that can wait. Right now, you need a shower.”
“You don’t—” she started in outrage, but then she paused. “What?”
“As much as I enjoy the sight of you covered in blood,” Luka replied, taking her hand and leading her to the ensuite. “You need to wash it off. Then I’m assuming we need to deal with the aftermath of what happened.”
“What aftermath?”
