Page 203 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“There you are,” Theon said when they appeared in the living room. “I was just coming to look for you. Are you all right, beautiful?”
“Yeah,” she said with a sigh, making her way to the coffeepot. She pulled her hair up, piling it atop her head as she moved, then paused when she realized she didn’t have a hair tie.
Luka was already moving, swiping up one from a tin on a nearby end table to hand it to her. His gaze connected with Theon’s, and he gave him a questioning look that Luka just subtly shook his to in response.
They were all getting used to having one another in their thoughts again, and if they spoke down the shared bond, Tessa would hear it.
She gave him another small smile in thanks for the hair tie, pressing her lips to his jaw, before turning to pour a mug of coffee. Crossing the kitchen, she paused next to Theon, pushing onto her toes to do the same, but he turned his head, capturing her mouth instead.
“I’m going to get ready for the day,” she said with another soft smile before making her way to the bedroom.
As soon as they heard the bathroom door click closed, Theon turned to Luka.
“What’s wrong? Is this about yesterday and what happened with the three of us?”
“No,” Luka said, going to get a fresh bottle of cold water. “It’s nothing like that. It’s a her and I thing, but it is something I need to address.”
“Okay,” Theon said, waiting for him to go on.
“I know we weren’t planning on taking her back there for a while, but we need to go to the Underground. We need to talk to Cienna.”
“Now?” Theon asked. “Can’t it wait until after we meet with the Ladies and Jove tomorrow?”
“No,” he said simply. “You won’t be the only one who shows up at that meeting with a wife.”
Theon’s lips tipped up in a genuine smile. “It’s about fucking time.”
“It’s dark down here,” Tessa grumbled. “And musty. And dark. Too dark.”
“We’re not staying,” Theon assured her. “It’s just for a few hours. It’s important, Tessa.”
“Right,” she sighed again, and Luka glanced over his shoulder to find her trailing along, her hand dragging on the wall. “We don’t like it.”
The passages were too narrow for the three of them to walk side by side, and Theon had slowed his steps to stay beside her as much as possible.
She looked up at him, eyes wide. “I like the dark, but I can’t always stay there.”
Theon reached over, smoothing a hand down her hair before dropping a kiss to the top of her head. “I know. It’s only for a few hours, and we’ll go back to Luka’s cave. We can sit on his balcony the rest of the day.”
“And after the meeting tomorrow?”
He hesitated, all of them having stopped now. Luka crossed his arms as they worked to convince her on this.
“It will depend on how things go,” Theon finally said. “But my hope is to go to Arius House so we can figure out our next moves.”
“It’s dark there too,” she said with a frown.
“It’s not underground.”
She shrugged, moving forward again. “Still dark.”
They continued on, following the passages. Cienna had agreed to see them, but said they needed to do so at her place and not the penthouse. They’d all been irritated, but they’d learned the hard way not to piss off the Witch.
A half hour later, they finally emerged in her space, finding her at a worktable with Gia. The two of them had their heads together over something on the table, and neither of them bothered to look up at their entrance.
Tessa immediately started wandering, but at least she was contained here. She peered at various objects, chaos driftingaround her fingers when she would pick something up. Cienna would have yelled at them for touching her things. Tessa apparently had a pass.
Until she came to a black orb, shadows seeming to swirl in its depths.
