Page 242 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
We’ll be right here beside you,Luka replied.Like Theon said, we know how to help you now.
Just… If I can’t do it, please don’t look at me differently.
Nothing will change the way I look at you, baby girl.
But he felt the hesitation down the bond, and he couldn’t really blame her since hehadlooked at her differently when he discovered the truth of his father. She didn’t argue further, though, squaring her shoulders and pulling one of her daggers from a swirl of chaos.
She closed the distance between her and Xan, his father dropping to a knee so she could reach easier.
“Thank you for this, Tessa,” he said quietly as she pierced her finger.
“Don’t thank me yet,” she muttered. “Wait until we’re sure I haven’t killed you.”
He smiled in encouragement, but she was focused on her task now. Placing her finger on the collar, she circled him, dragging her blood all the way around it. When she closed the circle, it flared faintly.
“Good, Tessa,” Theon said from where he’d come up behind her.
She stepped back. “That was the easy part.”
Theon placed his hand on the small of her back. “We’re right here. You can do this.”
Luka readied his own power, letting it linger just beneath his skin. He didn’t want to call it forth completely and distract her magic, but he wanted it ready, just in case.
Bringing a hand up, she let her magic pool, and Luka gritted his teeth. Even without trying, her power called to his. She knew the others were feeling it too. Eliza’s lips were pressed into a thin line, and Xan had leaned closer, as if her mere presence could set his power free.
He felt her letting herself slip a little deeper into her magic, her eyes glowing violet and her aura shimmering with that golden mist. But it was dark embers of onyx that floated among her hair. With a shuddering breath, she used her other hand and swiped her fingers through the storm in her palm. As if pulling a thread, a thin strand of chaos unraveled, and she sent it to the collar. That thread settled along her circle of blood, flaring brighter still.
But that wasn’t enough. Achaz had been thorough when he’d created this cursed stone, and it required more than blood and chaos to break it.
It required light from beginnings.
Her brow furrowed in concentration, lightning flickered in her eyes as she slowly pulled the light from the chaos on the collar. It splintered, tiny fissures of lightning appearing slowly. This was the part she’d been worried about. All the chaos and power so close to Xan’s throat. One wrong move or thought, and they had no idea what would happen.
His father was scarcely breathing, and Luka found himself holding his breath as they waited. A frustrated growl came from Tessa, and she shifted her feet, pitching closer.
Theon followed, maintaining contact with her to keep her grounded. The light on the stone flared brighter, a crackling sound filling the air. Then she pressed her fingertips to the collar, more chaos seeping out. She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes snapping to Xan’s.
“I feel your power,” she lilted. “It is angry.”
“That it is, Tessa,” Xan answered. “Twenty-five years is a long time.”
Her head tipped to the side. “How did you not go mad?”
“Maybe I did.”
A terrifying grin filled her face. “Is that why we got along so well? Two souls lost to madness?”
“We have to be a little mad to dream, Tessalyn,” he said, his throat bobbing with a swallow.
She hummed in thought, clearly slipping deeper into her magic. “And have you dreamed of flying?”
“Every fucking day,” Xan gritted out, and it was then Luka realized his father was trembling. With restraint or need, he didn’t know, but he was also realizing that the calm demeanor he’d come to know of the male wasn’t fully him. It was only a part of him he’d been forced to embrace because the rest had been trapped by that collar.
Tessa pulled her hand back, a thread of pure gold between her fingers. With a final flash of a smile, she tugged on that magic, and the collar shattered, pieces of it dropping to the ground.
In the next blink, his father had shifted, a roar of fury ringing around them. Theon had thrown himself over Tessa, dragging her back as the massive dragon whipped his head around, glowing sapphire eyes taking them all in. He was the same darkmidnight blue as Luka, but his wings, along with the ridges on his back, were the inky black of Theon’s darkness.
Then he leaped into the sky, the draft from his wings stirring the air around them. Several mighty flaps of those wings, and he was high enough in the air to release a stream of dragon fire into the clear sky. Twenty-five years’ worth of trapped power finally free.
