Page 283 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Caris nodded, toying with the stem of her wineglass. “Nothing was enough for him. He wouldn’t risk not having a son, so Cressida and I both carried a child. Then he needed another, just in case.” She paused for a moment. “His Sources were no different. Eviana was his second Source.”
“We know this,” Tessa interrupted. “He had her… Well, he chose her before she’d even entered the world.”
Caris pressed her lips into a thin line. “You learned of the Sirana Villas.”
Tessa gave a sharp nod.
“You’re not wrong,” Caris continued. “But a bond wasn’t enough. He would have required more of her. Forced more vows and bargains with her.”
Theon’s head snapped up. “He had a Life Bond with her.”
“Surely not,” Axel gasped, his eyes wide.
Caris nodded.
“What is that?” Tessa asked, looking among them all. “What does that mean?”
“A bond between two lives,” Luka told her gruffly. “If one dies, so does the other.”
“He would have altered it to only be one-sided. If she died, nothing would happen to him, and she wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone,” Theon added. “He would have forced her to secrecy like he did with everything else.”
“She wouldn’t have told us even if she could have,” Corbin said, his voice low and soft to not wake Priya. “Eviana was a lot of things, but she knew what she wanted in the end. If we had known, we would have tried to find another way. She wanted Valter gone because he would forever be a threat to her. She didn’t care the cost, whether it was her or anyone else, as long as that threat was gone.”
“I don’t blame her,” Tessa said, her fingers curling into the edge of her chair. “She lived a life we were taught to covet, but she knew what it truly was. Forced to bring a child into the realm, she wanted the greatest threat gone. In the end, does it matter? One villain gone out of thousands?”
“We’re working on changing things, Tessa,” Theon said.
She gave him a fake smile. “Will it be fast enough? For the Priyas of the world?” She looked at Axel. “For the Maddoxes who don’t have the privilege of being born into a ruling family?”
“Everything we’re doing is to ensure the realm is different for them,” Axel argued. “It won’t happen overnight, but we’ll never stop fighting for it.”
Tessa fell quiet, reaching for her glass of wine. She took a long drink, knowing there were eyes on her. Her emotions were…undefinable. She didn’t understand them or know how to deal with them. It didn’t feel like grief, despite the sadness. Failure? Disappointment? Inadequacy? She didn’t know.
“Axel?”
Tessa lifted her gaze to find Kat at the top of the stairs, Maddox in her arms.
Axel was already moving, taking the stairs two at a time. He dropped a kiss to her cheek before taking the babe and then grasping Kat’s hand.
“Come,” he said with a sad smile. “There is someone I want you to meet.”
He led her down the stairs, drawing nearer to Caris, and Tessa took another drink of wine.
“Kat, this is Caris. She was…” Axel paused, looking down at his son and then at Caris. “She’s my mother. This is my wife, Katya.”
Tessa didn’t know if Kat knew of Caris’s history. She was sure Axel would tell her everything later, but she smiled warmly as she greeted the female.
“A wife so young?” Caris asked, her smile kind as she stood and reached for Kat’s hands, squeezing them gently. “Aren’t you a vision, my dear?” Kat dropped her head, her cheeks heating. Caris’s attention went back to Axel. “And this is…?”
“Maddox,” he answered, his voice thick with emotion. “Your grandchild.”
Tessa drained her wineglass while Axel passed the babe to Caris, and suddenly Theon was there, fingertips brushing down her arm. She was projecting far too many things down the bond, but she couldn’t stop it.
“So, what are we going to do about Priya?” Tessa asked, glancing at Lange and Corbin.
“What do you mean?” Lange asked. “We promised to make her family. She’ll stay with us.”
“Are you sure? Because if that’s not something you want to do, we can make other arrangements.”
