Page 3 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Cyrus:Here? Can’t they just come here with Eliza and Razik?
Scarlett,glancing up at Sorin:We’ve discussed it, but I cannot allow that. Not yet. Not when we are still recovering from our own battles with Achaz, but I’ll figure something out. I’ll… The Oracle says they need to fight their own battles. That we’ve interfered enough already.
Cyrus,slinging an arm around her shoulders:Let’s go to the Citadel, Darling. I’ll bring the mugweed to help.
Scarlett,scoffing:How will mugweed help?
Cyrus,drawling:I suppose we won’t know until we try it. But if anything, you’ll relax some. One would think Sorin would be helping with that...
Sorin:I heard that, you prick.
WHO WILL BE LEFT STANDING?
There was nothing but rocks and dirt and rubble under her bare feet. The sky that had been clear and blue when she’d first stepped here was quickly turning grey the longer she stood among the ruin of a world that had once been grand. Wicked and cruel and broken, yes, but the shell of it had been grand. The beauty of the outside had hidden the poison that spread among the realm, killing and taking and breaking?—
Lightning crackled at her fingertips, flecks of silver and gold, white and black, flickering among her power. She took a deep breath, calming the fury that was building in her belly. She’d told no one she was coming here. Only one knew. The one who’d helped her get here. But perhaps she should have brought Roan or Nylah just to help keep her grounded. It’d been decades since she’d been in this world. She hadn’t thought it would still make her…feel.
But she should have known.
It would forever make her feel.
Because it was the last place she’d seen him.
Because it had always been more than a bond.
Tessa looked back over her shoulder. The mirror gate she’d stepped through stood several paces away, but the Pantheon that had once housed it was in ruins. It was nothing more than cracked pillars and crumbled stone. She could see straight to the courtyard where the fountain had stood once, large and regal. Without having to navigate the passages of the Pantheon, she reached the disintegrating structure quickly. Half of the fountain was gone and water had long ceased flowing, but the other half still stood, albeit fractured in several places.
She ran her hand along the lip, finding a crack that had been there before this world had died. A crack she’d put there with her power, summoning a Hunter to her side. Peering over the side, a gasp of surprise fell from her lips. Somehow the mosaics of the six First gods and goddesses were still pristine and perfect. Not one scratch or chip on the tiles. Tilting her head as she studied them, she couldn’t help but think they’d gotten some of it wrong, particularly Celeste. Just minor details here and there, but not Arius. That mosaic was perfect with the dark hair and emerald eyes. The arrogant tilt of lips. It even managed to capture the aura of his darkness and power. Looking so much likehim.
Odd really, when he was hundreds and hundreds of generations removed from Arius. How had he looked so incredibly similar? Genetics or no, it seemed implausible.
Straightening, she intended to make her way to a townhouse that had once almost felt like home, but as she turned, she stilled. This world was dead, the Fates having destroyed it in their search for her, and yet…
“Hello, clever tempest.”
She said nothing.
Only stared back at him.
The inky black hair that always found a way to fall across his brow. The emerald irises drifting with darkness and sin. The suit sans jacket. The rings on his fingers. The Mark of Achaz—herMark—forever on the back of his left hand.
When she didn’t speak, he slipped his hands into his pockets, rocking back on his heels slightly. He slowly took her in, eyes going from her head to her bare toes and back up again. As though he was trying to take in as much detail as he could.
“Are you a phantom?” she finally blurted, unable to help herself because how was he here? Nearly a century after Devram and everyone in it had been destroyed? How had he survived?
He smiled, and her stomach dipped as a dimple appeared. Only then did he take a single step toward her, his head canting to the side a little with the movement.
“You look beautiful,” he said, going still once more.
Tessa looked down at the black dress with deep slits up the sides. Her bow was looped across her chest while her golden hair was loose and flowing around her as the wind picked up.
Meeting his gaze once more, she said, “You didn’t answer my question. How are you still here?”
He appeared to debate his answer before he said, “I’m not entirely sure. Do you wish I wasn’t?”
“I…” Her fingers curled at her sides, power and more flaring, because she didn’t know what she wished. She didn’t know why today, of all days, she’d finally found her way back here.
He reached her in a few long strides. Gently taking her chin, he tipped her face up to his, and she shuddered. It may have been decades since she’d seen him, but a part of her soul remembered him. Always would. Her power calmed. Her fury banked. The Chaos that was always trying to consume herrushed to his touch, seeking him out. A small sigh escaped her when he brushed his thumb across her bottom lip.
