Page 41 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“Of course I knew it was a risk,” Razik snapped.
“Then you should be upset with yourself, not me,” she said simply, her fingers dragging along the countertop.
“Serafina told you there are other ways in. You accomplished nothing but trapping us here.”
“If there are other ways in, there are other ways out,” Tessa replied with a shrug of her shoulders. Then her lips tipped up in a small, unnerving smile. “But I’ll find those too. I’ll destroy every avenue.”
“You want this world to have a reckoning,” Eliza said, coming up beside Razik. Her grey eyes were pinned on Tessa. “Why not simply leave and let the Fates do just that?”
“Because the innocent here deserve to have justice, not die alongside those who only saw their value in how they could use them,” Tessa hissed, power bouncing from her fingertips.
Eliza nodded, far calmer about this entire situation than her twin flame was. “You want to dismantle the Legacy.”
“Do you not think the Fae here deserve to have the freedom you enjoy in your own world?”
“I do,” Eliza agreed.
“Excellent answer,” Tessa said, her gaze sliding to Razik as a smirk curled on her lips. “Seeing as you are now stuck here for the foreseeable future.”
“You’re lucky I don’t—” Razik started, but he snapped his mouth shut when her power thickened, coiling into a whip in her hand. Light and dark crackled, sparks of energy and embers of something other flaring off it.
“Tell me,” Tessa crooned. “Tell me all about theluckI have, Razik Greybane. Is it the abandonment at birth? The time spent in small spaces tothink?Thefriendswho used and deceived me? The Lords and Ladies who did the same? Or was it the not knowing what I was, having no way to figure it out, while you had all your books and teachings? Then you come here and act as if we are beneath you for not having the knowledge you were so freely given.”
“Tessa,” Luka said quietly in warning, stepping towards her as her power swelled more and more around her. Phantom winds swirled, the food platters clanking and some flipping to the floor as thunder cracked somewhere outside.
But Tessa ignored him. Instead, she moved fast, no one expecting it as she leapt from the countertop and landed in front of Razik. The male cursed, shoving Eliza behind him at the same time that Luka wrapped an arm around Tessa’s waist and hauled her back against his chest, the orange plopping to the floor, forgotten. Her power bit into his skin, and his flames rushed to the surface, to meet her magic or protect him, he wasn’t entirely sure.
“Or am I the lucky one because despite promises and gentle touches, I let myself believe I’d finally found a home, only to learn that’s not my fate in the end?” Tessa went on, venom dripping from each word, but Luka felt her body tremble slightly as she spoke. “I think the lucky one here isyou, Razik Greybane. You have a home you will do anything to return to. More than that, you have people whowantyou. People who want you despite you not returning the sentiment. I’d be careful with that. Eventually they stop trying and stop wanting you, and you realize too late you wanted them all along.”
The room had gone utterly silent. Eliza was peering around Razik’s body, her hand gripping his forearm. There was no doubt the pair was communicating down their bond, but Eliza appeared ready to intervene should her mate attempt anything.
Not that she would need to. Luka was positive that if he let Tessa go, she’d be more than capable of holding her own against the male with her magic so volatile right now. As the silence stretched on, Luka slowly lowered her back to her feet. She smoothed her hands down her dress, then she reached for her hair before stopping herself.
She straightened, all her power disappearing into her aside from the light bands at her wrists. Then she lifted her chin, holding Razik’s stare as she said, “I don’t have the luxury of luck, and the Fates are determined to end me. I will not apologize for fighting for my survival, nor will I apologize for not allowing others to become a sacrifice for me. And I certainly will not ask forgiveness for?—”
She snapped her mouth shut, clearing her throat as she looked around the room. “In all things, there must be balance, but how does that come to be when one race rules all? Keeping others locked away in the dark beneath them? They tell us Achaz is wrong, that he wants to rule the realms, but then it stands toreason we must resist him. If we are to resist him, then it must start here.”
With that, she wandered away, as if there hadn’t just been a confrontation that had nearly ended in magic being thrown around. Her fingers trailed along anything she could touch—the sofa, a side table, the walls—and she started humming as she went, making her way towards a passage that would take her to the guest rooms. The opposite way from his own room.
Luka waited until she disappeared from view before he followed, easily catching up to her with his long strides. She was muttering to herself, and he couldn’t make out the words until he was nearly on top of her.
“We damn one to save hundreds. We damn ourselves to save them. That’s what we do when we love…” She trailed off, flattening her palm against the wall, watching darkness seep from her fingertips. Except it wasn’t darkness. It was swirling black mist and gold embers. Then she nodded to herself. “This is what happens when you let yourself be loved. That’s what they taught us. No. Yes. I can’t…” Her hands wound into her hair, pulling at the roots.
“Tessa,” Luka said, something in his chest aching at seeing her like this, but he shoved the feeling aside.
She whirled, and he could swear there were pools of silver glimmering in her eyes as she stared back at him before she blinked them away.
“You didn’t eat anything,” he said when she didn’t speak. Her head tilted, but she didn’t reply. “Have you tried to reach him?” Luka asked, taking a different angle at talking to her. Her gaze darted to the side at the words. “He won’t deny you,” he added, reaching to pull her hands from her hair, but she lurched back a step.
“He already has,” she retorted, lightning flickering in her irises. “He’s…perplexing,” she murmured.
“I think the feeling is mutual, little one.”
If she’d lurched back before, she stumbled back now as if he’d struck her. He knew why. Knew she remembered what he’d told her about that particular pet name. But he needed to remind himself. He couldn’t trust her. She’d kept him in the dark about his father. Hadn’t told him of her plans for the Pantheon, not that he could blame her on that one. Every one of them would have attempted to stop her. But he needed to keep a distance between them, even if he would wind up being her Guardian in the end. He would do that. It had been Theon’s last request of him, and he would do that because it was the duty of his bloodline and his family.
She nodded to herself again, and he found himself wishing he could hear her thoughts. Wishing everything wasn’t so fucking broken. But he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel whole again, even if things were different with Tessa. Not without his family. And he didn’t mean the blooded family out in the main room.
“Tessa, I?—”
