Page 43 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
In the next breath, her entire face lit up as she said, “A story.”
Tristyn’s face paled at the words. “I think stories are more your thing, wild fury. Not mine.”
She stumbled forward, somehow tripping on the length of her skirt. Luka moved to catch her, but she was already clutching at Tristyn’s arm, crushing the lull-leaf roll in her hand. “You have to tell me a story,” she insisted, panic and mania creeping into her voice. “We’re the same. You are alone. And I’m alone.And you survived. I need to know how to survive being alone. We were alone for so long, and then I thought… And then we weren’t, and now we are. And I know it’s my fault, but?—”
She stopped speaking abruptly when Tristyn reached up and ran a hand down her hair, hushing her with a soothing sound. “All right, Tessa,” he said softly, and Luka knew he was using his gifts on her right now. “I’ll tell you a story.” She nodded, her body still too tense even with his power. Meeting Luka’s gaze, Tristyn said, “I’ve got her. Take a break, Mors.”
“Take a break,” Tessa murmured. “He doesn’t want us. We struck too deep. We chose destruction.” Before he could say anything in response, her head snapped up. She lurched from Tristyn’s hold, suddenly in front of Luka. Her hands fisted in his shirt, and she clung to him, saying, “But I saved him for you.”
There was a pleading in her voice he didn’t understand as he clasped her upper arms, trying to ease the white-knuckled grip she had on his shirt. “Saved who, Tessa?” Luka asked.
But she was shaking her head, back to mumbling. “He can’t see.” Lifting her gaze to his, grey was peaking through the violet and gold that often hid the color from them these days. “You can’t see.”
“See what, Tessa?”
Her smile was small and sad as she released him, slowly backing away. Shaking her head, she murmured, “He can’t see.”
Then she was drifting down the passage away from him, back to humming and sliding her hand along the wall, her fingers and bare feet leaving a trail of magic behind her.
“I’ve got her. Seriously, Mors. Take a break for a while,” Blackheart said with a grim smile.
“She’s in too deep,” Luka said.
“I know,” was all the male replied before he turned to follow the fury of chaos.
Luka stayed rooted to the spot long after they had disappeared. He wasn’t even sure where they’d end up.
You can’t see.
Stay where I can see you.
I saved him for you.
Saved who? His father? He’d done that. He was the one who had gone to get his father after learning where he was. Not her.
Gritting his teeth, he turned and went back the way he’d come. Reaching the main living space, he found Eliza had disappeared somewhere, leaving him with only his brother and father. Which was great. He’d been hoping they all would have fucked off somewhere after the confrontation with Tessa.
Xan was in the kitchen cleaning up the food spread that few people had touched. Luka suspected it was simply to have something to do. It appeared sitting around doing nothing wasn’t something their bloodline was accustomed to. All three of them were restless and itching to act. To dosomething. It wasn’t in their nature to hide. It was in their nature to protect and fight for those they viewed as theirs.
“Apparently she didn’t need you to protect her from me after all,” Razik drawled from the sofa, sitting in the same place Eliza had been.
“I don’t think Eliza needs your protection either, yet you still shoved her behind you,” Luka retorted, stalking past him to help their father.
“Eliza doesn’t need me to protect her,” his brother replied, an arm draped along the back of the sofa as he watched them over his shoulder.
“Yet you do so anyway.”
“She is mine,” Razik replied simply. “She comes before all else, including myself and my Ward.” With a glare in their father’s direction, he begrudgingly added, “She is, indeed, my inevitable.”
Luka ground his teeth, turning away only to put himself in the path of his father.
“She’s not wrong, you know,” Xan said. “Achaz looks to conquer and divide individual realms. It’s what he’s been doing for centuries. The only way to survive it is for a realm to come together and resist him.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Luka ground out, bracing his hands on the counter’s edge, his head falling to his chest.
Xan moved to stand beside him, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms, wincing as the collar bit into his skin. Guilt washed over Luka at the realization they still had done absolutely nothing to even attempt to remove the thing.
“What do you wish she would have done? Left?” Xan pushed.
