Page 57 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
He’d caught Theon with a small smile on his lips, watching him. “It’s odd to think about, isn’t it? You, the younger heir, married with a child on the way. More than that, you’re married to someone you love and truly care for. Not a Match forced upon you for the sake of continuing our bloodline and maximizing power. But something pure and… I’m happy for you, Axel.”
“This isn’t exactly what I pictured though, you know?” Axel said, his gaze fixed on his drink as he toyed with the glass. “No powers. A vampyre. Hiding in the Underground, trying to keepmy wife and unborn son from a power-hungry centuries old Night Child.”
“Same game, different location and different players,” Theon said grimly.
“Yeah, I suppose you’d know all about it with Tessa. Minus the child part.”
They both fell silent, several seconds ticking by before Theon said, “Kylian said there are rumors she’s still here. In Devram. That she never left.”
“Wouldn’t you be able to feel her down your bond?” Axel asked, bringing his drink to his lips once more.
“It’s too broken,” Theon answered, knocking back the rest of his own liquor. “The three of us… We’re too damaged by what this world has turned us into. Products of a realm run by the same power-hungry villains. Pawns in the centuries’ old games of the gods.”
“Would you have been able to handle it in the end?” Axel asked. “Sharing the bond with Luka? Inevitably sharingherwith Luka?”
“I handed a world over for destruction for her,” Theon said, watching the ice slowly melt in his glass. “In the end, it has nothing to do with what I want, but what she needs. But even that… I think in the end, it wouldn’t be the same without Luka. The three of us…”
“Balance each other out,” Axel finished for him. “Take one away, and the whole thing implodes.”
“Yeah,” Theon murmured, thinking over those words.
Take one away, and the whole thing implodes.
“At least the co-dependency between you and Luka serves a purpose now,” Axel added.
Theon’s head snapped up, finding a smirk on his brother’s face.
“Dick,” Theon muttered, flicking his glass in Axel’s direction and letting the ice cubes fly towards him.
Axel batted them away with a laugh, and it was strange to hear it. It’d been far too long since they’d just sat and talked. If Luka were here, it’d be just like old times, plotting and scheming into the late hours of the night.
Several minutes had passed, a comfortable silence settling over them, when Axel broke it, saying, “So about this property you felt the need to torture our potential allies over…”
Theon sighed, knowing this conversation needed to happen. He wanted to wait until after they’d met with the Shifters so Axel could be wholly focused on his task while they were there.
Getting to his feet, Theon set his glass on the side table and retrieved the liquor bottle. He didn’t bother refilling their empty tumblers, instead opting to take a pull straight from the bottle before passing it to Axel.
“This doesn’t bode well,” his brother muttered before taking a drink of his own.
“Cressida showed up at Arius House before I came here,” Theon said, reclaiming his seat.
“Ah,” Axel said, tipping the bottle up again before handing it back to Theon. “And you’re going to tell me you killed her for her treason and her part in trying to kill Tessa.”
“I wish that was what I was telling you,” he replied grimly, taking another drink before resting the bottle on his knee. “She made a compelling argument as to why I couldn’t kill her.”
Axel slowly turned to look at him. “Which was?”
“That killing her would kill my mother,” he said bluntly, not knowing any other way to say it. “My true mother.”
Axel blinked once. Twice. His mouth opened and shut a few times before he finally said, “And you believed her?”
“Again, she made a very convincing argument,” Theon replied before proceeding to fill him in on the conversation, whatCressida claimed, and where he suspected the female was if it was true.
“You’re telling me I was being held somewhere with yourmotherwhen I was lost to blood lust?” Axel said, both hands going through his hair. “You’re telling me we’re not actually brothers?”
“No,” Theon said firmly. “Wearebrothers. Even if we only share a father, wearebrothers. The same way Luka is our brother.”
“Yeah, but…” Axel pushed to his feet, starting to pace and stretching his neck from side to side.
