Page 58 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Without a word, Theon got up and went to the kitchen, returning with a small glass of blood. The relief on Axel’s face was tangible as he took it, and Theon had to give him credit for not drinking the whole thing at once.
Theon gripped his shoulder, squeezing it tight and keeping him in place. “You are my brother, Axel. This changes nothing, but I do need you to know that when I am able, I will kill Cressida.”
Holding his stare, Axel swallowed thickly and nodded. “I understand, Theon. She’s a threat and a liability. To everything and everyone.”
“You won’t hate me for it?”
“We all know she wasn’t motherly,” he answered, some of the tension leaving him as he absorbed the initial shock of the information. “Sure, she favored me, and now we know why, but she wasn’t… I’ll feelsomething. I don’t know what it is yet, to be honest, but I won’t hate you for it.”
Theon nodded, squeezing his shoulder once more before returning to the sofa and picking up the bottle of whiskey.
“So did they tell you then? Where this house is?” Axel asked, nursing his glass of blood.
“Kylian said they don’t know. There are wards or some shit,” he answered with a sigh. “They have suspicions I can look into, but there might be something more pressing.”
Axel arched a brow in question, and Theon was almost more anxious to circle back to the topic of Tessa than he’d been to discuss Cressida, considering how he’d reacted to news of Tessa when he first got here.
“I need to look into this claim of Tessa still being here. That she never left Devram,” he said.
“Rumors are rampant in the Underground, Theon. Doesn’t make them true. You know that.”
“I do, but again, when there is a compelling argument?—”
“You overthink and don’t sleep and become unnecessarily obsessed?Especiallywhen it involves Tessa?”
“Fuck off, Axel.”
He shrugged, gesturing to the liquor bottle. “Maybe instead of thinking tonight, you should drink the rest of that, and just…not think. For once in your godsdamn life.”
If only it worked like that.
“But I know you’re not going to do that,” Axel sighed. “So what’s the plan here, Theon?”
“I need to leave the Underground for a bit. Find out if it’s true. I’ll get you more rations while I’m gone too,” he added.
Axel nodded but remained silent.
Theon hesitated before saying, “I know you’re going to, but know that you don’t have to stay here, Axel. We can find someplace for you and Kat to stay that isn’t…here.”
Axel huffed a derisive sound. “As it stands, if I leave here, I’ll be in hiding. Me, as a Night Child. Kat, as soon as it’s realized whose child she’s carrying. At least here, we don’t have to hide. And I know you don’t know the people of the Underground well, but the vast majority of them don’t deserve to be shunned away from the rest of the world simply because they exist. Yes, thereare the truly wicked who deserve to be locked up, but you know where most of those people are? In the kingdoms. Sitting on advisory boards and on the seats of power themselves.”
Theon tapped his fingers on the sofa arm, staring up at his brother, into emerald eyes that mirrored his own. Silent seconds ticked by, turning into minutes.
Axel was just finishing the last of his blood when Theon said, “So we topple the whole godsdamn thing.”
His brother choked on the blood, coughing for several seconds before he could get out, “I’m sorry, but it sounded like you just said you wanted to upend the entirety of Devram.”
“You just said the people who deserve to be locked up are running everything. For the most part, the people of the Underground are innocent. Many of them were born here. Generations of families who have known nothing else. And out there? It’s the same.”
“Says the male who just put on a power display to get what he wants from the Shifters,” Axel said flatly.
“To get necessary information.”
“For personal gain.”
“Fair point,” Theon muttered. “But if what Cressida said is true, we do need to find her, Axel. Why was Valter hiding it? He does nothing without purpose. There is an entire half of my lineage I know nothing about.”
“If you find Tessa, you can ask her how that feels.”
