Page 59 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“Gods, you’re snarkier since becoming a vampyre,” Theon muttered.
Axel flipped him off, setting the drained blood glass next to the empty whiskey tumbler. “I’ll follow you on this, Theon,” he said. “But I have conditions.”
It was Theon’s turn to arch a brow. Axel had never been so…dominant. He could command a room, sure, but always in answer to an order he’d been given. This was different. This wasa male who had found something worth fighting for. This was a male who found himself with something to lose. This was a male who was going to command a room not because of his last name or the power that had once run in his veins, but because he was going to be worthy of the loyalty of the people who followed him.
“Name them,” Theon said.
“You keep us in the fucking loop. None of this waiting to fill us in until you have every minute detail figured out. You tell us information as you learn it,” Axel said, crossing his arms and staring down at him.
“I can agree to that.”
“You can’t upend an entire system on your own. You have to include us, and you can’t be an arrogant asshole about it.”
“Anything else?” Theon gritted out.
“When hard decisions need to be made, we make them together and for the betterment of all the people we’re fighting for, not just one. Not just me or Luka or Tessa. We don’t sacrifice entire populations for one person, Theon,” Axel said pointedly.
“You wouldn’t do the same for Kat and your unborn child?”
A muscle feathered in Axel’s jaw. “You’re right. I would,” he finally conceded. “But that doesn’t make it right. We can’t deem entire people as less valuable simply because we don’t know them as intimately. We protect those we believe to be our responsibility, and if we do this, Theon? They areallour responsibility.”
Silence fell again, and after a few minutes ticked by, Axel rapped his knuckles once on the end table before heading to the stairs, presumably to join his wife in bed.
“Think on it, Theon. Tell me before you leave in the morning,” Axel said.
“Who said I’m leaving in the morning?”
“It’s Tessa,” he answered. “I’m surprised you’re not already gone.”
He waited until his brother was halfway up the stairs before he called out, “Axel?”
He paused, looking back. “Yeah?”
“Purpose looks good on you.”
The smallest of smiles tipped on the corner of his mouth. “Get some sleep, Theon. Apparently, we’re going to start a godsdamn revolution.”
12
EVIANA
Sky-blue eyes slammed into her the moment she entered the tiny room above the tavern they’d been staying in the last several nights. Corbin was downstairs waiting for the food they’d ordered, while Eviana had come back upstairs to pack up their few things. As soon as they were done eating, they were going to be on their way.
They’d made it over the border and a few miles into the Serafina Kingdom before Corbin’s power had started to give out. It was exactly what they’d expected given he was having to expend more to keep them dry and fight the current. They’d slowly come to the surface, doing their best to watch the shoreline and make sure they weren’t spotted. Then they’d all donned sweatshirts with deep hoods to hide their faces, walking until they came to a decent-sized city. Passing two small towns along the way, they kept moving. Gossip spread like wildfire in small towns. No, they’d needed a small city large enough that they wouldn’t be noticed. Where they could easily slip to the seedier parts of the city and bribe someone for silence, room, and board so the two could recover their power reserves. For a moment, she’d thought she was going to have to figure out away to drag them up the two flights of stairs because they were so exhausted. If she could feel anything anymore, she probably would have felt guilty for making them expend their power then walk for hours. They both collapsed onto the only bed before she’d even shut the door. Lange had slept for two days straight. Corbin had slept for four.
And she’d sat in this tiny room, in a chair next to the window, planning their next moves.
They’d stayed a few extra days to allow them to recover as much as possible. There was still a ways to go to get to the Dreamlock Woods, not that the males knew that yet, and once they got there, they’d need every bit of that power they’d just spent the last days restoring.
“Where’s Corbin?” Lange asked tightly.
“Waiting for our food,” she answered, already striding for her pack.
“You left him down there alone?”
“Can he not handle retrieving food and bringing it up the stairs?”
“That’s not what I mean,”he gritted out, standing from the bed.
