Page 69 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
But Tessa paid him no mind, reaching for another arrow as Razik came prowling closer to them.
“It’s fine, Raz,” Eliza said, although there was something new in her tone. A hint of sadness maybe? “She doesn’t know.”
“It is not something you need to share if you don’t want to,” he retorted.
So protective.
She’d had that once.
That was what Tessa thought to herself as she silently placed the arrow on the string.
“It’s a Curse Mark,” Eliza said, shoving around the dragon who’d planted himself between her and Tessa. “The male I believed to be my father for a time put it there because I was born with fire magic rather than earth magic like he had.”
Tessa slowly lowered the bow she had raised. “But you cannot control that.”
“As I’ve already said, my world is not free of injustice and moral failings. It simply looks different there,” she replied. “Hehad plans for me, and those plans were destroyed because of who, or rather what, I turned out to be.”
Well, if anyone could understand that, it was Tessa.
“In retaliation, he cursed me with this Mark before he abandoned me. Live or die, I was no longer his concern,” Eliza went on. “But he made sure I could not have children of my own to ‘disappoint him further,’ as he worded it.”
Tessa’s power was writhing in her soul, and she knew there were streaks of light flickering in her eyes when she asked, “Does he still breathe?”
“No,” she answered.
Tessa’s gaze flicked to Razik. “He avenged you?”
“I avenged myself,” Eliza retorted.
Razik was quiet, his arms crossed over his broad chest, but the glare he was aiming at Tessa told her he wasn’t happy this was being discussed.
Too bad for him Tessa didn’t care what he thought.
“But you still bear the Mark?” Tessa asked.
“It is forever,” Eliza answered, jerking her chin in an order to get back to practicing.
“Perhaps not forever,” Razik cut in.
Eliza rolled her eyes as she reached out to lift Tessa’s drawing elbow a little higher. “Razik thinks he will find a way to remove it.”
“Because you want children?” she asked, glancing at the dragon shifter.
“Because she deserves to make that choice for herself,” he replied. “It has nothing to do with me.”
That was a valid reason, she supposed. Actually, the reason gave her a new kind of respect for the male altogether.
Inhaling deeply, she released the arrow, and to her shock, it hit just to the right of where she was aiming.
“Good,” Eliza said, handing over another arrow. “Again.”
Several minutes later, Tessa released the last arrow in the quiver. “I don’t understand how Auryon could shoot three of these at a time.”
“Agreed,” Eliza said around a yawn. “Our Fire Court Second can manage two at a time, but there is another in our world who can fire three. No idea how.”
“There is a Huntress in your world?” Tessa asked, looping the bow over her chest while Razik went to retrieve the arrows this time.
“She is not a Huntress,” the male answered from across the makeshift archery range. “At least, not fully. We are unsure what she is.”
