Page 80 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
She hummed, still holding her bow with the arrow nocked at her side. “Would you have liked to leave here?” she asked suddenly. “Would you have preferred to leave with your father and brother?” The question caught him off guard, and when he didn’t immediately answer, she added, “Should I not save him for you? I thought… What would you choose? If this world wasn’t damned and tyrants didn’t rule?”
“I would wish for my family,” he finally said. “The family I chose and formed over the years, not by blood. If you are asking me to choose one or the other, I would choose those brought into my life by the Fates.”
“The Fates want to kill me,” she said simply. “You side with them.”
“Don’t put words in my mouth.”
She was still moving, and he was still turning, and it was only then that he realized she was circling him. Like a godsdamn predator, footprints of her power left in her wake with each step. He felt his eyes shift at the realization, his power seeking and his dragon loving the idea of wrestling for dominance.
“All I am asking,” he gritted out, “is if we can call a tentative truce.”
“I was unaware we were fighting,” she replied, finally ceasing her stalking, and her head canted to the side again.
“We both need each other right now, whether we like it or not.”
Her brow furrowed. “I know you do not want me here, Luka. I have simply been giving you your space.”
The dragon in his soul snarled at the words, and he swallowed down an audible growl. He thought she’d been avoiding him, but she had been… She thought this was what he’d wanted. And it was, wasn’t it?
“We don’t have to figure out everything at once. We just need to take this day by day,” he offered, needing her to give just a little on this.
“One foot in front of the other? Just one step?” she asked, taking the smallest of steps towards him instead of continuing to circle him.
“Yes,” he answered, relieved she finally understood what he was saying.
She worried her bottom lip, appearing to debate something, before she nodded once. Whether to him or to herself, he wasn’t sure, but he’d take the small victory.
“Let’s work with your bow,” he said, jerking his chin to the weapon she still held at her side.
“We don’t have to do this,” she said, taking three steps back.
“I know Eliza has been training you,” he said. “I’ve been watching, and she’s smart to make you train without your magic. But you need to trainwithyour power too, Tessa.”
“Really?” she asked, a thread of excitement sounding as the bands of light around her wrists flared at the words.
He almost smiled, but instead, he reached for the arrow she had nocked, pausing for a moment to see if she would pull awayfrom him. When she didn’t, he took the regular arrow, moving to replace it in the quiver before turning back to her.
She was nearly bouncing on her toes as she let small tendrils of her magic free to float around her. If he was being honest, she’d learned a lot of control over these past months, even if it still overwhelmed her most days.
“Summon an arrow, and let’s see what you can do,” he said, a smile filling her face as she lifted a hand. There was a swirl of power before an arrow appeared, and he stepped closer, leaning in to study it. “Do you know what the markings are?”
Tessa shook her head, lifting her other hand and producing a dagger. “Do you?” she asked, holding the blade out to him.
He took it from her, the odd etchings bigger on the dagger, making them easier to see. But he didn’t know what they were. It was on the tip of his tongue to say they would ask Theon, but he stopped himself right before the words left his lips. Instead, he ground out, “We could ask Razik if he knows. Or Xan. Even Cienna or Tristyn.”
She nodded, worrying her bottom lip again and turning away from him to nock the arrow. They may not be in a great place right now, but he didn’t need the bond to know what she was thinking in this moment. Because while there were plenty of people theycouldask about the markings, they both only wanted to ask the one who wasn’t here. And neither one of them was willing to say that aloud.
He shifted as he descended, his feet hitting the rocky ground a few seconds later. He’d needed the flight in the cool night air.Time to clear his head. He knew forcing himself to spend more time with her was going to have him questioning his resolve. His magic and the dragon in his soul were already pushing him back to her, but how could he possibly trust her, give her his loyalty, after she’d kept something so important from him? How did a person forgive that? Even if he did somewhat understand her reasoning.
He jogged down the stairs that led deeper into the cave. There was a small hall at the bottom, and he counted the empty frames on the walls to make sure they were still there. There were far too many people here who had overstayed their welcome.
There were also far too many dragons here.
He’d spent the rest of the afternoon working with Tessa on her archery, and then they’d all had a meal together. Which wasn’t out of the ordinary. Everyone usually ate dinner together so that only one meal had to be prepared. But everyone else seemed to have sensed the shift in their relationship. There were curious looks and roundabout questions, but mostly, everyone seemed more at ease because Tessa’s mannerisms were not as erratic.
Something that was confirmed when he stepped into the main living space to find his father on a sofa. He immediately stood when Luka entered, and Luka wasn’t sure how to interpret his tone when he said, “She’s been pacing around here for the last three hours.”
The entire time he’d been gone.
