Page 89 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“Bullshit,” Theon snapped. “I’m not fucking leaving her here.”
The Achaz Lord shrugged. “As I said, you are free to do as you wish. Leave or stay, it makes no difference to me. I’m sure you can work on…fulfilling your obligations as Lord with your new wife here or there.”
Theon’s features darkened. Or rather, his power did, darkness floating around him. “You have interfered with my personal matters quite enough, Jove. Try to do so again, and your heir may find himself in your seat sooner than planned.”
“Are you threatening me, St. Orcas?”
“Was I not clear enough?”
“You can’t even draw from a Source,” Rordan sneered. “I suggest you get an heir in your new wife’s belly before facing death.”
“Iamdeath,” Theon retorted, his darkness swirling until his wings formed at his back.
“Be that as it may,” Rordan said, light flickering around him, “you will still fall if you attempt to make good on that threat.”
“No one is going to decide where I stay,” Tessa cut in, standing so abruptly she bumped the table. Liquid sloshed over the rims of glasses, and her chair scraped lightly, nearly toppling over. “I am not a possession to be passed around. I am no one’s to be used.” Her eyes flashed to Felicity, and the female had the good sense to flinch back, inching closer to Theon. Tessa planted her hands on the table, leaning closer as she added, “Orleashed. And I sure as fuck don’t need my power to remind you ofyourplace, Ms. Davers.”
She turned, stalking out of the room without looking back at any of the males who thought they could control her. Her bare feet padded down the stairs and out to the places she knew best. She didn’t stop until she reached the park benches on the edge of the property, sinking down onto one and breathing in the crisp air. Her eyes fell closed, and she tipped her head back, letting the sun try to warm her face.
The winter months were waning. The snow was gone, and there were signs that spring was trying to flourish. Trying to find its way up from the frozen ground. Trying to find the beauty it knew it was capable of if winter would just lift its oppressive hand from its neck. Trying to grow and become something new.
“You have this knack for disappearing as of late,” drawled a male voice. “It makes everyone so uneasy.”
Tessa slowly opened her eyes, lifting her head to find Brecken standing before her. He seemed paler, but she supposed everyone did in late winter, not spending as much time outside. His brownish-blond hair stirred in the wind as his dark eyes took her in, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket.
“What are you doing here?” she sneered.
“No one is letting you go off by yourself right now,” he replied with a shrug. “You can’t tell me they weren’t watching you wherever you’ve been hiding these last weeks.”
“So Dex sent you?”
“It was me or Oralia, and I need to keep up pretense. He’s growing suspicious.”
Tessa scoffed, closing her eyes and tipping her head back once more. While she didn’t exactly trust Brecken, the male had helped her get all those Fae to safety at the Sirana Villas and when she’d destroyed the Pantheon.
She heard his footsteps before the bench jostled when he sat beside her. Her lips pressed together, keeping in the words she was longing to say.
But Brecken seemed to know exactly what she was thinking because he said, “Ask it, Tessa.”
“There’s nothing to ask really,” she said, slipping her hands beneath her thighs to warm them while she toed at the ground. “I could ask why you never told me. I could ask how you could have known what was happening to me and didn’t do anything about it. I could ask so many things, but it all comes down to survival. I can’t fault you for that, but I also can’t trust you because of it.”
“That’s understandable.”
“Even the things you’ve helped me with, if you told anyone, you’d be implicating yourself. So it still comes back to your own basic survival. It’s the way of Devram.”
“It’s the way of most realms,” he said, stretching his legs out in front of him while clasping his hands behind his head.
“How old are you? And Dex? Oralia?” she asked, peering at him sidelong.
“Oralia is the youngest of us. Still under a century. Dex is the oldest.”
She nodded, letting those truths settle. “And what do you have to gain from this? Or is it simply blind loyalty to Achaz?”
“We were created for a purpose,” he said, staring out across the desolate courtyard. “From the time we could crawl we were taught that purpose: to serve Achaz. It isn’t much different here for the Fae. We are born, complete our studies. Then we find our powers, studying beings the same way heirs watch the Sources here.”
“And you killed an Arius Legacy?”
Brecken nodded, an arm falling along the back of the bench while the other fell to his side. “And I was rewarded greatly for it. It’s what got me the spot on this mission.”
