Page 133 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
She wasn’t nothing.
She was Chaos.
Holding Dex’s stare, he started at whatever he saw on her face when she said in that eerie, maniacal tone, “I’m going to kill you.” She slowly rose to her feet. “You’re going to run because you’re a coward, but I will hunt you down. It won’t be too much of a hassle. I’ll enjoy it. Knowing you’re constantly wondering if today will be the day I find you and make such an awful mess. I’m going to kill you, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”
Then she tugged on that bond, yanking and pulling on everything that connected her to Theon until she found his magic. It was trembling and writhing, and it was depleted from the fighting. She felt terrible about taking it from him, but she just needed enough to take.
So she wrapped her light around it and called it to her, and she felt him jerk at the pull.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered before she yanked harder, forcing it to follow. The thing in her soul drank it up, starved and feral. His darkness merged with her gifts, becoming what she was as he becameherSource of power.
It took Dex far longer than it should have for him to realize what was happening, but he was on his feet and stumbling back from her. “No,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Not possible. It’s not… YourhisSource.”
Tessa lifted a hand, light and dark appearing. Golden embers and silver ashes. All of it circling and spinning together. Everything and nothing. Chaos in the palm of her hand.
“I will not fail in my tasks,” Dex gritted out.
“Today you will,” she replied, and her power struck, Dex Traveling out a second before it landed.
With Dex gone, the other seraphs scrambled, as if unsure what to do. Lightning arced from her palm, chaos following, and a seraph screamed when it found its mark.
And her magic took.
She did the same thing, again and again, until she could stop drawing from Theon because her power was feasting.
And Theon?—
She spun, the Hunters closing in with no one here to rein them in.
Tessa summoned her bow, letting her power have its way with the seraphs while she nocked arrows and took down Hunters. Hunter and seraph. Seraph and Hunter. It didn’t matter.
Chaos does not choose.
It devoured, and when it had taken enough, she didn’t stop it. She let it have her, lifting her off the ground until she was hovering feet above them. Only then did she yank on her power, wrestling with it. Trying to take back some control.
“Not them,” she hissed. “We don’t hurt them.”
It pulled and snapped, trying to buckle under her one command.
“Everyone else. Not them,” she repeated.
Then she let it go once more, watching it pour out of her and spread like a net. It wrapped around the seraphs fleeing in the sky and those running for cover in the surrounding trees. It wound among the Hunters, down their throats and squeezing whatever life-force from their beings. It took life from the treesand the water and the wind, but it did not touch Theon or Luka. It did not linger near Nylah or Roan.
But she felt it all. Could feel the power from her toes to the tips of her fingers. Could feel it swirling in her eyes and flowing in her veins. Thisthingshe’d always known was there but could never control.
Because Chaos wasn’t meant to be controlled.
Chaos was meant to reign.
And when they were all gone, when only those she loved remained, she drifted back down, already running as her bare feet hit the ground soaked with water and blood. Because her reserves were full after taking so much life, and Luka still wasn’t moving.
She dropped to her knees beside him, all the pain and grief mixing with her fury and chaos. He wasn’t gone yet because she could still feel the bond in her soul splintering, on the precipice of snapping altogether.
“Tessa, there’s nothing?—”
But she twisted with a snarl when someone touched her shoulder, finding Brecken standing over her, and he yanked his hand back.
Holding his hands up in supplication, he said, “Okay, Tessa. Okay. I won’t touch you.”
