Page 135 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
Once.
Twice.
Nothing once more.
“No!” she cried, resting her cheek against his chest. She could feel the sticky blood on her skin, but she couldn’t feel him. She couldn’t…
“I know you don’t want me anymore, but I still want you, Luka. Please don’t… I still need you. It only works if it’s the three of us. I can’t…”
Tears were flowing down her face, mixing with the blood on his chest, and she couldn’t breathe. Her chest wouldn’t expand, and still she pressed her hand atop that wound over his heart, right next to where she lay. As long as she didn’t move her hand, there was still hope, and she had to believe hope wasn’t as useless as she’d once thought.
“What is that?” someone—Axel—asked, his voice low and somber.
“That is going to be a problem,” Cienna said.
“Tessa, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I don’t think…” Theon started, but he trailed off when Luka’s chest rose and fell. Then she felt his heart beat, pulsing beneath her magic as she held him together with all that she was.
One. Two. Three.
Just like when she was a child passing the time in a dark cupboard, she counted those heartbeats, and she kept counting each one.
One hundred sixty-three, one hundred sixty-four, one hundred sixty-five.
Not until she hit three hundred did she dare to open her eyes. Lift her head. See his chest rising and falling, slowly and too far apart, but it was moving.
“Cienna,” Theon said. “What is happening?”
“She is bartering with the gods and the Fates,” Cienna muttered. “Move her so I can work, Theon. Tris, I need you. Gia too.”
“Come, Tessa,” Theon said, gently taking her shoulders and pulling, but she still refused, clinging to Luka. What if everything changed when that connection was broken?
“Tessa, look at me. Now.” The last word held a bite, and she slid her eyes to his while still holding her hand in place. “Good girl,” he said, cupping her cheek, his thumb sweeping across her skin. “Now really look. If he was still dying, I would not be standing or forming words. I felt all of that, just like you did. I felt… I don’t feel that anymore. It’s fading. You feel that, right?”
She nodded, unable to speak as tears continued to trail down her face. That made sense. Was logical. But still…
“We need to let Cienna work, beautiful,” Theon continued, cautiously reaching for her wrist. His fingers closed around it, directly over the Mark that bound them together. Slowly he pulled her hand away, her fingertips dragging across flesh that was covered with blood. Then they both stilled.
Because the wound was gone. The space she’d refused to move from was healed, but left behind was a Mark. One she’d never seen.
“What is it?” Tessa asked, her voice hoarse from screaming and crying.
“I don’t know,” he answered, pulling her into his chest before standing and gently moving her from Luka’s side. “We’ll figure it out though, Tessa.”
“There will be a cost for this,” Eliza said, arms crossed as she watched the Witches work.
“We will pay whatever it is,” Theon said tightly.
“That’s just it,” she replied somberly. “You don’t get to decide who pays it. Fate will do what it must to keep the balance.”
“Fuck the balance,” Tessa said. “If they want something from me, they can come and claim it themselves.”
“You can’t defy Fate,” Eliza argued.
“Watch me,” was all she said, eyes fixed on Luka until movement caught the corner of her eye.
Then her mouth went dry as she found Kat tucked into Axel’s side, the male’s hard emerald eyes narrowed on her. He tried to move in front of Kat, but there was no way to hide it.
“Don’t look at her like that when you told me you planned to kill my entire bloodline,” Axel said coldly. “Don’t look at her at all, Tessa.”
