Page 141 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“This is exactly why,” she answered, her tone going sharper than usual. “How many days have you spent worrying? Trying to figure out an alternative? How many nights have you lost sleep trying to come up with a way to change a possible future? Ensure it doesn’t come to pass? There is every possibility these exact actions send you down that path.”
“So your proposal is to do nothing?” Axel charged. “You expect us to sit back and just let whatever happens happen?”
“We do not tempt the Fates, Axel.”
“No,youdon’t tempt the Fates, Cienna. You don’t get to make that choice for the rest of us,” he shot back.
“Live your lives, Axel. Trying to trick Fate is a waste of your days.”
“I will waste them all if it ensures my son survives.”
The look that crossed her face was almost pained as she said, “I know. That’s what I fear.”
The silence that settled over the room was palpable. Kat had tipped her head back against the back of the chair, her eyes closed, and Axel knew she was trying to keep in tears.
“If I dream of him, I will tell you,” Tessa said quietly. “I have altered more futures than one. I can try.”
“Thank you,” Kat whispered, her eyes remaining closed.
Tessa looked at Axel, and he nodded in appreciation. “While we’re discussing dire situations, we need to discuss Bree.”
They listened while he and Kat recounted what had transpired after they’d learned of the babe—when Axel went to call Theon and returned to a delivery of Bohden’s severed head.
“I know we all assume it is Bree, but do we have any proof of that?” Theon asked after they’d caught everyone else up on what had been happening in the Underground.
“I’m considering the invitation that came the next day to be proof enough,” Axel answered.
“Invitation for what?” Theon asked. He’d taken a seat on the edge of the bed, but Tessa still refused, standing a few feet away from him and listening.
“For dinner. At the House of Four,” Axel replied. “All the Underground Leaders were invited.”
“When is it?” Theon asked. “I can go with you.”
“That’s the thing,” Axel said, scratching the back of his head. “It was addressed to me and Kat.”
“Who gives a fuck?” his brother replied. “This has gone on long enough. Bree is not taking the fucking Underground.”
“If you go, it will undo all the work we’ve put in here these last months,” Kat cut in. “We’ve built trust and relations largely on the fact that Axel chose a Fae as his wife.”
“She’s right,” Axel said. “In fact, I’m certain she’s the only reason the Apparel District tentatively aligned with us in the first place.”
“So the two of you are going then?” Theon asked, reaching out and tugging Tessa to a stop as she started to pace.
“No,” Axel said at the same time Kat said, “Yes.”
He sighed. They’d been arguing about this since the day the invitation had arrived. Well, maybe not since that day. Kat had waited until the next morning to ask him what she should wear to this dinner. He had informed her she absolutely was not going, and then it had been a continual argument that had gone nowhere since.
She twisted to look up at him. “You just said I was right, Axel.”
“I said you were right about Theon not going. Not thatyoushould go. I can go myself,” he replied.
“But all the reasons you just listed are the same reasons I need to go with you,” she replied, fire and shadows appearing in her amber eyes.
“It’s the timing of it all, Kat,” he said, once again trying to appeal to logic. “That dinner is in the middle of the fifth month. We need to get to the sixth month. We need to be cautious until then.”
“Me going to a dinner will not affect the babe,” she said, clearly exasperated.
“If she wasn’t with child, would you be opposed to her attendance?” Eliza asked, eyes narrowed.
