Page 79 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“You say she’s not yours, yet you protect her like she is.”
“Because I am to be her Guardian.”
“But you’re not yet, and it’s more than that. I know the pull of a bond. How hard it is to ignore it. How impossible, even when it’s all you want to do.”
“You denied Eliza?” Luka asked, the fiery female watching Tessa with her hands on her hips.
“She denied me,” he corrected. “I could never deny her a godsdamn thing.”
With those words, Razik stood, leaving Luka abruptly alone again. Something he was all too familiar with, even if Theon and Axel had been constantly around. There was still a loneliness there. Something associated with being the only one of his kind. A loneliness that had been nonexistent since Tessa had come around.
He sighed as he saw Razik below, making his way the few hundred feet down the rocky terrain rather than simply Traveling. Something softened on Eliza’s normally harsh features at his approach, and he leaned in, murmuring something in her ear that had her eyes filling with a desire Luka could see from where he still sat.
The female said something to Tessa, who waved her off, before taking another arrow from the quiver and nocking it. Apparently, she was content to keep practicing, but he knew that too. Knew she snuck into his training rooms inside the cave at night when everyone else was sleeping. Knew she went throughall the routines she’d complained about when he’d been training her. Knew she was getting stronger, and not just with her magic. He could see it in the definition of muscles forming. In the set of her posture. In the quiet confidence that was growing more every day. He saw her. All of her. He both loved and hated it.
He waited until Razik and Eliza disappeared inside before he followed Razik’s path, debating how to bring this up with Tessa. They needed to continue a conversation from the other night, and she seemed… Well, she didn’t seem as consumed right now.
Luka knew she heard him approaching, but he moved with force anyway, making sure the crunch of rocks beneath his boots announced him. Tessa, of course, was barefoot. Eliza had argued with her about it, but had wisely dropped the argument after only a minute.
She stooped down to grab another arrow, not bothering to look at him when she said, “Xan can come out here with me if you feel the need to have me monitored.”
“Tessa,” he sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “We need to talk more about this Guardian bond.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Luka,” she said simply, nocking the arrow, but he reached for her, halting her movements.
She stilled, gaze fixed on the spot where he held her elbow, and gods, he finally understood Theon’s obsession with understanding her emotions. Luka had always been able to read her, but right now? He had no idea what she was feeling or thinking. She was stoic and cold, and he wished this bond wasn’t so godsdamn broken. Then again, he wished a lot of things were different right now.
“Tessa,” he said, his tone unintentionally softer, but it had her lifting her eyes to his.
Her head tilted to the side, as if she was trying to figure him out as much as he was trying to figure her out. Maybe thiswas the way it was always supposed to be. He’d always berated Theon for not being able to understand her, but maybe Theon had been doing it right all along. Working to build something on a foundation that wouldn’t crumble to nothing with one choice.
Luka cleared his throat, dropping her arm and crossing his once more. But his dragon was preening at having her attention on him. She never looked at him anymore, and his magic was reaching, wanting. Apparently hers was too, but she didn’t bother to leash it like he was. It flowed around her like a black and gold flecked mist. Light and dark. Power. And his dragon wanted that. His black flames wanted that. Wanted to tangle with her, draw her in.
His arms had dropped to his sides, and he hadn’t realized he’d taken a step towards her until she took one back.
“We need to be able to be around each other,” he said. She opened her mouth to argue, but he stopped her before she got the words out. “At least for now. While we figure out our next moves going forward.”
They could worry about the necessary Guardian bond later. He just needed her to talk to him right now, and he knew pushing her on that topic was going to make her shut down immediately.
She studied him for a long moment, and he fought the urge to fidget. Gods, what the fuck was wrong with him? But her violet stare was penetrating and eerie as her magic swirled faintly in her eyes.
“I know your magic is a lot, and I know neither of us trusts the other right now. But I think we can agree we have a common goal,” he tried.
“And what is that goal?” she asked, taking a step to the right. “To leave this realm?”
He moved with her as he answered, “If that was your goal, you wouldn’t have destroyed our main way out.”
She hummed, taking another step and forcing him to turn to keep her in his line of sight. “Then what is our mutual goal, Luka Mors?”
“To survive until we can figure out what the fuck we’re going to do, and to do that, we need to work together.”
She hummed again, still moving. “Everyone has plans. You. Me. Your brother. Rordan. Valter. Tristyn. I bet even your father has a plan. He knows things. I know things. Th—” She stumbled when she almost said his name, but then resumed her movements. “Everyone knows things.”
“We’re past the point of keeping secrets, Tessa. It could mean the difference between death and survival.”
“Salvation or destruction?”
“Yes.”
