Page 172 of Rain of Shadows and Endings

“Tessa?” he said as he approached the balcony doors.

She turned to him, her hair fluttering in the fall breeze. She’d left it down today, the ends curling softly where it hung down her back. Still, she did not speak. Only looked at him, waiting for his demands.

“We have some things we need to discuss.”

“All right,” she answered hesitantly, and the relief that flooded through him at the sound of her voice had him breathing a little easier.

“Luka and Axel are waiting for us downstairs.”

A wary look of resignation filled her eyes. “So I’m to be ganged up on by all three of you this time?”

“What do you mean?”

“I can only assume you are going to lay out expectations for our time here.”

“No,” he countered, and she arched a brow.

“No? You are not about to tell me all the rules for being here? What is expected of me? What I can and cannot do? Where I can and cannot go? How I must always be with you?”

What was he supposed to say to any of that?

A sardonic smile flashed across her face. “Thought so.”

She came into the room, closing the double doors behind her. He silently followed her out of the bedroom and down the stairs to the dining room.

“Morning, baby doll,” Axel greeted with a grin when they entered.

Tessa nodded, pausing as she waited to be told where to sit. Axel’s smile faltered, and he shot Theon a glare as though he had caused this. Pressing a hand to the small of her back, Theon nudged her to the seat across from Axel before he took the chair beside her. Luka strolled in a moment later, his sapphire eyes taking them all in.

“Did you see those emails from Bohden?” Theon asked him.

Luka nodded, piling bacon onto his plate before he was even fully seated across from Theon.

“And?”

“And what?” Luka asked. “What are we going to do from here?”

“We have to do something,” Theon argued.

“No,” Luka countered. “We’re going to tell Bohden what to do and let him handle it.”

“That’s a shit plan.”

Luka shrugged. “Until you can come up with a better one, that’s the plan we’re going with.”

Theon muttered a curse but dropped it, scooping fresh fruit onto Tessa’s plate as she reached for a glass of juice.

“What’s your plan today?” Axel asked.

“Meetings with the other heirs and the Pantheon,” Theon answered. “Dagian Jove also requested a lunch meeting, but—”

He lurched back from the table when Tessa knocked over her juice.

“Sorry,” she stammered, shooting to her feet and reaching for napkins.

“It’s fine, Tessa,” he said, snatching up his coffee mug as the juice spread across the table. “Pen will get it.”

“I can clean up my own mess,” she replied, her napkin already soaking up some of the juice, and Theon nodded, letting her do just that.

---