Page 74 of Rain of Shadows and Endings

And she was sore.

And hungry.

But mostly sore.

Theon had quickly showered and changed when they’d gotten back to the rooms. He had a meeting with his father and some others, and Axel had stayed behind to babysit her. She assumed Luka was going to be at the meeting with Theon. Tessa hadn’t seen the male since the day they’d all gone to Castle Pines, but he was supposed to be back today.

“Don’t whine,” Axel said, pressing her leg up in the air. “I promise once you get through the first few weeks, you’ll love it.”

“First few weeks?” Tessa demanded, grimacing as he deepened the stretch.

“Come on. You don’t hate it that much, do you?”

She didn’t. Granted, it had only been two days, but it got her outside. If it’s what she had to do to be outside, then she’d gladly struggle to breathe.

“No,” she sighed. “I don’t.”

“Good,” Axel said, stepping back and motioning for her to lower her leg. “Because I got you something.”

Tessa sat up, sitting cross-legged on the floor. She grabbed her water bottle and took a long drink while he jogged over to his bag near the door. When he returned, he dropped to the floor beside her, passing her a small box. Setting her water bottle aside, she opened it to find two ear buds.

“I thought you might want to listen to music while you’re running,” Axel explained.

“That would be nice,” Tessa admitted slowly, pulling one from the box and fitting it into her ear. “But I don’t have anything to play music on.”

She didn’t want to tell him she didn’t even know what kind of music she liked. She only knew a few songs. Ballads of Devram she’d been forced to listen to as part of her studies. Most of them didn’t even have words.

“Sure you do,” Axel said. “Your phone can play it. Get it for me, and I’ll show you how.”

“You get it,” she whined. “I can’t get off the floor right now.”

“Get up, baby doll,” Axel said, pushing on her back. “You need to move around so you don’t get too stiff.”

Grumbling, Tessa got to her feet and retrieved the phone from Theon’s desk. Just as she was handing it over to Axel, a knock came at the door. They paused, waiting for whoever it was to announce themselves.

“Tessalyn Ausra?” came a voice that Tessa did not recognize, but Axel tensed. He brought a finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet.

The knock came again.

“We were sent to retrieve you. The Arius Lord and Arius Heir have requested your presence in our meeting.”

Tessa glanced at Axel, who shook his head. He leaned over, speaking directly into her ear, and even then, he spoke so quietly, she could barely hear him. “Go into the bedroom. Shut the door.”

He pressed the phone back into her hand. She nodded, hurrying to do as he said. As she shut the bedroom door, the knock came again.

“Open up, Tessalyn. Your master will be very upset to hear you are disobeying a Legacy.”

Tessa heard the door open, and she pressed her ear to the closed bedroom door.

“Metias. Pavil,” she heard Axel say. “What are you doing in this wing of the house?”

Tessa had never heard Axel speak that way. His tone was low and dangerous and dark. The same tone Theon had spoken to her in when he’d yanked her out of a tree.

“Axel,” came the greasy voice again. “My apologies. I thought these were Theon’s rooms. We were sent to retrieve his Source for him.”

“These are Theon’s rooms,” Axel answered. “His Source is in the shower. I can bring her to Theon when she is finished.”

“Actually, we were coming to find you next. Your father has requested your presence as well,” cut in another voice. “He was very insistent. Might I suggest you head down, and we can wait for Theon’s Source to escort her when she is out of the shower?”

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