Chapter 2 #2
Luka had forgotten she was there, but not anymore. He rounded on her next, his lip curling back and baring his teeth. “You knew this entire time. All of you fucking knew and never said a godsdamn word.”
“If we interfere too much, we don’t answer to the Legacy or the gods,” Cienna snapped, her words icy and hard. “The Fates come for us. Interfering too much would have led them straight here.”
“We came here, and Tristyn met us on the other side. In the—” Xan started but Luka interrupted him.
“No,” he snarled. “You’re not telling me these details now. Not without her here. She deserves to hear it all from the three of you, not secondhand from me. I’ll see if I can get her back down here.”
He didn’t wait for a reply as he stormed from the room. Everyone and their godsdamn secrets. Hoarding information for leverage. Blackmail and having the upper hand. It was all this fucking realm knew. Moves and countermoves.
And Tessa had learned that strategy as well as she’d learned everything else.
He knew that was why she’d kept the knowledge of his father from him.
She’d gone from the Arius House to the Achaz Palace.
She was in the perfect position to learn any and all information, and she had sworn to destroy the Arius bloodline.
Why would she have told him anything when he showed up on the Achaz doorstep?
Of course she was suspicious. She’d told him numerous times she didn’t want him there, and even though he’d told her his loyalty was to her, words meant nothing to her.
How often had pretty words been used to manipulate her?
No, Tessa only understood actions. Words fell on deaf ears and emotions betrayed her.
She understood being shoved into cupboards and locked in wine cellars.
She understood someone getting her flip-flops and sitting under the night sky with pizza.
She understood being forced to share a bed and dropping to a knee in obedience.
She understood someone being at her side when she woke from an assessment.
She understood someone giving her the gift of music and playing Chaosphere on a makeshift field.
She understood the two people who swore they never would, walking away from her, one in anger and one in an attempt to save her.
In the end, he couldn’t blame her one bit for sinking into her power. It was the only constant she’d ever had.
He paused outside her door. Or maybe it was their door? He didn’t sleep anywhere else, and he didn’t have another room here. The few things he did have with him were all in that room too. He couldn’t hear her moving around, but he could hear…humming?
Not quite ready to deal with whatever he was going to find on the other side of the door, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the same number he’d been dialing nearly every hour for two weeks. And just like every other time, it went straight to voicemail.
Theon hadn’t answered a single phone call. The godsdamn bond was clearly fractured, and Tessa…
Blackheart thought he was being apathetic, but it was the opposite actually.
He was trying to get under her skin. He was doing anything he could to get a reaction out of her, and that was something he’d learned from Theon.
All those months ago when he’d first brought her to Arius House and she’d withdrawn into herself, Theon hadn’t let her be.
Luka told him to leave her alone, but he’d pushed and pushed.
Finally, he understood why. It wasn’t entirely obsession and control issues.
Sure, it was mostly that, but in the end, he always got her to react.
In the end, he pulled her back from the edge.
He craved her snark and her ire simply because it meant she was feeling something.
He understood now because he’d felt utter relief when Tessa had slammed the bathroom door in his face a few hours ago. For the first time since that chamber, she’d shown emotion. It was fleeting, and when she’d emerged from the bathroom, she’d been back to apathetic, but it had been there.
Theon was the one for this. Not him.
Sighing, he slipped the phone back into his pocket, idly wondering if it even mattered. Would the new world they went to have phone technology? Razik and Eliza wouldn’t even touch the things. A stupid thing to be contemplating right now really, but he was just delaying the inevitable.
He didn’t bother knocking as he turned the knob and pushed the door open.
He’d taken all of one step when he went still.
Tessa was lying on her back on the bed, still in the clothing she’d put on after her shower.
Her head hung over the side of the bed so she was looking at the world upside down, the ends of her golden hair brushing the floor.
One hand rested on her stomach, her finger tapping a beat to her humming, while the other hand was raised, toying with her power in the air.
A swirling mass of energy, lightning flickered among it, and…
He stepped fully into the room, shutting the door behind him.
A damp mist hung in the air, as if it was seconds away from raining inside.
And all the while, she just lay there humming.
Humming that stupid Revelation Decree song.
“Tessa,” he said, his tone sharp. A command that usually made her pause, but there was nothing this time. She didn’t look at him. No blink or start. “Tessa,” he tried again. “There is a discussion happening downstairs that you need to be a part of. Information you deserve to know.”
She still didn’t acknowledge him, that storm in her hand growing, and Luka had never felt so godsdamn helpless. He was the grandchild of the god of war and courage; he didn’t know how to accept defeat. But that was exactly what he felt was happening as he crossed the room and sank to the floor.
He tipped his head back, resting it on the bed beside her and listening to her hum.
As much as he hated it, his entire being relaxed a little.
Just being next to her was like taking a drag of lull-leaf.
Whether it was the bond he’d been dragged into or something else, he didn’t know, but he let himself revel in it just for a moment.
Tonight everything was going to change forever, and he selfishly wanted this last bit of peace.
He didn’t want to think about how he’d failed in his duty as a Guardian.
There was no other word for it when his Ward was welcoming his own destruction with open arms. He didn’t want to think about how, for the briefest of moments, he’d had everything.
Family. Acceptance. Love. He didn’t want to think about how it had all shattered so quickly, and he didn’t want to think about all the conflicting emotions that came with that.
How he’d given in to his fury. A controlled recklessness.
“I don’t know how we recover from this,” he said, his eyes falling closed.
She never ceased her humming, but he knew she was listening. He wasn’t even sure what he was saying or why. Maybe because the two people he used to talk to were being left behind, and he had no one else.
It’s a lonely club being the grandchild of gods, but we don’t have to be alone anymore.
Her words from days that felt like a lifetime ago flitted through his mind, his chest aching at the memories of it all.
“We’re going to a new world, Tessa, and all we’ll have is each other,” he said into the room, his eyes still closed. “I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know how we do that after the betrayals we’ve faced here.”
Because in the end, that was what he felt.
Betrayed by Tessa. A thousand times over.
But he also felt betrayed by Theon. For thinking he could walk away from him after decades of surviving together.
How that betrayal was what ultimately made him feel like a failure.
He was just as furious with Theon as he was with Tessa.
“I know he’s the one you need right now.
I don’t know how to be that. He’s the one who’s always protected us from ourselves, and I know you need him.
You hate it, but you know it too.” He fell silent, the seconds stretching on filled only by her humming.
Then he said in a voice so low he didn’t even know if she could hear him, “I don’t know how we live without him. ”
He’d realized it before they did. Theon might have understood it in the end.
Tessa was still figuring it out, but the three of them were so intertwined, surviving without a piece of them seemed impossible.
And it wasn’t because Theon had pulled him into the warped Source bond.
The Fates could only control so much, and no one could control Chaos.
It was only then he’d realized the humming had ceased, the entire room going quiet and still.
Luka opened his eyes and lifted his head to find her staring at him. The small smile on her face was one he could only describe as terrifying madness.
“Tessa…” he said carefully, unsure of what to say or do as her power consumed her more and more. Knowing that with each passing day, they were losing her, and it only made the path ahead that much more uncertain.
She rolled onto her stomach, her hair falling over her shoulder. So close to him now, her breaths fanned across his cheek. He turned too, keeping his eyes trained on her.
Never turn your back on a predator.
Her head tilted as she watched him, and he waited for her to speak, to blink, to do anything.
He jolted, nearly shifting to his dragon form when her hand shot out, reaching for him, yet her touch was soft as her fingers danced across his lips. And when she opened her mouth, finally speaking to him, her tone had that eerie ring that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
“You ask the wrong questions, Luka Mors.”
In the next blink, she was standing on the bed before leaping lightly to the floor. Her humming once again filled the room as she moved to the windows, her fingers sliding along the glass as she paced the length of the room.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
The drizzle in the room had stopped, but so had the raging winter weather outside. It was completely still outside. Not a breeze or stray snowflake.
Unease filled his gut as he stared at her. Bare feet. Hair wild as the fingers of her other hand wound into the strands. Eerie humming. Power echoing and mirroring her every move.
A calm before a storm.
A darkness before a dawn.
That was what he was staring at.