Chapter 3 #3
A silver-haired female in a chamber surrounded by books. It took a minute to recognize Scarlett, worry etched on her features as she frantically flipped pages. Three males stood in the doorway, watching her. One was Sorin. All three shared a look of concern as her shadows coiled around her.
Another female with silver hair, a white snake around her shoulders as she slipped into the shadows of night.
The land in the sky.
A child with blonde curls and blue eyes, laughing as she ran before she shifted mid-step into a small feline.
A female with hair as golden as her own sitting on a balcony railing, legs swinging in the air and smiling as if she could see Tessa.
A male with long black hair tied at the nape of his neck. Wolves walked at his sides, a black eagle screeching in the sky above him. Pine green eyes honed in on Tessa, as if he, too, could see her.
As if Tessa was straddling two worlds. All worlds.
The thing in her soul whined, begging to be set free. The female tipped her head back, laughing to the dark clouds above her, while the male clenched his jaw, the wolves at his sides tipping their heads back and howling to a clear sky.
A land once pristine and now rubble, a male with black hair and piercing emerald eyes. Her feet finally found the ground again, rocks crunching beneath her boots. He palmed her cheek, his thumb stroking gently. “Go home, Tessa. He’s calling for you,” he said.
And before she could say anything in response, before she could tell him she didn’t have a home, he bent, pressing his lips to her brow. Everything in her soul settled, even as she fell into Chaos yet again.
“Tessa? Open your eyes, Tessa!”
Her name was a growled command, her shoulders shaking as her eyes fluttered open. Luka stared down at her, relief filling his face. He was kneeling on the ground, her body cradled in his arms, and she rolled from his hold, bile rising up her throat.
He reached over, gathering her hair back in case she vomited, but it never came. Her arms trembled as she stayed on her hands and knees, trying to reorient herself.
“Did it work?” Luka demanded.
“It worked,” Cienna replied.
“How can we be sure?”
“It worked,” Tessa said, lifting her head as the nausea subsided.
“What the fuck happened?” Luka asked, his attention on her now.
But Tessa just pursed her lips, sitting back on her heels. “I saw things.”
“Visions,” Luka clarified.
“Kind of. It was like I was falling through them in a way. They went so fast. Different worlds. Different times. Two worlds at once. I…”
She trailed off, shaking her head and trying to clear it.
Luka released her hair, withdrawing from her, and the calm that had settled over her immediately left.
Her power rushed to him, latching on, and she heard him suck in a sharp hiss.
His own magic scrambled to protect him, and then it was her sucking in a breath as their power intertwined.
“Enough,” Luka gritted out.
“Just give me a minute,” she rasped again, trying to push to her feet but immediately dropping back to her knees.
“What do you mean, you fell through visions?”
Tessa looked up to find Eliza standing over her, grey eyes narrowed.
Tessa shrugged. “That’s what it felt like.”
The Fae looked up at Razik, who was at her side. “Doesn’t that sound like…?”
Razik rubbed at his jaw. “It could be similar,” he agreed.
“Someone fill us in. Again,” Luka snarled, getting to his feet and helping Tessa up as he did. She swayed, and his lips pressed into a thin line as he held her steady.
“Scarlett wasn’t born what she is,” Razik said. “She found the power of the world walkers.”
“She found it,” Luka repeated dubiously.
“It had been contained and hidden,” Eliza cut in. “When the war between the gods and world walkers ended, that was the cost. They didn’t want that power lost, so it was contained. The World Walkers were still beings of Chaos.”
“And Scarlett obtained that power, essentially becoming one herself. And Tessa is…something similar,” Razik finished.
“So you are saying she, what? Walked the worlds?” Luka asked.
“Not like Scarlett can, but something similar, perhaps,” Razik agreed.
Luka took her shoulders, spinning Tessa to face him. A finger under her chin had her head tipping back, forcing her to meet his gaze. “What did you see?”
She should tell him. They should be past keeping secrets, but she couldn’t make any sense of anything she saw. They weren’t alone here, and she was just getting used to working her shit out with another person or two. Not a whole godsdamn room.
His nostrils flared with an exhale, faint traces of smoke appearing when she remained silent.
He leaned in, his voice low as he said, “This conversation isn’t over, Tessa, and Sargon help me, you’re going to tell me.
You’re going to have to figure this out because I don’t have near the patience Theon does. ”
He released her, stalking to the other side of the room to grab his bags. She stared after him, her hands curling into fists. She’d just…needed a moment. She knew he was pissed at her—had every right to be—but fuck.
“Easy, Tessa,” Xan said, trying to calm her, but his voice was too much like his son’s. Tears burned the back of her eyes. She wished she could say they were tears of hurt, but it was fury.
It was always fury lately.
The only time it wasn’t eating at her, her power was clawing at her insides. She just needed a minute to breathe. A minute to think. A minute to—
“Summon her. Let’s get on with this,” Luka snarled, snapping Tessa out of her spiral.
Everyone else had gathered their belongings. Eliza and Razik were waiting near the mirror.
“Wait!” Tessa cried, lifting a hand to stop them, but power ricocheted around the room. Energy and light bounced around, curses sounding.
“Control it, Tessa,” Luka barked, and she slid her gaze to his, her lip curling back in a sneer.
He was pissed, but so was she.
“I am,” she said, and this time everyone stilled because her voice was too soft. Too calm. “I’m controlling all of it.”
She made her way to the mirror, Razik pulling Eliza into his side as she approached.
“We can call her,” Eliza started. “She gave us a way—”
“I’ll do it,” Tessa interrupted, pulling a gold dagger from a swirl of magic. Ignoring protests, she sliced her palm, curling her fingers to keep the blood from dripping to the ground as she looked over the symbols and runes surrounding the mirror.
“She won’t have a symbol,” Razik said. “That’s why we were given a way to contact her.”
Tessa looked over her shoulder, her smile wild and wicked as she said, “I know.”
Then she pressed her palm to the Mark she’d been seeking.
An eight-pointed star.
Find the one who chose Death.
“That’s not the right—” Tristyn started, reaching for her, but she lifted her other hand, magic shoving him back.
Light swirled, keeping the others at bay as the mirror flashed with worlds and scenes, just like the visions she’d fallen through.
She was so godsdamn tired of everyone thinking they knew what was best for her.
Of telling her to do as she was told. Go with Luka.
Leave this world. Tell me what you saw. Control it.
Stop fidgeting. Just give in. Try harder. Be more. Be less.
The mirror swirled faster, moving too quickly for her to make out anything, until it slowed and a female came into view.
Silver hair flowed over her shoulders and past her navel, a crown of white flames as bright as starlight atop her head.
Thick kohl lined her eyes, her lips as red as blood.
Her black gown was nearly sheer, and slithering along her torso and around her shoulders was a white python, stark against her bronzed skin.
Glowing silver eyes settled on Tessa, and her voice was as ethereal and cold as the voids between the stars when she said, “I’ve been waiting for this since the moment I learned of your existence.”
“Everyone knows who I am, yet no one cared to tell me,” Tessa replied, her hand dropping to her side, her magic having already healed the cut. “But I’m told you have answers for me.”
The female stood too still. She didn’t even look like she was breathing.
Maybe goddesses didn’t have to breathe.
“What answers do you seek?” she asked.
Fingers brushed her arm, wrapping around her elbow as if to pull her back, but she shook them off.
He’d told her to control it.
That was what she was doing.
“You chose him. Chose Endings over Beginnings,” Tessa said. “Why?”
The female’s eyes softened a touch as she looked at Tessa, never breaking her stare. The snake moved, its tongue flicking in and out as it tasted the air. But no one spoke. There was no other sound, and the silence stretched on for so long, Tessa was wondering if she was going to reply.
But she would have her answers one way or another, and the goddess seemed to understand that when she said, “To start a genesis.”