Chapter 8
LUKA
“Stop touching things,” Luka growled, coming back into the main living space of his cave.
Everyone was here. Everyone. There were too many people near his things.
“I’m not touching anything,” Razik retorted, arms crossed over his chest. He tilted his head and leaned closer to a small square tin. “How old is this?”
Luka stalked over, swiping it up. “Stop looking at things,” he snapped, heading to the kitchen and setting it on the counter. Away from his brother.
“It’s not even a bowl, Raz,” Eliza drawled from where she was sitting on the sofa. She’d found a book somewhere, the pages open in her lap. “Stop antagonizing him.”
“And I suppose that bowl just disappeared on its own?” he shot back.
“You probably just misplaced it.”
“I don’t misplace things,” he snarled, smoke furling on his exhale.
She rolled her eyes, going back to her book, and Razik moved along to study the wall of empty frames. Luka tensed, eyes narrowing as he watched his brother. They’d been here a whole two days, and he was hating every fucking second of this.
Forcing himself to tear his eyes away, he moved to the fridge, pulling out various items. Cienna, Gia, and Tristyn had Traveled to Castle Pines and stocked up on food, spare clothing, and other necessities.
None of them knew how long they were going to be hiding up here.
More than that, Theon seemed to have gone into hiding too.
He couldn’t be reached by phone, and the bond wasn’t an option anymore.
A part of him wondered if he’d used a Mark to block the bond somehow like Eviana had and that’s why it wasn’t work properly.
As for Eviana, he hadn’t been able to get in touch with Lange or Corbin either.
That didn’t bode well, but it wasn’t as if he could be in three places at once.
He wasn’t exactly sure when this had all become his responsibility.
Placing eggs in a pot of water, he turned the burner on to hard-boil them.
While they cooked, he sliced up vegetables, deli meats, and cheeses along with some fruit.
There were chips and nuts he dumped into bowls, all the while keeping his brother in his line of sight to make sure the male didn’t touch a single godsdamn thing.
He was just rinsing the eggs when Razik came over to the food spread, although he didn’t fill a plate. He only straightened to his full height and crossed his arms as he said, “Where is she?”
Luka glanced at him before returning his attention to what he was doing. “Xan is with her.”
“And you’re just going to keep her from me until…when?”
Setting the bowl of hard-boiled eggs down with the rest of the food, he mirrored his brother’s stance. “Until I know you’re not going to attack her the moment she steps foot in the same room as you.”
“She’s not your Ward,” Razik sneered, his lip curling up in disgust.
“I’m aware.”
“And she doesn’t appear to be yours anymore,” he continued.
“What’s your point?” Luka snapped, his dragon snarling internally at those words.
“That it’s not your place to protect her,” Razik retorted. “She needs to answer for her actions. Fucking Fates. What is with that bloodline thinking they can do whatever the fuck they want without consequences?”
“The Arius bloodline?” Luka asked in confusion.
“Arius. Serafina. Their godsdamn grandchildren,” he grumbled. “The point is, it no longer appears it is your place to stand beside her and her choices.”
Luka ground his teeth, staring back at the arrogant challenge in his brother’s eyes. As if the male could see the war raging in his soul, he smirked, waiting to see what Luka would do. And what could he do?
When it became apparent he wasn’t going to respond, Razik took a step forward, his arms dropping to his sides. “She destroyed my way home,” he snarled.
“I know,” Luka said.
“I do not want to be stuck in this realm.”
“And what, exactly, do you want me to do about it?” Luka retorted. “I cannot rebuild the Pantheon, and I certainly don’t have the ability to world walk. So what are you hoping to accomplish? More than that, what do you think she will be able to do?”
“She is Chaos,” Razik snapped. “There has to be something she can do.”
Scoffing, he said, “Because she’s clearly in a position to be thinking about world walking. She’s so deep in her power, she grows more mad every day.”
“Madness is how we dream.”
They both turned as Tessa’s voice floated into the room, that eerie ring to it.
It hadn’t left. Since the day she’d brought the Pantheon to ruin, that eeriness had been there.
It was the most telling thing that betrayed how much control her power had over her right now.
But there were things the others didn’t notice as much.
The way she always had to be touching something, usually the wall.
Her hands always in her hair. The humming.
But her mannerisms were growing more erratic, and everyone was taking notice of that.
She moved deeper into the space, her bare feet leaving footprints.
They weren’t ashes like Auryon had often left behind, but they were similar.
Tessa’s were more silver and gold wisps.
Luka glanced at his father, who sent him a grim look where he leaned against the back of the sofa Eliza was sitting on, her focus still on her book as though she hadn’t heard the unstable female who had entered.
Luka knew better though. There was little that female didn’t notice.
Razik glared at Tessa as she passed him, but she didn’t seem to care. She only swiped up an orange before hopping up onto the opposite counter, her legs swinging as she peeled the fruit. No one said anything because what was there to say at this point?
Her golden hair fell around her shoulders in soft waves, and he watched her fingers tremble slightly as she pulled at the rind.
Her fitted dress was casual, with long sleeves and slits up both sides that went to the tops of her thighs.
The wide neckline allowed a view of the Mark over her heart.
The one that had started all of this. That had pulled him into something he’d tried to deny himself.
“Where were you?” Luka asked.
Tessa didn’t answer, didn’t even acknowledge them as her feet continued to swing.
“I took her outside,” Xan answered.
He turned to his father. “Outside? Why would you do that?”
“She needs to see the sky,” he replied. “There are certain things that will ground her. Things she associates with safety and security. Things she associates with—”
He cut off abruptly, and when he didn’t continue, Luka asked, “And the sky does that for her?”
“There are better options,” Xan said pointedly. “But it is something until she can be pulled from the depths of chaos.”
“And the better options?” Razik inquired, but his stare was pinned on Luka. It took everything not to flip him his middle finger.
“For Akira, a person was always best,” Xan said carefully. “Tessa may be different… I am simply trying to help her find something, and Akira likes to see the sky.”
She wasn’t different. Luka knew that.
Stay where I can see you.
He glanced over his shoulder to find she had finished peeling the orange, but now she was picking at the pith of the fruit.
He could see the juice dripping down her fingers, and her lips were moving as she murmured to herself.
With a sigh, he closed the space between them, and as he neared, he could make out the mutterings.
“Xan is right, but he doesn’t want us. No one wants us. We did that. Me. You. We just lie and deceive, but they can’t see— No one can see…” she trailed off, a hand coming up. Luka caught her wrist before her sticky fingers went into her hair.
She startled, apparently not having realized how close he’d come. Slowly she lifted her gaze to his, the violet in her irises piercing through the swirling silvers and golds. They didn’t speak, but some words passed between them in that stare. More words than they’d spoken since they’d come here.
He watched her throat bob with a swallow, and he took the orange from her other hand as he felt her power reach for him and try to draw him closer still.
The band of light around the wrist he held wound down around his fingers and up his arm instead of hers.
The power in her eyes settled some, more of the violet shining through, but more than that, there was a glimmer of emotion.
He couldn’t feel them down the bond, but he could see it in her eyes.
Desperation.
Determination.
Regret.
Resignation.
Failure.
Fury.
“Come with me, Tessa,” he said, wanting to take her away from the stares of everyone. Where he was going to take her, he didn’t know. There were plenty of rooms, and she had her own space, but they never left her alone for long.
The last time they’d done that, she’d plotted and carried out a plan to decimate the center of the realm.
She tugged on her wrist, trying to pull it from his grasp. “You can’t see,” she whispered.
“Can you show me?” he countered, fully aware of everyone watching them.
She held his stare as she slowly shook her head. “You don’t want to, and I understand.”
“Razik is angry with you,” he tried again.
Her head tilted, hair slipping over her shoulder. “I didn’t ask you to catch me this time, Luka. I understand I no longer have that right.”
He still held her, was still touching her, and this was the most coherent she’d been in two days.
If he hadn’t already known his father was right, this was all the confirmation he needed.
It wasn’t enough to pull her back completely, but it gave her a solid footing, if only for a brief reprieve from the lull of the magic.
Luka let her go, her power clinging to him long after he’d taken a step back. Picking up another orange, he began peeling it, keeping himself between her and Razik as the male stepped closer. Luka expected Razik to be the one to speak first, but it was Tessa.