Chapter 13 Tessa #3
Eliza rolled her eyes as she reached out to lift Tessa’s drawing elbow a little higher. “Razik thinks he will find a way to remove it.”
“Because you want children?” she asked, glancing at the dragon shifter.
“Because she deserves to make that choice for herself,” he replied. “It has nothing to do with me.”
That was a valid reason, she supposed. Actually, the reason gave her a new kind of respect for the male altogether.
Inhaling deeply, she released the arrow, and to her shock, it hit just to the right of where she was aiming.
“Good,” Eliza said, handing over another arrow. “Again.”
Several minutes later, Tessa released the last arrow in the quiver. “I don’t understand how Auryon could shoot three of these at a time.”
“Agreed,” Eliza said around a yawn. “Our Fire Court Second can manage two at a time, but there is another in our world who can fire three. No idea how.”
“There is a Huntress in your world?” Tessa asked, looping the bow over her chest while Razik went to retrieve the arrows this time.
“She is not a Huntress,” the male answered from across the makeshift archery range. “At least, not fully. We are unsure what she is.”
Another thing Tessa could relate to.
Razik was back in far less time than it was taking her and Eliza to retrieve the arrows. He placed them into the quiver as Eliza yawned again.
“You need to rest, mai dragocen,” he said, with far more gentleness than he ever showed anyone else.
“I know,” she grumbled. Turning to Tessa, she asked, “Are you ready to head inside?”
“You two go ahead. I’m going to stay out here a little longer,” Tessa answered, Roan reappearing at her side and rubbing along her legs.
“My flames will go out. It will be dark,” Eliza said, her brow furrowing.
Tessa clasped her hands in front of her. “Yes, I’m aware.”
Eliza glanced up at Razik, uncertainty on her features. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave her out here alone, Raz.”
“She’s not alone. The two of you haven’t been alone this entire time, and I do not mean the wolves,” he answered, his eyes darting to the sky.
“Luka is out here,” she said in understanding.
He nodded, his hand dropping to her lower back as he guided her inside. “She’ll be fine.”
Tessa wasn’t sure if fine was the word to use, but she’d also known Luka had been out there the whole time. With the waning moon, he wasn’t visible against the night sky, but she knew. She always knew when they were near, bond or no bond.
So it was no surprise when a giant dragon appeared moments later, settling down on a ledge above her. His glowing eyes seemed even brighter with Eliza’s fire gone. They were the only thing illuminating the night now.
“Do you want to hear a story?” Tessa called out as she sank to her knees, the cold earth biting through her thin training pants.
He didn’t answer, and she knew he wouldn’t.
“In all things there must be balance,” she started.
“Beginnings and endings. Light and dark. Fire and shadows. But in bids for power and answers to challenges, we are never happy. We always want more and more and more. Guardians were created,” she murmured, and she heard him creep closer down the side of the mountain as her voice lowered.
This story was more for her anyway. “Maraans were his answer. Hunters were created, and in turn, the Huntresses were brought into existence. And I…”
She picked up an arrow, slicing the arrowhead along her palm before she gripped the bow in blood. She’d wanted to be alone for this, and with Eliza gone, in a sense, she was.
“I am both, aren’t I?”
Luka roared in warning at the same time she recited the words Auryon had told her. Magic rolled out of her. Threads of light and dark. Glowing golds and silvers. Life and death. It all wound around the bow until she felt like it was a piece of her.
Innate.
Intrinsic.
Hers.
“Tessa, just wait,” Luka said, having shifted at some point and landing several feet away. Now he was taking long strides to reach her.
She looked up to find him shirtless, his wings still splayed, and gods, when was the last time she saw him like this?
When they spent their time here, forgetting about the world for a few precious hours?
But she remembered. Her body remembered.
She knew every dip of his abdomen. Knew what his fingers would feel like when they touched her.
She remembered when they’d needed to drown in each other because no one else understood.
She remembered what it was like to have him look at her with something other than the hard indifference staring back at her now.
“You do not need to be here, Luka,” she said, gracefully rising back to her feet. “I am not your Ward.”
“But you will be,” he countered.
She shook her head as she murmured, “You still don’t see.”
“I see just fine, Tessa,” he replied, snatching up the quiver as she reached to grab an arrow.
“You do?” she asked in relief.
“I see you out here doing something incredibly reck—”
His words died as she lifted a hand. Her power swirled, and when it receded, she held an arrow between her fingers.
“Tessa,” he breathed, and gods. There was a reverence in her name that she hadn’t heard from him in weeks.
He stepped closer, examining the arrow, because while it looked exactly like the arrows she’d been shooting all night, she knew it wasn’t. Knew Luka could feel it was something other too.
“What did you do?” he asked, leaning in close to inspect the weapon.
His scent assaulted her, and she could feel his heat, warming her soul in a way no fire ever could.
“Something wild and reckless,” she answered.
“How did you do it?”
“I don’t know. I never know.”
“We’ll work on that,” he answered, his fingers brushing over hers as he gently took the arrow from her.
“We… We will?” she asked, knowing better than to let the hope trying to blossom in her chest bloom.
“Yes. This is another power you need to understand. Need to control,” he replied, handing the arrow back to her.
“Oh,” was all she said, reaching for the arrow.
“But not tonight. You need to rest too.”
“No,” she said simply.
No sleeping.
Sleeping made it worse.
So much worse.
“Tessa—”
“In all things there must be balance,” she murmured, nocking the arrow before raising the bow.
“Beginnings and endings.” She took aim at a dead tree in the distance.
The trunk was half gone, and the bare branches were brittle.
“Light and dark.” She inhaled deeply, holding the breath for one second.
Two. Three. “Fire and shadows,” she whispered on the exhale, releasing the arrow.
It struck true. She knew it wasn’t her skill, but this new thing guiding the arrow.
And the entire tree was nothing but the same gold and silver ashes of her power moments later.
“By Sargon,” Luka said, awe ringing in the words.
The same way he’d once said her name.
She looped her bow over her chest, turning away from him and heading back to the cave entrance.
“Tessa?” he called after her.
“I’m not your Ward, Luka,” she called back. “We’re not yours to worry about anymore.”
But suddenly he was there, having Traveled to block her path. “You are mine to worry about. Theon entrusted you to me—”
Her harsh bark of laughter cut him off, and she couldn’t blame him. It bordered on hysterical.
She felt hysterical.
She felt out of control.
She felt unbalanced.
“Okay,” he said calmly. “Okay, Tessa. Just… Take a breath.”
It was only then she realized her power had surrounded her. An armor between him and her.
“Let’s just take a moment,” he said. “We’ll figure all this out.”
“There is nothing to figure out,” she said, her words cold and void of all the emotions she was feeling. “He doesn’t want us. You don’t want us. The only ones who want us, want to use us. I will figure it out. I am not your Ward.”
“But you will be,” he insisted. “We need to figure out how that will work.”
“We do not,” she replied, pushing past him. “I am not going to become your Ward.”
His brow furrowed. “Of course you will.”
“No, I won’t. I saved him for you. Or I’m trying to. But even if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t bind myself to someone who doesn’t want me. I would never force you into something you do not want.”
He reached out, trying to grab her elbow to stop her, but then he hissed a curse as her power bit into him. She felt his eyes on her long after she’d disappeared into the depths of the cave, and she kept her magic in place just as long.
A barrier.
A physical blocking as much as an emotional blocking.
It was the only way she was going to survive this. She’d fucked up. She’d hurt him, but she didn’t deserve to be treated like a burden. And she’d meant what she’d said. She wouldn’t force him into a Guardian bond because he thought it was his duty.
She was more than a duty. She was more than her power. She was more than the blood in her veins and the beings she descended from. She was no longer a pawn in the games of the Legacy, the gods, or the Fates.
Lifting a hand, her power swirled again, this time leaving a gleaming gold dagger in her palm. But it wasn’t just gold. There were silver and black etchings down the blade. Marks and symbols she’d never be able to read but knew what they said.
No, she wasn’t a pawn.
She wasn’t a Source.
She wasn’t a Queen or a Lady or a god.
But she was a reckoning.
She was vengeance.
She was chaos and fury and everything in between.
And even if she could choose it for herself, there was no one left to be her balance.