Chapter 21 #2
He smiled then, a dark smirk that had her eyes widening slightly, but she held her ground. “That will be all,” he said, keeping her attention on him as he dismissed Brecken.
He heard the seraph’s chuckle under his breath before he Traveled out, and for the first time in months, he was alone with Tessa.
“Are you jealous, tempest?” he asked, one hand sliding into his pocket while the other came up, his thumb pressing to the corner of his mouth as he watched her.
“No,” she sneered.
“Still with the lies,” he chided.
“Enough,” she snapped, both hands back in her hair, getting caught as she pulled.
“I thought— You said— We came back to—” She was pacing in a small circle, nearly spinning in place, and then she whirled back to face him.
“You said I could trust you. That you’d prove it to me.
That you were mine. You can’t be mine and hers. You can’t…”
“I am only yours, Tessa,” he said, his voice low and clear. “In this life and all the ones to come.”
“You have a wife, Theon!” she cried. “How can you say that to me? I mean, I know I’m…
I know I wanted… I know there’s you and there’s Luka, but this isn’t that.
I know it’s not, and I can’t— I won’t…” She trailed off, shaking her head as she stumbled over her words, fury and agony behind every single one.
“She’s not my wife,” he said when she fell silent, her chest heaving with her emotions.
And she went so preternaturally still, he wasn’t even sure she was breathing. Even her power had stilled, specks of gold and silver, white and onyx, frozen in the air around her, tangled with her hair. She looked fucking ethereal.
“She’s not my wife,” he repeated. “She thinks she is. Everyone believes she is. The priestess who performed the rite and gave the Union Mark was Gia. It’s incomplete and not binding. At least not in that way.”
“What does that mean?” she demanded.
“Gia wove a binding Mark into this one. Disguised it, I guess you could say. If Felicity learns the truth, she will be unable to betray me,” he replied.
“Then she is bound to you.”
“Until I decide to free her from that oath, yes. I suppose she is.”
Her lips pursed, and he gave her a minute to process everything.
Finally she said, “I don’t like her.”
A huff of laughter burst from him. “I gathered that, little storm.”
She nodded again, rubbing her fingertips together at her sides. Then her eyes snapped back to his once more. “You left me behind. You left me.”
“I stand by what I said. I would let a realm become nothing but rubble for you. Let the Fates destroy every living, breathing thing in this world if it meant you could live. I do what must be done and have no regrets,” he replied, taking a single step towards her.
His head tilted as he studied her. “But you didn’t leave. Why?”
“Because you are his family,” she answered, that sharp tone faltering at the words.
“Luka?”
She visibly flinched at the name, but she nodded. “He doesn’t want me, Theon. He wants you and Axel. His family. So I…”
“You what?”
“I wanted to save you for him. Then I will leave, and maybe the two of you can save Devram from itself,” she said in a rush.
He tsked, taking another step closer. “Do you really think I will not follow you?”
“You weren’t going to,” she retorted, that anger flaring once more. “You sent me away like I was no—”
“Don’t you dare say that,” Theon interjected, his own fury flaring just as hot.
“Do not imply that you are nothing to me when you are everything. I will do whatever is necessary to ensure you are safe. That you are protected. And if that means I have to send you to another realm with a dragon, that’s what I will do. As long as you are free and happy—”
“But we won’t be happy without you!” she cried.
“You always think you know what’s best for everyone.
Me. Luka. Axel. But we get choices, Theon!
You don’t just get to decide what makes us happy.
You don’t get to decide where I go, what I do.
And you sure as fuck don’t get to tell me to leave the fucking realm when you’ve made me lo—”
Her mouth snapped shut, eyes darting to the side, but there would be none of that. They were back in the place where they thrived. A push and pull. A constant battle. Uncensored words and heated actions.
“Don’t go quiet now, Tessa,” he purred, prowling forward and closing the distance between them.
He took her chin between this thumb and forefinger, tilting her face up and forcing her to look at him.
A stuttered breath fell from her lips, frustrated tears pooling in endless depths of violet while her power swirled among it all, trapped and unable to do anything more.
His other hand came up, fingertips running along the planes of her face. Her brow. The bridge of her nose. Tracing her upper lip.
“Say it,” he said, a low command.
She tried to turn away, tried to free herself from his hold, but he held firm. Not now. Not this time.
“Say it,” he growled again.
She swallowed thickly, one frustrated tear spilling over.
It trailed down her cheek, and before he could stop himself, he pitched forward, catching that salty drop with the tip of his tongue and tracing its path.
He heard the pained sound she tried to swallow down, and his lips brushed her flesh as he dragged his mouth to her ear.
“Say it,” he whispered, the words low and dark and full of sinful promises. One finger found the hollow of her throat, dragging down between her breasts, along her stomach, lower. “Say it, and I will give you everything you want, clever tempest.”
“Yours,” she gasped out, her head tipping back with the single word. “I’m yours. Every piece of me. As much as I am his.”
“That’s right, you are,” he growled, another gasp escaping her as he gathered her roughly into his arms.
“Theon!” she cried in outrage, but he wasn’t waiting, making his way to a bedroom. The main bedroom. A spare bedroom. He didn’t particularly care.
She’d finally said it. Those words he’d begged for. Longed to hear from her lips, and gods, he was glad she’d never lied about it. Never said them to appease him. Because her saying them when she meant them?
If he hadn’t been irrevocably hers already, that would have done him in. He’d drop to his knees for her. Crawl for her. He’d give up his kingdom, this world, his very soul for her. And he needed her to understand, needed her to realize all of that.
For all the roughness of moments ago, he lowered her gently to the edge of the bed, leaning over her. His brow pressed to hers, just like in her dreams, and she lifted a trembling hand, sliding her fingers into his hair.
“You said it. In my dreams. But I need to know—”
“Yours, Tessa. Only and solely yours. You never need to question it,” he said before his lips found hers. He tried to keep it soft and gentle, but that wasn’t them. It never had been.
Her lips parted wider, and he took advantage. His tongue sank into the hot silk of her mouth, and he groaned when she nipped at his bottom lip. Her back arched, her need palpable, and he would never deny her. He palmed her breast through her shirt, only then realizing what she was wearing.
“This is his?” he asked, pulling back to look down at the black button-down shirt.
“It smells like him. It’s my last one,” she said, each breath harsh. “I would have found a way to steal one of yours. It makes the nightmares bearable.”
“You’re not alone, Tessa. Never again. I swear it.”
She nodded, but he could see the uncertainty in the movement.
“How can I prove it?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “So much is unknown right now. I keep trying to change fate, and it’s not working. Nothing is working. I’m broken, and we’re broken. And what if that’s how it’s meant to be?”
“I refuse to accept that,” he replied vehemently. “If that’s what the Fates want, they can go fuck themselves.”
“I spoke to Serafina, and she said—”
“You spoke to Serafina? The goddess Serafina?” he interrupted, unable to help himself.
She looked at him curiously, but then a tiny smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth. “Are you jealous?” she mocked.
“Fuck yes, I’m jealous,” he said, palming her breast once more. “What did she tell you?”
Tessa sucked in a gasp, her eyes starting to glaze with lust. “She said…”
But she trailed off when he began teasing her nipple through the fabric of the shirt. “She said what, Tessa?”
“I asked her why she chose Arius over Achaz,” she gasped again.
Theon hummed, bringing his mouth to her neck. “And what did she say?” he asked against her skin before latching onto it.
Tessa moaned, her fingers tightening in his hair. “She told me what you wouldn’t.” He nipped at her delicate skin as he growled at her answer. “Or maybe what you knew but didn’t realize you knew,” she amended with a quick inhale.
He pulled back then, her hand slipping from his hair as understanding donned. “She told you of the genesis bond.”
“Not that exact term, but yes,” she said, her breathing unsteady. “But you didn’t tell me.”
“I figured it out shortly before they put you in that cell, but I… Tessa, I didn’t want you to be forced into another bond.
Not if you didn’t want it. I didn’t want to put that pressure on you.
” Her eyes fell to her lap, where she was wringing her fingers together.
“Please tell me you understand my intentions.”
“I do,” she whispered before lifting her gaze back to his. “I do because it’s the same freedom I gave Luka.”
Another lone tear slipped free, and she reached to swipe it away, but he caught her hand before she could.
Intertwining their fingers, he stepped closer to the edge of the bed, between her legs.
Releasing her hand, he slowly started working the buttons of the shirt she wore, slipping it down her arms and tossing it to the side.
With the tip of his finger beneath her chin, he tilted her face to his once more. “I promise we will fix all of this, Tessa.”