Chapter 24 Theon #3
“The fuck?” Theon said. He should be shocked, but he wasn’t. His father had always ensured he got exactly what he wanted. After all, wasn’t he proof of her statement? Everyone had believed he was Cressida’s child.
“I’m sorry, Theon,” she said, fear and panic filling her voice. “I didn’t mean—”
“You’re not sorry,” Tessa cut in, back to circling her. “You’re only sorry you got caught.”
“That’s not—”
“You are a terrible liar,” Tessa said with mock pity. “But that’s what you were after? Trapping him with a child?”
“A child would ensure my place of power. It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” she retorted.
“I didn’t care if it was Theon, Axel, or an heir in another kingdom.
” Then her glare swung to Theon. “And now you’ve fucked yourself.
They’ll never accept her as your Match and your Source.
It’s an imbalance among the kingdoms they will never allow.
You’ve thrown away everything, just like your mother said you would.
If you were half as smart as you think you are, you’d turn her over and be rid of her.
Let Rordan deal with her so the realm can move on and get back to business. ”
Tessa moved then, and Theon’s eyes widened in surprise.
Because she didn’t attack with her power.
Not right away. No, this was all physical as she tackled Felicity to the ground.
Felicity shrieked, trying to throw Tessa off her, but that training with Luka had clearly paid off.
Tessa’s hand wrapped around her throat as she straddled Felicity.
Her power flickered in and out, and she was right.
Something was wrong. But she didn’t seem to care at the moment.
She swung her fist, marring Felicity’s other cheek.
“That’s for being in our fucking room all those months ago,” she sneered, and everything in Theon heated at watching her.
Feral and unhinged and possessive of him.
She leaned closer, a few of her embers of power drifting around her.
“Truthfully, I don’t care what you have to say about me.
Your opinion matters as much as Cordelia’s rotting bones over there. But you kept fucking touching him.”
She lifted a palm, and Theon had no idea what she was doing until a staggered swirl of her power formed, leaving a dagger he’d never seen before in its wake. Felicity tried to scream, and Tessa loosened her grip a touch.
“You’re insane,” Felicity rasped.
“Indeed,” Tessa hummed, twirling the dagger in her hand. “It happens when people keep trying to take what is ours. We don’t like it.”
“Tessa,” Theon cut in, recognizing the spiral she was about to go down.
Tessa sighed, her fingers tightening on the dagger hilt. “But you are still bound to him, and I don’t like that. Especially not after learning you tried to trick him into having a child with you. But more than that, there is a bargain with Valter that all comes back to…you.”
“I have nothing to do with that,” Felicity said, squirming beneath Tessa’s weight.
“You have everything to do with it,” Tessa hissed.
“And I know what it is to be trapped and confined and bound when you don’t want to be.
Surely you can see the conundrum here. Because I know people like you.
You’ll never stop until you get what you want, and unfortunately for you, that’s a problem for us. ”
“You have the dragon!” Felicity cried. “You can’t have them both. It doesn’t work that way.”
Tessa reared back a little at her words, and Felicity took advantage. She twisted, throwing Tessa off her. In her surprise, the dagger came loose, and Felicity snatched it up, scrambling to where Tessa was pushing to her knees.
“If he won’t do what needs to be done, I’ll do it myself,” Felicity said, determination filling her features. “You’ll be gone. The realm will be safe, and he’ll be mine.”
Theon lunged to stop her, his power lurching, but he didn’t need to. Tessa lifted a hand, her light wrapping around Felicity’s wrist and snapping it as Felicity brought her arm down. The dagger had been inches from Tessa’s chest, but it clattered to the floor.
“Stop touching my godsdamn things,” Tessa snarled, swiping up the dagger and slashing it across Felicity’s throat.
Blood sprayed as she plunged it into Felicity’s chest. The female gasped, a hand reaching for the hilt as she fell onto her side, and Theon watched in fascination as she faded to embers that matched Tessa’s power before fading away altogether.
“You’ve been keeping secrets, Tessa,” he chided with a dark purr, striding to her and extending a hand. Her fingers slid into his, smears of blood gracing his palm as he pulled her to her feet. He gripped her chin in his other hand, forcing her eyes to his. “You are stunning,” he growled.
“Say it,” she rasped, the words harsh and rough as the high he’d experienced moments ago flashed in her violet irises. He knew what she wanted to hear.
“Yours, little storm. Only yours. Every piece of me.”
“I don’t regret killing her.”
“We do what needs to be done, and we don’t have regrets,” he replied.
“Am I a villain now?”
“I don’t give a fuck if you are. I’ll still sacrifice every star in the sky for you,” he said, reaching for her arm and pulling her sleeve back to reveal a brand new Mark.
It wound around her wrist, just below her bands of light. It was a Mark he’d never seen before, but after his meeting with Rordan and the Ladies—when they’d laid out his lordship requirements—he’d called Felicity.
Then he’d contacted Cienna.
He’d needed a fake Union Mark, yes, but he’d also needed something more.
He’d needed a Union Mark to bind him and Tessa, and last night, Brecken had brought the Witch with when he’d taken Theon to Tessa’s rooms. Tessa had agreed to his plan.
He would never have forced her. Would have come up with something else, but she’d agreed.
A binding of her own choosing with conditions of her own.
Conditions Theon had never imagined being even remotely agreeable to, but ones he hoped would eventually come to pass.
But that wasn’t up to him
He swiped his thumb along the black and white loops and swirls that wound around her wrist, matching the one on his.
“Are you all right?” he murmured.
“Something is wrong with us,” she said, lifting her palms and studying them.
“With your power?”
She nodded. “It’s like it’s…empty. There are only dregs of it in my soul, as if it can only appear in short bursts. It’s never been like this.”
“But you just killed Felicity,” he said. “Isn’t that how your power refills?”
“Yes, but my power didn’t take. That was…something else.”
“I’m going to need you to fill me in on that, or I can’t help, Tessa.”
Before she could reply, light flared, and it wasn’t hers. Theon shoved her behind him, but she didn’t stay there, because of course she didn’t.
Not as Rordan stepped from a portal with Dex at his side.
“What are you doing back here?” Theon demanded, his power immediately winding around Tessa.
“I see you figured out how to remove that cuff,” Rordan answered, gaze sweeping over the mess of Cordelia’s corpse on the floor. “Dexter thought you might have. So we have come to make a bargain. Give us the cuff and the two of you can leave.”
“Just like that?” Theon asked doubtfully.
“I’m sure we will meet again soon enough.”
“And if we refuse?”
“Ah, then we will have to detain you for murder,” he answered. “And kidnapping? Where is your wife?”
Neither he nor Tessa answered that question, but Theon said, “And what makes you think you’ll be able to detain us?”
Rordan smiled something truly sinister. “I know her power is not what it should be. Not with that cuff absorbing her magic for the last two weeks, even if I couldn’t convince her to eat a pastry this morning to make it slumber even more.
Beyond that, you are not yet a Lord. Even if you were, your Source is weakened.
You are not strong enough to take me on, but aside from all that, I also have them. ”
As he said the words, seraphs appeared in the room. Some Traveling in and some bursting through the office door. More than a dozen of them. Some had power swirling at their fingertips; others had weapons.
“You disappoint me, Tessie,” Dex said, cold and harsh as he glared at her. “I tried to give you everything. I would have taken you home when this was all over.”
“Achaz would never let me live,” she answered. “He would use me to do his dirty work, then kill me for the Arius blood in my veins.”
“And now he will simply kill you,” Dex replied. “Stupid, reckless child.” With a jerk of his chin, he commanded, “Get me the cuff, and bring her to me.”
The seraphs converged, coming for them, and Theon didn’t know what he was doing as he tugged Tessa into his chest. Darkness wrapped around them, swallowing them whole. He didn’t know how or why, but it was instinct to take a step, shadow-walking through the dark.
But he’d never done this before, and he didn’t know where they were when they appeared beside a body of water. Trees surrounded them, and clouds obscured the sun.
“Lake Moonmist,” Tessa said, taking in their surroundings. She looked at him in concern. “We didn’t go far enough, Theon. This is right next to the estate.”
“I don’t even know what I did or how I did it. I don’t know…” He trailed off, feeling helpless and out of his element. He always knew. Always had control of his power.
And then the seraphs appeared.
Tessa was nearly powerless, and they were alone.
Fuck.