Chapter 25 Luka
LUKA
“This is where Fae are raised?” Eliza asked in a tone that told Luka exactly what she thought of that.
“Most of them,” Luka answered as they approached the Celeste Estate main gates. “There are four estates. Some Fae have homes in the cities after they are assigned to kingdoms. But all Fae children are sent to an estate for academics by the age of six.”
“And the Fae just…allow that?”
“It’s how things are done,” he answered.
“It’s cruel.”
“I don’t disagree,” he answered. “But when it’s how it’s always been done, eventually everyone stops questioning.
It’s just…normal.” Stopping at the gates, he added, “Devram is on the edge of a reformation. The Lords and Ladies are trying to incite panic to control the masses, but… I don’t think things will stay the same. Change is coming either way.”
“That’s the hope,” Eliza grumbled. “How are we getting in there?”
Luka had used the Tracking Mark that still connected him to Tessa to make sure she was still here.
Assuming Theon wouldn’t leave her again, two days ago they’d Traveled to Arobell, the Celeste Kingdom capital city, with Razik and Eliza.
They’d all agreed they should leave the cave for a while.
Not because anyone could access it with his wards, but because Tessa had clearly been taken from there.
There were likely seraphs lingering as spies.
Cienna had taken Xan to the Underground while Razik and Eliza had come with him.
At this point, any extra power wouldn’t hurt.
They had no idea what they were going to come up against. So they’d rested up in Arobell, letting their reserves fill fully, before they ventured to the estate, being dropped off at the end of the long drive they’d just walked up.
“We could fly over the gates,” Razik offered, a slyness to his voice that Luka didn’t understand.
“Why are you saying it like that?” Luka asked at the same time Eliza said, “Absolutely not.”
Luka glanced between the two of them. “Did something happen when you were flying?”
“No,” Eliza retorted.
“How could it when her feet have never left the ground?” Razik added.
Luka looked back at Eliza in surprise. “Never? You’ve never gone flying with him?”
“Has Tessa?” she asked in irritation.
“Yes,” Luka answered. “Granted, those were life or death situations, but she’s not averse to it.”
“If I were meant to fly, I would have been given wings,” she said. “Figure out something else.”
“Why aren’t there guards out here anyway?” Razik asked, stepping closer to study the tall metal gates.
It was a good point, and a question Luka didn’t have an answer to. He’d come to get Theon and Tessa out of here; then they could all regroup. He’d clear the air with Tessa. He’d be back with his Ward, and things could move forward.
Pushing on the gate, it swung open easily, and everything in him went on high alert. Something was very wrong here. Not even the wards around the property were active.
“Be prepared for anything,” Luka said in a low voice, shifting his eyes to see everything more vividly.
“Don’t expect me to protect you if we have to fight, mai dragocen,” Razik said, walking at Eliza’s side.
“The only one who’s going to need protecting is you. From me,” she grumbled.
He chuckled low, and Luka could swear her lips twitched, hiding a smile.
They were an odd couple.
Pulling his attention back to the estate, he wasn’t entirely sure where to go. He’d only been to this estate once. The only thing he had to go on was the Tracking Mark that was guiding him deeper into the estate grounds.
They stuck to the shadows, trying to stay out of sight. Rounding the main building, they all went still. In the center of the courtyard stood the Anala Heir and her Source. A fire portal was open, and they were ushering Fae children through as quickly as possible.
“What the fuck?” Luka said under his breath.
“What is happening?” Eliza asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered, watching Gatlan move among the children. More than once, he crouched before a scared child, wiping at tears and saying words Luka could just make out. Telling them everything would be okay. They’d be safe soon.
Tana somehow sensed them then, her golden eyes connecting with his. She said something to Gatlan, who nodded, calling to a few others Luka had missed. One was Brigid, Tana’s younger sister, who was closer to Axel’s age. The others were clearly related as well with their various shades of red hair.
Tana moved in their direction, and when she was halfway to them, a seraph Luka recognized fell into step beside her.
Luka immediately went on high alert. It was Brecken, one of Tessa’s so-called friends.
The same one that had helped her at the Sirana Villas.
Luka didn’t know whose side the male was on, and seeing him here with Tana was a little bit of a mindfuck.
“Based on conversations and debts currently owed by Theon, I’m going to trust you will not speak a word of what you have seen here today,” Tana said tightly, flames winding up her arms and into her hair.
“I don’t know what I’m seeing,” Luka said. “Where are you taking them?”
“Where we always take those who are no longer safe,” Tana answered. “But our resources are growing sparse, particularly space. We need to know where Theon stands. We’ve been watching him. Tessa has…changed him in many ways.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Luka muttered.
“Who are they?” Tana asked.
“Razik and Eliza.”
Tana eyed them, amber eyes narrowing, but before she could say anything further, Brecken cut in.
“We have limited time, Tana. We could be discovered any moment.”
“I thought you took care of the guards?” Tana answered, glancing to where Gatlan, Brigid, and the others were continuing to guide the children.
“I did, but I’m not as worried about them as much as I am about…her,” Brecken replied, dark eyes boring into Luka’s.
“Isn’t Theon with her?” Luka demanded.
“He is, but it won’t be enough. Dex and Rordan went after them with a small company of seraphs.”
Panic and anxiety settled in. Theon was powerful; Tessa was more so. Brecken knew this. If he was worried…
“Where are they?” Luka asked.
“I can take you,” Brecken said, glancing at Tana, who nodded. “But they will know I have been betraying them this entire time. I need to know I can leave with all of you.”
“Done,” Luka answered without hesitation. “Take us to them now.”
Within moments, Brecken Traveled the four of them to the edge of a lake, leaving Tana to finish with the Fae younglings.
“Well, this looks familiar,” Razik grumbled under his breath. He was already pulling his shirt over his head and summoning his wings. Glancing at Eliza, he added, “If I kill more than you, I win that sword.”
“Fuck off,” she scoffed, her elegant sword already in her hand with flames twisting around the blade. She was bouncing on her toes, and if he didn’t know for a fact she didn’t, he’d swear she had Sargon blood in her for as much as she liked to fight.
Razik reached over, tightening some of the straps on the leather armor she favored. “Because you know you’re going to lose?”
She shoved his hand away, grey eyes scanning the scene before them. “Theon and Tessa are by the edge of the lake,” she said, pointing in their direction, but Luka had spotted them the moment they’d appeared here.
Theon had Tessa shoved behind him. His darkness was a writhing swarm around him, shadow wings wide and flared. There were at least two dozen seraphs in the sky, which explained why Theon hadn’t hauled her up there. Where else was there to go?
“Why isn’t Tessa using her power?” Luka asked, that familiar adrenaline coursing through his body, preparing to fight and protect what was his.
“She’s drained. I don’t have time to explain,” Brecken said. “She needs to take, but her power is too drained to do anything.”
“So it’s just Theon?”
“It was,” the male drawled.
Everything around them seemed to still, as if even the world was holding its breath, and then it was chaos. Seraphs attacked from all sides, diving for Theon and Tessa as power and magic flared.
“Fuck,” Luka muttered, already running. Eliza was at his side, while Razik launched into the sky with Brecken, the male’s cream wings a stark contrast to Razik’s black ones.
“Keep them out of the sky as much as possible,” Eliza was yelling as they ran.
“Only fire truly kills them. Mine. Yours. Doesn’t much matter.
If you get ambushed, incapacitate them to keep them down.
Snap wings. Slit throats. Cut off limbs.
Knock them out. We can come back around and finish them off later.
And for the love of Anala, don’t waste all your power right away. ”
Then she was jumping into the fray, that beautiful blade swinging. By the gods, she was every bit the war general they said she was. Not only that, her power was vast.
Wings went up in flames while her blade swiped through torsos.
She ducked and flipped, trails of fire and blood left in her wake.
Daggers of pure flame went before her, distracting her victims so she could come in from behind, and above them, her bonded was doing the same.
Razik had shifted to his full dragon form, and seraphs became encased with dragon fire before becoming nothing at all.
He should be up there, doing the same, but not until he got to Theon and Tessa.
“Nylah! Roan! Now!”
Tessa’s cry carried to him above the din of battle, and something twisted in his gut at her crying out for her wolves for help instead of him.
It only spurred him on faster, shoving seraphs aside, dodging attacks, and when all else failed, using a short sword he summoned to incapacitate them just as Eliza had said.
It was stupid and went against all his training to be singularly focused on the two of them, but Theon was his Ward.
Of course he was the priority. And Tessa was—