Chapter 25 Luka #2
Howls rent through the air, and seconds later the wolves appeared. One light and one dark. Growls sounded and jaws snapped, teeth sinking into wings and flesh as they moved towards Tessa.
And then there was Theon, his twin short swords in hand as his darkness devoured. He looked every bit of the dark god he descended from, all lethal grace and not letting a single seraph near Tessa. She had two of her daggers, but why the fuck wasn’t she using her bow?
Tessa spun suddenly, as if knowing he was there despite their fractured bond. Her eyes went wide, mouth parting slightly, and Luka was about to yell at her to look out.
But he didn’t need to.
She spun as the seraph with water magic appeared behind her, walking atop the water of the lake.
Her golden hair was a wave behind her as one dagger went into the left side of his chest and the other went into the right side of his gut.
She slid the blades, slicing wide, more than blood spilling from the body cavity, and then she lifted her leg, planting a bare foot in the center of his torso and shoving him back.
Just like with her arrows, the seraph seemed suspended in time for a few seconds before he dissolved into the embers and ashes that were her power, slowly drifting and floating away in the water.
She was godsdamn magnificent, and he understood his brother’s fascination with his bonded on an entirely different level.
Roan appeared at her side, her fingers drifting into his fur and her eyes fluttering closed. Where had the wolves been before she called them? Why hadn’t they been with her this entire time?
He closed the last of the distance, saying fuck it and letting his power obliterate three seraphs with one mighty burst of black flames.
“What’s the plan here? Travel out?” Luka asked, finally making it to Theon’s side while reaching over and pulling Tessa in between them. He heard her suck in a sharp breath, but he ignored it.
“And go where?” Theon asked, dark mist springing up to block an onslaught of attacks from above.
He had a good point. Luka would bet there were seraphs waiting around the cave now. And who could they trust in the kingdoms? Arius House was questionable, but even if it gave them a few hours to regroup and come up with a plan, it might be worth it.
“What happened to your power?” Luka asked, glancing down at Tessa.
But Theon answered, pulling some kind of cuff from his pocket. Thicker than the usual bands, it resembled a vambrace. It was white and black with gold and silver etchings he didn’t recognize. “They had this on her. Apparently it was absorbing her power.”
“How?”
“We didn’t really sit down and have a conversation about it,” Theon growled, his power converging to snap wings clean off a diving seraph. The being’s cries echoed as Roan pounced, teeth tearing out the female’s throat.
Luka took the cuff, examining it and debating if he could get Razik’s attention. If the cuff had absorbed her power, there had to be a way to get it released. Right?
“Incoming!” Theon yelled, a handful of seraphs rushing them.
Luka passed the cuff to Tessa, saying, “Stay between us.”
“But I—”
He didn’t hear what she was going to say as he engaged with a seraph.
Black flames wreathed his fists, blocking a hit with his arm while landing a punch to the male’s ribs with the other.
The seraph grunted, but he didn’t go down.
His next hit landed, wrapped in ice, and Luka swore as he absorbed the blow to his jaw.
The seraph was trying to circle him, but he’d had enough of this.
He lunged, the seraph clearly surprised as he scrambled to shield, but Luka wasn’t aiming to land a hit.
His fingers closed around soft, dark brown feathers, and he yanked hard, hearing several snapping sounds.
So much like his own wings, but also different.
The seraph let out a bellow of pain, an ice dagger appearing in his hand, but Luka caught his arm a second before the blade pierced his skin.
And then a dark dagger was in the male’s throat as Tessa practically climbed Luka, using his arm as a step to jump and reach the male’s neck. She leapt, landing in a low crouch while the seraph crumpled and blood sprayed, splattering her golden strands.
“I had it under control,” Luka grunted, watching Theon take down another.
“Never tell me to stay back and safe between the two of you again, Luka Mors,” she retorted, pushing to her feet.
He blinked at her. At the female who’d wanted exactly that when he’d escorted her to a stage to be claimed as a Source. And now…
Now she was a fierce thing of chaos and fury who’d taken control of her own destiny. Who’d kept training, not because she was forced to, but because she wanted to. Who’d found another way when he’d so often dismissed her. On her own. With Eliza. Both in combat and with her magic.
She’d found herself worth fighting for.
“Why aren’t you using your bow?” he demanded, watching her lips purse in annoyance at his dismissal of her command.
“Why aren’t you using your fucking power?” she shot back.
“Because someone is going to need to Travel us out of here,” Luka retorted. “If I’m too drained, then we’re stuck here— Fuck!”
His hand snapped out, grabbing her and yanking her into his side as three seraphs came from the sky. He was using dragonfire then, two of them nothing but a few drifting ashes before they made it to the ground.
But the third…had disappeared?
“Dex is here,” Tessa said in cold fury. “He’s using his magic to make us see things that aren’t there. This whole thing could be an illusion.”
“He’s that powerful?” Luka asked.
She shrugged. “Maybe. They want this cuff.”
She still held the thing in her other hand, keeping a tight grip on it.
“We need to go,” Theon said, out of breath as he came up beside Tessa. “More seraphs just arrived. Even with Razik and Eliza, it’s a deathtrap to stay here.”
“How do we get us all in one spot to Travel out?” Luka asked, looking to find Razik engaging seraphs far off to the left. He could only assume that was where Eliza was. Razik would never stray far from her.
“They want this,” Tessa said again, studying the cuff. “So let’s give it to them.”
“What?” Theon asked. “Tessa, we can’t–”
“Of course she can,” sneered a voice, Dex appearing a few feet away as though he’d been there the whole time.
“I told you he was nearby,” Tessa whispered, her face paling as she clutched the cuff to her chest and raised her dagger.
“The cuff, Tessie,” Dex said in a cold command.
“No,” she retorted, eyes darting around as seraphs closed in, waiting for an order from their apparent leader.
“But you just said you were going to hand it over. It’s the smartest thing you’ve said all day,” Dex went on, taking a step towards her. He extended a hand. “Give it to me, and I’ll fix everything.”
Something about his words made Tessa go eerily still.
“Tessa?” Theon said softly. “Give me the cuff.”
He reached for it, but she clutched it closer.
“You’re surrounded, Tessa,” Dex said sharply. “You’re surrounded and out of power. Your lovers have been using theirs, but they won’t last forever. They’ll die, and it will be your fault. I won’t be able to clean up that mess for you. I won’t— No!”
Dex was yelling, wings ripping free as he launched into the sky.
But he was too late.
Tessa had moved so godsdamn fast, throwing the cuff with everything she had far out in the lake behind them. It hit the water, sinking below it.
“You have no idea what you’ve done!” Dex bellowed, his face full of shock before he Traveled out.
Then the ground shook beneath their feet.
It was a faint tremor that made them all stumble at first, and then it was a violent jolt.
Ripples spread across the water, transforming into waves that became as brutal as the trembling ground beneath their feet.
There wasn’t time to think or come up with a plan.
There wasn’t time to get everyone together to Travel anywhere.
Luka grabbed Tessa, wrapping an arm around her waist as he yelled to Theon, “Get into the sky!”
They both launched up, getting as high as they could, but it was too late.
Power exploded from the lake, and the water went with it, as if the cuff had been transformed into some kind of explosive.
“Luka!” Theon bellowed, from several feet above them. Darkness reached for him, trying to wrap around them, but it wasn’t enough.
That surge of power shredded through the darkness, and all Luka could do was hold Tessa as tightly as he could, wrapping his wings and his magic around her as they plummeted to the ground.
The water from the lake fell around them, pelting and stinging like razor blades.
And the power? Gods, that explosion of magic rippled through him over and over, a never-ending current of energy and pain.
She didn’t scream, didn’t cry out. Tessa only clung to him just as tightly. He should have shifted long ago. He should have Traveled her and Theon out and come back for the others. He should have done so many things differently.
That was all he could think when they hit the ground hard, rolling several feet.
He felt various parts of his wings snap and tear, the pain excruciating, but still he kept his hold on Tessa tight until they finally stopped.
He couldn’t draw in a full breath. Whether from the hard landing or the pain wracking his body, he wasn’t entirely sure.
And for a moment, the world was quiet as both sides tried to recover from whatever the fuck had just happened.
Tessa moved first, stirring against him, and he grunted as she pushed a wing off herself as gently as she could.
She had injuries of her own, a dark bruise already forming on her cheek.
Scratches everywhere. With her magic so depleted, she wouldn’t heal herself as quickly, if at all, but she seemed relatively unharmed. Good. That was good.
He blinked, his vision going in and out of focus, and his dragon was trying to claw its way out. Was trying to protect him. But he couldn’t. Something was wrong with him. His dragon. Nothing was working right for some reason.
“Luka?” Tessa whispered, eyes wide as she took him in.
She lifted a hand, as if to touch a wing, but she pulled it back. So tentative and worried. Scared. Of him? Why was she scared of him?
“Are you… What do I do? I don’t know what I—” Then she was crawling to him and shoving at his chest. “Why did you do that?” she demanded, ignoring the low growl of discomfort.
Tears filled her eyes, and he didn’t know if they were sad or angry.
Pushing hair out of her face, red was left in the path of her hand.
Blood dripped down her forearm from another injury, flowing over a new Mark around her wrist. “Why did you do that? You didn’t have to come!
And now you are— Because of me. And I don’t know what to do!
” Looking around frantically, she cried, “Theon? Nylah? Roan?”
He could hear movement, the rustling of wings that told him the surviving seraphs were starting to recover.
Pushing past the pain, he thought he might have enough reserves to Travel her out.
He tried to push into a sitting position, to reach for her, but he couldn’t move his body right.
Then she was wrenched away from him, a cry of surprise sounding.
“You wild and reckless child,” Dexter snarled, hauling her to her feet by her hair. “You truly ruin everything, don’t you? And once again, I have to clean up your mess.”
Luka didn’t understand what was happening when he grabbed her arm, but Tessa clearly did.
“No!” she cried, yanking and pushing and trying to break his hold.
It didn’t matter. Dex tipped her arm, her wound dripping to the ground, and Tessa screamed, not in horror but in utter fury as a Hunter appeared.
“You called, your grace?” the Hunter said, his eerie voice wrapping around Luka’s bones like ice. So much like the voice Tessa could have, yet different.
“No,” she said, shaking her head wildly. “I didn’t. Leave. You are not needed.”
But more and more Hunters materialized, even as she spoke the words.
“Hold her,” Dex sneered, passing her off to the Hunter.
“Dex, no! Please no!” she cried, but he didn’t stop.
The male moved to stand over Luka, a sneer of disgust on his face.
“Another one of Sargon’s heirs fails his duties.
” His booted foot came down hard on a battered wing, the male grinding all his weight atop it.
Tessa cried out again, and Luka was fighting the urge to vomit at the excruciating pain.
“The thing is,” Dex continued, “a Hunter’s blade doesn’t do much to your kind since your fire burns away the poison. This blade, however…”
The seraph smiled, pulling a long, thin dagger from his belt. The hilt was gold and the blade itself was pure white with gold etchings.
“It was created especially for your kind,” Dex said, dropping to a knee beside him.
“Achaz created it just for Sargon and Arius and their little pets. We use it in weapons.” He flashed a dark smirk.
“Or collars. Which I did debate for you. We could use a replacement for your father, but I think this will break her more.” He leaned closer, his voice merciless. “And I need her fucking shattered.”
And Luka could do nothing but watch as he raised his arm above his head and sank the blade deep into his chest.
If he’d been in pain before, it was nothing compared to this, because he was dying.
No.
His dragon was dying, thrashing and keening in his soul. He’d never survive losing that piece of him.
Tessa was screaming, and his dragon was dying.
He tried to speak, holding her horrified stare. Willing her to understand the words he was mouthing.
Keep…fighting…baby girl.
And the last thing he saw was lightning flickering in endless violet depths before his dragon let out a defiant roar, and the world went dark and silent.