Chapter 26 Tessa
TESSA
The world was too quiet.
Or maybe sound was just muted?
There was a faint buzzing. A low din in the background that wouldn’t stop as she stared and stared at that dagger lodged in Luka’s chest. Because he wasn’t moving. And why wasn’t he moving? He was a dragon. A dragon. He couldn’t just…stop moving.
And there was something in her that was breaking.
A fracture that was deepening. Splitting her apart.
And it was all she could feel. She couldn’t breathe.
There was no one to tell her to put one foot in front of the other.
No one to guide her through the dark. Who was going to continue her training?
And tell her to get over her shit? And tell Theon when he was being an ass?
Who was going to buy her flip-flops?
And why was she thinking about flip-flops when he wasn’t fucking moving?
Because being the grandchild of a god was lonely, and she had just saved Theon for him, and now he was not moving?
No.
No, no, no.
Her hands were in her hair, pulling at the strands, but she couldn’t feel the pain that would usually ground her because all she could feel was her soul breaking. And her chest burned. And the back of her neck. And—
No!
She looked down to find the Source Mark over her heart flaring and fraying, as if it too was being pulled apart. Because he was part of that, and he was not moving.
And then she heard him.
Felt him.
His bellows of agony broke through the drowning silence.
She moved so violently the Hunter holding her wasn’t expecting it, and she spun, searching.
Theon was maybe twenty feet from her on his knees and curled in on himself.
His face to the ground and hands on his head as if he was dying too.
As if he was being ripped apart as much as she was.
“The death of a guardian is excruciating for their wards,” came Dex’s whispered words in her ear, one of his hands pulling her hair over her shoulder.
“But you know all about that, don’t you, Tessie?
” A finger ran down her nape, directly atop her third Source Mark.
“Still, it will be worse for the Arius heir because you never accepted your bond with the dragon. A regret for both of you, I’m sure. Now that it will never come to be.”
Another cry of pure torture came from Theon, and he was crawling.
Theon was dragging himself across the ground, trying to get to Luka.
But Hunters were converging and closing in around him, drawn by his Arius blood, and they no longer answered to her.
But they didn’t attack. They just continued to circle, eyes keen on their prey as he stopped and cried out again.
And she could feel his agony mixing with her own, and it brought her to her knees. Gods, she wouldn’t survive this. None of them would survive this.
“They won’t kill him yet,” Dex said, crouching beside her. “I won’t let them. I want him to feel every ounce of that fucking bond dying. Only then will I let the Hunters have him.”
Her Source Marks were like a hot brand now, as torturous as when she’d received them.
The Source Marks.
Slowly, she lifted her hands, turning them over. The Arius Mark on one hand, but the other…
She only needed enough to take a little.
Lifting her head, she could see Theon through the faintly translucent Hunters. He was still clawing at the muddy ground, trying to get closer. Strangled grunts and cries coming from his chest in a way she’d never imagined. He was always so sure, exuding power.
And she looked back over her shoulder at Luka’s unmoving form. He was always strong and broody, never taking anyone’s shit.
“I tried to do this nicely, Tessie,” Dex whispered. “Your actions caused this, just like they did all those years ago in this same place. I had to clean up that mess too.” She slowly turned to face him, his dark eyes glittering with triumph. “All you had to do was do as you were told.”
Why can’t you just do as you are told?
Too wild.
Too much to deal with.
Not worth the hassle.
Nothing.
All the things that had been hurled at her for two decades resounded in her head.
He’d known the entire time. Had used all of that to manipulate her.
Control her. Get her to trust him. He’d played into it, always fixing mistakes and cleaning up her messes.
Because she was just a helpless, uncontrollable thing that needed saving and protecting.
Except she wasn’t any of those things.
No one controlled her.
She wasn’t too wild. She was the daughter of the wild and untamed.
She wasn’t too much to deal with. She’d only needed to understand how she was different to find her balance.
She wasn’t too much of a hassle. She’d just needed to learn what real love felt like and how to accept it.
She wasn’t nothing.
She was Chaos.
Holding Dex’s stare, he started at whatever he saw on her face when she said in that eerie, maniacal tone, “I’m going to kill you.
” She slowly rose to her feet. “You’re going to run because you’re a coward, but I will hunt you down.
It won’t be too much of a hassle. I’ll enjoy it.
Knowing you’re constantly wondering if today will be the day I find you and make such an awful mess.
I’m going to kill you, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it. ”
Then she tugged on that bond, yanking and pulling on everything that connected her to Theon until she found his magic. It was trembling and writhing, and it was depleted from the fighting. She felt terrible about taking it from him, but she just needed enough to take.
So she wrapped her light around it and called it to her, and she felt him jerk at the pull.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered before she yanked harder, forcing it to follow. The thing in her soul drank it up, starved and feral. His darkness merged with her gifts, becoming what she was as he became her Source of power.
It took Dex far longer than it should have for him to realize what was happening, but he was on his feet and stumbling back from her. “No,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Not possible. It’s not… Your his Source.”
Tessa lifted a hand, light and dark appearing. Golden embers and silver ashes. All of it circling and spinning together. Everything and nothing. Chaos in the palm of her hand.
“I will not fail in my tasks,” Dex gritted out.
“Today you will,” she replied, and her power struck, Dex Traveling out a second before it landed.
With Dex gone, the other seraphs scrambled, as if unsure what to do. Lightning arced from her palm, chaos following, and a seraph screamed when it found its mark.
And her magic took.
She did the same thing, again and again, until she could stop drawing from Theon because her power was feasting.
And Theon—
She spun, the Hunters closing in with no one here to rein them in.
Tessa summoned her bow, letting her power have its way with the seraphs while she nocked arrows and took down Hunters. Hunter and seraph. Seraph and Hunter. It didn’t matter.
Chaos does not choose.
It devoured, and when it had taken enough, she didn’t stop it. She let it have her, lifting her off the ground until she was hovering feet above them. Only then did she yank on her power, wrestling with it. Trying to take back some control.
“Not them,” she hissed. “We don’t hurt them.”
It pulled and snapped, trying to buckle under her one command.
“Everyone else. Not them,” she repeated.
Then she let it go once more, watching it pour out of her and spread like a net.
It wrapped around the seraphs fleeing in the sky and those running for cover in the surrounding trees.
It wound among the Hunters, down their throats and squeezing whatever life-force from their beings.
It took life from the trees and the water and the wind, but it did not touch Theon or Luka. It did not linger near Nylah or Roan.
But she felt it all. Could feel the power from her toes to the tips of her fingers. Could feel it swirling in her eyes and flowing in her veins. This thing she’d always known was there but could never control.
Because Chaos wasn’t meant to be controlled.
Chaos was meant to reign.
And when they were all gone, when only those she loved remained, she drifted back down, already running as her bare feet hit the ground soaked with water and blood. Because her reserves were full after taking so much life, and Luka still wasn’t moving.
She dropped to her knees beside him, all the pain and grief mixing with her fury and chaos. He wasn’t gone yet because she could still feel the bond in her soul splintering, on the precipice of snapping altogether.
“Tessa, there’s nothing—”
But she twisted with a snarl when someone touched her shoulder, finding Brecken standing over her, and he yanked his hand back.
Holding his hands up in supplication, he said, “Okay, Tessa. Okay. I won’t touch you.”
Movement caught her eye, and she found Razik and Eliza with Theon, helping him over to where they were. He couldn’t even stand, let alone walk. She didn’t have time to wait though. Twisting back to Luka, she didn’t know what to do.
His wings were ripped to shreds in some places. He had open wounds everywhere with small pools of blood forming. He had a dagger in his chest.
Her power snarled at the thought, and she let herself sink into it. She had no idea what she was doing, but she was light and dark. Life and death. Beginning and endings. If she could take, she could give too. Right?
She clasped the dagger, yanking it out. Blood immediately poured from his chest, running along his flesh.
Lifting a trembling hand, she let her power pool there.
Let it swirl and grow, pouring everything she had into it.
Then she sent it to Luka, straight into the wound on his chest. Her palm covered the wound, trying to keep blood in.