Chapter 29 Luka
LUKA
Luka had woken up, finding the room empty other than Tessa.
Her steady breathing was the only sound filling the space.
The blanket draped over her was no doubt courtesy of Theon, and for her to be sleeping that deeply, Theon hadn’t left the room all that long ago either.
She’d looked different. Rested. Unharmed.
Unlike him.
His entire body ached, even if all of his wounds were mostly healed. He felt like he’d fallen out of the sky, and his wings were still tender. He could banish them, but he hadn’t. Not yet. He wasn’t doing anything to them until he talked to Cienna, just to make sure he didn’t fuck something up.
Everything felt off yet somehow right, and he couldn’t explain it.
Someone else would need to explain it to him because he didn’t know how long he’d been sleeping, or how they’d ended up at the Underground Penthouse, or what was going on in the realm.
The last thing he remembered was Tessa’s tearstained face before his world had gone dark.
He’d expected to wake up in the After, not the Underground.
So he’d let Tessa sleep and made his way to the bathroom, taking a long shower. He let the warm water soothe aching muscles, and when he was done washing, he just stood in the spray. He shouldn’t have survived, yet here he was.
When he’d woken, he’d immediately recognized the room as Theon’s, and with no clothing in there, he went across the hall with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Finding training pants, he didn’t bother with a shirt.
Opening the door to go back across the hall, he stopped short, finding Theon leaning against the opposite wall, waiting for him.
Neither of them said anything. They didn’t need to when they’d spent nearly every day together their entire lives.
Then Theon reeled him in, careful of his wings.
“You almost fucking died,” Theon said, his voice thick with barely restrained emotion.
“I feel like I almost died,” Luka replied, his voice hoarse from lack of use. Pulling back, he crossed his arms, Theon resuming his position on the wall. “How long have I been out?”
“Nearly three godsdamn weeks,” Theon answered, the disapproval heavy.
“Sorry about that,” Luka drawled. “I’ll try to keep it under two next time.”
“There won’t be a next time, you prick. What the fuck were you thinking? Why didn’t you Travel out?” Theon demanded.
“I was thinking I couldn’t leave you behind,” Luka retorted. “I know you did it, but I couldn’t. Maybe that makes me weaker than you, but fuck, Theon. I couldn’t leave you there to die.”
“But you did nearly leave me,” Theon growled. “That was… Did you know if a Guardian dies, the Ward feels every excruciating piece of the bond dying too?”
Luka blinked. “What?”
“Yeah,” Theon said tightly. “I didn’t know that either.
” He shoved a hand through his hair, clearing his throat.
“Tessa was screaming, and you were dying, and I was… I was trying to get to both of you, and I couldn’t even drag myself across the fucking ground.
If anyone was weak, it was me, Luka. Not you. ”
They both fell silent, Theon shoving his hand through his hair again. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to his elbows, leaving his forearms bare, which is the only reason Luka’s gaze caught on the new Mark around his wrist.
“Did you make another Bargain?” Luka asked, jerking his chin in reference.
Theon froze, looking at his wrist, before clearing his throat again. “Something like that. You should eat. Come on. Axel can cook now.”
“I’m not eating anything Axel has made,” Luka said dryly, following him down the stairs. He knew Theon was moving slowly for him, and it grated against his pride, even if he was thankful for it.
“Just you wait,” Theon muttered.
“She’ll be all right? Alone in that room?”
The corner of his lips quirked in a small smile. “She’ll find us when she wakes.”
The rest of the penthouse was quiet as they made their way to the kitchen, and when Theon went to the fridge to retrieve leftovers, Luka asked, “Where is everyone?”
“Everyone is out. Eliza was going stir crazy, so Razik and Axel took her to wander. Brecken too. Cienna and Gia had matters to tend to. Tristyn too. Xan’s with them.
Kat is upstairs resting,” Theon answered, loading up a plate with what appeared to be ham, potatoes, gravy, and vegetables.
He glanced up as he worked. “Kat is pregnant.”
“Fuck off,” Luka said, eyes widening.
Theon huffed a laugh, placing the plate in the microwave. “Early in her sixth month.”
“Axel’s…right?” Luka said, taking a seat at the counter.
Theon nodded, filling a glass of water and sliding it to him. “Yeah. It’s Axel’s. There’s a lot that’s happened since we were separated. Axel and Kat are married.”
Luka stilled, the glass halfway to his mouth. “They’re married too?”
Theon nodded, now focused on repackaging the leftovers. “Yeah. Bree is trying to steal the Underground. I killed Cordelia. Tessa killed Felicity. Cressida isn’t my mother—”
“How’d you learn that?” Luka interrupted, setting his glass down after taking a long drink.
Theon’s eyes narrowed. “Why aren’t you surprised by that?”
“Xan told me. Shortly before we came to the Celeste Estate,” Luka said, and then he told Theon all about his own mother, Axel’s potential sister, and more.
Theon stared at him, the leftovers forgotten now. The microwave had beeped long ago, but neither of them had bothered retrieving the reheated food. Not until Luka was done speaking, and then he was pretty sure it was only because Theon needed something to do while he processed everything.
“So your mother is supposedly with my half-sister in the Anala Kingdom?” Theon said. “And Kyra and her kingdom have been harboring Fae and kindling a rebellion for decades? That’s why they’re so stringent on who they let in?”
“From the sounds of it, yes,” Luka said, not realizing just how hungry he was until Theon placed the plate of food in front of him. He needed to pace himself, but fuck, it smelled divine. “What else?”
“What do you mean ‘what else?’” Theon asked, watching him carefully, because of course he was. Always worrying about those he viewed as his.
“What else do I need to know?”
He went quiet, and Luka glanced up in between shoveling mashed potatoes into his mouth.
His friend’s hands were braced on the countertop, head hanging down as he clearly debated how to say something.
Luka was about to tell him just to spit it out, but then his dragon stirred in his soul and he could have cried.
Because he’d felt his dragon dying, and somehow it was still here.
It hadn’t moved, and Luka had been too afraid to try to summon it because what if it had been gone?
But something else had summoned it. Or someone.
And he didn’t need to turn around to know who was standing in the kitchen doorway.
Just like he didn’t need to see the look on Theon’s face as his attention went there too.
“Sleep well, beautiful?” Theon asked. She must have nodded because he followed up with, “Are you hungry?”
“No,” she said softly. “I won’t stay. I just wanted to…see.”
“You don’t have to go—”
“It’s fine, Theon,” she interrupted. “I just needed to see.”
Theon clearly waited until she was gone before his eyes slid back to Luka. “You need to talk to her.”
“I just woke up. She was sleeping. Haven’t really had time,” Luka muttered, stabbing at some squash.
Theon sighed. “I know. It’s just… There’s a lot happening right now, and we can’t have this hanging over us. It will interfere. I’m assuming you made a decision, and that’s why you’d come to find us?”
“I said I’ll talk to her,” Luka growled. “Can I finish fucking eating first?”
Theon nodded, tapping his index finger on the counter. Once. Twice. Three times. Luka dropped his fork to his plate.
“Say it,” he said, crossing his arms and watching his friend.
“Say what?”
“Whatever it was you were about to tell me before Tessa appeared. Whatever is eating at you so we can move past that too.”
Theon straightened, that hand going through his hair again as a muscle ticked in his jaw. “Jove and the Ladies gave me a path to the Arius seat,” he said. “You asked how I could be the Arius Lord with my father still alive. They gave me a way to do that.”
“Which is?” Luka asked, bracing his forearms on the countertop.
“If I had a formal Match, they would all agree to appoint me.”
“You have a Match. Or had one. Didn’t you say Tessa killed her?”
Theon nodded. “I did. They wouldn’t release Tessa to me until I had the Match Ceremony performed. Felicity was with me under the guise of being my wife. Even she didn’t know it wasn’t real.”
“And now you have Tessa and no wife,” Luka surmised. “How do you plan to take the seat now?”
“That’s the thing,” he said, holding Luka’s stare as he lifted his arm. The new Mark wound around his wrist. “I do have a wife.”
Luka didn’t blink. Didn’t look away. All he could think to say was, “Did she agree to this?”
Theon’s brow furrowed. “Are you asking if I forced her into it?”
“You did force her into a bond. It’s not far-fetched,” he replied plainly.
“Fuck off, Luka,” Theon retorted. “If you can’t see things have changed, then I don’t know what to tell you. I asked her to do this for me, and she agreed with stipulations of her own.”
“Which were what?” Luka ground out.
“Ask her,” Theon answered with a cruel smirk. “Sounds like the two of you have a lot to discuss.”
Then he grabbed Luka’s plate and turned away, apparently done with the conversation. Which was fine. If the fucker was going to dismiss him, he didn’t need to sit here in awkward silence.
He pushed back from the counter, his stool scraping on the kitchen floor.
Theon grumbled about “dragon tantrums,” and then he huffed a laugh when Luka snarled under his breath. But just as he reached the kitchen doorway, he called his name.