Chapter 42 Luka
LUKA
“Again,” Eliza ordered, stepping back so Tessa could get to her feet.
“When are you going home again?” Tessa grumbled, pushing off the ground from where Eliza had knocked her on her ass. Again.
“Stop whining and focus on your footwork. You’re putting too much weight on your front foot. Your magic can’t do everything,” the female retorted, getting into a defensive stance. “Go again.”
Luka had been sparring with Razik on the other side of the training room, but they’d stopped long ago to observe the females. He still couldn’t get over not only how well trained Eliza was, but also her training style.
“How long has she been the Fire General?” Luka asked.
“Longer than you’ve been breathing,” Razik replied.
Luka sent him a frank look. “Obviously. She’s centuries old. I’m a few decades.”
“She was the general long before I met her.”
“And the two of you have been together for…?”
Razik’s eyes flicked to him before going back to the females. “Why does that matter?”
He shrugged. “Just wondering. Tessa has been acting strange since we went to see Axel’s son.”
“And that has what to do with me and Eliza?”
This broody asshole.
“Nothing,” Luka muttered, turning to grab his shirt and water bottle. “It was just conversation, Razik.”
He left the training room through the back door that led into the gardens.
More than a little restless, he needed to get out.
Stretch his wings. They’d been back to see Axel, Kat, and Maddox every day since that first time last week.
Or he and Theon had. Tessa had only been back once, and once again, she’d hung back.
Chatting with Axel and Kat but avoiding the babe.
Tossing his things to a bench, he summoned his wings. But just before he launched into the sky, the doors opened again and Razik came out.
“Need something?” Luka asked in annoyance.
“No,” Razik said gruffly.
“Then…?”
Luka waited, trying to figure out what was happening here.
“I take it Tessa never told you about her conversation with Eliza regarding children,” Razik finally said.
Tessa had spoken to Eliza about this?
“When?” Luka demanded.
“A few months ago. When you two were not what you are now.”
“What did she say?”
Razik side-eyed him. “I’m not going to gossip with you.”
“Then why bring it up?”
“Because I don’t want you to ask Eliza about it,” Razik retorted, summoning his wings now, still shirtless from their sparring. “But Tessa asked about the Mark over her heart, and it’s a Curse Mark from the male she once believed to be her father. It prevents her from having children.”
Luka stared at him for a long moment. “How long ago?”
“When she was younger than you,” Razik answered. “And it’s part of the reason I was keen to go to another realm.”
Luka’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know a lot about Curse Marks, but isn’t the one who bestowed it the only one who can remove it?”
“Yes, but Eliza burned him from the inside out, so we need a different option.”
“But…there isn’t one,” Luka said slowly.
“There are worlds older than this one and new realms being born every day,” Razik said. “Somewhere out there is a workaround, and I will find it.”
“You want children that badly?”
“No,” Razik scoffed. “I mean, possibly. We’ve discussed it, but that’s not the point. The point is, the choice shouldn’t be made for her. If she doesn’t want children, fine. That’s her choice. Not because some bastard made it for her.”
Luka nodded. “And have you found anything?”
“I’ve found some possible leads. Tristyn is looking into some things for me,” he answered.
“Tristyn? Blackheart?”
“Do you know another Tristyn?”
“No, but— Just surprised, I guess,” Luka muttered.
“You know he’s how we got here, right? Yes, Scarlett helped us pass through the mirror gates, but Tristyn saw Scarlett in the mirrors a few years ago. Around the same time Theon did.”
That had Luka straightening. “He did what now?”
Razik scoffed. “Anyway, that wasn’t the only reason I came out here. While searching for a way to remove the Curse Mark, I may have come upon something else to pass along to your father.”
“Our father,” Luka corrected.
Razik glared at him. “Do you want this information or not?” When Luka only stared at him, waiting for him to go on, he said, “I’ve found a way to remove the collar around his neck.”
Luka lurched back in surprise. “You’ve been researching how to remove it?”
“That’s not what I said,” Razik grumbled.
“You figured it out? You know how?” Luka demanded.
“I can’t do it, but yeah, I know how,” he replied. There was a burst of black flames before a piece of paper appeared in his hand. Extending it to Luka, he said, “You’ll need Tessa. For her Chaos.”
Luka grabbed the paper and skimmed the words. If this was true, Tessa could break the collar. It was designed to restrain descendants of Arius and Sargon. The same material Dex had used to stab him by Lake Moonmist.
He glanced up at Razik. “You figured this out when Tessa healed me, didn’t you?”
“It gave me the idea. I just looked into it more,” he said flatly. “Anyway, you can let him know.”
“Or you can,” Luka said, extending the paper back to him.
But Razik didn’t take it. Instead, he leapt into the sky, done with the conversation.
Abandoning his own plans to go flying, Luka turned and went back through the training room.
Eliza and Tessa were nowhere to be seen, apparently done with their training.
He climbed stairs to the main floor, checking rooms as he went.
Arius House was still massive, even if they were only using one wing and the main part of the house right now.
He finally found Xan in the library, and he shouldn’t have been surprised. Theon was still researching everything he could about transferring power, needing to do something while they sat around and waited for Dagian to come through on getting that ring back.
Theon and Xan both looked up, Theon reaching for his mug of coffee while he asked, “How’d training go?”
“Fine,” Luka said quickly, attention fixed on Xan. “There’s something I need to show you.”
“What is it?” Xan asked, getting to his feet and crossing the room, taking the paper Luka extended to him.
Xan’s eyes went wide as he read the words scrawled on the page. “You figured out how to remove it?”
“Not me,” Luka answered, shaking his head. “Razik.”
Xan’s head snapped up, followed by a grimace as it jostled the stone at his throat. “Razik?”
Luka nodded.
“Where is he?”
“Went flying,” Luka answered. “But he said we’ll need Tessa for this.”
Xan nodded again, reading the notes on the paper once more.
“I can find her. Ask her to help now. If you’re ready?” Luka ventured, glancing at Theon, who had stood and come closer. Theon nodded, already striding for the door.
“I’ve been ready for twenty-five years,” Xan said, still staring at the paper.
A half hour later, they were gathered in the gardens. Razik was still off somewhere, despite Eliza speaking to him down their bond.
“He won’t come,” she said simply, curling her hands around the ends of her sleeves.
“Then I will go to him,” Xan replied. He turned to where Tessa was standing next to Theon, worrying her bottom lip as she read over the paper.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked. “What if something goes wrong?”
“You can do this, Tessa,” Theon said. “Luka and I are here if you go too deep.”
“That’s not really the part I’m worried about,” she murmured. “It’s more so the channeling that power at his throat.”
“If you’re not comfortable, you do not have to,” Xan said gently, but Luka could see the dread in his father’s eyes at the idea of having to wear that collar even a day longer.
She glanced at Luka, concern on her features.
I can’t do this, she whispered down the bond. What if I hurt him? I already stole time with him from you. What if I take him from you completely?
We’ll be right here beside you, Luka replied. Like Theon said, we know how to help you now.
Just… If I can’t do it, please don’t look at me differently.
Nothing will change the way I look at you, baby girl.
But he felt the hesitation down the bond, and he couldn’t really blame her since he had looked at her differently when he discovered the truth of his father. She didn’t argue further, though, squaring her shoulders and pulling one of her daggers from a swirl of chaos.
She closed the distance between her and Xan, his father dropping to a knee so she could reach easier.
“Thank you for this, Tessa,” he said quietly as she pierced her finger.
“Don’t thank me yet,” she muttered. “Wait until we’re sure I haven’t killed you.”
He smiled in encouragement, but she was focused on her task now. Placing her finger on the collar, she circled him, dragging her blood all the way around it. When she closed the circle, it flared faintly.
“Good, Tessa,” Theon said from where he’d come up behind her.
She stepped back. “That was the easy part.”
Theon placed his hand on the small of her back. “We’re right here. You can do this.”
Luka readied his own power, letting it linger just beneath his skin. He didn’t want to call it forth completely and distract her magic, but he wanted it ready, just in case.
Bringing a hand up, she let her magic pool, and Luka gritted his teeth. Even without trying, her power called to his. She knew the others were feeling it too. Eliza’s lips were pressed into a thin line, and Xan had leaned closer, as if her mere presence could set his power free.
He felt her letting herself slip a little deeper into her magic, her eyes glowing violet and her aura shimmering with that golden mist. But it was dark embers of onyx that floated among her hair.
With a shuddering breath, she used her other hand and swiped her fingers through the storm in her palm.
As if pulling a thread, a thin strand of chaos unraveled, and she sent it to the collar.
That thread settled along her circle of blood, flaring brighter still.
But that wasn’t enough. Achaz had been thorough when he’d created this cursed stone, and it required more than blood and chaos to break it.
It required light from beginnings.
Her brow furrowed in concentration, lightning flickered in her eyes as she slowly pulled the light from the chaos on the collar.
It splintered, tiny fissures of lightning appearing slowly.
This was the part she’d been worried about.
All the chaos and power so close to Xan’s throat.
One wrong move or thought, and they had no idea what would happen.
His father was scarcely breathing, and Luka found himself holding his breath as they waited. A frustrated growl came from Tessa, and she shifted her feet, pitching closer.
Theon followed, maintaining contact with her to keep her grounded. The light on the stone flared brighter, a crackling sound filling the air. Then she pressed her fingertips to the collar, more chaos seeping out. She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes snapping to Xan’s.
“I feel your power,” she lilted. “It is angry.”
“That it is, Tessa,” Xan answered. “Twenty-five years is a long time.”
Her head tipped to the side. “How did you not go mad?”
“Maybe I did.”
A terrifying grin filled her face. “Is that why we got along so well? Two souls lost to madness?”
“We have to be a little mad to dream, Tessalyn,” he said, his throat bobbing with a swallow.
She hummed in thought, clearly slipping deeper into her magic. “And have you dreamed of flying?”
“Every fucking day,” Xan gritted out, and it was then Luka realized his father was trembling.
With restraint or need, he didn’t know, but he was also realizing that the calm demeanor he’d come to know of the male wasn’t fully him.
It was only a part of him he’d been forced to embrace because the rest had been trapped by that collar.
Tessa pulled her hand back, a thread of pure gold between her fingers. With a final flash of a smile, she tugged on that magic, and the collar shattered, pieces of it dropping to the ground.
In the next blink, his father had shifted, a roar of fury ringing around them.
Theon had thrown himself over Tessa, dragging her back as the massive dragon whipped his head around, glowing sapphire eyes taking them all in.
He was the same dark midnight blue as Luka, but his wings, along with the ridges on his back, were the inky black of Theon’s darkness.
Then he leaped into the sky, the draft from his wings stirring the air around them. Several mighty flaps of those wings, and he was high enough in the air to release a stream of dragon fire into the clear sky. Twenty-five years’ worth of trapped power finally free.
A hand brushed his arm, and he looked away from his father to find Tessa looking up at him in curiosity. Her eyes were still glowing, and she was still a little lost to her power when she asked, “Are you going to fly with him?”
“What?” Luka asked.
“Go fly with him,” she said again.
“Go, Luka,” Theon added with a grin.
With a grin of his own, he shifted and was in the sky with his next breath.
The air was cool against his heated skin, and he let out a roar when his father flew higher, twisting and turning as he chased the thrill of flying.
Luka couldn’t imagine not being able to do this for twenty-five years.
He got in a mood if he went two days without flying, let alone twenty-five fucking years.
Luka banked in midair, and then stalled, hovering in place as he spotted the male perched on the roof of Arius House.
He still only had his wings, but he was watching them both, his features expressionless.
His wings flared, and Luka waited, willing him to join them.
He was the reason this was even happening after all.
Razik’s head tilted, and Luka knew Eliza was speaking to him down the bond.
But Razik shook his head, and Luka wondered if he’d ever get to a place where he could admit he wanted a relationship with Xan.
Maybe someday, but he wouldn’t let his brother keep him from enjoying this moment.
For twenty-five years, he’d thought he was the last of his kind, and now he was in the sky with his father while his brother watched on.
He looked down, finding those on the ground watching them. He could make out Tessa’s smile where she was tucked into Theon’s side. Without her, he wouldn’t have any of this. It all went back to her.
The female he’d told Theon not to Select.
The one he’d swore wasn’t the one for this.
Too wild.
Too impulsive.
The perfect one for chaos.