Chapter 47 Theon #2
She turned her head to him with a smirk. “Don’t let anyone see you.”
“How are we supposed to scale that?” he asked, gesturing to the wall.
She turned in the other direction. “Lange?”
He winked. “Sure thing, Tess.”
A minute later, Lange was using his air magic to lift them over the wall. When the last of them were on the other side, they turned and faced the house.
“Now what?” Axel asked.
“We go in,” Theon replied. His magic was tense, as on edge as he was, and he could feel it writhing in anticipation.
“The Mark,” Luka said, handing him a dagger.
Right. It was the only way they could come up with to track down his mother. A Blood Mark that would lead him to a blooded relative.
The others studied the house for a way in while he drew the Mark he’d practiced for days on his forearm.
When he finished, they made their way to the side of the house.
The front door was obviously out, but there had to be other entrances.
Except they couldn’t find a single one. In fact, there wasn’t even a front door.
“He must shadow-walk here,” Theon said.
“So we Travel in?” Tessa asked.
“But you can’t Travel to somewhere you haven’t been.”
“I can’t Travel somewhere I don’t know,” she corrected. “If I look in the windows…”
He didn’t like the idea one bit, but they were wasting time. The longer they fucked around out here, the more likely they were to be caught.
Tessa and Luka crept to the lowest window they could find and peered in. Then they both ducked down in a rush, crawling to another window before making their way back.
“The first window was to your father’s study,” Luka reported. “He’s in there.” His eyes flicked to the Fae. “So are Eviana and the child.”
“My mother first, then them,” Theon said pointedly to the males.
They clearly didn’t like that, but the plan was set. They weren’t changing anything now.
Tessa took Lange and Corbin while Luka grabbed his elbow and Axel’s shoulder, Traveling them inside. They all froze for nearly a minute, releasing a collective breath of relief when no one appeared in the room they’d entered.
“You’re up,” Luka said, looking at Theon, and he concentrated on the Mark.
In the end, it ended up working similarly to the Tracking Mark they had on Tessa.
A pull in his soul had them creeping out of the room and up a set of stairs.
They ran into no one, not even a servant.
He wasn’t entirely surprised by that. His father had too many secrets here to keep a full staff.
There was likely only two or three trusted servants here, and they would all be busy with their daily tasks.
Continuing down a long hall, they came to a dead end, only the stone wall to greet them.
“A closet?” Axel asked when he turned to a small door.
But Theon didn’t answer, following the pull of the Mark. Sure enough, they opened the door and found a narrow stairwell, making their way up.
“This can’t be right,” Theon muttered.
They were all crammed onto a small landing. In fact, Corbin and Lange weren’t even able to fit on the landing, still standing on the stairs.
“It’s just a wall,” Axel said.
“I can see that,” he snapped.
But the Mark was still pulling him closer, insistent and warming his soul. As if what he was seeking was just out of reach on the other side.
“It isn’t just a wall,” Tessa breathed, placing both her palms on the stone. “Can’t you feel that?”
Theon and Luka glanced at each other. “No?” Theon said.
“There’s power here,” she whispered, chaos seeping from her palms. “Lots of power.”
“Tessa, you’re going to trigger something,” Luka growled, reaching to grab her.
“Wait,” Theon said, holding up a hand to stop him. “Look.”
There were tiny fissures crackling along the stone. As thin as strands of hair, they raced out from beneath her palms.
“There’s power on the other side,” Tessa hummed, slipping into that eeriness as her power took over. “We want it.”
“Be ready to stop her,” Theon warned.
“What do you think I was doing?” Luka retorted.
He ignored the sarcasm, letting his darkness swarm and billow, creating a shield to protect Axel and the Fae in case the wall exploded. Which would not be great and would probably alert his father, so he was really hoping that wouldn’t be the case.
Little by little, pieces of the wall fell to the ground.
Tiny pebbles and pieces of shale. It sounded like raindrops as they fell faster and faster until they all crumbled into a pile, leaving them staring into a room.
A small sofa for two. A table and chairs for the same.
A small bed. And on her feet, wide emerald eyes staring back at them was—
“Caris?” Axel rasped, and Theon was glad he said it, because he sure as fuck couldn’t.
He was just…staring at her.
A phantom of his past. A female he’d watched be tortured to death in front of his own eyes when he was scarcely ten years. A nursemaid who’d been more of a mother to him than Cressida had ever been.
Her eyes were bouncing between him and Axel and Luka, and she appeared as frozen as they were. No one daring to breathe or move. As if they were looking through a pane of glass.
“She is powerful,” Tessa hummed, stepping over the line of crumbled rock and into the room. “But she is trapped.”
“Tessa, stop,” Luka ground out, going after her and winding an arm around her waist. He pulled her back into his chest, his dragonfire brushing along her arms and stomach.
But now the female’s gaze was holding Theon’s, and all he could think to say was, “How?”
She smiled sadly as she took him in. “You’re tall.” Her gaze skipped between the three of them again. “You all are.”
“How?” Theon repeated. “You’re not… You can’t be…”
“You have to speak it otherwise I cannot say it,” she said, still as unmoving as he was.
A vow or oath of some sort then.
“You’re my mother?” Theon asked, the words quiet as they passed his lips.
And she nodded, something shifting in her features. A wariness, perhaps? Suspicion?
“We saw you die,” Axel said suddenly. “We watched it. What he did…”
“You watched the torture,” she said, her fingers curling at her sides. “You thought you saw my death.”
“We scattered your ashes in Sinvons Lake,” Luka said, and Theon could feel his own suspicion down the bond.
“But did you see my body burn?”
“None of this makes any sense,” Theon said. He took a step back, pebbles crunching under his shoes. “This is a trap.”
“How can it be? The Mark led you here,” Tessa said, seemingly back from the depths of her power.
“I hear you have become quite the academic,” the female said tentatively, clasping her hands in front of her.
“From who? Him?” Theon sneered.
She arched a brow. “Valter only visits me to gloat or try to force me to aid him. He never speaks of you. Of any of you. It was a torture in and of itself.”
“I think you need to explain…everything,” Luka said, still holding Tessa to him, and she was looking at the female with keen interest.
“She’s trapped,” Tessa said again.
Ignoring her, Theon said, “Start from the beginning.”
She studied him for a long moment, and he felt too godsdamn exposed. Why was he wondering what she thought of him? If he measured up? He’d watched Caris die, and even then, Caris couldn’t have been his mother. She was a Fae with water magic in love with Pen.
“My family line is the original line to rule Arius Kingdom,” she finally said.
“Bullshit,” Axel spat, and her head whipped to him, eyes narrowing.
“Language, Axel St. Orcas,” she snapped.
His eyes went wide, and he stumbled back a step. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“The St. Orcas family challenged my brother for the seat. He was far older than me. Over a century. I was young, around the age you all are now,” she went on.
“Wait, I do know some of this,” Theon said, taking a tentative step towards her. “Valter’s father challenged for the seat nearly four centuries ago.”
She nodded, a bitter smile tilting on her lips. “And he won. My brother was killed, and he took the seat. I was allowed to remain a noble…until your father claimed his seat.”
“But…you’re a Fae. Not an Arius Legacy,” Theon said. “You have water magic.”
“Just like Penelope, right?” Caris asked.
“You’re saying it was never you?”
She nodded, raising her arms slightly. Two metal cuffs were at her biceps. He’d never seen her without them. In his formative years, they were just accessories. A part of her, but now that he was older and understood…
“She’s trapped,” Tessa repeated.
“He had them custom made,” the female said. “I was presented with them the evening of his lordship. He demanded I become his Match.”
“That’s forbidden. It upsets the balance of power in the realms,” Theon replied.
“Because the Lords and Ladies of Devram are so pious,” she deadpanned.
“I declined, and he accepted that for a time.” She shifted on her feet, eyes suddenly darting around the room, looking anywhere but at them.
“He and Rordan became close, forming the Augury. Every few months, Valter would approach me with his request, and every time I would deny him. I had found Pen by that time. She’d been assigned to Arius Kingdom, and…
” She shrugged. “Things happen as things do.
I loved her with my whole soul. Valter learned of the relationship and saw it as a betrayal in his twisted mind.
“Valter and Rordan had their falling out, and the Arius Kingdom was shunned more than ever,” she went on.
“Of course, Valter wanted vengeance against everyone and everything. Kingdom alliances were being threatened, and the rulers held a conclave, agreeing to all attempt to have children the same age. Priestesses were brought in to help…better the odds.”
“Obviously it worked,” Axel muttered.
“It did,” she agreed. “But your father wouldn’t risk it. By that time, he’d taken a Match.”
“Cressida,” Theon said.
She nodded again. “But it wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted a child that would be more powerful than the others. A full Arius Legacy, through and through.”
“Are you saying… Theon is two Arius bloodlines?” Tessa asked.
“The next time he approached me, my rejection was not an option. I was brought here, and… Well, you were created,” she said, gesturing in Theon’s direction. “Cressida fell pregnant at the same time. Of course, her child was not fully Arius, and her child was a female.”
“Axel’s sister,” Theon said. Luka had told them all of this, filling them in on what Xan had told them. How his mother had taken the female and fled. How they’d been in hiding all this time in the Anala Kingdom.
“Yes,” she said, moving to the table. She rested her palm on the surface, taking a deep breath before she lifted her gaze to them once more.
“You were born and passed off as her child. The Arius Heir. Of course, Cressida wanted nothing to do with you, and she was still pregnant at your birth. Her child wasn’t born for another six weeks.
I was forced into an oath to never reveal the circumstances, but in exchange, I was allowed to be your caretaker and stay with Pen.
No longer a noble Legacy, but a Fae in service to the kingdom. ”
She smiled softly. “It was worth the sacrifice to get to be there. In a way, you were mine and Pen’s, even if you were his heir.
I got to care for you, see your first steps, hear your first words.
I got to…” She cleared her throat, eyes darting away once more.
“And then Luka came shortly before Axel was born. Soon, there were three mischievous boys running amuck. You became my world, and I became your weakness. Although that day was my fault, not yours.”
Theon’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? He was punishing us that day.”
She smiled sadly. “I’m sure he wanted you to think that, and I am told he used the moment to his advantage.
But that day was about breaking me. He wanted more from me because even then, he was starting to fear you were going to turn on him.
He is paranoid, and I can’t really blame him in this world.
Everyone is always out for everyone. I refused to go through that again.
I snuck out one night. I may have been passed off as a Fae, but I still remembered the secrets of the kingdom.
Stealing coin, I found passage to the Underground where I paid off a Witch for these.
” She gestured to the Marks across her collarbone.
“What do they do?” Theon asked.
“Take away my ability to have children.”
“Like a Curse Mark?” Tessa asked, and Theon glanced at her in confusion.
“It’s not a curse,” she replied. “I cannot even conceive a child. The day I returned and he saw them was the day I was tortured in front of you.”
Theon blinked, the memory surfacing. She had been gone for days. They were more than a handful at that age, and Pen hadn’t been able to wrangle all three of them, much less for days on end. That was what they had assumed they were being punished for, but…
“You’re my mother?” Theon asked, restating what was now an obvious question. The emerald eyes. The midnight hair. Even some of the facial features were the same.
“It’s why you look like Arius,” Tessa murmured. “Two distant bloodlines with a twist of fate.”
“I’m told you are not like him,” Caris said. “That none of you are. That you’ve found love and that somehow, you are not like him.”
“Who told you that?” Theon asked, taking another step closer.
“Eviana has been visiting.”
Right. Eviana.
He turned to tell the Fae males that they would go find her in a moment, but the landing was empty. So were the stairs.
They’d gone off without them.