Chapter 49 Tessa #3
The female turned, meeting her gaze, and Tessa could see the madness there. Fractured and furious.
“You got back up,” she said, energy crackling in her aura as streaks of gold and violet lit up the sky. Her eyes flashed to Theon. “And you have taken what’s yours.”
She took a step towards her, and Theon pulled Tessa back, his darkness appearing.
“Don’t!” Xan barked, but not fast enough.
A maniacal grin spread on the female’s face as light arched from her hand, somehow latching onto Theon’s darkness and dragging it to her.
“The fuck?” Luka growled, stalking forward and summoning his own magic.
The female tipped her head back and laughed, lifting her other hand and letting her power latch onto his too. Luka stumbled as that light yanked, and it was all Tessa needed to see.
“Come closer, little ones,” the female sang, taking another step and reaching with her hand. “Let me taste it.”
She grunted when light and dark slammed into her, shoving her back and back and back as Tessa stalked forward. “I become incredibly violent when people touch what is mine,” Tessa snarled, fury coursing through her veins.
“No! Stop!” Xan interjected, shoving himself between Tessa and the female. “Akira, stop. We don’t harm them. Here.”
The male’s black flames appeared, sliding up her arms, along her collarbone. Winding into her golden hair.
“Breathe and take,” Xan coaxed. “Then look.”
Her eyes fell closed, her storm of power winding around Xan’s black flames, and she inhaled deeply. When she opened her eyes, gold was swirling in their grey depths, similar to the way Auryon’s used to swirl with ashes.
“Xan?” she whispered.
“There you are,” he said with a smile. “You have it under control?”
“For now,” she agreed, and he pulled her into an embrace. “Where is he? Where is Temural?”
“Not here,” Xan murmured, still holding her close. “But there is someone else you should meet.”
He stepped back, his hand falling to the small of her back.
Tessa could feel Theon and Luka behind her as Akira’s eyes widened when they settled on her.
Tessa still had her hands raised, chaos at her fingertips.
She could feel it swirling in her eyes, knowing they were a mirror of Akira’s, only a different color.
“Tessalyn,” Akira breathed.
She moved to take a step towards her, but stopped when Tessa said, “Tessa. That is my name.”
Akira nodded, her fingers flexing at her sides as she shuffled from side to side.
“There is a lot of power here,” she murmured, stretching her neck one way than the other as if trying to get something under control.
“Too much. There is too much power here.” She spun suddenly, Xan catching her wrists when she reached for his shirt. “Did I hurt them? Try to—”
“She stopped you,” he consoled, more of his dragonfire skimming across her arms. His brow furrowed. “How long has he starved you?”
“Too long,” she murmured. “She is upset with me.”
“Who? Anala?”
She shook her head, golden strands swaying. “Tessa. I can feel her fury.”
Xan’s eyes flicked to her, and Tessa stared back, expressionless. She wasn’t entirely sure what was happening here.
“Were you followed?” Tessa asked sharply, and Xan frowned, but she didn’t care. “Did someone follow you through the portal?”
“We would have seen them, Tessa,” Xan replied.
“You don’t know that,” she argued. “Phantoms could slip through, and you cannot tell me gods cannot be invisible if they choose.”
“She is wise,” Akira murmured. Tessa watched her shoulders rise with another deep inhale before she turned once more to face her. “No one followed me, Tessa.”
“Where were you?”
“Locked in his world with nowhere to go.”
“This whole time?” Tessa demanded.
“For decades.”
“Was I born there?”
“No.”
Tessa nodded, her fingers curling into her palms as she started pacing.
Until Luka pulled her into him, and Theon slid a palm down her hair.
Akira’s eyes narrowed in interest. “Who are they?”
But Tessa didn’t answer as her power twisted in her soul, mirroring her conflicting emotions.
“They are her balance, Akira,” Xan said softly.
“Two?”
Xan smiled. “She is the daughter of wild and Fury. She requires two to balance her. The Fates delivered.”
“The Fates did shit,” Tessa snapped, shaking off the males. She felt steadier, drawing from their possession.
Akira hummed. “Which ones did you meet?”
“What?”
“Which Fates? Some are more palatable than others,” Akira clarified.
“I didn’t… You’ve met the Fates?”
“You haven’t?”
“This conversation is going around in circles,” Theon grumbled, and Tessa sent him a dry look over her shoulder.
She should feel something, right? Some kind of familial connection? Some kind of…something.
“The fuck?” Luka barked when Akira suddenly jumped forward a step. Tessa once again found herself being dragged back.
“Do you like stories?” Akira asked, her hands clasped under her chin and face full of hope as she held Tessa’s stare.
“By the gods, you can’t be serious,” Theon muttered under his breath.
“I love stories,” Tessa replied.
“Me too. Me too,” Akira murmured, starting to pace. Small steps, back and forth, Xan staying close. “In all things, there must be balance. Beginnings and endings.”
“Light and dark,” Tessa supplied.
“Fire and shadows,” Akira said in excitement.
“The skies, the seas, the realms,” Tessa echoed.
“Yes,” Akira said, nodding as she continued her pacing.
Sparks of energy echoed each step. “Beginnings and Endings were once friends, forced to keep the balance in the stars. A common purpose and a trusted bond. Until one desired more. He convinced Endings to join him, and Accords were struck, until Endings uncovered truths and lies woven to create new realities. He turned from Beginnings, taking Dreams with him.”
“Arius and Serafina,” Tessa said softly.
“Good,” Akira said, nodding. She seemed relieved that Tessa understood.
“Beginnings was furious. He sought others to help him seek revenge, creating beings and armies, but he wanted more. Always more. He found one to give him a child, but the child wasn’t enough either.
He stole what was not his, forcing her to keep it.
It corrupted her. Twisted into something new.
Created fury that could not be contained, but she tried.
She tried to contain it, but she was never enough. ”
The words were shrouded in anguish, Akira’s steps quickening with each one.
“She tried to please him. Tried to be what he wanted her to be. Took more and more, forced to keep and keep. Take and keep. Take and keep,” she continued.
“This isn’t making any sense,” Luka muttered.
“Don’t interrupt the story,” Tessa and Akira snapped at the same time.
But it was making perfect sense to Tessa. She understood every single word.
“Every time she slipped a little more into what she was not supposed to have. It consumed her. She was desperate to please him, so she went in search of something that would make her enough. They were hidden among the stars. Secrets of Dreams and Death.”
“Saylah and Temural,” Razik said quietly, and Akira spun to him.
“Yes! Yes! Wild and Shadows.” She spun in a circle, resuming her pacing.
The energy swirling around her flickered in the air, lightning crackling and thunder sounding far off in the distance.
“I found him. Or he found me. His Trackers did. He found me, and the world was quieter,” she murmured.
She paused for a moment, her fingers closing into fists at her sides.
Her voice was vicious when she spoke next.
“And then Beginnings took me from him.” Her gaze snapped back to Tessa.
“But not before you. Created from something inevitable and uncontrollable. He could not have you. Never you.” Her voice cracked, tears pooling in her eyes.
“Never you. So she sent you away, and she fell into madness. It was the only way she could survive losing him and you. She let it consume her. She wasn’t strong enough to get back up, so she let it create something new. Something born of vengeance and wrath.”
“A Fury,” Tessa said on a breath.
Akira nodded, her eyes falling closed as Xan sent another trickle of dragonfire to her.
“Do you understand, Tessa?” Xan asked gently.
And she did. She understood all of it because she’d lived the same. Never enough. Trying to prove herself. Needing more and more. Take and keep, keep and take.
“Tessa?” Theon asked softly, cupping her face to turn him to her. “Are you all right?”
She hadn’t realized she’d started crying. Tears trickled down her cheeks.
Tessa turned back to her mother, voice soft when she asked, “Why didn’t you send me to Temural? Why here?”
“He was on the run,” she answered, her eyes somewhat clearer. “Achaz hunted him, as he does all children of Death and Dreams. He could not have you. Never you,” she insisted. “So we chose the one place he couldn’t come. Temural didn’t know until later, but I sent others. Xan. Nylah. Roan.”
“And he sent Auryon once he figured out how to get her in,” Xan added. “You were never meant to be alone.”
“You were alone?” Akira asked, her eyes welling with tears now.
Tessa nodded, unable to speak past the emotion clogging her throat.
“I never wished for that,” she whispered. “Alone is agony. Too many nightmares haunt the in-between. The whispers drive you mad.”
“Yes,” Tessa said, more tears streaming down her face because someone finally understood.
“I…” Akira faltered, her fingers tangling into the fabric of her dress. Her eyes flashed to the males towering behind Tessa. “I wish to embrace you, but I can’t. My magic is too much here, and you still have fury. It will try to devour that.”
“Okay,” Tessa whispered, wrapping her arms around herself.
“But I wish to speak more. When you are ready,” Akira added.
Tessa nodded, and Theon cleared his throat lightly. “Actually, there is a reason you are here. Aside from your daughter.”
“Who are you?” Akira asked again, her eyes narrowing. “You are too far removed from Death to carry the power that you do.”
“That is a tale for another time,” Theon said, and Tessa snickered as he avoided the story. “But we are told you can facilitate the transfer of power from one being to another. Or at least, you can teach Tessa how to do it.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed, still eyeing him. Her gaze shifted to the left. “I know who you are. You were scarcely walking when I saw you last. You are hers?”
“I am,” Luka answered.
Before Akira could ask about the rest of their company, there was a burst of flames that had Tessa lurching back. She’d never get used to magic messages. With a grumble of annoyance, Theon reached into the fire, plucking out a piece of paper. His eyes scanned it, brows arching in surprise.
“What is it?” Luka demanded, taking the paper from him.
Theon turned to Tessa, “We’ve been invited to the Anala Kingdom. We will be escorted in the morning.”