Chapter 51 Luka #2
“That is always a possibility,” Luka replied, watching her power crackle around her with each step. “We can try to anticipate problems and prepare for them as best we can, but eventually, we just have to jump, Tessa.”
She didn’t answer them, but she did speak, murmuring to herself.
“This is it. Salvation or destruction? We don’t know.
We don’t know. We don’t know.” She repeated the words over and over, each time sounding more and more agonized.
Her fingers were in her hair, and she wasn’t pacing anymore.
She was turning in place. “A final stand. A final battle. Who will be left standing when Chaos comes to reign? Me? Them? We’ve seen the visions.
Seen the dreams. They never change. No, they do, but never… Always destruction. Always—”
She sucked in a gasp, her eyes snapping up as Theon and Luka both sent waves of power to her. Calling to her chaos. Distracting her.
“This weight isn’t on your shoulders alone, Tessa,” Theon said gently.
“Isn’t it?” she asked, desperation ringing in her voice. “Am I not everything that prophecy is? Salvation. Destruction. The realm depends on me, and I did not ask for this!”
“Maybe that is why it was given to you,” Theon countered.
“I’m not the one for this!” she cried again. “Luka’s been right all along. I’m not—”
“Enough,” Luka barked. “Where is this coming from? You’ve been Traveling around Devram for months now. Destroying mirror gates. Standing up to Rordan. Helping innocent people. And now you question where your place is in this?”
“It’s too much for one person!”
“Which is why you have us,” Theon retorted. “It is why we are doing this. You are not facing this fate alone, Tessa.”
“How is this any different from those who have taken power before us?”
“Because we fucking care,” Theon snapped, and Luka could feel his frustration down the bond.
And so could she.
“You’re the one who told me to process my feelings. You can’t be upset with me for trying to do that,” she bit out.
“I’m not upset you’re processing your feelings,” he ground out from between his teeth. “I’m frustrated because you aren’t giving yourself enough credit. You still believe yourself the villain in all this.”
Her lip curled back, and Luka was more than perplexed as to where this mood had come from. “This world turned me into one, Theon!”
Her cry of outrage echoed in the suite as Theon threw her over his shoulder. “Luka,” he barked over his shoulder.
But Luka only snickered, strolling to the liquor cabinet and pouring three glasses of amber liquid, one slightly less full. He already knew where this was going. They’d been planning this for weeks. Well before her birthday, and Theon had apparently decided it was time.
Thank the gods.
Whether a distraction or to prove a point, Luka didn’t really care. Sure, Theon was irritated, but this wasn’t being done out of anger or a need for control. Quite the opposite actually.
Tessa needed someone else to take control right now.
Take the weight of responsibility and madness from her.
Make the decisions so she didn’t have to think.
She could just…be. Be wild and untamed. Be reckless and impulsive.
Trusting they would be there to catch her and keep her safe while she was exactly as she was made to be.
The world didn’t understand, but they did.
Theon already had her in a chair, his darkness around her wrists and ankles, keeping her in place.
The fact she could get up if she wanted to told Luka just how right he was in his assessment.
She always picked fights when she didn’t know how to ask for what she wanted. Or if she thought they’d deny her.
As if they’d ever fucking deny her.
Make her say it. Make her crawl for it. Make her beg for it. But they’d never deny her.
Luka tipped his head, all predator now while Theon prowled over and took a glass of liquor.
“Look at you, temptress. Tied up and waiting…for what?” Luka mused, setting his glass aside but keeping the one that wasn’t as full. She glared back at him. “Does she know what we’re going to do tonight, Theon?”
“No,” he ground out, unbuttoning his shirt. He didn’t remove it though, leaving it hanging open. “Give me your tie. I left mine in the other room.”
Luka tugged it loose, and then Theon was there, pulling it free. Luka followed him back to Tessa, where he placed the silk fabric over her eyes, tying it behind her head.
She gasped as she lost her vision. “What are you doing?”
“You want to think you’re a villain?” Theon asked, his voice harsh. “That’s fine for now, but you forget, beautiful.”
“Forget what?” she snapped.
He leaned in close, his words a whisper in her ear. “We’re your villains when you need us to be.”
She went still, and Luka chuckled darkly. “Here, baby girl. You’re going to need this tonight.”
He brought the glass of liquor to her lips, tipping it up and pouring some into her mouth. She coughed and spluttered, and he chuckled again. “Trust us, Tessa. You’re going to want this.” He was leaning in now, his words dark as he asked into her ear, “Do you trust us?”
He heard her swallow. Saw her fingers clench around the arms of the chair. Felt her power crackle in nervous anticipation.
“Verbal acknowledgement, Tessa,” Theon ordered, the sound of him removing his belt making her head snap in his direction.
“Yes,” she bit out. “I trust you.”
“Then drink up,” Luka retorted, bringing the glass back to her lips.
“We have plans for that mouth.” She drank it down with ease this time, only a small drop escaping onto her lip.
He slowly thumbed the drop, pushing it back into her mouth as he added, “We’re taking control right now, but you know you can take it back at any time, right? ”
He could swear she stopped breathing for a moment, but she slowly nodded and that nervousness down the bond was coupled with thinly veiled excitement.
“Good,” Luka replied, his fingertips dragging along her jaw.
Then he stepped back and his dragonfire burned her dress away, leaving her naked and tied to a chair.
“I liked that dress,” she said in outrage.
“You’re the Arius Lady. Buy another one,” Theon cut in, shucking off his shirt, then his pants. “The Arius Lady. Soon to be the Achaz Lady.”
“Don’t,” she snapped.
“Yes, don’t,” Luka drawled. “The gods know we don’t want someone who cares about all the inhabitants of a kingdom to have a say in policies going forward.”
“That’s not—”
“It is, Tessa,” Theon interrupted. “You can say it’s not what you want, but your actions show otherwise. Begging me to claim your friends. Destroying the Sirana Villas. Fighting for the Fae. Giving Eviana a chance to fight for her daughter. Destroying mirror gates to save this world. But…”
“But what?”
Then she was gasping again. Theon had silently moved to her side, completely naked now, as he poured a trickle of liquor down her chest.
“Luka?” Theon said, arching his brow.
Luka didn’t care who was calling the shots right now. He bent over Tessa’s bare body, his tongue lapping up the spilled alcohol off her breasts.
“Oh,” she breathed, already sliding her thighs farther apart. Not having her sight would be heightening every other sensation at the moment.
“But you’re a villain, right?” Theon went on as if none of that had just happened. “So the plan must be to make them trust you, and then you’ll leave them to their own fate. Right?”
“That’s not—”
Then she was hissing as Theon poured more alcohol down her chest, and Luka was there, cleaning her up. His tongue slid along her flesh, circling her nipples, sucking them sharply.
“Luka,” she gasped.
“Yes, please stop, Luka,” Theon sneered. “She didn’t ask for this.”
“Theon, that’s not… This isn’t the same thing,” she gritted out, jerking against the darkness keeping her in place.
“It should be,” he snapped.
Her brow bunched in confusion. “What?”
“It should be exactly the same fucking thing,” Theon snarled again, pouring more alcohol down her front. More than last time. Only this time, he kept talking while Luka dropped to his knees before her, catching the small stream that was making its way to her navel and licking up her torso.
“Here, when it’s just the three of us, you trust us to be what you need.
To know what you need. To be your balance.
” Theon gripped the back of the chair, leaning down and speaking harshly into her ear.
His hand slid under her chin, tipping her head back.
“Even out there, you trust us to pull you back if you sink too deeply into Chaos. But you can’t trust us to be your balance in this?
In something we have worked and prepared for nearly our entire lives. ”
“To take over Arius Kingdom,” she gasped. “Not…”
“Say it,” Theon ordered. His hand slid from her jaw to her throat when she didn’t answer right away. His fingers flexed, massaging her pulse point. “Say it, Tessa.”
“They’re going to think we’re trying to take over everything.
That we’re no better than Rordan,” she cried out.
“And how are we any different? You are taking power from others. I am the very thing that has been prophesied to destroy the realm since its inception. The three of us? It’s no secret we could bring this world to its knees and make them worship at our feet. ”
“Baby girl, you have proven time and again that is not your plan. Why would you bother with any of it if that’s all you wanted?” Luka asked, his hands settling on her thighs as he watched her torment play out on her features.
His thumbs made small circles, distracting her as she shifted, trying to move them higher. Because when she was in this state, she lost control of her thoughts. Letting them out and saying things she’d never admit to anyone else.
“Because I could,” she whispered. “Maybe not now, but the power… Maybe not now. Not tomorrow or next year. But some day… It wants that.”
It.
Not we.