Chapter 53 Tessa #2
He was mistaking her mood for nervousness and dread, but she’d oblige him in this.
“A powerful kingdom run by a male who has been stealing power for decades with seraphs in his army. If we win this, it will not be easy,” she murmured, pressing her cheek to his chest.
“No one said it was going to be easy. But with you and Theon. All the forces—”
“That we scrambled to put together. Who have never known true war. Who have never truly fought.”
“Theon was right yesterday,” Luka said sternly. “We can’t think like that. If we do, we may as well bow down now.”
“I will never bow to anyone again,” she said sharply. “Never again, Luka.”
His fingers gripped her chin, tilting her face up to his. “Then let’s make sure of it. Are you ready?”
She nodded, and he lowered his lips to hers, kissing her deeply on the edge of the woods as they prepared to bring a storm of chaos and fury at dawn.
They flooded out of the woods. Hundreds of them at once. Those with wings were soaring above as they all marched on Faven when the first rays of daylight kissed the ground. As they expected, it didn’t take long for seraphs to answer in the sky.
Razik, Eliza, and Caris were leading units to the right. Xan, Aiyana, Tristyn, and Cienna had the left, her mother with them. Tessa led the rest in the center, with Theon and Luka at her sides. Axel was with them. Cade and Rayell. Kylian and Giselle.
“Get in the sky, but stay close,” Tessa gritted out to Luka. She turned to Theon, her grin pure madness as an arrow appeared in her hand and she nocked it to her bow. “And so chaos rains.”
Theon grabbed her neck, hauling her to him, and for a few precious seconds, she savored it.
Then pulled back and let that arrow fly.
And as the sun broke the horizon, the first seraph fell.
Everything after that was instinct as she let herself plummet into her Chaos. It wanted to take, and she was going to let it.
Her arrows didn’t miss, seraphs becoming nothing but fluttering embers as she released one right after the other. She didn’t worry about the ground forces. Nylah and Roan were at her sides, and they didn’t let anyone near.
Her power was thrashing and yanking, tasting the death in the air, but she wasn’t ready. Not yet.
Not yet.
Soon.
Theon, however…
He was not waiting.
His darkness coated him like armor as it always did.
That sword they’d taken from Bree was in his hand, and his darkness wound around that too.
He moved like the god he descended from.
Power flowed, blanketing the ground around him.
Tendrils shot up from the depths of the inky mist like vines.
They wrapped around seraphs as they dove, yanking them down where either the Trackers ended them or Theon did.
A roar of fury had her looking up to see not only Xan and Aiyana, but their sons fully shifted too.
Black flames filled the sky at the same time thunder cracked, rain starting to fall.
Whether it was her or her mother, she didn’t know, but a storm rolled in.
Lightning flashed, dragon and seraph alike diving to avoid it.
They’d have to deal with it though because that cloud cover forced the seraphs lower, allowing those with wind magic to interfere more effectively.
Tessa shot one last arrow before looping her bow over her chest as an Achaz warrior made it past Roan.
Her hand shot out, snagging the male’s arm as he raised a dagger.
She wasn’t stronger than him physically, but she finally let her power out.
It pounced, sinking deep into his soul, light and dark crackling under his skin as she watched the bands of light on her arms flare brighter.
Knew the Marks on her skin were doing the same.
The warrior screamed, pitiful and full of agony as her Chaos feasted, refilling the magic she was using.
More.
She needed more.
Each step was purposeful, calm and slow as she made her way into the melee.
Weapons clanged around her. Warriors from both sides crossed to the After.
But as she sank deeper and deeper into her magic, everything seemed to slow.
She ducked as swords swung above her, her power unfurling from her soul.
It crackled out, an intricate network of light spreading beneath her feet.
Theon? she gasped down the bond, her power yanking for more of her.
Tessa? Where are you?
Do you see it?
See what? There was a pause. What are you doing?
Can you use your power to shield our own?
Tessa?
Please, Theon.
Fuck, he muttered. Yeah, tempest. I’ve got it.
She sucked in another breath as her power pulled enough to distract her, and it cost her. Someone wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her off her feet as the air was pulled from her lungs.
Until she heard gurgling sounds, and she was dropped back to the ground.
She quickly rolled over, reaching for her dagger while struggling to hold back her magic, only to find Axel with blood dripping down his chin. He dropped a body beside her, the male that had held her now missing half his throat.
“Vicious,” she murmured with a smirk.
Axel only winked, yanking her to her feet. Then he was shoving her back down as his hand wrapped around another throat. “They don’t fucking stop,” he snarled, his fingers flexing.
“I got it,” Tessa said, scrambling out from under him and shoving her dagger deep into the chest of a female.
For the next few minutes, it was the two of them. Axel’s strength and her blades, her magic moving with her.
“What is Theon doing?” Axel gritted out, snagging another Legacy as he ran by.
Tessa sank a dagger into his back. “Helping me,” she panted.
Because everyone on their side standing atop her net of light was being draped in darkness, and gods, she hoped it was going to be enough.
“Go find Kat,” Tessa said. “Stay off the light.”
He looked down, seeing what she meant, and nodded. “You good, baby doll?”
Roan was slinking to her side, always knowing what she needed, and Tessa nodded. “Tell her to burn them all.”
He smiled darkly. “Will do.”
Then he was gone, moving faster than she could track. She didn’t know how he would find Kat, but she knew he would.
Ready, Theon?
Now, Tessa. This is a lot to hold.
She turned her face to the sky, letting the rain splash against her face, and when the next flash of lightning came, she let the leash on her power snap.
It latched onto the energy, pulling it closer.
It struck the center of her net of power, all the cracks sparking and exploding out.
Anyone not covered in Theon’s protection was on their knees, then their backs, screaming while the energy jolted through them over and over.
While her power took and feasted and devoured.
Theon was suddenly at her side, pulling her back to her feet. She didn’t even know when she’d dropped to her knees, but now that she’d let it out, her power didn’t stop.
“Take some,” she panted, clutching Theon’s arm. “Take some, Theon.”
“No, Tessa. You need—”
“I wasn’t asking,” she gritted out, planting both her palms on his chest. Her power halted, recognizing the well it had before it, and it shifted, racing for him.
“Fuck,” he grunted as it slammed into him, and she felt his darkness rise to greet it. Latch onto it. Take it for its own.
They hadn’t known how this was going to work.
The Source Mark worked both ways, but Razik and Eliza had to merge their blood to refill reserves.
She’d never had to do that. His power had always been drawn to her, and now that he was more, her power was drawn to him too.
Something unexplainable and uncontrollable.
But then his arm wound around her waist, tugging her into him and raising his sword as he spun. The seraph that had come for them was speared on the end, blood raining down as his darkness rose and snapped the male’s wings clean off.
“You’re smiling, tempest,” he muttered, lowering his sword and letting the seraph fall to the muddy ground. “We’re in the middle of a brutal battle, and you’re fucking smiling.”
“We like the madness,” she whispered, dropping her hands.
He huffed a laugh, wiping at the blood on her face but only smearing it. “Have you seen him yet?”
She shook her head. “He’s here. He’ll find me.”
And that was how the next minutes went. Or maybe it was the next hour.
More? Time became meaningless as they fought.
Theon never strayed far, and Luka was always above them.
She caught glimpses of fire every so often.
Eliza or Kat. Other fire Fae. The Night Children were ruthless, and Shifters sank claws and teeth in alongside Nylah and Roan.
A fine dusting of ash from the dragons above mixed with the steady rain.
Blood splattered, magic flared, and feet slipped in the mud.
Tessa dropped to a crouch as three enemy forces came for her.
Thunder rumbled and lightning struck. Or she did.
Her Chaos took it once more, striking true, and a crevice cracked open, much like it had done months ago in a garden.
Hunters didn’t crawl out of it this time, though.
Instead, Achaz warriors fell in. Fae fighting nearby clearly had earth magic as vines and roots snaked out, keeping them in the crevice and dragging more in—those on the ground and those flying low.
She stood still, awed as she watched them work, and after there were several dozen bound to the walls of the crevice, those Fae came together and closed the earth.
Holy gods.
She was powerful, but that was…
“Kat! Katya!”
Tessa whirled at the sound of Axel’s desperate voice calling for his wife, and she was running without thinking, following that sound. She heard Theon call after her, but it was overpowered by Axel’s cries.
“Kat, no! Kat!”