32. Luka
32
LUKA
“ W hy is she still sleeping?” Luka demanded.
Dex sat in an armchair across the room where he’d been sitting for the last six hours, eyes never leaving where Luka was with Tessa. She’d hardly moved. Only curled into him more whenever he shifted on the bed when his ass or legs started to go numb. Six hours without so much as a soft sigh or whimper was more than worrying considering he knew how she normally slept. Even when she’d been recovering from the Markings, she’d moved more than this. He’d watched over her and Theon enough while they’d slept to know that even in that agony she still made soft sounds every once in a while, and her brow pinched when she moved in sleep, as if the movement itself were annoying her.
More than any of that though, he couldn’t feel her. Neither could Theon. He’d tried calling Luka multiple times before he’d finally spoken down the bond. Maybe the connection between them was useful after all so he could let Theon know he couldn’t speak with the fucker across the room watching him.
“I said the tea was more concentrated. She was the impulsive one who drank it all before I could inform her of that,” Dex said.
“And you plan to sit here all day? You have nothing else to do?” Luka asked flatly.
“ She is my assignment,” the male replied. When Luka only held his stare, he added with a sneer, “I know what she is to you too.”
What the fuck did that mean? He couldn’t possibly know about the three-way bond. Only Axel knew about that outside of the three of them. And probably Cienna, but not because anyone told her. Hadn’t Lilura said that same thing though?
I know what she is to you, Son of Xan.
But she had thought he was Razik, so that didn’t explain anything. His brother might have been able to shed some light on the matter if he’d bothered to give a damn. Which he didn’t.
“It wasn’t something we were expecting, but we’re dealing with it,” Dex continued as if someone had asked him to go on. In reality, it seemed the male just liked to hear himself talk, and Luka wondered how he and Tessa had ever been as close as she claimed they once were.
“Dealing with what?” Luka asked.
Dex only gave him a mocking smile. Now he decided to stop running his mouth.
Silence fell in the room, and for the next two hours, that was all there was. Glares between the two males. Tessa hardly moved, let alone made a sound. The tension was so thick he could feel it.
Still nothing? Theon asked down the bond.
No, Luka answered. And her babysitter won’t fucking leave.
Ignore him, Theon replied. That’s what I always did.
You never ignored him, he said dryly. You’d become irrationally jealous.
Like you are right now?
I’m not jealous. I’m annoyed. There’s a big difference.
A thread of amusement flickered down the bond. This was fucking weird. He didn’t want to be feeling Theon down this thing.
He won’t leave, and I don’t trust him enough to leave her alone with him to even go to the bathroom, Luka added.
And they call me overprotective, Theon muttered.
The last time I left her alone with him, she had some kind of emotional breakdown, and now she won’t wake up.
She’ll wake up, Luka. I think everyone there would be a lot more panicked if they didn’t believe that to be the case.
He was probably right, but when had Theon become the logical one in their friendship? Then again, he’d always been logical, just not when it came to Tessa. Now Luka sat here wondering when he’d become just as irrational when it came to her.
Long ago if he was being honest with himself.
But when she does wake up, make sure she drinks plenty of water and eats something decent, Theon added.
And there he was. It almost made him smile. If only Tessa understood his neurotic tendencies when it came to the ones he felt were his responsibility.
He was about to say something in response when the door to the room banged open. It had him pulling Tessa tighter into him, and she buried her face in his chest. It had to be instinctual because she didn’t make a sound.
A female stormed into the room, her raven hair half up with gold ivy threaded through it. Tall and lithe, her gold dress was stark against her pale skin. Luka didn’t need her to turn around to know her eyes were violet or that she would be beautiful in a haunting sort of way. He even knew what her voice was going to sound like before she spoke.
“What part of don’t let her drink it all at once did you not understand?” the female hissed to Dex.
Dex’s eyes were narrowed, but he’d lurched to his feet. His voice was tight and barely controlled when he said, “You know how impulsive she can be, but we are not alone.”
The female turned, her attention snagging on Luka. “ You ,” she spat. She turned back to Dex. “I made adjustments for the other, but this is something different.”
“I know what this is,” Dex snapped in reply, grabbing the female’s upper arm and dragging her from the room. The door banged shut behind them, leaving him alone with Tessa for the first time in hours.
Not knowing how long he had, he gently pried her from his chest. “Tessa? I need you to wake up, baby girl,” he said softly, but her breathing didn’t even change. “Come on, my light,” he pressed. “Something. Anything to let me know you’re all right.”
He wasn’t expecting it when her eyes snapped open, glowing violet irises streaked with gold connecting to his, and gods, the pull to her. He felt his eyes shift, knew they were glowing as brightly as hers.
“Come see,” she lilted in a voice that was not her own. It was eerie and chilling. The voice she spoke in when she was lost to her magic. “Walk my dreams,” she whispered, before her eyes fluttered closed once more.
And he was pulled into nothing.
Blinking, he looked around, trying to figure out where they were. The waters here were dark, shimmering black under the dying sun. He only knew of waters like that in the Night Waters in Arius Kingdom. What were they doing so deep in the kingdom?
The snarling of wolves had him turning to find Nylah and Roan deep in a fight. In fact, down the bank, there was more than a fight happening. Robed figures were battling against translucent ones. The Augury and Tessa’s Hunters. And in the middle of the fray, he could make out Tessa and Theon. He was swinging his short swords with the lethal grace and skill he’d honed for more than a decade. His power surrounded him, darker and thicker than the waters as he shoved a sword through an Augury member while swiping with the other. But the Hunters? Gods, the Hunters were feasting. Their excitement was palpable as they cut through people with their gold weapons.
And Tessa?
She was beautiful with her own weapon, but she hadn’t been trained as long. She was working on instinct. Her grip on her sword was all wrong, but she compensated with her power. Lightning flickered, striking the ground sporadically as thunder rumbled above them. Theon was trying to shield her while she let her power free to protect them both.
Luka wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but he was running, yelling at them that he was coming. Neither seemed to hear him. No one seemed to be able to see him either. The Hunters glided past him. The Augury didn’t acknowledge him, but as he drew closer, he could hear Tessa and Theon.
“He will come, Tessa. Just keep fighting,” Theon ordered, his sword never ceasing its movements.
Tessa shook her head as she lifted a hand, power arcing from her palm and bringing an Augury member to the ground with a scream of agony. “He will not,” she panted, spinning to take on another. “He is too angry. He will not forgive ? —”
“He will,” Theon snarled, cutting off whatever she was going to say. “He will come because we are his as much as he is ours.”
“You need to call Eliza and Razik,” she said, shaking her head. She was drawing up more power, her entire body glowing as gold and silver embers swirled around her. “He will not come, Theon. My betrayal was too deep.”
“Whatever you did— Tessa, move!”
Theon dropped one of his swords, reaching for her and yanking her to him as an Augury member got too close, but he hadn’t seen the other one coming from the opposite direction. A moment before a blade met Theon’s side, Tessa’s hand connected with the person’s throat, and before he could scream, black webbing erupted all along his skin. She released him, and as he sank to the ground, her power flared even brighter.
That was when the Night Children appeared.
As fast and strong as any Legacy, they were vicious and skilled. They were blurs as they moved; even the Hunters had trouble keeping up with them.
“There are too many!” Tessa cried. “We can’t fight them all, Theon.”
“We can, Tessa! Luka will come!” Theon replied, having retrieved his dropped sword. Darkness rolled from him like a wave, shrouding several vampyres. When it receded, they lay dead on the ground.
“He won’t, Theon,” she argued, turning to him. “He’s too ? —”
But her words turned into a garbled mess as blood bubbled from her mouth. When she’d turned to speak to Theon, a Night Child had struck. A sword with a crimson blade and a gold hilt had been shoved through her back. As she dropped to her knees, the vampyre pulled it out.
Theon bellowed a roar, dropping down to Tessa and pulling her close. His magic lashed out, wrapping around the vampyre and dragging them closer. “You can’t kill her with a sword, but I will make you wish for death for even thinking you could achieve it.”
Hood still in place, Luka couldn’t see who spoke, but they laughed. “It may take seven of those blades to kill a god, but only one should be needed for her.”
His head twisted to the side at an unnatural angle. Luka heard the crack from where he stood as Theon’s magic broke his neck before ripping the entire being in half.
“No!” Theon cried as death rained around them. “No, no, no! Where the fuck is Luka?”
“I told you… He won’t…” Tessa tried, but she trailed off.
Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, and Theon held her closer, his magic wrapping around her while she clung to him.
“I’m here!” Luka yelled, but no one heard him.
And no one else came when a Hunter sank a gold blade into Theon’s back.
It was the only vision he was pulled into while Tessa slept nearly two entire days. When he’d come out of that vision, Dex and the female had been there. She had appeared furious, leaving the room before he’d had a chance to reorient himself. Dex had just sat back in the chair, but he hadn’t stayed. For whatever reason, he’d left that night. He came back every hour on the hour, but he never stayed. He never asked if she’d woken. Never said a single word.
With Dex no longer hovering, they could have gone back to using their phones to communicate, but he and Theon had continued to use the bond. They were both hoping that by using it, it might call to Tessa and wake her. That maybe she’d be drawn to their voices, but it had yet to work.
Luka hadn’t slept. Not for a single minute. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the vision she’d pulled him into. Why would he not show up? Especially if both she and Theon were in danger. It went against the Guardian bond, and it went against… He didn’t know what it was with Tessa. Even if he was supposed to have been her Guardian, there shouldn’t be this draw or pull. That was not how it worked. Or maybe it was, and he just didn’t know it because he’d been alone in this realm for twenty-five fucking years, the only one of his kind, and when another finally did show up, he was a godsdamn prick.
“Luka?”
He looked down, startled. Her eyes were open—not glowing, thank Sargon—and she was staring up at him. He could feel a faint worry down the bond, and that had him worried because there was no way she had the inclination to be blocking the bond right now.
“Are you all right?” she whispered.
“Why wouldn’t I be all right?” he asked, shifting so he could see her better.
“You were feeling…”
She trailed off, and he jumped in before she could go on. “I’m fine, my light. Are you all right?”
She blinked slowly, as if the action took too much energy.
“I’m tired. And thirsty,” she rasped.
Fuck. There wasn’t any water in here.
I told you to have water ready for her, Theon chided down the bond.
Luka rolled his eyes, but when he looked back at Tessa, hers were closed again.
“Tessa, he’s right. You should drink something. Eat. Move around a little,” Luka said.
She hummed an acknowledgment, but that was it. Which wasn’t going to work for him. He threw the blankets back, letting the cool air hit her skin and watching it pebble, but she still didn’t move.
“Up, Tessa,” he said, slipping from the bed himself.
Give her a minute. She always needs a minute, Theon said. Get her some water. And grab your phone.
Cursing him—and letting him hear it—Luka swiped his phone off the nightstand and made his way to the bathroom to fill a glass with water. He was shutting the tap off when his phone vibrated with an incoming call.
“What?” he growled into the phone.
“How is she?” Theon asked immediately.
“Thirsty apparently.”
“Fuck off with the mood, Luka,” Theon snapped.
He sighed, setting the glass on the vanity and turning to lean against it. “I don’t know how she is,” he answered. “We’re in the same situation here, Theon. I can’t feel her, just like you can’t.”
“But you can see her,” Theon said, and Luka could hear the thin veil of desperation. “How does she look?”
“I don’t know because I had to go get her water,” he said dryly.
“Can you not be an asshole for the time being?”
Luka sighed again, rubbing at his brow. “Sorry. It has been…an intense few days. It’s different from the Markings. We had known what to expect. This was…not that.”
“Yeah, you’ve felt…off,” Theon said carefully.
He debated saying anything about this, but if he couldn’t talk to his best friend, then who could he talk to? If he couldn’t confide in Theon, then he truly was alone.
“She pulled me into a vision, and it was… I don’t know how she handles seeing that kind of stuff all the time,” Luka finally said. “And this vision? It’s all I see when I close my eyes now. I haven’t been able to talk about it with her, but she woke up for a few seconds before she pulled me in.”
“Pulled you in?” Theon repeated. “Explain that.”
“She said something along the lines of ‘come see.’ Then she closed her eyes, and I was in her vision,” Luka answered.
He knew Theon was pacing on the other end of the line, could practically see him trying to put all the pieces together.
“Her visions are actually why I called,” Theon said. “We got passes for Ekayan Island. Today.”
“Today?” Luka repeated. “Today when?”
“This afternoon. You, me, Razik, Eliza, and Katya. I also got one for Tessa.”
“How’d you manage that?”
“Oh, you know. Accruing debts and owing favors,” Theon said. He paused before he asked, “Do you think she’ll go?”
Luka could hear the thread of hope in his voice, and it had him swiping up the water glass and heading back to the bedroom. “I’m sure she will want to go, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get her away.”
He paused mid-step when he entered the bedroom. Tessa had rolled over, facing the bathroom door now, and her eyes were open, watching him. She hadn’t reached for the blankets. Still in the training clothes from days ago, the only thing he’d removed was her boots.
“See what you can do,” Theon said. “We have a portal scheduled from the Acropolis station at high noon.”
“Yeah, I’ll let you know,” he said before he hung up and set his phone aside.
The two stared at each other for several seconds before Luka held up the glass of water. “I’m going to need you to sit up and show me you can move.”
“I rolled over,” she rasped.
“I didn’t see it.”
“You’re worse than Theon.”
“I think you like it.”
Her brow pinched. “Like it?”
“Yes,” he answered, closing the distance between them so he stood directly beside her. She rolled onto her back to see him better, and something in him breathed a sigh of relief at seeing her just fucking move. “I think you like being taken care of.”
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me,” she said, and he knew she meant for it to sound strong and snappy, but it came out tired and resigned.
“I agree,” he said, holding out a hand. “You don’t need it, but a part of you doesn’t mind it. Having someone care.” Before she could argue, he added, “I feel the same way when someone cares enough to take care of me. Even if it’s just making sure I’ve eaten something decent in a day, because yes, Theon gets annoying about that with me at times too.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it as she reached for his hand. He helped her into a sitting position, watching her wince when she slid her legs over the side of the bed. They were likely more than stiff after not moving for nearly two days. When she was situated, he handed her the water, watching her throat bob with each swallow. She drained the entire glass before he took it back.
“How long?” she asked, her voice clearer now that she’d had something to drink.
He knew what she was asking. How long she’d been asleep.
“Two days,” he answered.
Her fingers curled into the edge of the mattress, the light around her wrists not as bright as it usually was. He could tell she was lost in her own thoughts, probably thinking about all the visions she’d had during those hours.
“I was talking to Theon,” he offered, setting the glass aside.
“I know.”
“We didn’t want you to be overwhelmed upon waking.”
She nodded, looking anywhere but at him.
“We weren’t keeping anything from you, Tessa. In fact, he’s trying to include you.”
She huffed a disbelieving sound.
“I asked him to look into how I am being pulled into your visions, and he made some kind of deal with the Falein Lady for an afternoon at the Ekayan Catacombs,” Luka went on. “He secured a pass for you as well.”
That had her gaze sliding back to him. “She would never allow that right now. I am too much of a threat. I’m too uncontrollable . That’s why— Where is Dex?”
“Which brings me to another thing we need to discuss,” Luka said. “There is a priestess here. Dark hair. Violet eyes.”
“You are describing half the priestesses in the realm, Luka,” Tessa said dryly, gingerly setting her feet on the floor as if testing the feeling.
“But this one was upset. She was scolding Dex for letting you drink all the tea at once when she’d told him not to let you.”
Tessa shrugged. “That was probably Elowyn.”
“She is also the one pulling me out of your visions.”
“What? How?” Tessa asked.
“I don’t know, but I recognized her as soon as she stepped into this room. She is the same one,” Luka said, instinctively moving forward when Tessa made to stand. His arm went around her waist, steadying her, until she nodded that she was fine to be on her own.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
“None of this makes any sense. Which is why we want to go see what we can find in the catacombs,” Luka said, letting her get a few steps ahead of him before he followed.
“An afternoon won’t be enough time. The catacombs are expansive,” Tessa said.
“We take what we can get when it comes to the Ekayan Island,” Luka answered. Then he hesitated before adding, “And what we could get was this afternoon.”
She turned to him, leaning against the doorway into the bathroom. “ This afternoon?”
He nodded, and she fixed her gaze on something past him.
“I know you’re still not feeling well, and then we have to worry about Dexter,” Luka said. “But he got you a pass. Know that he orchestrated this and paid a high cost even knowing you likely wouldn’t be able to join.”
She nodded once. “And where is Dex?”
“He comes and checks on you every hour.” Glancing at the clock, he added, “I expect him in the next few minutes.”
She nodded again. “And you will still go?”
“Not if you ask me to stay.”
Her eyes met his then, studying and searching. “But you wish to go,” she finally said.
“We are the ones being directly affected. I am the one being pulled into your visions. I think it would be best if one of us was present for the research,” he agreed.
“You can do whatever you wish,” she said. “You are not mine, nor am I your responsibility.”
The dragon in his soul snapped to attention at those words, and Luka felt like she’d physically punched him. Which was stupid. Because she was right with both of those things.
The door opened before he could decide how to respond to that, Dex striding into the room. Luka recognized the flash of relief in his eyes at finding her awake and out of bed.
“Tessie,” he said, pushing past Luka to stand in front of her. “How are you feeling?”
Tessa glared up at him, only saying, “I’m going to shower,” before she went into the bathroom, slamming the door in Dex’s face.
And Luka smiled in satisfaction.
Dex turned to him, a sneer on his lip. “Has she said much?”
“Only that you’re a dick,” Luka said flatly.
Dex gave him a derisive look before moving to the armchair and taking a seat to wait for Tessa. “All of you are smug assholes until you realize you’re not invincible.”
“I never said I was invincible,” Luka retorted.
“Overconfident. All of you,” Dex repeated.
Luka didn’t have time to argue about trivial shit with him. Instead he said down the bond, Tessa? Do you want me to stay?
Go , she answered. We need the information.
We.
She’d said we, and that was…progress.
Reach out if you need anything, he said.
I know.
And don’t drink any more of that tea. Not a drop.
She didn’t respond, and when he left her room, something in him recoiled at the action. Because whether or not it made sense, he did feel like she was his responsibility.
And whether or not she knew it—whether or not he wanted to acknowledge it—a part of him also knew he was hers. He just didn’t understand why.