Dawn of Chaos and Fury by Melissa K. Roehrich - 5

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A t least Tristyn waited until they all heard the door to her room click shut on the floor above before he rounded on Luka.

“That’s it? What the fuck, Luka? We need to do something,” Blackheart spat, hurling his cup of coffee across the room.

The ceramic mug shattered where it hit the wall, and Luka couldn’t help but smirk. He’d been handling the tantrums of the St. Orcas brothers and the Arius Lord for over two decades. Males who were used to commanding a room and being obeyed without question. He should maybe be concerned that Tristyn was a deity, and maybe he would have been if he hadn’t also been dealing with Tessa the last several months.

“I told you not to coddle her,” Luka replied in a bored tone as he made his way to the food spread. “She can see right through that shit.”

“We need to draw her out of herself, not give her more reason to sink into her power,” Blackheart retorted.

“You all act like she’s going to go off any second.”

“She is unpredictable. Do you not remember what happened at the Pantheon when Theon left?”

A warning growl rumbled from his chest at the mention of that day. As if he needed any sort of reminder of what had happened. He relived it every time he closed his eyes. Every time he slept, which was only when she was sleeping, he hoped Tessa would draw him into her dreams so he could see what exactly was going on in that mind of hers, but it never came. She clearly didn’t trust him anymore, and the feeling was pretty fucking mutual. The problem was that since he wasn’t pulled into her dreams, he instead relived the  nightmare of that day repeatedly.

Of watching his best friend, his true brother, walk out of that chamber. Of Tessa thrashing in his arms. Trying to talk to the others over her shrieks of fury and her power that flared more and more. Gritting his teeth against the shocks of energy that rippled off her, sinking into his being and power, trying to latch on to anything it could. It had wanted to take, and she had let it do whatever it wanted. His power hadn’t been enough to counter it, just as Theon’s had never been enough by itself. Razik had helped, the power of two grandsons of Sargon at least containing her, but it had taken the addition of both Tristyn and Cienna to finally stop her.

And stop probably wasn’t the best word to use.

The siblings had combined their gifts from their father, Pax, the god of peace and calming, and their mother, a powerful witch. They’d managed to put Tessa into a deep sleep, and Luka had felt a twinge of guilt the moment she’d gone lax in his arms. And while Tessa may have been in a magic-induced coma of sorts, he could still feel her magic thrashing in her soul.

Angry.

Vengeful.

Chaotic.

Everyone else had wanted to leave right then and there. Eliza was already at the mirror preparing to summon her queen when Luka had stopped her. He was the real reason they hadn’t left Devram yet. He was the reason they were still here two weeks later. Everyone thought it was because of Tessa, and it was in a way, but he was admittedly dragging his feet on this.

He’d initially argued it would be a mistake to take Tessa from the only world she knew when she was already volatile. She’d wake up in unfamiliar surroundings in a new world, reeling from everything that had been said in that chamber, and her power would consume her. It might have been true; it might have been an exaggeration. Either way, everyone else eventually agreed, more afraid of her than they needed to be. And while it drove him mad she hadn’t uttered a single word to anyone since she woke a day later and all the days since, he hadn’t had to argue about staying when she was displaying just how unstable she was at the moment.

His arguments may have been about Tessa, but in truth, he was trying to think of a way out of this. He knew Theon’s orders, but the idea of leaving his best friend behind in a world that would be destroyed? His family? His brothers he’d been raised with? Suffered and survived with? All those years of plotting and planning? He wasn’t sure he could live with himself if he didn’t at least try.

But he’d come up short and patience had clearly run out.This morning, every single person, including his father, had said it was time to go. They’d tried to include Tessa in the decision, and Luka had hoped she’d finally argue, but of course, there’d been nothing from her. Just her watching, listening, and learning everything she could.

Still following Theon’s orders to this day.

Except she’d learned to be just as cunning and vicious as the Arius Heir too, and while it made her a bigger pain in his ass, it also made the dragon in his soul want her even more. Once again, he was at odds with the thing, especially now that they’d had a taste of what could have been with her.

“You have nothing to say?” Tristyn demanded as Luka layered deli meat onto slices of bread.

“What is there to say?” Luka countered, annoyed that now they suddenly wanted his opinion, when for the last two weeks they’d been arguing with him.

“Are you even trying to help her?” the male snarled. “Do you even care at this point?”

Of course he fucking cared.

That was the entire godsdamn problem.

He cared about Theon.

He cared about Axel.

And damn it all to the Pits of Torment, he cared about Tessa when he absolutely fucking shouldn’t.

He’d gone in a godsdamn circle. Wanting her and denying himself, forced to spend time with her, finally having her, and now back to not wanting to want her.

The Fates were cruel.

“Tristyn makes valid points.”

Luka turned to his father, finding him standing across the room on his own. Razik wouldn’t give him the time of day, and Eliza, while not blindly loyal to her mate, was still standing firmly beside him. Cienna and Gia had claimed seats on the sofa now that Tessa had left, and Luka took a bite of his sandwich, waiting for the male to go on.

Xan crossed his arms, mirroring Razik’s stance and one that Luka often found himself in. “She’s too quiet. Chaos is never quiet.”

“This is information that would have been helpful a couple decades ago, Xan,” Tristyn bit out, pulling a roll of lull-leaf from his jacket pocket and lighting it up before dragging a hand through his hair that immediately fell back into his eyes.

His glowing sage eyes.

“We didn’t know. Nobody knew what she would grow to be. Everyone has been waiting and watching,” Xan replied.

“But you had to have had an idea,” Tristyn argued.

“Everyone had ideas, including Rordan and Valter,” Xan retorted. “You’ve seen firsthand how they tried to prepare for what she could be. We all failed in this the moment we lost her.”

“We lost track of her. They lost track of her. The fucking Fates lost track of her,” Tristyn said, blowing out a plume of smoke. His entire body was already relaxing, the tension bleeding out of his limbs. “But the day you placed that babe in my arms, you⁠—”

The sound of a plate clattering to the table interrupted whatever Blackheart was saying, and all eyes turned toward Luka, where his half-eaten sandwich was now on the table.

“Surely I misheard the two of you because it sounded like you, ” he pointed at his father, “brought Tessa to Devram, and then handed her over to you .” He finished, moving his finger to Blackheart. When both males remained silent, he said, “We all came here because of her?”

“Let me guess,” Razik cut in, his words dripping with disdain. “You weren’t abandoned in another realm because you were needed .”

“Needed for what?” Luka asked, turning to his brother to find him smirking in derision.

“The same thing I was abandoned for. A direct descendant of Sargon? The son of Temural’s Guardian? Nothing is more important to him than fulfilling our duty ,” Razik said, glowing eyes holding Luka’s.

“I was always supposed to be hers,” Luka muttered, repeating words she’d whispered to him more than once. She’d known, her soul had known, but he’d always thought it meant…

He turned back to their father. “Is that true? Is that the reason I was brought here?”

Xan sighed, his arms dropping to his sides. He winced a little when the collar at his throat jostled. The collar they’d tried countless times to remove without success.

“It’s not just about a Guardian bond. Yes, your Wards are safer with you, but you are also safer when bonded to another. Bonds are more complex than simple words and magic tricks. Surely you all realize that by now,” Xan said.

Luka glanced at Razik, his brother’s features back to stoic, but Luka saw the slight head tilt that told him Eliza was speaking down their bond. And while he suddenly found himself with even more questions, the one that came from his mouth was, “Does Tessa know?”

“Know what?” Xan asked.

“That you brought her here. That you handed her over to Blackheart. That I was…” He trailed off, not sure how to phrase everything he was trying to wrap his mind around.

“Valter told her I brought her here, but she never asked me about it,” his father answered, shifting on his feet. “I expected her to. Waited for the question every time she found her way to my cell, but she never did.”

“And you?” Luka pressed, looking at Blackheart.

“I never told her,” Tristyn said. “I was trying to gain her trust, and that didn’t seem conducive to that goal. I always planned to. It just…never came up.”

“It never came up?” Luka repeated. “She’s been searching for answers for months, her entire godsdamn life, and it never fucking came up?”

“We can only interfere so much,” Cienna cut in.

Luka had forgotten she was there, but not anymore. He rounded on her next, his lip curling back and baring his teeth. “You knew this entire time. All of you fucking knew and never said a godsdamn word.”

“If we interfere too much, we don’t answer to the Legacy or the gods,” Cienna snapped, her words icy and hard. “The Fates come for us. Interfering too much would have led them straight here.”

“We came here, and Tristyn met us on the other side. In the—” Xan started but Luka interrupted him.

“No,” he snarled. “You’re not telling me these details now. Not without her here. She deserves to hear it all from the three of you, not secondhand from me. I’ll see if I can get her back down here.”

He didn’t wait for a reply as he stormed from the room. Everyone and their godsdamn secrets. Hoarding information for leverage. Blackmail and having the upper hand. It was all this fucking realm knew. Moves and countermoves.

And Tessa had learned that strategy as well as she’d learned everything else.

He knew that was why she’d kept the knowledge of his father from him. She’d gone from the Arius House to the Achaz Palace. She was in the perfect position to learn any and all information, and she had sworn to destroy the Arius bloodline. Why would she have told him anything when he showed up on the Achaz doorstep? Of course she was suspicious. She’d told him numerous times she didn’t want him there, and even though he’d told her his loyalty was to her, words meant nothing to her. How often had pretty words been used to manipulate her?

No, Tessa only understood actions. Words fell on deaf ears and emotions betrayed her.

She understood being shoved into cupboards and locked in wine cellars.

She understood someone getting her flip-flops and sitting under the night sky with pizza.

She understood being forced to share a bed and dropping to a knee in obedience.

She understood someone being at her side when she woke from an assessment.

She understood someone giving her the gift of music and playing Chaosphere on a makeshift field.

She understood the two people who swore they never would, walking away from her, one in anger and one in an attempt to save her.

In the end, he couldn’t blame her one bit for sinking into her power. It was the only constant she’d ever had.

He paused outside her door. Or maybe it was their door? He didn’t sleep anywhere else, and he didn’t have another room here. The few things he did have with him were all in that room too. He couldn’t hear her moving around, but he could hear…humming?

Not quite ready to deal with whatever he was going to find on the other side of the door, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the same number he’d been dialing nearly every hour for two weeks. And just like every other time, it went straight to voicemail.

Theon hadn’t answered a single phone call. The godsdamn bond was clearly fractured, and Tessa…

Blackheart thought he was being apathetic, but it was the opposite actually. He was trying to get under her skin. He was doing anything he could to get a reaction out of her, and that was something he’d learned from Theon. All those months ago when he’d first brought her to Arius House and she’d withdrawn into herself, Theon hadn’t let her be. Luka told him to leave her alone, but he’d pushed and pushed. Finally, he understood why. It wasn’t entirely obsession and control issues. Sure, it was mostly that, but in the end, he always got her to react. In the end, he pulled her back from the edge. He craved her snark and her ire simply because it meant she was feeling something .

He understood now because he’d felt utter relief when Tessa had slammed the bathroom door in his face a few hours ago. For the first time since that chamber, she’d shown emotion. It was fleeting, and when she’d emerged from the bathroom, she’d been back to apathetic, but it had been there.

Theon was the one for this. Not him.

Sighing, he slipped the phone back into his pocket, idly wondering if it even mattered. Would the new world they went to have phone technology? Razik and Eliza wouldn’t even touch the things. A stupid thing to be contemplating right now really, but he was just delaying the inevitable.

He didn’t bother knocking as he turned the knob and pushed the door open. He’d taken all of one step when he went still. Tessa was lying on her back on the bed, still in the clothing she’d put on after her shower. Her head hung over the side of the bed so she was looking at the world upside down, the ends of her golden hair brushing the floor. One hand rested on her stomach, her finger tapping a beat to her humming, while the other hand was raised, toying with her power in the air. A swirling mass of energy, lightning flickered among it, and…

He stepped fully into the room, shutting the door behind him.

A damp mist hung in the air, as if it was seconds away from raining inside .

And all the while, she just lay there humming.

Humming that stupid Revelation Decree song.

“Tessa,” he said, his tone sharp. A command that usually made her pause, but there was nothing this time. She didn’t look at him. No blink or start. “Tessa,” he tried again. “There is a discussion happening downstairs that you need to be a part of. Information you deserve to know.”

She still didn’t acknowledge him, that storm in her hand growing, and Luka had never felt so godsdamn helpless. He was the grandchild of the god of war and courage; he didn’t know how to accept defeat. But that was exactly what he felt was happening as he crossed the room and sank to the floor.

He tipped his head back, resting it on the bed beside her and listening to her hum. As much as he hated it, his entire being relaxed a little. Just being next to her was like taking a drag of lull-leaf. Whether it was the bond he’d been dragged into or something else, he didn’t know, but he let himself revel in it just for a moment. Tonight everything was going to change forever, and he selfishly wanted this last bit of peace.

He didn’t want to think about how he’d failed in his duty as a Guardian. There was no other word for it when his Ward was welcoming his own destruction with open arms. He didn’t want to think about how, for the briefest of moments, he’d had everything. Family. Acceptance. Love. He didn’t want to think about how it had all shattered so quickly, and he didn’t want to think about all the conflicting emotions that came with that. How he’d given in to his fury. A controlled recklessness.

“I don’t know how we recover from this,” he said, his eyes falling closed.

She never ceased her humming, but he knew she was listening. He wasn’t even sure what he was saying or why. Maybe because the two people he used to talk to were being left behind, and he had no one else.

It’s a lonely club being the grandchild of gods, but we don’t have to be alone anymore.

Her words from days that felt like a lifetime ago flitted through his mind, his chest aching at the memories of it all.

“We’re going to a new world, Tessa, and all we’ll have is each other,” he said into the room, his eyes still closed. “I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know how we do that after the betrayals we’ve faced here.”

Because in the end, that was what he felt. Betrayed by Tessa. A thousand times over. But he also felt betrayed by Theon. For thinking he could walk away from him after decades of surviving together. How that betrayal was what ultimately made him feel like a failure. He was just as furious with Theon as he was with Tessa.

“I know he’s the one you need right now. I don’t know how to be that. He’s the one who’s always protected us from ourselves, and I know you need him. You hate it, but you know it too.” He fell silent, the seconds stretching on filled only by her humming. Then he said in a voice so low he didn’t even know if she could hear him, “I don’t know how we live without him.”

He’d realized it before they did. Theon might have understood it in the end. Tessa was still figuring it out, but the three of them were so intertwined, surviving without a piece of them seemed impossible. And it wasn’t because Theon had pulled him into the warped Source bond. The Fates could only control so much, and no one could control Chaos.

It was only then he’d realized the humming had ceased, the entire room going quiet and still.

Luka opened his eyes and lifted his head to find her staring at him. The small smile on her face was one he could only describe as terrifying madness.

“Tessa…” he said carefully, unsure of what to say or do as her power consumed her more and more. Knowing that with each passing day, they were losing her, and it only made the path ahead that much more uncertain.

She rolled onto her stomach, her hair falling over her shoulder. So close to him now, her breaths fanned across his cheek. He turned too, keeping his eyes trained on her.

Never turn your back on a predator.

Her head tilted as she watched him, and he waited for her to speak, to blink, to do anything .

He jolted, nearly shifting to his dragon form when her hand shot out, reaching for him, yet her touch was soft as her fingers danced across his lips. And when she opened her mouth, finally speaking to him, her tone had that eerie ring that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

“You ask the wrong questions, Luka Mors.”

In the next blink, she was standing on the bed before leaping lightly to the floor. Her humming once again filled the room as she moved to the windows, her fingers sliding along the glass as she paced the length of the room.

Back and forth.

Back and forth.

The drizzle in the room had stopped, but so had the raging winter weather outside. It was completely still outside. Not a breeze or stray snowflake.

Unease filled his gut as he stared at her. Bare feet. Hair wild as the fingers of her other hand wound into the strands. Eerie humming. Power echoing and mirroring her every move.

A calm before a storm.

A darkness before a dawn.

That was what he was staring at.