Dawn of Chaos and Fury by Melissa K. Roehrich - 57

54

T essa hit the ground hard, rolling several times across a marble floor. Scrambling onto her hands and knees, she saw Theon several feet away doing the same. But Luka? He couldn’t be too far from her or⁠—

A furious roar echoed, the floor beneath her shuddering, and she looked up to find a domed ceiling of glass. The sky was spitting rain, drops streaming along the panes, and perched atop it was Luka, fully shifted and sapphire eyes glowing with wrath as black flames hit the glass. The water evaporated into nothing, but the glass didn’t even crack.

Light was suddenly hitting the dome from the inside, the glass seeming to absorb it and letting it pass through, jolting through the dragon. Luka back-flapped, another furious roar sounding from him as he hovered outside…wherever they were.

She took in the space. Pure white and gold, the walls were the same glass as the ceiling. The entire room was circular, the marble floor beneath her boasting streaks of red and brown from her rolling across it. Theon was on his knees, that same godsdamn seraph who never spoke standing behind him while five…Hunters closed in.

Fuck.

She looked down, seeing the gashes along her arms that were steadily dripping to the floor.

“They won’t hurt him yet.”

Theon was watching her, lips pressed into a thin line and eyes blazing with the same wrath as Luka’s.

Stick to the plan , Theon said down the bond.

Tessa turned away from him to the source of the voice.

Rordan was across the room, bent over what appeared to be raised garden beds. His crisp navy suit was in place, his back to her. As if she wasn’t a threat. “I find gardening rather soothing,” Rordan went on. “I think it’s in the blood. Light and beginnings. Creating something new and bringing it to life.”

She didn’t reply, instead trying to take in everything else. The glass walls overlooking a city where a battle raged beyond. The Faven Palace. They were in a room in the palace. A room he’d never brought her to, and now she knew why.

In the center stood a mirror. The stone frame was etched with symbols, and in the back of her mind, she wondered how in the fuck he’d gotten a mirror gate into this room. She wasn’t surprised that the mirror was in his palace. She should have known. He’d never risk it being found by anyone else, especially not with who stood next to it.

One of the most beautiful females she’d ever seen was watching her. Golden hair a few shades lighter than her own. Golden skin. Pristine wings. High cheekbones. Eyes the color of a clear sky. Ethereal and radiating with power, her floor-length white gown was sleeveless with metal clasps at her shoulders. A gold belt was slung around her waist with gold sandals on her feet.

Dagian’s mother.

She watched Tessa with apathetic features, wings rustling at her back. The bargain with Dagian was that they left her out of this, but Tessa wasn’t sure how they were going to do that when she was standing in this room.

Then again, that bargain was with Theon, not her.

Tearing her gaze from the seraph, her magic yanked at her restraint. There was so much power in this room. Rordan. Theon. The seraphs. The mirror.

She shook her arms out, still taking in everything until her focus landed on another heap across the room. A broken body, she realized. A body that looked like…Elowyn?

“She failed in her duties,” Rordan said, and her gaze snapped back to him, finding him watching her now. His hands behind his back, his head tilted towards the heap. “She was useful for a time. Creating the tonic to keep your power hidden, and then altering your tea so we could…enhance your visions.”

She arched a brow at that.

He smiled, chuckling to himself. “The one of Ms. Davers carrying Theon’s child was a particularly brutal one. Pushed you right into our arms.” The mirth fell. “Then you had to ruin everything.”

She had… That hadn’t been a real vision? Which ones had been real? Any of them? Had she been running around these last months trying to change visions that weren’t even real?

No.

Yes.

They couldn’t affect her from so far away, right?

She suddenly understood on a whole new level why Cienna insisted on not focusing on the visions. How trying to change a potential future could bring about that very future.

“Once we lost control of you, her usefulness had run its course,” Rordan continued, coming closer. “But we couldn’t just let that power go to waste, could we?”

“You took her magic,” Tessa murmured to herself, staring at Elowyn’s broken form. Is that what happened when your magic was forcibly taken from you?

Another roar sounded, followed by claws dragging on the glass. Rordan snarled in annoyance, lifting a hand and sending another wave of light to the ceiling. Luka roared in defiance as he was forced back yet again.

“Dragons and their godsdamn tantrums,” Rordan muttered. “They’ll be taken care of soon enough.” He was before her now, reaching out to finger her hair.

“Don’t fucking touch her,” Theon growled, his darkness snapping out, but a Hunter stepped in front of the attack, absorbing the magic with a sickening grin of too pale lips. Another Hunter drifted closer, inhaling deeply.

“Blood of death,” he hissed, that ethereal voice grating on her bones, and her magic writhed, dragging her down a little further.

“Don’t worry, Arius blood,” Rordan gritted out. “We’re preparing for you too.”

He nodded at the beautiful seraph, and her gaze flicked to Tessa. “You know my son?”

“We do,” Tessa answered cautiously.

“He spoke of you. Uncontrollable.”

Her words were jilted and selective, as if she wasn’t sure she was using the right ones. This clearly wasn’t her native tongue.

Tessa flashed her a sharp smile. “Some call it uncontrollable. I simply call it madness.”

“We are not here to speak of my traitorous son,” Rordan barked. “Begin.”

“Here?” the female questioned, gesturing around them. “With a child of Achaz?”

“It isn’t for her. It’s for him,” Rordan snapped. “Draw the Marks.”

Her clear blue eyes flicked across the room to Theon, the other seraph, and the Hunters before coming back to Tessa. “He is a reflection of Arius.”

Tessa’s brow furrowed as the female dropped to a crouch and began drawing a Mark.

“But first, what am I to do with you?” Rordan asked now that the female was doing as she was told.

Tessa’s fingers curled at her sides, her magic claiming her a little more, while she watched the female move and draw another again a few feet away.

“There is nothing you can do with us,” Tessa answered, lifting her chin. “I am still more powerful than you.”

“Is that what you believe?” he sneered.

“It does not matter what I believe. Truth is truth,” she said, following the path of the seraph. “But more than that, you are not valued as much as I am.”

Rordan scoffed, light flickering in his eyes at the snub.

“You think I’m wrong?” she asked, tracking the female as she continued to move, disappearing behind the mirror now. Rordan couldn’t see her, but Tessa could, and she paused, studying the floor. Those piercing blue eyes flicked up to her again. Then she turned as if assessing the Marks she’d started drawing in a circle off to the right.

“A reflection of madness,” the seraph murmured. She gestured to the Marks. “It flows the wrong way.”

“I know I’m not,” Tessa said with a shrug, returning her attention to Rordan. “I’m his grandchild, and you? You’re so far removed from him, it’s laughable to even call you an Achaz Legacy.”

“And yet I am the one serving Achaz with steadfast loyalty while you betray him at every turn,” Rordan ground out.

“Do I?”

“You’re married to an Arius Legacy and a dragon. He will find those betrayals unforgivable.”

“Perhaps I am like him,” Tessa said simply, wandering over to the mirror and staring at her reflection. Understanding settling in as she watched the female move in her periphery. “Perhaps I find betrayals just as unforgivable. I think it runs in the family.” She paused, glancing at Rordan. “Not that you would know.”

Rordan’s face was flushed, and his words were forced as he ground out, “Achaz will deal with the dragon in time. As for the Arius Lord , I will deal with him myself. Achaz can deal with you.”

She hummed, dragging her fingers along the stone around the mirror. “He will still choose me. I am his blood, and I have something he craves.” She lifted a hand, chaos spinning in her palm. “You are just someone who has taken too long to please him.” She closed her fist, the power snuffing out. “But I can help you with that.”

“You’re going to help me?” he scoffed. “You cannot possibly expect me to believe that?”

She shrugged again. “Fine. Then I will present the Arius blood to him.” Looking over her shoulder, she caught the gaze of a Hunter. “Bring me a dagger.”

The Hunter went unnaturally still, his white eyes moving from her to Rordan.

“You’re playing games, Tessa,” Rordan barked.

“I told you I was bringing them to Achaz. I was simply offering you a way to gain favor with him. I’m sure Achaz would love to watch you take power from an Arius Legacy before he meets his death. Maybe then he would find you a little more…worthy of him.”

Tessa… This is not the plan, Theon said down the bond.

He was right. This wasn’t the plan they’d discussed, but she wasn’t very good at following others’ plans for her anyway.

So she shoved him out. Shoved them both out. Because she needed to focus, and her magic was already loud enough. She couldn’t handle them in her head too.

She saw Theon’s eyes widen at the action. Luka roared again, tail smashing into a wall of windows now as he tried to find a weakness. But there was none. The Faven Palace didn’t have a weakness.

“But you’re not going to keep me from proving my loyalty,” she said. Then to the Hunter she snapped, “A dagger. Now.”

Thunder echoed her words, and gold mist was swirling at her feet.

The Hunter appeared, bowing his head and handing her a gold dagger. “Your grace.”

“Wait,” Rordan interjected. He snapped his fingers at the seraph. “Start over. Here,” he said, motioning a circle around the mirror.

“Here?” the female repeated. “Make it flow here?”

“Yes,” he clipped out. He turned back to Tessa. “Prove that loyalty then.”

His eyes narrowed as she snatched up the dagger the Hunter was offering her, and she wasted no time dragging it across her palm.

“Tessa, wait. Stop!” Theon said, trying to get to his feet, but the seraph behind him planted his hands on his shoulders, keeping him in place. The seraph’s hand moved as if gesturing to something. Or halting something. Tessa couldn’t split her focus to figure it out right now.

A Hunter moved closer, but he stilled when Tessa hissed, “Do not touch him. He is for Achaz. Will you steal from him?”

The Hunter froze. “We never steal from the Light King.”

“Good answer,” she replied before she slid her hand atop a symbol of three interlocking triangles.

“Tessa!” Theon said again, his eyes wide. “Tessa, what are you doing?”

“Come now, Theon,” she said patronizingly while the mirror swirled. “You keep telling me you want to meet a god. Now you can.”

Rordan was standing ramrod straight, his eyes fixed on the mirror. “If you are lying to me, child…”

She stepped to his side as the seraph finished the circle, taking a wide step back.

“You can see the symbol as well as I can,” Tessa drawled. “Is that not Achaz’s symbol?”

Rordan didn’t speak as the mirror continued to eddy, gold and silver embers and sparks flitting throughout until a form took shape. A small gasp came from the male beside her, as though he hadn’t truly believed she was summoning the god they descended from, and she was glad because the sound hid her own whimper as her power reached for the mirror.

No. We can’t have that.

But we want it.

No.

Yes.

A little longer.

It took another few minutes. It always did, and she was fairly certain it had more to do with the gods favoring dramatics than anything else. But finally, there he stood. Blue eyes with brilliant flecks of gold. A glowing aura surrounding him. Tan complexion. Golden hair that reached nearly to his chin.

Rordan had fallen to a knee, and Tessa did the same, bowing her head as the god formed fully in the mirror.

“Tessa!” Theon barked.

The Hunters hissed, and Theon fell silent. She didn’t dare look at him.

“Has my granddaughter learned respect?” Achaz asked, his voice ringing in the circular room. She lifted her head, meeting Achaz’s gaze as he added, “Then again, that can’t be true because your mother is missing.”

“She is here. I can be rather impulsive,” Tessa answered, a sliver of her power breaking free. Achaz honed in on it, a hunger filling his eyes. “But I had to know. I had to meet her.”

“I offered to bring you to her,” Achaz chided. “This could have all been avoided. Misunderstandings could have been rectified. I would have taken care of both of you.”

“I know,” Tessa said softly, eyes dropping to the floor where the Marks sat in front of her. “I am not very trusting. Too many people have tried to use me.”

“You can still fix this. You know what you need to do to regain my favor. I can still take you from that world like I promised,” he went on.

When she didn’t immediately answer, his attention shifted to Rordan. “What do you have for me?”

“The Arius Lord, your grace,” Rordan said, lifting his head. “I will rip his traitorous power from his soul before your eyes.”

Achaz’s smile was anything but light and life. It was cold and wicked, eyes glowing brighter at the idea of taking anything from Arius. “Bring him.”

The seraph shoved Theon into the circle before the mirror, and Achaz’s lip curled in disgust. “You look just like him. A prophecy then. I will watch you die as a preview of the day I get to watch him do the same.”

“That’s not how the prophecy goes,” Tessa cut in. “Do you want to hear a story?”

Achaz’s eyes flashed to her, narrowing. “No,” he gritted out.

“That’s disappointing,” Tessa said, pushing to her feet. “I tell great stories. Right, Theon?”

Theon was watching her, his features tight. “The best stories, clever tempest. In fact, it’d be great if you could tell me one of a female who went rogue and nearly killed them all.”

“She sounds delightful,” Tessa replied wistfully, letting more and more of her power out. Watching it spread across the floor. Up the glass walls to the domed ceiling. “But I have another to tell.”

“Not now,” Achaz snapped.

“In all things, there must be balance,” Tessa recited. “Beginnings and endings. Light and dark. Fire and shadows. The skies, the seas, the realms. But when the scales tip, and Chaos rains, who will fight and who will fall?”

Her magic swirled faster, her bow appearing in her hand.

“For Dark must bow.” Her gaze slid to Theon, his lips curling into an amused smile as he bowed his head to her. “And Light must rule.”

She nocked an arrow to her bow, Rordan lurching forward, but Theon snapped out a whip of darkness, throwing him against the mirror. The Hunters glided forward, and she let that arrow fly. Then another. And another.

“But Chaos does not choose. Control the uncontrollable, or to Fury they both lose,” she recited as the last Hunter faded into nothing.

Light and dark exploded, colliding as Theon and Rordan both summoned the full extent of their gifts, but her magic encased the room. While they fought for dominance, she sliced her palm, finding those Marks on the floor. She danced around them, her blood spilling and the Marks flaring as she fell deeper and deeper into her Chaos.

“Life must give, and death must take,” she sang, her voice rising with each word. “But Fate requires more.”

“No!” Achaz bellowed, hands slamming against the mirror. “Impossible. He is not Arius. He cannot hold that much power.”

Tessa had completed her circle, the glass walls around them cracking now. She could hear Luka slamming into them over and over. Staying near. Good. Because she wasn’t entirely sure how this was going to end. Not anymore.

Theon and Rordan were an equal match. Power stolen and magic freely given.

But she was more.

She strode into the circle, her Chaos merging with Theon’s darkness and strengthening it. Her light merged too, but with Rordan’s power, turning it around and pushing it back against him. The same way she’d once turned Theon’s power on him. It shoved him against the mirror, and she plucked a blade from Theon’s belt.

“Destiny beckons, and sacrifice demands,” she hissed, slicing that dagger across Rordan’s palms while Theon’s darkness held him in place. And when she finished, she tugged on Theon’s power, using cords of his magic to turn Rordan. They forced him to his knees and his palms to the glass, his blood smearing on the smooth surface.

Then she shoved Theon out of the circle with a mighty surge of her Chaos.

“Tessa!” he yelled as he went flying, shadows wings bursting free and hopefully keeping him on his feet.

Rordan was thrashing. Light flaring as it tried to fight against her hold, but she was drawing from Theon. Taking and taking as she lifted her eyes to meet Achaz’s in the mirror once more.

“Who will be left standing,” she continued, feeling her feet lift from the floor. As her light and dark wound around her. As energy erupted, bouncing off the glass keeping them enclosed.

Then she started reciting the words. Words she’d listened to her mother recite over and over again as the Ladies sacrificed their power for their kingdoms, atoning for the wrongs they’d brought upon the realm. The lying. The deceit. The hunger and the greed.

She’d memorized those words. Internalized them. Tucked them away, and now as she spoke them, her Chaos snarled and snapped, trying to take the power that was flowing from Rordan into the mirror gate.

Achaz was cursing her. Theon was yelling her name. Luka was still trying to find any way in.

And still she recited the words, letting her power build and build.

She’d planned to come find this mirror gate after the battle was done. Still planned to find the others. She’d call it luck that Rordan had brought her here, but luck had never played a part in her life. Neither had coincidence. Call it fate. Call it destiny. She didn’t really care anymore. This forgotten realm was her purpose, and she didn’t like it when people touched what was hers to protect.

Rordan was crying out in agony now, trying desperately to pull his hands from the glass, but Theon’s magic held them there. She watched as his limbs snapped and twisted at unnatural angles. Watched as blood dripped from his nose, his ears, his eyes. Watched as all that power he’d stolen was violently cut from his being and funneled into the mirror. Watched as the mirror gate absorbed it all, beginning to crack, small shards clinking to the marble floor.

And as the last of that power moved from Rordan to the mirror, as the Achaz Lord went silent and still, Tessa met Achaz’s furious stare in that fractured mirror one more time as she said, “Chaos has come to reign.”

She let the leash on her magic snap, and it leapt for the mirror gate, crashing into it like a wave. She could swear the world went silent, that the realm held its breath while all that Chaos pulsed and inhaled and stilled.

Then it exploded, the force radiating out. She’d cloaked the room in her power, trying to contain it, but it broke through even that. She was thrown into the air, clutching at any thread of her chaos, trying to keep the destruction in the air. Praying to any being that might intervene that innocent lives would not pay the price yet again.

Glass fell, mixing with the pouring rain. The seraphs had taken to the skies, and she wondered if the two that had been with her had survived.

She hoped she had at least.

Hoped she’d done enough.

And Theon…

Tessa? Tessa, where are you? his voice echoed down the bond, and she smiled as she tumbled through the air. She’d done it. She’d saved him.

That was good. Arius Kingdom would still have him.

And Axel and Kat. Maddox was safe.

This was good.

Her magic stuttered, and it was the strangest feeling. She’d never actually experienced her power running out. It had been locked up and caged, forced to slumber, but she’d never truly expended it all. It left an ache in her soul.

Or maybe that was the thought of never seeing Theon again.

You’re not getting rid of him by fucking dying.

Luka’s snarled voice came down the bond a moment before a dark shadow was there, diving fast. His wings snapped out as he neared, pulling that massive body up while a clawed foot wrapped around her, hauling her back into the sky.

Tessa let her eyes fall closed, feeling the rain splash against her face. Heard Nylah and Roan howling in the distance. Felt the rumble of the thunder in her bones.

Tired.

She was so, so tired.

The next thing she knew she was being placed on the ground, and hands were on her face.

“Open your eyes, little storm,” Theon said, the words an order. “Open them, godsdammit.”

Everything hurt, and a low groan came from her as she lifted her heavy lids. Theon and Luka were both leaning over her. The rain had slowed to a gentle drizzle, and when she moved her fingers, she felt the mud beneath them.

“You didn’t die,” she rasped. “That’s good.”

Theon huffed a laugh as Luka said, “You didn’t die either. You’re lucky.”

“Yet you’re still an ass,” she muttered, and he smiled—a real one—as he reached for her and eased her into a sitting position while Theon pushed hair off her face.

She blinked as she realized where they were.

The stormy skies casting everything in grey.

Dead grass and scorched earth.

Bodies everywhere.

Blood and mud.

The rain.

But that was Xan and Aiyana, still in their dragon forms and guarding the perimeter with Nylah and Roan.

That was Razik and Eliza, weapons still out and ready for violence.

That was Cienna and Tristyn, brother and sister, alive and breathing.

Her mother and Caris.

Kat and Axel.

“We did it?” she asked, leaning into Luka’s chest as he scooped her up and stood in one strong movement.

“You did it, baby girl,” he murmured.

She nodded. Or tried to. She just wanted to go home.

Home.

She had one of those now.

How odd after all this time.

Salvation among the destruction.