Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance (Legacy #3)

44. Tessa

44

TESSA

S he didn’t know how Traveling worked, but she somehow managed to get herself back to the Achaz capital. Not the palace exactly, but at least it was Faven.

At least she was out of Arius Kingdom.

She made her way through the city, not missing the sentinels that started following her from a distance. It didn’t surprise her. She’d been expecting this. Expecting to be watched and monitored after instigating a massacre, then disappearing for a few days.

Nylah and Roan eventually appeared too, sticking close to her sides. Her fingers wound into soft fur, seeking comfort that she knew she wouldn’t find there. They were her companions, yes, but they weren’t her comfort. They weren’t her solace.

They weren’t home.

The walk back to the palace took over an hour, and when she finally got there, Nylah stayed outside, prowling the perimeter. Roan, however, followed her up to her rooms, a faithful friend she’d missed terribly.

The sentinels that had trailed her through the city stopped at the gates, a new set of guards taking over. They didn’t bother hiding it. Shutting the door to her rooms behind her, three of them stayed outside. Stupid, really. They all knew she could make portals. Having guards outside her rooms seemed pointless.

Or it would be if she wasn’t so broken.

If she wasn’t back in a place she’d tried so hard to claw her way out of. She thought she’d made it too. More powerful than anyone else. Someone people feared as much as they feared Theon. A villain. A monster. Forcing dark to bow so light could rule.

All of it as fleeting as her visions.

Instead of clawing her way out, she’d only dug a tunnel to another pit of torment. This place was arguably worse. She’d experienced what it felt like to have people fight for her. Gotten a taste of people wanting her, and still she’d pushed them away. Still she’d created a mess.

Or maybe you just don’t know how to let yourself be loved.

Truer words had never been spoken.

She changed out of the black training clothes, sliding on cream, loose, linen pants and a white top. She braided her hair over her shoulder before she crawled onto her bed to wait. They would come for her soon enough.

Roan leapt onto the bed beside her, turning in a few circles before settling down, and she scratched behind his ears.

“I’m sorry we lost her,” Tessa whispered. “I know you were close.”

Roan whined, lifting his head to nuzzle into her hand. She let the pain of losing Auryon wash over her. Another loss and hurt that Luka had soothed away now raw and painful.

She didn’t know why she did it, but she reached into the nightstand drawer, finding the phone Theon had given her.

But that was a lie.

She knew exactly why she did it as she powered on the device. She watched it blink to life, waiting as it loaded and tipping her head back against the headboard. Her eyes fell closed, and she inhaled deeply, then regretted it. Luka had been sleeping in here with her, and there were still traces of his scent in the air.

The phone in her hand suddenly started vibrating, ping after ping sounding loud in the silence. Message after message poured in, and she stared down at the phone, her mouth dropping open. More than a hundred messages were being downloaded to the thing. What in the realms?

With a trembling hand, she thumbed open the text threads, gasping at what she found. Save for a few messages from Axel when he had been trying to track her down, every single message was from Theon. She scrolled up to the first, finding the date it had been sent—the day after she had left him on his knees. There was a text every single day since, sometimes two.

Scrolling back to the top, she clicked open the first.

Theon: I understand the hate. Today, I hate you too.

A bark of laughter escaped her. Probably not the reaction he’d envisioned when he sent that, but wasn’t that what she’d wanted? Him to feel what he’d done to her? Have a taste of her wrath and vengeance?

She clicked on the message sent the next day.

Theon: But I’ll still come for you.

The next.

Theon: I said I’ll still come for you, but I know you don’t want that. Luka is coming. I’ve told him not to tell me anything. He’s loyal. He’ll follow the order. You can trust him, little storm.

A sob hitched in her throat. She opened the next one.

Theon: Axel is missing. I know you don’t have your phone, and this is pointless, but… Fuck.

She scrolled down, opening one a few days later.

Theon: Somehow I have to search for Axel and run a kingdom. I thought I was prepared for this. Turns out I wasn’t prepared for anything.

Tessa scrolled down more.

Theon: You were here today, beautiful. I’m still healing from your attack, but for the record, you never need to be armed around me.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she scrolled down a little more and opened another.

Theon: I know Luka is giving you updates, but I’ll send them here as well, just in case you actually turn on your phone. Roan is being constantly monitored. The recovery will take a while, but they think he’ll make a full recovery.

Theon: No real update today. Nothing has changed, but he hasn’t gotten worse, so we’ll count it as a good day.

Theon: He opened his eyes today, beautiful. I wish you would have been here to see it.

Tears were streaming down her face now as she scrolled through several before clicking on another.

Theon: I started taking Roan outside with me when I visit my hounds. I tried to convince him to play fetch. He didn’t seem impressed.

She barked another laugh, looking over at her wolf and plunging her hand into his fur again. Returning to the phone, she scrolled some more, opening one from a few weeks ago.

Theon: I know I told you, but I need to say it again. You looked stunning tonight, Tessa.

She smiled through her tears as she scrolled some more, opening the one he’d sent a few days ago.

Theon: I’ve never lied to you, Tessa. Withheld information? Yes. Hurt you? Yes. But I’ve never lied to you.

She scrolled to the last one. The one sent this morning.

Theon: I want you to know that despite all of this, I’ll still come for you.

The phone slipped from her hand, plopping onto the mattress. He couldn’t mean that. She’d unleashed beings specifically created to kill his people. They had killed his people. Hundreds of them. To say he would still come for her after everything she had done? Impossible. This betrayal was arguably worse than keeping Luka’s father from him, and she knew that was unforgivable. The deaths of hundreds?

If being a villain required no remorse, she wasn’t one because she had caused the deaths of innocents and she felt every bit of that guilt. She was exactly the monster Luka had called her.

She swiped the phone back up, tapping out a reply. Then her thumb hovered over the send button for the next hour. She was still debating sending the message when her door opened.

Roan growled, but she hushed him with a pat to the head. Dex stood there, dark eyes hard. His lips pressed into a thin line as he stared at her before he slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out two bands.

She didn’t even fight it.

She let him slip the bands onto her wrists and watched the light that wound around them die out.

“I have to take you to the Pantheon. They will hold you there until they decide,” Dex explained.

Tessa only nodded.

Then he pulled a ring from his pocket. She’d seen ones like it among Theon’s things. A solid black band, and she gasped when Dex grabbed her wrist, forcing the ring onto her pointer finger. The bands may have separated her from her magic, but she could take them off. This ring was not the same. She could feel it digging its claws into her power. Feel her magic thrashing in her soul.

She lifted horrified eyes to Dex. “What are you doing?”

“You did this, Tessa,” he said, taking her elbow and leading her from the room. Roan leapt down, keeping pace beside them. “We’ll get what we need from you one way or another.”

“What does that mean?” she demanded, trying to dig her feet into the smooth floor, but Dex just dragged her along.

“It means you just had to do as you were told. Now, we’ll take what we’re owed.”