Rain of Shadows and Endings — Chapter no 15

15

TESSA

“W hy did I want to do this again?” Tessa moaned.

She was lying on the floor, and Axel was helping her stretch her legs and hip flexors.

Theon had her up before dawn the last two mornings to go running. She liked dawn. While sipping coffee and watching the sun rise. Not dying and being unable to breathe while the sun was rising.

Theon made her eat a banana on their way out the door. They would meet Axel and proceed to run along the various garden paths. The first day she’d made it almost two miles before she was done. She may not have been athletic, but it wasn’t as though she sat around all day at the Estate. She needed to keep busy, or she’d go half-mad if she was forced to stay indoors or in one place too long. And, of course, she’d had to run to avoid being caught a few times too. So she could run, but not for the enjoyment of it.

Today, Theon had made her go nearly three miles, informing her that her Fae body was more than capable of going that far. She wasn’t fast, and they were clearly slowing their pace way down to stay with her. Theon and Axel were having godsdamn conversations during these runs while she was busy trying to suck down air.

And she was sore.

And hungry.

But mostly sore.

Theon had quickly showered and changed when they’d gotten back to the rooms. He had a meeting with his father and some others, and Axel had stayed behind to babysit her.

She assumed Luka was going to be at the meeting with Theon. Tessa hadn’t seen the male since the day they’d all gone to Castle Pines, but he was supposed to be back today.

“Don’t whine,” Axel said, pressing her leg up in the air. “I promise once you get through the first few weeks, you’ll love it.”

“First few weeks?” Tessa demanded, grimacing as he deepened the stretch.

“Come on. You don’t hate it that much, do you?”

She didn’t. Granted, it had only been two days, but it got her outside. If it’s what she had to do to be outside, then she’d gladly struggle to breathe.

“No,” she sighed. “I don’t.”

“Good,” Axel said, stepping back and motioning for her to lower her leg. “Because I got you something.”

Tessa sat up, sitting cross-legged on the floor. She grabbed her water bottle and took a long drink while he jogged over to his bag near the door. When he returned, he dropped to the floor beside her, passing her a small box. Setting her water bottle aside, she opened it to find two ear buds.

“I thought you might want to listen to music while you’re running,” Axel explained.

“That would be nice,” Tessa admitted slowly, pulling one from the box and fitting it into her ear. “But I don’t have anything to play music on.”

She didn’t want to tell him she didn’t even know what kind of music she liked. She only knew a few songs. Ballads of Devram she’d been forced to listen to as part of her studies. Most of them didn’t even have words.

“Sure you do,” Axel said. “Your phone can play it. Get it for me, and I’ll show you how.”

“You get it,” she whined. “I can’t get off the floor right now.”

“Get up, baby doll,” Axel said, pushing on her back. “You need to move around so you don’t get too stiff.”

Grumbling, Tessa got to her feet and retrieved the phone from Theon’s desk. Just as she was handing it over to Axel, a knock came at the door. They paused, waiting for whoever it was to announce themselves.

“Tessalyn Ausra?” came a voice that Tessa did not recognize, but Axel tensed. He brought a finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet.

The knock came again.

“We were sent to retrieve you. The Arius Lord and Arius Heir have requested your presence in our meeting.”

Tessa glanced at Axel, who shook his head. He leaned over, speaking directly into her ear, and even then, he spoke so quietly, she could barely hear him. “Go into the bedroom.

Shut the door.”

He pressed the phone back into her hand. She nodded, hurrying to do as he said. As she shut the bedroom door, the knock came again.

“Open up, Tessalyn. Your master will be very upset to hear you are disobeying a Legacy.”

Tessa heard the door open, and she pressed her ear to the closed bedroom door.

“Metias. Pavil,” she heard Axel say. “What are you doing in this wing of the house?”

Tessa had never heard Axel speak that way. His tone was low and dangerous and dark.

The same tone Theon had spoken to her in when he’d yanked her out of a tree.

“Axel,” came the greasy voice again. “My apologies. I thought these were Theon’s rooms. We were sent to retrieve his Source for him.”

“These are Theon’s rooms,” Axel answered. “His Source is in the shower. I can bring her to Theon when she is finished.”

“Actually, we were coming to find you next. Your father has requested your presence as well,” cut in another voice. “He was very insistent. Might I suggest you head down, and we can wait for Theon’s Source to escort her when she is out of the shower?”

“I will need to check with Theon to confirm that,” Axel said smoothly. “He is very protective of his Source, as you can imagine.”

“Of course. It is his protectiveness that drove him to desire her next to him,” the first voice replied. “Our meeting is going much longer than anticipated, so he would like her present.”

“She just got in the shower, so she will likely be a bit,” Axel said. “I can call down to the study and verify—”

“I really don’t think that’s necessary. We are allies now, are we not?” came the second voice. “I am starting to become offended at the obvious lack of trust you are displaying in us.”

“We are allies, Pavil, but my brother entrusted the safety of his Source to me, and I take that responsibility seriously,” Axel answered. “More seriously than you appear to take your life when you interrupted an Arius Heir.”

There was a long pause, and Tessa found herself smiling at Axel putting the male in his place.

And she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that.

“It will only take a moment to confirm everything,” Axel was saying.

“This is urgent business, Axel,” the first voice sneered. “Your father is going to be very displeased if you do not go to his study immediately.”

Axel went silent, and Tessa wasn’t sure what to do. Suddenly, her phone pinged softly in her hand.

Axel: Run, Tessa. Theon isn’t answering his phone. However you got down from that balcony, do it again and run. Theon will find you.

“Fine. I will head down there. Bring her straight to Theon as soon as she is done,” she heard Axel saying. “But know if she arrives with a single hair out of place, you will deal with Theon, and we all know how that will go.”

Tessa didn’t linger any longer. She was still in her running clothes, but she had removed her shoes. Guess she was doing this barefoot.

With nowhere to put her phone, she tossed it on the bed and rushed over to the balcony doors, scurrying through and shutting them behind her. Darting to the left, she climbed over the balcony railing and onto the thin ledge that ran to the trellis. With her back to the wall, she slowly inched her way along, the wards pressing against her skin. She had moved faster the last time she’d done this, but the wind was picking up and some of the gusts were strong. Just as she was nearing the trellis, she heard the balcony doors burst open. She leapt the remaining distance, her hands slicing open on the wood as she caught herself. Her bare

feet fought for purchase.

“What the fuck?”

Tessa looked over to see a shorter Legacy with slicked back hair and dark eyes watching her in shock. Another slightly taller Legacy came rushing up behind him.

“The side entrance,” the second one said, pulling the other to follow him. “We’ll cut her off in the gardens.”

The two males disappeared as Tessa climbed down the trellis as quickly as she could.

She jumped the last few feet and cried out as she landed wrong, her ankle wrenching to the side. Not giving herself a second to dwell on the pain, she took off running. Her ankle was throbbing, and the bond was growing more and more agonizing as she put distance between her and Theon.

The sound of pounding feet behind her had her putting on a burst of speed. Looking over her shoulder, she found the two Legacy easily gaining on her. She pushed her sore legs faster, but between her ankle and the bond, coupled with the fact she was already tired from their run a mere hour ago, she had already lost.

“It’s okay, Tessalyn,” one of them called to her, much closer than they’d been a moment ago. “We just want to get to know you better. We’re going to be spending lots of time together.”

Tessa followed the path that Theon had been taking her running on the last two days. It wound down farther into the gardens before it would eventually turn and take her past the kennels and the stables. She flung herself around a corner, and as she did, she tripped on a root in the path. She lurched forward, sprawling to her hands and knees. Before she could right herself, a hand latched onto her sprained ankle, and she cried out as pain and panic coursed through her.

“Such a pretty little thing you are,” the one with the slicked-back hair crooned, dragging her along the stone path closer to him. Her arms and knees scraped on the stone.

“Let me go!” she cried, trying to find anything to grab onto as she was pulled backwards.

“Now, Tessalyn,” came the second, walking up beside her. “Is that any way to speak to a Legacy? Although Valter did say you had an issue with manners.” He crouched down before her, reaching over and running a single finger along her jaw. “He gave us permission to make sure those manners were corrected. Sadly, I am finding them lacking.”

Terror and fear clawed their way up Tessa’s spine, her already racing heart ramping up even more. The male who held her ankle began sliding his hand up her calf, and the other one tried to grab her wrist.

“No!” Tessa cried. She kicked out with her good foot, putting every bit of strength she could muster into the movement, and caught the one at her feet in the nose. He cursed as he jerked back from her, blood pouring out from behind his hand.

“You little bitch!” he spat, his voice nasally. “How dare you attack a Legacy!”

“Those manners definitely need correcting,” the second male said through clenched teeth, fury lining his features.

“Don’t touch me!” Tessa cried, scrambling away from him as he made another grab for her. A violent gust of wind tore through the garden path, knocking the second male back several inches, and Tessa used it to her advantage, crawling away even farther.

She shoved herself to her feet as the male came for her again, and she threw her hands out in front of her. “No!”

The word had barely left her lips when the ground beneath them shook. The first male, who had managed to get to his own feet, fell back onto his ass, and the second male dropped to his knees. Tessa pitched forward onto her own hands and knees once again, and when her palms met with the earth, light sparked and rippled, a large crack ripping through the path between her and the Legacy.

“What the—” the second male began to say, but he didn’t get to finish. Gold mist began rising from the crack as a crevice took shape, widening the gap between Tessa and the Legacy. As thunder cracked, light so bright she had to turn away flared up from the ground. She was scrambling back, but not before she caught sight of something beginning to crawl up out of the crevice from the light.

No.

Not crawl.

It glided up out of the crevice.

Another appeared.

And another.

Tessa watched in utter terror as bodies rose up out of the crevice. But they weren’t bodies of flesh and blood. They shimmered in the sunlight, their bodies nearly transparent.

They floated a couple of inches off the ground, and they were all identical. Pale skin. Tall and lean, with sharp, angular features. Short hair as white as clouds.

They couldn’t be real. She must have hit her head when she tripped on the tree root.

Maybe none of this was real.

The first being that had appeared tipped its head back, inhaling deeply. His head turned. White eyes with no pupils settled on her. Could it actually see her?

Not real. This cannot be real.

The terror was paralyzing. She couldn’t move, even as the other beings turned their heads to her as well. The two Legacy were just as frozen on the other side of the crevice, and when the first being lifted a hand, he drew a sword from the very air.

The others did the same.

Those were real.

Very real blades of gleaming gold.

The two Legacy lurched backwards as the beings turned back to them. The figures moved as if to leap across the crevice, but they simply floated over it.

And Tessa decided she had seen enough.

Whatever paralyzing fear she’d been under shattered, and she jumped back to her feet, running as fast as she could down the path. She stumbled more than once as her ankle protested every pounding step, rocks cutting into her bare feet. The cord was tightening around her chest, demanding she seek out Theon and making breathing even harder. She went around another corner, and the sound of barking told her she was nearing the kennels.

She pushed herself faster until she was skidding to another halt as one of Theon’s huge wolves burst from the kennels.

Its black fur gleamed in the morning sun, and its hackles were raised. Its ears were pinned back, and its orange eyes were glowing just like they had been when it had chased

her up the tree in the mountains.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

Frozen, Tessa didn’t dare move as the wolf prowled forward. What would be a worse fate? Dying by a wolf or a being that had floated up out of the ground with a sword? She was trembling as the wolf neared her, but when it reached her side, it turned, nudging her hand with its nose. She was trying to hold her breath, but she’d just been running for her damn life and she was panting.

The wolf pushed into her hand again, then moved to nudge her behind the knees as if telling her to move. When she stumbled forward a step, the wolf leapt in front of her, pausing to look back over its shoulder at her.

I am losing my godsdamn mind. None of this can be real.

But as cries erupted from the Legacy behind her, she decided she would take her chances with the wolf over translucent figures with golden swords.

“Please don’t kill me,” she muttered as she darted after the animal.

The wolf led her past the kennels and down another path that she knew would eventually lead to the stables. As the wolf neared them, it darted to the side, and Tessa followed it off the path onto uneven ground. It went around to the backside of the stables, where it reared up onto its hind legs and began pawing at the door.

“Okay, okay,” Tessa gasped, cautiously approaching the door. She unlatched it, pushing, but it wouldn’t budge. “It’s stuck,” she grunted, throwing her shoulder into it again and again.

The wind was whipping wildly now, her hair flying in every direction, and thunder was continuing to rumble overhead as dark clouds continued to build. The wolf growled beside her and let out a loud bark. Startled by the sound, Tessa stumbled back just in time for the wolf to come leaping at the door. The impact of its paws hitting the door echoed around her.

The door flew inward at the weight from the wolf, and it barked again at Tessa. She stumbled across the threshold and into the stables. The moment she was inside, the wolf let loose a long howl before turning and going back the way they’d come. Not knowing what else to do, Tessa heaved the door shut behind her and turned to take in the stables. She was at the back of the building, and she bent over, hands on her knees, as she tried to catch her breath and figure out what to do next.

“She must have gone to the horses.” The second Legacy’s voice carried to her, and her stomach went to her throat.

Staggering forward, she looked for a place to hide, but all she saw were stalls. Down the way, one of the giant black horses had stuck his head over his gate, watching her.

That pen was definitely not an option.

Not wasting any more time, Tessa began climbing the gate to her right. When she reached the top, she jumped into the stall without thinking and bit down on the cry of pain.

Tears of agony leaked out of the corners of her eyes, but the scream she let out wasn’t from her ankle. It was from the giant horse she was suddenly face-to-face with.

Tessa slammed a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound as she slowly backed up from the creature. Her back hit the corner of the stall, and she stilled. The horse took a step forward, his large nose coming to her hair, and hot breath washed over her as he huffed.

The sound of the stable door creaking open had her stifling another scream, and she slowly sank down into the corner of the stall. If they came from the direction she had come from, they’d spot her immediately, but if they came from the other direction, she couldn’t be spotted unless they searched each pen.

The horse’s ear perked at the noise, and he moved to lift his head over the gate, apparently curious to see who else had entered his domain.

“Tessalyn,” the second male called out. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

One of the other horses let out a whinny while the one in the stall Tessa was in stamped his large hoof against the hay-strewn ground. Tessa’s hand was still clamped over her mouth, trying to muffle the sound of her breathing. Dread crept up her spine, and terror coated her limbs.

“Valter will not be happy we lost her,” the first male said.

Their footsteps sounded closer, and the horse shifted, almost as if it were trying to block her from view.

“Perhaps, but I think he will find what we saw very interesting,” the second replied.

“Then let’s go tell him before she summons any more of those things, or before Theon’s damn hound shows up again,” the first male answered. “I’m still struggling to heal the wound from that damn thing.”

“I don’t think she’s in here anyway,” the second said. “There’s no place to hide unless she crawled into a stall, and Theon’s horses would never allow that.”

Their voices faded away as they exited the building, but Tessa remained frozen where she sat in the corner. Silent tears were tracking down her cheeks, and her entire body was trembling. The horse turned his head to look at her, and her heart ratcheted up again as he moved towards her. His head lowered, and his large nose nuzzled against her shoulder, before he lowered his massive body to the ground. His huge head came to rest on her legs, where he stilled.

After several minutes, Tessa slowly lowered her hand from her mouth. Extending trembling fingers towards him, she stroked the animal’s cheek. He let out a soft huff, so she did it again. She stroked her fingers through his silky black mane and down his broad neck, but her trembling didn’t cease as fresh tears coursed down her face.

She dropped her head to the animal’s neck and sobbed.