Rain of Shadows and Endings — Chapter no 20

20

TESSA

T essa followed Theon out of the dining room, Luka and Axel brushing past her without a word or glance. Seriously, why was she getting the cold shoulder from all three of them?

Luka was a broody ass, so he didn’t particularly surprise her, but Axel?

“I thought you were going to lose it in there,” Axel said when they reached the stairwell.

“I nearly did, but it wouldn’t have done any good. Not yet anyway,” Theon answered.

His entire body was tense. She could see his muscles coiled and tight beneath his suit jacket while she followed behind him. He was back to cold again, and she didn’t know if she should speak or not. She hated feeling so godsdamn unsettled.

“I think he got the message,” Luka said grimly.

Axel huffed a laugh. “You think? The look on his face when Theon pulled Tessa into his lap was priceless. He knows Theon will be just as powerful as he is soon, if not more so.

That is why he is so concerned about her element. You know it. I know it. The fucking Fates know it.”

There was a spring in Axel’s step, as if this was the most exciting news of the evening.

But that was why Theon had pulled her into his lap? To make a subtle jab at his father that he would soon be more powerful as soon as he could draw power from her?

“What are you doing, Tessa?”

She looked up to find the three of them standing in front of the suite door. Theon’s eyes were narrowed on her. She had stopped moving when they’d turned down their hallway. All she would ever be to him was a pawn in a game among the Legacy. A piece of property to be used however her Master saw fit. The documents Theon had shown her days ago flashed through her mind, and she was suddenly crushed under the weight of missing Dex and Lange and her friends. People who wanted her for her, not what she could give

them.

“Tessalyn,” Theon snapped again.

She drew in a deep breath, pushing it out as she forced her feet to move. They stepped aside to let her enter first, none of them saying a word.

“Cards tonight?” Axel asked, immediately stripping off his suit jacket and loosening his tie.

“I can’t do cards. I need to look at those fucking files and figure out who this female is I am to meet in a couple days,” Theon groused, going straight to the kitchen and pouring himself another glass of whiskey.

“Pool or darts then?” Axel asked, grabbing a bag by the door and moving towards the bathroom.

“Either is fine,” Theon replied. “Tessa, come change.”

She followed him through the bedroom and into the closet. He pulled out leggings and a thermal before turning to face her. Crooking a finger in her direction, he beckoned her closer. She pursed her lips, her hands going to her hips as she glared back at him. When she didn’t move, he said in a low tone, “Come here.”

“I don’t need your assistance to change,” she retorted.

“Come here, Tessalyn,” he growled again, his eyes darkening at her defiance.

She rolled her eyes and moved towards him. As soon as she was within reach, Theon snatched her off her feet and lifted her onto the island dresser. She gasped at the unexpected

movement. His hands lingered on her hips before he slid them down the outside of her thighs, her calves, all the way to her feet. He unbuckled her heels, sliding them off. When both of her shoes were removed, he braced his hands on either side of her, caging her within his muscular frame.

“I need you to accept this Source bond, Tessa,” he said, his voice low and heated.

“I don’t care what you need, Theon,” she replied, steeling herself to face his fury at her words.

To her surprise though, he didn’t immediately snap back at her. He leaned forward, bringing his nose to the crook of her neck and inhaling deeply. “I want to hunt down Pavil and Metias and peel the flesh from their bones, then make them eat every piece of it,” he murmured against her skin. “Then I want to break each bone in their body in multiple places before taking them up the mountain and leaving them there for the beasts of the woods to pick off piece by piece.” Tessa sucked in a breath at the violence he was describing. “No one touches what is mine,” he snarled, his lips brushing her throat as he spoke. “I said I would take care of you, Tessa, and I know what you need. You need to accept this bond.”

“You don’t know anything about what I need,” she breathed, her heart pounding out a weird rhythm at his closeness.

“No?” he questioned, pulling back and bringing a hand to cup her cheek. “Then enlighten me, little storm. What do you need?”

“I need to go home.” It was the first thing that came to mind, and she didn’t give herself a chance to hesitate when saying it.

“You are home,” he answered, that dangerous note sounding in his voice once more.

“This isn’t my home. My home is with Dex and Oralia and—”

“I do not know how to make this any clearer to you, Tessa. You were going to be separated from them eventually,” Theon interrupted, his hand falling from her face. “Do you know what it means when I signed those documents assuming complete dominion?”

“I know what you think it means—”

“Complete possession and retention. They are no longer yours, and you are no longer theirs. You are certainly no longer his.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Tessa demanded.

Theon huffed a humorless laugh. “I saw you wrapped up in that Fae’s arms at the Opening Selection Ceremony. I can only assume that was this Dex you refer to so often. If you are expecting me to apologize for not giving you a chance to say goodbye to your lover, you are not going to get it. You are mine, Tessa.”

“He is not my lover, you arrogant son of a bitch,” Tessa snapped, and Theon’s brows

shot up at her words.

“Care to say that again?”

His voice was barely a whisper as he stared her down, and Tessa didn’t give a shit anymore. This day had been pure and utter torment. She had been chased through the gardens, had barely escaped Pavil and Metias getting a hold of her, had dealt with Theon’s on-and-off again moods this evening, and had been used in a power play against his father.

“Which part?” she purred back, bringing her face right up to his. “The part about Dex not being my lover or calling you a son of a bitch? Because both are true, and I will gladly say them both again.”

Theon’s hand shot out, gripping her by the throat, and he was pushing her down onto her back. Her hands flew to his wrist, wrapping around it and trying to pull his hand away, but it was no use. She would never be any match for his strength.

“Theon,” she gasped, squirming to try to get away from him, but he held her firmly in place with that one hand.

He smirked down at her as she struggled, his dark magic coiling like snakes around his forearm. “Tell me this, Tessalyn: Did your precious Dex ever touch you?” His hand wasn’t tight enough to cut off air, but he made it clear she would not be moving until he allowed it.

His eyes slowly raked over her, and his other hand came up, his fingers trailing along the flesh exposed by the slit of the dress.

“No,” she rasped, shaking her head in emphasis. “Never like that. He’s never been that.”

“So who has touched you?” he asked, his head tilting to the side as his gaze followed his fingers skating up her leg. More and more dark shadows were drifting around him, tendrils reaching for her, and she tried to flinch away from his power. “One of the other Fae with you that night?”

Tessa shook her head, but when she didn’t speak, his fingers flexed around her throat, air getting trapped. “No,” she gasped, and he immediately loosened his grip. “Fae have never touched me.”

Theon’s eyes snapped to hers. “You are untouched?” She shook her head again, and his eyes narrowed. “A Legacy touched you? Who?”

“No,” she rasped. His fingers had tightened again, and she wasn’t even sure he knew he was doing it. She dug her nails into his skin, trying to suck down air. “I’ve only ever been touched by mortals,” she managed to gasp out.

He couldn’t hide the shock at that admission, and his fingers slackened around her throat. “Why the fuck would you let mortals touch you?”

“Because I didn’t know where I was going to end up after the Selection, and I didn’t want to have an intimate relationship with someone when I would likely be separated from them. So we would sneak off the Estate on a regular basis, and I fucked around with mortals,” she snapped in reply. “No attachments made, and no feelings required.”

Theon stepped back from her, his hand dropping to his side. Tessa slowly pushed into a sitting position, her hand massaging her throat where he had gripped her.

“Despite what you think, Theon, I am well aware that I would have likely been separated from the majority, if not all, of my friends after Selection. However, I would have had time to prepare for that. I had an entire year. Instead, I was ripped from everything I knew by a bastard who only views me as a piece of property to be used as he sees fit.”

The muscle in his jaw ticked as he stared at Tessa for a long moment without saying a word. Then he stepped forward, caging her between his arms once more. “You are forcing

me to treat you as property, Tessa.”

“How do you figure that?” she balked.

“You need to accept this bond.”

“This fucking bond! It’s all you care about!” she cried, shoving hard at his chest. Not that she moved him even an inch. “As long as you get what you want, fuck whoever suffers because of it, right?”

Theon lurched back from her. “Change,” he snapped, grabbing a pair of his own lounge pants and swiping up his drink before he stalked to the bathroom.

Tessa changed quickly into the clothing Theon had set out for her before she made her way back to the main room. Theon still hadn’t re-emerged. She eyed Luka and Axel warily.

Axel was racking the balls, preparing for a game of pool. They had both changed as well, but neither of them acknowledged her.

She went to the fridge to retrieve a bottle of water before going to the bay window.

The moon was a faint crescent amongst the stars. She could see nothing else out in the darkness.

You are forcing me to treat you as property.

Theon’s words kept ringing in her ears. She leaned her head back against the cool window, closing her eyes as the words played on repeat over and over. How could he blame her for this? She hadn’t asked for any of this.

And what had that even been in the dressing room? He’d gone from speaking softly to her to demanding to know who had touched her to snapping at her to get dressed in the span of five seconds.

“I need to know what happened in the gardens, Tessalyn.” Theon’s voice broke through her thoughts.

She opened her eyes to find Luka and Axel staring at her. Both of them had their arms crossed, leaning back against the billiards table. Theon stood nearby, another drink dangling from his fingertips at his side. The coldness on his face told her she was dealing with the heartless Arius heir.

“Did you create the crevice?” Theon asked.

“No. I don’t know how that happened,” she answered, her hands tightening around the water bottle. The plastic crinkled beneath her fingers.

“Were you there when it appeared?” Luka asked, addressing her for the first time since

that morning.

“Yes.”

“And?” Theon pressed.

So Tessa told them how she had tripped while she was running and how one of the Legacy had dragged her back along the stone path by her ankle. She told them how she’d broken his hold on her, and when they’d tried to come after her, the ground had shaken beneath them. She told them how she’d stumbled, falling to her hands and knees, and how the crevice had appeared to separate her from Pavil and Metias. Then she told them about the beings that had drifted up out of the crevice before she’d turned and ran.

Theon, Luka, and Axel didn’t say a word the entire time she spoke, and when she finished, they were all staring at her. She couldn’t read their expressions. All of their faces were masks of stone. Theon drained the last of his drink before he turned and went to his desk. He grabbed his tablet, his finger swiping and his eyes rapidly skimming the contents.

“You never once exhibited earth element tendencies, Tessa,” he said, swiping again.

“Your results were almost unanimously air with a slight affinity for water.” He lifted his eyes to meet hers, waiting expectantly.

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Theon.” She gestured to the tablet. “You clearly know more about me than I do. I didn’t even know my birthday until you told me.”

“Did you find a way to hide your true abilities, Tessa?” Luka asked, cutting into the conversation.

“No!” she cried, her heart rate picking up at the mere mention of the assessments.

“That’s not possible.”

“I wouldn’t say it is impossible,” Theon ventured with a shrug, pausing his swiping.

“I would say it is impossible,” Tessa seethed. “You think you are prepared for those tests, but you never are. They are never the same.”

“So you tried to prepare yourself for them? Why? If they are merely to estimate your element, what would you need to do to prepare?”

“Do you know what they do for those tests?” she demanded, her hands tightening further around the water bottle. Rain had begun falling again. Big drops plinking against the

glass panes surrounding her.

“Yes,” Theon answered tersely.

“Do you really?” she demanded again, not bothering to check her anger at this point.

“Because if you did, you’d know why we tried to prepare ourselves for them. You’d know that those tests are designed to push you to the edge of breaking to see what inherent magic resides inside you. You’d know that I have endured physical pain to the point of losing consciousness, only to be healed just enough to continue. You’d know that I have been made to watch those I care about most being tortured in front of me, and I have been tortured in front of them. You’d know that one time, they had me convinced that I had parents and siblings, that I had a fucking family who loved me for no other reason than because I was breathing. But when I couldn’t display an element on command, they killed a member of my mythical family until none remained; then berated me for failing my own flesh and blood until I wanted to take my own life. You’d know they layer grief and pain and fury on top of each other. They do anything they can to drag magic from you, and for what? So the Legacy can have a really good guess as to what element we’ll have when we emerge. So they can figure out the best way to use us.”

The silence was thick in the room when Tessa finally stopped speaking until a flash of lightning was followed by a crack of thunder that rattled the windows. Tessa flinched at the sudden sound, turning to look out the window again. “You are not focusing on trying to control an element in those tests,” she said quietly as she watched the rain fall in the darkness. “You’re too busy trying to separate lies from reality. You’re too busy trying not to break so completely that you can’t be fixed. But that’s impossible. You always break. We help each other glue the pieces back together, but it’s never quite right. The pieces of yourself never quite fit back together the way they once did. Until eventually, you don’t remember what it was like to not feel cracked and scarred. Until eventually, you are just a shell of what you once were, but you know there’s no way to go back, so you just move forward, even if death’s song sounds sweeter and sweeter every time.”

Tessa got lost in the memories of her assessments. She remembered the six of them huddled in Corbin and Lange’s room, all of them on one small bed after a brutal round of testing. Dex had held her close while Brecken had gripped her hand tightly. When the assessments started happening seasonally, they got drunk every night after the tests were completed. Those were the nights she ended up in a mortal’s bed trying to forget everything she’d endured that day, seeking any type of escape from it all. The Priestesses always healed them of any physical injuries they received during the tests, but the mental wounds

scarred, often ripping open at inopportune moments. The invisible marks were far worse than any physical ones.

“Come sit with me, Tessa.” Theon’s voice had softened a touch, and Tessa turned to find him sitting on the sofa. Axel and Luka had started their game, Luka lining up a shot while Theon had a stack of files beside him.

“I would prefer to go to bed,” she said, wanting nothing more than to curl up under a pile of blankets and sleep so she didn’t have to feel.

“In a bit,” Theon answered. “Come and sit with me for a while first.”

Reluctantly, Tessa vacated her seat in the window and moved to sit beside him, her leg butting up against his. He wordlessly passed her a blanket before wrapping an arm around her and nestling her into his side. She instantly felt calmer as the cord settled in contentment at being next to him, and she sighed. She hated he could soothe her just by touching her all because of a stupid Mark on her hand.

Theon flipped open one of the folders beside him and began reading through the contents. Axel and Luka fell into their game, light conversation taking place between the three of them, and before she knew it, her eyes were drifting closed.

They clearly thought she was asleep when Axel said, “You know she created that crevice, right?”

“It certainly sounds that way,” Theon answered mildly.

“Whatever beings crawled out of it certainly didn’t sound like earth magic,” Luka cut in, swearing under his breath at whatever was happening in the game. “I searched the gardens, but there was no sign of any beings. Even the swords were gone by the time I got back there. Since your Father did not bring them up at dinner, I am assuming he is in possession of them for his own purposes.”

“The beings sounded like something Pavil and Metias would create,” Axel replied, the sound of pool balls clinking punctuating his words. “Things of nightmares.”

“They don’t have that kind of power,” Theon said. Tessa was focusing on keeping her breathing even as they spoke, not wanting them to know she was listening to every word.

She felt Theon adjust the blanket. “The only plausible explanation is that she did it.”

“How do you explain the beings then? What do you think they were?” Axel asked.

“I don’t know. She might know, but after hearing about the assessments, I didn’t want to push her anymore tonight.”

“That is fucked up,” Axel replied. “I knew they were put in stressful situations to see if their magic surfaced, but I didn’t know it was anything like that.”

“Me either,” Theon said, and Tessa felt his fingers run over her hair, then along her arm.

“If their gifts were allowed to emerge naturally around ten years, they could emerge sooner, and none of these aptitude tests would be necessary,” Axel mused.

“They are designed that way,” Luka said. “The Fae were designed to be completely controlled by the descendants of the gods. That is why their magic has to be awakened by the Priestesses for it to emerge completely. It gives Legacy a chance to master their gifts before the Fae can come into theirs.”

“Still fucked up,” Axel answered before declaring a victory in their game.

“They were designed to serve the Legacy,” Theon said dismissively. “I doubt any thought was put into how uncomfortable the Fae were made in doing so.”

Tessa couldn’t help but stiffen slightly at his obvious indifference to what she and the other Fae had been put through. She’d always envied the mortals in that way. The Legacy could really care less about the humans. They just existed in their towns and cities, rarely looked at twice, and there to carry out the mundane tasks of the realm that did not require magic.

Theon’s hand ran down her hair again, and she forced herself to relax.

After several minutes of a new pool game being the only sound, Luka said, “It explains why she’s so resilient. Why she hasn’t broken yet.”

“Partly, I suppose,” Theon agreed, his fingers stroking lightly up and down her arm.

He often did the same in the early hours of the day when she was just waking up.

“I don’t know,” Axel said. “The way she spoke, she’s broken so many times she just figured out how to hold the pieces together.”

“She was put through the same assessments as the other Fae, other than those tagged to be Sources early on,” Theon said. “But she is still stronger-willed than most other Fae. The assessments cannot be given all the credit for her tenacity.”

“What else do you think she’s endured?” Axel asked, his tone ringing with a touch of sorrow.

“I wish I knew,” Theon answered. “I don’t want her to break. I just need her to bend.”

“Careful, Theon,” Luka said. “Something can only bend so far before it snaps.”