“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 somethinghe’dlearned 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 feelingsomething.
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 raininginside.
