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“Please stop!” Tessa gasped from the ground, unable to even move her arms to lift herself up.

“Answer my questions, Tessalyn, and this all stops,” Dagian purred. “Serafina’s heir is en route, by the way. Lealla will enjoy helping me pry answers out of you. There is no way in any of the realms we will allow the Arius Kingdom to regain power in this world.”

“I don’t know what that means. I don’t know anything,” Tessa sobbed, her heart breaking for Dex and Lange. For all of them. She’d never gotten to see them again after the Opening Selection. She’d never gotten the opportunity to say goodbye, to feel one more of Corbin’s comforting hugs. She’d never gotten to hear Dex’s voice one last time.

“You are his Source, Tessalyn. Surely he has shared secrets with you,” Dagian sneered.

“He tells me nothing!”

Another bolt of power had Tessa screaming again, and the bond amplified the sensations. She tasted blood in her mouth, felt it trickling from her nose, her ears.

“Please, stop,” she whimpered. “I don’t know anything.”

“I do not believe you. No one believes you, Tessalyn,” he whispered harshly into her ear. “You are just another Fae. Expendable to us. Perhaps Theon will be glad to be rid of you. He can Select a new Source that can actually please him. One that isn’t too much of a hassle.”

Thunder rumbled overhead, and Dagian glanced at the sky, a look of confusion passing over his features. Tessa had managed to push herself to her knees, her body shaking violently.

“I need to see your power, Tessalyn,” Dagian said, returning his attention to her.

“It hasn’t emerged yet. I can’t access it,” she pleaded, the world spinning around her as she fell forward onto her hands once more.

“You can under the right conditions,” Dagian replied, a cruel grin filling his features. He raised his hand once more, golden light crackling at his fingertips, and Tessa braced herself for the burst of power.

But it never came. Instead, another crack of thunder sounded, followed by a female voice that somehow sounded both horrific and cunning all at once.

“Do not touch her again.”

Tessa opened her eyes and gasped at what stood before her.

She had midnight hair that flowed around her, and what appeared to be ashes flitting among the black strands. The black pants and tunic were fitted with some type of leather armor strapped atop it, but her feet were bare. Vambraces adorned her arms, and she held a bow at her side. Her eyes were a dark grey, smoke swirling in them. A quiver full of arrows was at her back, but she didn’t reach for one. Instead, she drew one from a flurry of ashes, nocking it loosely to her bow.

Dagian had gone still, his mouth falling open at the being that had placed herself between him and Tessa.

“Not real,” Tessa murmured, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. “This can’t be real.”

The female began circling Tessa, ashy footprints left in her wake, as she smirked at Dagian.

“Your move,” she purred, another burst of ashes leaving a black dagger hovering at her shoulder.

Dagian didn’t move, and then Tessa was gasping as her eyes flew open to find herself staring up at the ceiling of a room, still strapped to a chair.

“What did you do?” Zefira snarled at her, her hands gripping Tessa’s face too tightly. “Who was that? How did you call her?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Tessa cried, jerking against her restraints, breathing hard. She could still feel Dagian’s magic coursing through her body.

Not real, she told herself over and over. Dex is still alive. They are all fine. None of it was real.

Zefira pushed away from her, pacing back and forth. “You are proving far more difficult than I anticipated,” she said condescendingly, as though this were all Tessa’s fault. She snapped her fingers at Rhett, and he appeared a moment later with another syringe. This one was filled with a dark black liquid.

“This will sting,” Zefira said, uncapping the syringe.

In a matter of seconds, Tessa was screaming again as pain tore through her. It felt like daggers were being driven into her stomach, while her skin was simultaneously being peeled from her body. The pressure in her head was unbearable, and she could feel blood trickling from her nose, her ears, the corner of her mouth. There was no counting to endure this.

The last thing she remembered was Zefira asking for another syringe before darkness dragged her under.

22

THEON