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“So I’m supposed to do nothing?” Dex demanded. “We’re supposed to just sit back and let you be turned into a Source? I can’t do that, Tessa. Not after all we’ve worked for, and everything we’ve done to make sure this exact thing didn’t happen. I won’t be there to fix this.”

“I’m not asking you to sit back and do nothing, Dex.” She exited the stall, heading to the window again. “I think I have a plan.”

“You think you have a plan?”

“It’s sort of a make-it-up-as-you-go type of plan,” she answered, reaching down and slipping off her heels. She somehow clamored up onto the basin closest to the back wall with the phone wedged between her ear and shoulder. “I have to go. I have two minutes to get out of this bathroom. Call me again in five. I’ll have a more solid plan by then.”

“Tessie, this isn’t the time for your recklessness—”

But she cut the call before he could say more. Shoving the phone down the front of her dress, Tessa stretched out and unclasped the window. The bottom portion swung down just as a knock sounded on the door.

“Tessa,” came Theon’s voice, full of a dark warning.

“I’m just washing my hands,” she called back, turning the faucet on with her foot.

Sucking in a deep inhale, she leapt from the sink to the window, cursing under her breath at the impact of her body meeting the wall. It had worked though. Her arms were gripping the windowsill, and she used her toes to climb her way up the wall, grasping for any type of purchase. This wasn’t her first time sneaking out of undesirable situations. She could figure this out, even if the others weren’t here.

She reached out with her fingers, feeling the window ledge on the outside and hauling herself up. As she pulled her torso through, she had the sudden crushing realization that she had forgotten one very important fact. The grand hall was on the third level of the Pantheon. She was three floors above the ground.

Fuck.

But the door banging open behind her left little room for rethinking her plan.

“Tessa!” Theon bellowed, footsteps thundering across the floor. “Get back in here!”

“Let go!” she cried, kicking out with her foot as a hand clasped around her ankle.

She heard Theon curse when her foot connected with his face, and his grip released. Pulling her legs through the window and up onto the ledge beneath her, she adjusted her positioning, not letting herself look down.

“Tessalyn—”

She threw her hands over her ears before his entrancing could reach her, but in doing so, she nearly lost her balance on the ledge. Reining in her breathing from nearly falling, she looked to her right. A balcony was a ways down. She could crawl along the ledge towards it. Going to the left wasn’t an option as she’d have to cross in front of the window, and she could hear Theon cursing up a storm and slamming things around the bathroom. Pissing off the Arius Heir was not her finest moment, but her mind was quickly made up when shadowy mist started drifting from the window.

As quickly as she could without slipping from the ledge, she inched along towards the balcony. The wind had picked up, and the temperature had dipped as if a summer storm was moving in. Her hair fluttered across her face in the winds. She was halfway to the balcony when the phone began vibrating against her chest.

“Sorry, Dex,” she muttered under her breath. “I don’t have the plan completely figured out yet.”

Theon was still yelling for her to come back to the bathroom window, tendrils of darkness seeming to search along the ledge, but the farther she moved along, the more her heart soared. Freedom was getting closer and closer. Of course, once she made it there, she’d need to figure out how to get out of the Pantheon and then the Acropolis undetected. Then she’d need to figure out some place to hide, but those were problems to worry about when she wasn’t on a ledge. Right now, her focus was not falling. A fall from this height wouldn’t kill her. Fae and Legacy were hard to kill, but the fall would certainly make her easier to catch.

A cry of relief left her when she leapt the final feet from the ledge to the balcony railing, clamoring over the top of it and sinking to her knees. Her entire body was trembling with adrenaline. She couldn’t even get to her feet yet.

But she’d done it. For once in her life, she’d gotten out of her own mess.

Taking a minute to catch her breath and figure out her next move, the phone began vibrating once more. She’d done the first part by herself. Maybe now was a good time to let Dex and the others get involved with the rest.

She pulled the phone from her dress and was about to connect the call when the doors of the balcony swung open. Tessa gasped, dropping the phone as she looked up and met eyes of sapphire blue. A look of some type of annoyed acceptance came over his features.

“I told Theon you were going to be a handful,” he muttered, striding towards her with purpose.

Tessa shrank back against the balcony railing, trembling for an entirely different reason now. When the Legacy reached her, he bent and retrieved the dropped phone. Snapping it in half, he tossed the pieces over the railing. Then he bent once more and slid strong arms under her knees and around her back, scooping her up.

“Come on, little one. Your Master is waiting.”

4

TESSA

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Theon demanded when the Legacy carried Tessa into the small suite. He set her gently on the sofa and stepped aside as Theon dropped to his knees before her. He gripped her face in his hands, smoothing hair back from her face. “You could have fallen, Tessa. Someone other than us could have found you. Do you have any idea what could have happened?”