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“It will be an exciting Emergence then,” his father was saying, passing the folder back to Luka.

“That it will,” Theon said, locking eyes with Axel across the room. “Is there anything else? Or can we head down to dinner? I would hate to keep Mother waiting.”

“She will likely draw out this dinner the way it is,” his father grumbled. “She has been in tears all godsdamn day about you leaving tomorrow.”

When he urged Tessa to stand, he finally met her gaze, her eyes still fixed on him.

And the storm of emotions that stared back at him told him it was going to be a long night.

29

TESSA

Tessa went straight through the main living space, through Theon’s bedroom, and out to the balcony when dinner was over. She needed to breathe. Needed to be outside.

She had made herself focus on the dinner conversation, picking up bits and pieces of interesting information, but most of the evening was Cressida spontaneously breaking into tears about her sons being gone for the next several months. In those moments, Theon’s words from the meeting with Valter would play through her mind.

She tested on the higher end of the power scale.

Inconclusive.

That’s what Theon had said her test results were. And they had been for her element, she supposed, but he’d told Valter even that was still estimated to be air. He hadn’t told her any of that, even when she had specifically asked what her results had been.

She tested on the higher end of the power scale.

He had lied to her. They had not been inconclusive. All the talk this morning about working together. Each of them surrendering a little. Give and take.

Nothing but lies to get what he wanted from her.

Why had she even entertained the idea of trusting him? And now she had this godsdamn Bargain Mark on her skin. Because one Mark binding her to him hadn’t been enough apparently. What had she been thinking?

She’d hadn’t been. Always so impulsive. Always unable to control herself.

Too wild. Too much of a hassle.

“Tessa?”

She turned to find Axel standing in the doorway, watching her warily. Darkness floated around him like a light mist. It was the first time she’d ever seen him let his power be seen for more than a few seconds.

“What?” she demanded.

“It’s raining, baby doll,” he said softly.

She hadn’t even noticed the gentle rain that had indeed begun falling. She wrapped her arms around herself, squeezing tightly, pretending it was Dex or Corbin or Lange.

Old insecurities and feelings clawed their way up from the depths of her soul.

Too much of a hassle.

“Tessa.” There was a soft touch to the small of her back. “Come in out of the rain.”

She looked up into emerald green eyes. “You should have told me,” she whispered, the rain beginning to fall harder.

“You were just waking up, still in pain…” Theon trailed off, his hair becoming plastered to his head.

“You should have told me.”

“It does not change anything, Tessa. You have already been Selected, already claimed. It is not as if this changes anything.”