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“Tessa,” Theon snapped in frustration. “You are about to experience something worse than the pain you are in right now. Let me near so I can help you through it.”

“Don’t growl at her, Theon,” Luka cut in. “You know the adjustment will take time. She will need time to navigate this, and how it works. You both will.”

“I am aware of that, but she does not need to be in pain,” Theon argued. “I do not want to see her in pain when I can do something about it.”

Luka opened his mouth to say something in response to that, but a wave of nausea washed over Tessa so strongly, she fell forward onto her hands and knees as she fought the urge to vomit.

“Get a basin,” Theon said.

Luka was already moving and set a large bowl down beside her. “Don’t fight it, little one,” he said grimly, reaching to brush her ponytail back over her shoulder. “Let it out.”

He stepped back, leaning against the wall, and when the next wave of nausea overtook her, Tessa took his advice. She vomited into the bowl, heaving over and over. It wasn’t her dinner that came up though. It wasn’t even the tonic. She assumed her body had burned through all of that already. It was thick, black shadows and silvery wisps of light. It poured out of her, and each time she heaved, pain racked her entire body, her stomach convulsing and her head throbbing. Tears were coursing down her cheeks, and she was gasping in between gags.

A hand rubbing up and down her spine told her Theon was back by her side. The cord in her instantly settled down at his touch. The vomiting, however, continued for the next several minutes. When it finally subsided, Tessa curled onto her side on the floor, her head coming to rest in Theon’s lap. Luka handed him a cool rag, and he began pressing it along her forehead, then her cheek and down her neck.

“What was that?” she finally whispered. Her throat was raw from all the screaming and now the vomiting.

“My magic,” Theon answered. “To give you the Mark, I had to pour some of my raw power into your veins so that your own magic would become overwhelmed by it, and, in turn, recognize it. Your body is trying to adjust to my magic in your system, along with the bond that is starting to form.”

“It will…” She stopped and swallowed. “It will happen again?”

“Yes,” he said. “The intensity will lessen over the next few hours, but it will take several days to adjust fully. All Sources go through the adjustment differently, but the general pattern stays the same.”

This was going to continue for the next few hours? Days?

Luka crouched before them both with a glass of water in his hand. “Can you sit up?”

Tessa tried, but her body wasn’t working right. It didn’t feel like her own. Nothing felt right, and she didn’t… She couldn’t… She could swear she was screaming, but it must be in her head because Theon and Luka weren’t reacting like she’d lost her mind.

Theon reached over, helping her sit up, and slid closer to her. He took the glass from Luka and brought it to her lips, tipping it up. When she drank the entire glass, her head fell against Theon’s shoulder.

“I don’t know if I can do that again,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed.

“You can. I will be here. Helping you through it.”

There was so much she wanted to say to him. So much she wanted to scream at him. She wanted to shove him away for doing this to her. But even the thing inside her had gone quiet, all the fight going out of her. So instead she sat with her eyes closed until the next round of vomiting and pain consumed her.

5

THEON

Theon sat in the back of the SUV with Tessa spread across the seat beside him. She was asleep, her head resting in his lap. She had vomited for nearly three hours before finally falling asleep. It had been the middle of the night when Luka had helped him change her out of her sweat-drenched clothing and dress her in fresh ones before Theon had scooped her up and carried her through the portal into the Arius Kingdom. They only allowed portals to open in specific locations within the kingdom, so they still had a good day of travel to Arius House. They’d arranged to have the vehicle waiting for them, and now they’d been driving for nearly two hours.

The Acropolis was in the middle of Devram, and all the kingdoms had portals to and from the sacred city. While the other kingdoms had several portals throughout their lands, the Arius Kingdom only had two; both of which were heavily guarded and monitored. If anyone was entering their lands, they were doing so on foot or by vehicle unless they had a direct invitation. And even then, his father tended to make them traverse the Ozul Mountains and Shade Plains rather than let them use the portals.

Luka hadn’t said much from where he sat behind the wheel. The male was usually a broody ass, but this was more than that. He was clearly upset about how the evening had played out. He knew Luka thought he should have chosen someone else. Theon may not have visited the four Fae Estates to observe his options the last several years like the other heirs had, but he had done his research. They’d had information gathered and sent over on all the Fae that would be eligible for Selection, and Theon had poured over documents and reports for months, narrowing down options based on what he needed. He couldn’t count how many nights he, Luka, and his brother, Axel, had spent holed up in his rooms, drinking and debating the merits of various Fae. At one point, an entire wall had been covered with photos and information about prospective Sources. His father had his opinions, of course, and Theon had pretended to take them into consideration.

Tessa thought their meeting in that corridor was random. It was anything but. He’d had his choices narrowed down to five, and he’d sought them all out in the hours before the Selection Ceremony. She had been the last one he’d tracked down. He’d never expected her to be hiding in an alcove out in the corridor. Then again, maybe he should have based on the number of times she sneaked off the Fae Estate in the Celeste Kingdom.

The Fae could leave the Estates, of course, especially as they got older. The Estates were essentially boarding schools for the Fae until they came of age for Selection at twenty-three years. It was just that few of them actually left the sections of the kingdoms where the Fae lived, and those who did were always tracked. Wards alerted the governing Legacy when they came and went. But when Tessa would leave the Celeste Estate, she somehow avoided the wards and left undetected. Numerous times. Sometimes with others, and sometimes by herself. It wasn’t detailed in her file full of information. In fact, this particular skill was only mentioned in one small section in passing, which was curious in and of itself. It was a skill he was eager to learn more about though.

And it was a skill that would come in handy during the next year they would be spending in the Acropolis.

Theon had tried to sleep once they’d entered the Arius Kingdom, but he was too worried about the Fae sleeping beside him to let himself drift off. If she woke, he wanted to know. The faster this bond settled into place, the better. If there was something he could do to hasten it along, he’d do it. From everything he’d read about the bonding process, he didn’t anticipate it taking long, and once her gifts emerged in a few weeks, they could really move ahead with their plans.

That first Mark though?

That had been unexpected. He’d anticipated some resistance from her dormant element, but fuck. He could still feel the shocks and flares of power as it had battled his own. It had drained him more than he’d liked, which meant he’d need to ask his father for an extra ration or suffer for the next two days.