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“Reports of a flying, fire-breathing creature say otherwise,” Dagian replied, his Source falling into step behind him as she moved to the door. “Of course, how that information is received by the other kingdoms could be negotiated. If, for example, two kingdoms appeared to be thrilled by such a revelation, the other kingdoms would likely follow suit. If two particular kingdoms painted such news in an unsavory light, however… Well, that could be detrimental.”

Theon didn’t bother getting to his feet as he said, “Be very careful how you decide to play this, Dagian.”

“I urge you to reconsider my request, Theon,” he replied, and a moment later, he and Lealla were gone.

“Fuck,” Axel muttered, sucking down the rest of his drink.

“For the love of Arius, stop drinking,” Theon snapped, reaching over and snatching his now empty glass. “What the fuck is wrong with you drinking like that tonight?”

“I’m fine,” he said, waving him off. “What we need to worry about is how the fuck they know about Luka.”

“He said it was reported back to him,” Luka said. “The only time I could have been spotted was the night at the river.”

“But you said you got all four,” Axel said.

“Unless there were more than four,” Luka answered grimly.

They all fell silent. This was worse than Theon could have imagined. He’d spent the last two days cleaning up after that mess at the river to make sure this exact thing didn’t happen. They’d hunted down the Night Children and destroyed all the evidence. They’d even taken care of the sentinels who had seen Tessa running, along with three Fae who swore they hadn’t seen anything but had been along her path. He wasn’t willing to take the risks. Nothing could jeopardize this.

Except she had.

She’d jeopardized everything with her wildness and her lack of control and her refusal to simply fucking submit.

He slowly stood and buttoned his suit jacket as he turned to look down at her. He could feel her nervousness, the fear bleeding from her. She’d once told him he didn’t scare her. Another lie.

“Tessa,” he said, far too calmly.

He saw her wince as his shadows thickened, stinging where they still touched her. Luka and Axel were standing, the half-finished meals forgotten on the table.

“I don’t know anything about him,” she stammered. She was gripping the arms of her chair, her face leeched of color.

The corner of his lips curled, and she shrank back at whatever she saw on his face.

“I swear. You know as much as I do. He—”

She was starting to ramble, but this couldn’t be discussed here. Not where anyone could overhear.

Her eyes went wide when his shadows wound up her neck and down her throat. Not cutting off her air supply, but enough to gag her. Her hands were at her throat though, as if she couldn’t breathe, panic filling her grey eyes.

Theon grabbed her hand, pulling her roughly to her feet, and she stumbled in her heels. Her fingers were squeezing his in a silent plea, but he didn’t care.

It wasn’t until they were in the vehicle and Luka was pulling into traffic that he pulled his shadows back. Tessa coughed and sputtered, glaring at him.

“Was that necessary?” she snarled, her hand on her chest as she dragged in big gulping breaths.

“Tell me about Blackheart,” was all he said, cold and detached.

“I don’t know anything about him.”

“You’ve spent hours with the male, and you don’t know anything about him? I find that hard to believe.”

“Even you three didn’t realize he was a Legacy in Rockmoor,” she cried, a hand fisting into the fabric of her dress.

“Did you know his surname?” Axel asked from the front, not bothering to turn and look at her.

“Yes, but—”

“When? When did you learn it?” Theon interrupted.