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“Tessa, I don’t even know where to start,” Theon said, beginning to pace back and forth before her, his hands running through his hair. “What happened at dinner the other night can never happen again.”

“Agreed,” she said, bringing the mug to her lips.

He paused his pacing, looking at her. “You agree?”

“Oh, yes,” she continued. “I agree. I will never be made to sit at your feet again.” She watched him carefully over her cup as she took another sip of caffeine.

“That is not…” He ran a hand down his face, and when he looked at her again, something had shifted in his eyes and features. They were harsher, darker. “No, Tessa. You can never disobey me like that again. Certainly not in public, and never in front of my father.”

“I dropped a fork, Theon!” she cried. “I did not throw the fork across the room. I did not try to stab someone with it. I did not try to comb my hair with it. I. Dropped. It.”

Theon’s brow knitted in confusion. “Why would you try to comb your hair with a fork?”

“It has tines. Like a comb’s teeth. Albeit a very small comb. But if one were in a bind, it would probably work,” Tessa offered with a shrug.

Theon stared at her for a long moment. “I feel as though the similarities between a fork and a comb are not important at the moment…”

“No. They are not. What is important is that you made me sit at your feet like one of your damn wolves for accidentally dropping a fork.”

Theon huffed a humorless laugh. “My hounds are far better behaved than you are,” he muttered under his breath.

Tessa glared at him, unimpressed, as she raised her middle finger in his direction. Theon moved so quickly, Tessa jumped, coffee sloshing out of the mug and onto her pants. He was standing over her, his hands braced on the armrests on either side of her. He plucked her mug from her hand and set it on the table before returning his entire attention to her.

“Gods, Theon,” Tessa snarled, bringing her hand to her chest. “What the fuck?”

“This behavior is exactly what cannot continue, Tessa,” he said, and she stilled at his dark tone. “I have tried to give you time to adjust to this. I have let you have your temper tantrums and—”

“Temper tantrums?” Tessa repeated indignantly, sitting up so her face was inches from his. “You took everything from me!”

Theon tsked, stepping back from her. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

She shot to her feet. “I didn’t even get to bring my own clothing with me!”

He waved his hand dismissively at the statement. “I have provided you with all the clothing you could ever need, and much better clothing at that.”

“That is so not the point, Theon,” she spat.

“Isn’t it?” he countered. “If you weren’t fighting so adamantly against your fate, you would see that I can provide you with everything you could ever need.”

“You took me from everything I know, Theon. How can you not see that? My home. My friends. You stole my future from me.” Her fists were clenching and unclenching at her sides, her skin beginning to buzz with something that needed out.

“You are wrong, Tessa,” Theon said, shaking his head. “Your home? You’d already left it. You would be at the Acropolis until the Selection Year was over, and then you’d go to your assigned Kingdom. Your friends? You likely would have been separated from them when you received your assignment. Even if you were assigned to the same Kingdom, the Kingdoms are huge. You would have still been separated from them. And your future? You are Fae. Your purpose was always to serve the Legacy in one way or another. How that purpose was just altered was likely in your favor.”

“How in the realm do you figure that?” Tessa balked, stepping back from him.

“You becoming my Source is better than any other fate you would have likely been assigned,” Theon replied.

“Which is what exactly?”

He shook his head again. “That is not important, Tessa. Furthermore, none of that matters. When you became mine—”

“I am not yours!”

Theon’s hand shot out, his fingers wrapping around her throat. “You are, Tessa. You are my Source.”

“That doesn’t make me yours,” she snarled, trying to pull out of his grip, but his fingers only tightened until he yanked his hand back, as if he’d touched something too hot. Stalking from the room, he left Tessa standing before the fireplace, wondering what the fuck had just happened, but he returned a minute later with a tablet. Tessa narrowed her eyes as he turned the thing so she could see the screen.

It was a document on her. Her own face stared back at her from a photo in the upper right corner. The first page was details about her life: where she was raised, physical attributes, elemental predictions. Theon interrupted her view when he tapped something near the bottom of the screen.