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As suddenly as it had started, the pain stopped. Tessa opened her eyes, blinking against the sunlight. She wasn’t bound to the chair anymore but standing in the middle of some woods. Birds fluttered from a tree to her right, and she spun around at the noise.

This isn’t real, she told herself, but the cord inside of her reacted as if it were definitely real. The jolts of pain it elicited through her body at believing it was so far from Theon almost knocked her to her knees.

“It’s not real,” she reminded herself.

“Of course it is real.”

A tall male with golden hair and eyes stepped from the trees. She immediately recognized him as Dagian Jove, the Achaz Heir.

“What are you doing here?” Tessa gasped, dragging her hands through her hair and tugging.

“I heard Theon’s Source was on the run. I thought I would see if I could track you down first,” Dagian said with a shrug as he casually strolled closer.

“I’m not running from him.”

“No? Then what are you doing out here in the Dreamlock Woods so far from him? It is well known you have tried to run from him before. Quite the embarrassment for the Arius Kingdom, really.”

“I… I don’t know. I’ve never been to the Dreamlock Woods,” Tessa stammered, looking at the trees around her. The Dreamlock Woods ran between the Achaz and Serafina Kingdoms along the Wynfell River.

Dagian tutted under his breath. “You know I am more powerful than he is, right?”

“I did not know that, my Lord,” she answered, trying desperately to get her bearings. How had she traveled to the Dreamlock Woods?

“What do you mean you did not know?” Dagian spat. “I descend from Achaz, the ruler of the gods. Of course I am more powerful than an Arius descendant.”

Tessa was quiet, trying to figure out the best way to navigate this particular part of the assessment, but the pain from the bond was excruciating and making it too hard to focus. She pulled at her hair again, trying to stay grounded.

“Look at me when I am speaking to you, Fae,” Dagian snarled. “Tell me, how did the Heir of Arius get a more powerful Source than I did?”

“I’m not… I’m not that powerful,” Tessa said, stumbling over her words as she slowly backed away from him.

“I heard what happened in those gardens. We all did,” he sneered.

She shook her head. “That wasn’t me. I didn’t do that.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I cannot take that risk, can I?” Golden light crackled between Dagian’s fingers. “How did you manage to evade the rest of us when we were looking at Source prospects? How did you manage to evade me?”

“I don’t know,” Tessa pleaded, wincing as another shock ravaged her body. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You know, since I couldn’t get a private moment with you, I had to track down your Fae friends from the Celeste Estate,” Dagian said nonchalantly, taking another step towards her.

“What?” Tessa gasped, going utterly still.

“It is a shame, really. That was a nice group of Fae. They would have served their kingdoms well once assigned.” Then he shrugged. “But none of them could answer my questions either.”

This isn’t real, Tessa’s mind was screaming at her, but the pain whipping through her body said otherwise.

A bolt of power straight from Dagian’s palm suddenly knocked her onto her back. Tessa screamed as pain shuttered through her before she rolled onto her side and vomited.

“I can do this all day, Tessalyn Ausra,” Dagian said, crouching down beside her and brushing a stray piece of hair from her face. His fingertips dragged along her cheek. “I need to know what those things were that you created in those gardens.”

“I didn’t create anything,” she rasped, pushing herself up onto her hands and knees.

She immediately collapsed back to the ground as another bolt of power slammed into her. She screamed when Dagian didn’t let up, hitting her again and again.

One, two, three—

“Will you last longer than your friends? What were their names again? You Fae all tend to bleed together after a while.”