Page 255

You’re right. You don’t. That came out wrong. I didn’t mean?—

I have to go. They’re here.

Who is there? Tessa, wait. Don’t shut us out again. Please, Tessa.

She smiled to herself as she heard the cries and din of the fight on the other side of the door. She suddenly understood his obsession with hearing her beg. To hear him sayplease. To have that control.

Who is there, Tessa?came Luka’s command for an answer.

Who or what? It does not matter. This is the beginning of endings.

There was a long silence down the bond, and when she started to put her mental shields back up, she felt the panic from both of them.

What are you doing, Tessa?Theon asked.

Exactly as you asked of me, she answered.Someone they fear as much as they fear you.

Then she shut them out as the door to the room was flung open, banging loudly off the wall. A handful of figures stood inthe doorway, robes and masks in place. Her power flared as she stared back at them. One pulled bands from the pocket of their robes.

“Putting these on will make this…easier,” came a gruff voice from beneath the hood. Even without hearing him, Tessa would have guessed he was male. Tall and broad, the fabric of his robes was pulled tight across his chest, and the ice forming around his feet told her he was an Anahita Legacy.

“Easier for who?” Tessa asked, her head tilting to the side as she clasped her hands in front of her to stop them from trembling.

“Just put them on,” the male insisted, taking a cautious step into the room.

“Whoever puts those on me will die,” she replied simply, her magic tense and buzzing, energy crackling in the air the same way it did right before a lightning strike.

“So you’re going to resist?”

“I didn’t say that,” she said with a sharp smile, lifting her wrists in offering. Golden thread swirled around her arms, charged energy crackling at her fingertips.

“Just get on with it,” snapped another figure, also male.

“You fucking do it then,” the first retorted.

Another figure pushed his way through the door, the suddenly thin air telling Tessa he was a Sefarina Legacy. He stalked forward, snatching the bands from the first male. Holding them out to her, he said, “You can put them on yourself.”

“Why would I do that?” Tessa asked.

“It’s that, or we put them on you when you’re unconscious. Your choice,” he sneered, a tug on the air in her lungs a threat.

She extended a hand, her power hissing at the first touch of the metal. “Just so we’re clear, you will be the one to die for this.”

“You shouldn’t even be speaking to us,” he snarled, gripping her elbow hard enough to bruise once she had the bands on.

The Pantheon was quiet as she was led through the halls. She couldn’t help but wonder where the numerous sentinels were. Probably paid off to look the other way while she was taken down several flights of stairs, past the main floor, then lower still. This was more steps than she’d descended going to the Pantheon archives. She should probably be worried about where they were taking her, but that required the wholefeelingthing again.

Instead her fingertips glided across stone as she hummed to herself, wondering how exactly they were going to attempt to kill her this time.

She was tugged through a stone chamber, the broad figure stepping to her other side so she was sandwiched between them. This chamber was reminiscent of the large room the Emerging Ceremony had taken place in. No balconies overlooking the space, but it was circular, with a stage in the center.

Not a stage, she realized, but an altar.

They crossed to the other side where she was shoved through another door, and then her feet dug into the ground as she was plunged into darkness.

“Where are we going?” she demanded.

She couldn’t see anything, but she could feel the moist dirt beneath her feet and smell the musty air. A tunnel of some sort. Beneath the ground.