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She tossed the scion aside this time, the stick rolling under the bed across the room. He felt her power release him, and he lifted his hand to find three interconnecting triangles marked there. Not inverted like hers were.

The Achaz symbol.

Marked on the Arius Heir.

“I thought it only fitting that if I had to bear your Mark, you should bear mine,” she said, slowly backing away from him. “I know you’ll never be mine, not fully, but at least your power will be.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Theon demanded, too exhausted to even lift from the chair. Tessa had always slumped to the floor after a Mark. Now he understood why.

“I know exactly what I’ve done,” she replied. “I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, that only happens when I am ruling Arius Kingdom,” Theon rasped, leaning forward and bracing his forearms on his knees as another wave of nausea hit him.

“Consider it done,my Lord,” she said, and he raised his head to find she’d lifted her shirt, exposing her torso.

Her bare torso.

The Bargain Mark gone from her skin.

He glanced down at his own abdomen, finding the sun and stars along the side of his torso still there. She’d fulfilled her end of the Bargain, freeing herself from it, but he still had to fulfill his side.

“He’s not dead,” she said simply. “Not yet anyway. I still need him for a bit, so your other…contracts still stand. As for me…” She stepped forward, a single finger pressing under his chin and tilting his head up. “I claim my side of the bargain to decide if and when and how I see you. I will decide if you ever get access to my power, but your power? It’s now mine, isn’t it? And let’s not forget that Guardian mark that’s incorporated, requiring you to now protect me. I will fulfill my purpose of correcting the balance in this realm.”

“Tessa, if you leave here, if you do this, you are doing exactly what the Augury feared. There will be a war,” he said, feeling cold sweat trickle down his neck.

“Once again, I am doing exactly what you wanted,” she said. “A constant battle between us, but I warned you, eventually someone has to lose. At the end, the question will finally be answered.”

“What question?”

“Who will be left standing when Chaos comes to reign?” she replied, backing away from him again.

“Tessa, wait,” he gasped, trying to stand but instantly slumping to his knees, too weakened by the Source Mark. “We can figure this out. I can’t do this without you. I need?—”

Her head tilted. “What do you need, Theon? My power? You can’t have it. The bond? It’s still there. My cunt? You just had it.My loyalty? You never had it. My help? You never let me actually do so. My trust? You were close, but you lost it.”

His head was pounding, and he couldn’t think around the pain and the nausea as the dregs of his power reached for her. “Your love,” he blurted, unable to stop himself. “Will it matter if I say I love you, little storm?”

She went still for a long moment before she closed the distance between them once more. Reaching out, her hand slid along his jaw and under his chin, tilting his face up to hers. “Oh, Theon,” she simpered mockingly. “You don’t know how to love. You only know how to own and possess and control. You only know how to break someone, not love them.” She bent then, leaning in to speak into his ear. “Remember this moment,Master. When you come to destroy me, when the final battle ensues, remember this moment. Remember how you tried to once again persuade me with pretty words.”

Then she was backing away, turning and striding through the balcony doors. He never saw a portal. Only a flash of light.

It hadn’t been a lie. He hadn’t said the words in some last ditch effort to keep her at his side. He’d meant them with every ounce of his being.

And once again, she hadn’t cared.

She’d left him on his knees in the dark.

48

LUKA

This was fucking great.

That was all Luka could think as he stared at Theon curled over the toilet in his suite at Arius House.

He’d felt the two of them down the bond, but more than that, he’d felt Theon struggling. It had been a bitch fighting against the Guardian bond and the need to go defend him, but Theon had said to wait. Luka didn’t know what state Tessa was in, and she was so impulsive and reckless. His sudden presence could have very well made everything worse, so he’d stayed away. But that wasn’t the only reason.

The other reason had been the phone call he’d received that had him sitting at Lilura Inquest for the last hour.