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Like the fact that he really didn’t need to wait for Cienna to make contact through the mirror. He’d known for over a year now how to find her when he came to the Underground. Which is also why he wasn’t worried about getting lost when he went to catch up with the others.

He jerked his chin at Kat when he strode past her, making his way back to the front of the group. Theon and Luka wouldn’t ask him questions with Cienna’s messenger still leading them out. More than that, they were too focused on Tessa and coaxing her through these passages once more.

Once back to the same spot he’d found them, the messenger bowed before disappearing back into the dark, and Axel took the lead again.

“What was your question?” he asked Kat after they’d started moving again.

She tilted her face up to peer at him, a few curls falling into her eyes. “What?”

“You didn’t get to ask Cienna a question. If you would have gotten your chance, what would you have asked her?”

Her eyes darted away, and she tucked those stray coils of dark hair behind her ear. “I…”

Without conscious thought, he reached out as if to take her hand before realizing what he was doing at the last second. She seemed almost embarrassed. He could practically feel the discomfort as if it were his own.

“Kat?” he pressed, his voice low to keep the others from overhearing.

“It’s nothing,” she said in a hurry. “I am sure the answer will reveal itself at some point.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to share what you are hoping to discover? Maybe I know something? Or Luka or Theon?”

“You don’t.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Icanknow that,” she retorted with a huff, those same curls freeing themselves and falling across her brow once more. Sighing, she added, “I would have asked her how my gifts could have been hidden.”

“That…is a damn good question,” he said, and it was one he should have thought to ask himself.

“My assessments never once indicated a fire element. Certainly not outside the Anala Kingdom. I was expecting to emerge with water,” she went on as the passageway they were in emptied into another crossroad cavern. “So I would have asked how they could have been hidden so I could figure out…”

“Where you came from,” Axel finished for her in realization. She was just like Tessa with an unexpected power that had changed everything she’d known about herself.

Taking a few seconds to figure out how to respond, Axel said, “Well, you were right.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know the answer to that. Neither do Luka nor Theon.” She gave a soft laugh, and when she looked up at him with a small smile playing on her lips, he added, “But I will help you figure it all out.”

13

THEON

Theon stood a few feet away as he watched Tessa. She sat cross-legged on the ground of the training pit. They’d come here as soon as they’d left Cienna. He’d felt all of Tessa’s panic in the passageways, felt her moments of relief when they came to crossroad caverns. They could have gone straight to the central districts, but he was hoping if she got to release some of her magic, it would ease a bit of her tension.

And he’d been right.

Now he felt her marvel as she slowly commanded the light pooling in her palms. When they’d first removed the bands, it had exploded out of her as it always did. He’d used his power to help her guide it and calm it, and after a while, he’d slowly pulled back. He wasn’t even sure if she had realized he wasn’t helping her control it anymore. But there was no rumbling of thunder, no flashes of energy, no hints at a storm. There was just her and her fascination with her magic.

He vaguely recalled when his gifts had first manifested. There had been a moment of that same wonder before it had quickly become a determination to master it. He’d neverspent time justenjoyinghis magic. It had always been about controlling it so he could move on to the next goal.

“How are Axel and Kat?” Theon asked when Luka came to a stop beside him. His brother and the female were in a smaller training pit next to this one.

“Katya is quite proficient with her fire already,” Luka replied. His shirt was off, tucked into the band of his pants so his wings could be out. “She will easily pass her exam when we return, and her bands will be removed.”

“Father will be thrilled,” Theon muttered, but he couldn’t hold on to the foul mood for longer than a second as a soft laugh came from Tessa at the tendrils of light coiling around her arms. There was a soft golden mist drifting around her as well, and Theon, tired of fighting his darkness, let his shadows back out. They immediately reached for her, snaking across the ground. He felt her sharp inhale and the spike of want the moment their powers met.

“You couldn’t just let her be?” Luka said, shifting beside him and his wings rustling in irritation.