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“You want to play?” Luka asked her. She’d gone still, her head tilting in a predatory manner as she watched him walk backwards down the path.

Then she lifted a hand and slid off one of the bands.

Fuck.

“Not here, clever tempest,” Theon said, following Luka’s lead and letting his darkness trail him as he moved past Tessa. “We’ll take you somewhere.”

Her eyes narrowed, but when he sent a tendril of dark mist to her and let it slide along her throat and under her jaw, that wicked smile returned, and she started to follow.

Neither of them dared say anything as they led her as quickly as they could to the training arenas. Using the side roads and sticking to the shadows meant it took longer than he would have liked, but they couldn’t risk being seen.

Or rather, they couldn’t risk Tessa seeing someone else and suddenly finding another power more interesting.

Luka led them past all the smaller training rooms to the largest of the arenas. It was a risk. Anyone could enter and anyone would be able to observe, but it would be a bigger risk trying to contain whatever Tessa was feeling in a small room.

The doors had scarcely closed behind them when he heard the growling.

Two wolves came prowling from the dark corners of the arena, hackles raised and teeth bared. One was dark grey, the other light.

“We’re helping her,” he found himself saying to them as they began to circle.

Luka was beside him, flames crackling and hissing in his hand. The wolves growled again, one snapping its jaws.

“We’re trying to help her,” Theon said again, questioning his sanity at trying to explain himself to wolves.

Tessa had moved deeper into the arena. Her hands were in her hair as she pulled pins from it, her light winding around her arms and lightning skittering across the floor with each step she took. She was pacing, muttering words Theon only caught bits and pieces of as the wolves kept themselves planted between them and her.

“Control the uncontrollable…too wild…the balance…it tips…”

“She needs the other band off,” Luka said, tracking her with vertical pupils. “And Blackheart is right. We can’t put them back on her.”

“She can’t control it. It will take both of us to manage that power,” Theon replied.

“Yes, but that leaves us both defenseless,” Luka said. “Not an option.”

Tessa stopped then. She was in the center of the arena, and she turned to face them. Energy flickered in violet glowing irises. Lifting a hand, Theon could only watch as she showed them the other band.

“These trap us,” she said, and her voice wasn’t hers. It was otherworldly, somehow dark and light. Wild. Chaotic.

“How long has she been able to take those off herself?” Luka asked, his voice low.

“I don’t know,” Theon answered. “But she is very angry. Or her magic is.”

“Probably both,” Luka finished. “Fuck.”

Fuck indeed.

Because Tessa’s magic would consume her. It would take and take until there was nothing left. That was why learning to control it was so vital. It was why they used the bands—both Legacy and Fae alike—until they had mastered their gifts enough. But they hadn’t been able to give this the attention it needed. Between the hearing and his father’s demands, the newest Mark and the trip to the Underground, there simply hadn’t been enough time. But it still shouldn’t have come to this. Not this quickly.

“It came out of nowhere,” Theon said. “I know it’s been a few days since we’ve taken the bands off, but this is like a switch flipped. There was no slow build up.”

“We’ll have to dissect the matter later,” Luka said. “Right now, we need to handle this.”

Tessa was reaching for the band, sliding it down her wrist, over her hand. Luka had already had a shield in place, ready to try to deflect the eruption of power that was sure to come from her, and Theon was dragging up as much of his own magic as he could to at least attempt to overcome hers.

And it did just that. Blinding bright light flared as the band slipped free. Even with the shield in place, Theon felt the tremors of energy skitter across the stone floor. There was no way they’d be able to control this.

He braced himself for the collision of power, praying to the gods, the Fates,anyonewho would listen.