Rain of Shadows and Endings (Legacy, #1)

by Melissa K. Roehrich

“Oh, look. Asshole number two has returned.” Axel’s laughter only increased. “Tessa, I see your mood has improved from unruly to bratty,” Luka said in greeting.

“Kneel, Tessa, and not another word.” His entire demeanor was possessive and dominating, and as Tessa lowered to her knees, something snapped in her, just like the day she’d screamed to the gods on the drive here. It was a thing that lurked inside her, that only one other had ever been able to help her control.

No one ever knew what to do with her except shove her aside. Lock her away. Too wild to be something, so forced to be nothing.

She refused to be like those flames in that fireplace. She refused to be collared and leashed and trapped. No. She was getting out whether this bond liked it or not.

She wouldn’t survive this. It would break her. And she didn’t burn when she broke. She shattered, and the world shattered with her.

Some wards she could feel, but more in a she-knew-they-were-there sort of way. Few actually pressed to keep her out. Or in this case, keep her in. Weaker wards she didn’t feel at all. Which is why she so often found herself in trouble for being in places she wasn’t supposed to be as a child. She’d never figured out how she could evade them.

What is important is that you made me sit at your feet like one of your damn wolves for accidentally dropping a fork.” Theon huffed a humorless laugh. “My hounds are far better behaved than you are,” he muttered under his breath.

“She won’t be the same, Theon,”

“And what makes you so sure of that?” he asked, not bothering to hide his growing irritation with this conversation. “Because you are different. When you started acting to appease Father, I told myself it was only temporary. I told myself you would go back to normal soon, but you didn’t, Theon. You are not the same.” “Neither of us can stay the same after…” “I know,” Axel said, reaching to stop him from opening the door they’d come to. “I know why we are the way we are, but that doesn’t mean we have to create more of us.”

“Running or training in a gym. Your choice.” “I don’t get choices.” “Both then.” “What? Why?” she cried in dismay. “As a punishment for being born? Or simply because you think I’m yours?”

Tessa pitched forward onto her own hands and knees once again, and when her palms met with the earth, light sparked and rippled, a large crack ripping through the path between her and the Legacy.

As thunder cracked, light so bright she had to turn away flared up from the ground. She was scrambling back, but not before she caught sight of something beginning to crawl up out of the crevice from the light. No. Not crawl. It glided up out of the crevice. Another appeared. And another. Tessa watched in utter terror as bodies rose up out of the crevice. But they weren’t bodies of flesh and blood. They shimmered in the sunlight, their bodies nearly transparent. They floated a couple of inches off the ground, and they were all identical. Pale skin. Tall and lean, with sharp, angular features. Short hair as white as clouds.

“I’m sorry,” she cried. “Please don’t shut me in the dark. I can’t breathe there. I’m sorry.”

I don’t want to be alone,” she repeated. “The quiet is too loud sometimes, and I feel trapped in it,” she added in a whisper.

“We need to talk about something.” Her eyes opened at that. “I don’t know what those things were that came up out of the ground. I don’t know what that was or how it happened.”

“What does the bond feel like when you let me touch you?”

“It feels like coming up for air when I’ve been shoved underwater for too long.” Her voice was thick with desire. “When you touch me, it feels like pleasure igniting under my skin. When you touch me, it feels like nothing else matters as long as you never stop. It feels like safety and warmth and light.”

“The wild and untamed answered her call as well.” “Her father’s daughter,” the second said. “She will be powerful.”

Akira took a step forward, and Tessa gasped when she reached out and took her face between her hands. “Know that sometimes we must break to be forged into who we were meant to be,” she said, streaks of violet flickering in her eyes like lightning cutting through the flecks of gold. Then she bent and pressed her lips to Tessa’s brow. “You will break, Tessalyn. Make sure you get back up and take what is yours.”

“Why are you interrogating my Source regarding her element? We will all know the answer in a few weeks’ time.” “Because I was given very interesting information today that suggests she will not emerge with the air element, and I am trying to figure out how such a glaring mistake could have been made on her assessments,” Valter answered tightly.

Why were Pavil and Metias chasing my Source through the gardens?” Valter scoffed dismissively. “They simply want to get to know her as your mother and I do, Theon. We are all going to be working together closely after all.” “And coming to my rooms uninvited to meet her without my presence was the appropriate way to get to know her?”

“You are the reason someone needs to take care of me. Again.” Something deep inside his chest flinched back at the words, and it wasn’t the cord that connected them. He’d never felt the bond that deeply before. This was something else.

“Behave.” She frowned up at him. “What, exactly, do you think I am going to do?” Theon arched a brow as he escorted her into the elite restaurant. “I never know what you are going to do. It is infuriatingly intriguing.”

“They come to love the hand that feeds and cares for them.” “I suppose that is one way to look at it,” Felicity said thoughtfully, her eyes flicking to something over his shoulder. “Like your famed hunting hounds in a way.” “My hounds cannot talk back to me,” Theon muttered.

“Gods, you’re mouthy when you’re tired,” Theon sighed, tipping his head back. “I’m kind of like one of your hounds, but I can talk back,” she sneered, and Theon stilled against the seat. “What did you just say?” he demanded in a low tone that had Luka and Axel stiffening. “You heard me, Theon,” she sneered again.

“Tessa, we’re trying here,” Theon said. “No, Theon. Luka is trying. Axel is trying. You are just demanding. Much like your father.”

“It won’t happen, Tessa.” “How can you be so sure?” she demanded, her voice rising. His hand came to her cheek. “Because I already have a Guardian, Tessa. A full Guardian. With a Guardian Mark and a Guardian Bond.” “What? Who? How?” she asked, stumbling over her words as she tried to digest what he’d just told her. “I already have a Guardian,” Theon repeated. “It’s how we know so much about the Guardian Bond.”

You’re a descendant of Sargon?” “Yes,” Luka sighed. “Then what are your gifts?” The three of them looked between each other again. “You really don’t know?” Axel asked.

“Luka can shift into what it is believed Arius’s elite guardians were created in the image of.” “Which is what?” A wry smile curved up on Axel’s lips. “Luka can shift into a dragon, baby doll.”

“This actually explains a lot,” she was saying. “What does that mean?” Axel asked. “Luka is always so brooding. I imagine dragons are broody.” “I am not broody,” Luka muttered.

Autumn weather was moving in which made the constant rain more odd. Even more bizarre was that the rain seemed to have followed them. Or followed her.

“She had silver hair and silver eyes. More weapons than he could count. She had gifts of shadows but also fire as bright as the stars, and Theon saved her from imminent death when another in all black approached to kill her.”

“I believe everything is not always as it seems,” Luka answered, finally looking up from his godsdamn phone. Sapphire eyes connected with hers as he added, “Whether that be mirrors, traditions, or people.”

“From the moment I saw you slip into that alcove with stolen chocolate, I knew you were mine. The Fates always have their way, Tessa, and this will be no different.”

No one would save her. No one would protect her. No one would stop them, just like no one stopped Mother Cordelia. No one stopped the Priestesses. And another piece of her soul shattered as she went lax in Luka’s hold.

“What element am I going to emerge with?” “We don’t know, Tessa. Your assessments were inconclusive.” “And you will use me to help your father take over Devram?” “No, beautiful. You’ll help me kill my father.” “So you can have Devram?” Darkness hovered around him like a faint mist, and she could swear it reached for her when he said, “No, Tessa. So I can have the Underground, and they can have Devram.”

“In all things there must be balance. Beginnings and Endings. Light and Dark. Fire and Shadows. The sky, the sea, the realms. But when the scales tip, And Chaos rains, Who will fight? And who will fall? For Dark must bow, And Light must rule, But Chaos does not choose. Control the uncontrollable, Or to fury they both lose. Life must give, And Death must take, But Fate requires more. Destiny beckons, And sacrifice demands. Who will be left standing, When Chaos comes to reign?”

“You’re not mortal.” “That’s not a question,” Tristyn teased. “How did you make me think you were? Make them believe you were?” “People see what they want to see, fury.” “But you weren’t fearful of the Arius Heir.”

“Destruction or salvation, wild fury. Your choice.”

You’re impulsive and reckless, and your friends use that against you, but pretend they are doing you favors.”

This is the one place I won’t cross a line if you tell me to stop. So tell me. Tell me to stop if it’s nothing more than the bond.” But nothing but the sound of her ragged breaths reached him. “I’m waiting, little storm.” After what felt like an entire minute, she whispered, “Please don’t, Theon. Please don’t stop.”

“When—not if—someone comes for you again, they will be smart about it. It won’t be when you are with us. They’ll wait for an opportunity, and when they take it, you need to be able to fight back until I can get to you.” “To fight for me,” she said, and the words tasted weird on her tongue. No one had truly fought for her before. Not even Dex. “Yes.” “Because I am your Source,” she clarified, not liking the feeling stirring in her chest. Darkness flitted across his eyes at her words. “Because you are mine to fight for.”

“No one can steal your thunder if you are the storm,” he replied, stretching a hand toward her. “Be the fucking storm, Tessa.” “Why are you telling me this? Aren’t you supposed to be protecting Theon?” He yanked her to her feet as he said, “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

She was stuck, trapped within these walls. No windows. No way out. And she could hardly get down air. Just like when Mother Cordelia would withhold air. There was no one to hear her cries. Theon had left. Axel had left. Luka had left. Alone. Completely alone. This was why hope was pointless. This was why she didn’t bother caring about anything. This was why she wished for death.

Him and Tessa’s cries as she’d begged him not to leave her in the wine cellar. It wasn’t terribly small. She’d be fine.

“You locked me in the wine cellar.” “I—” “You locked me in a wine cellar, despite knowing that’s how I was handled at the Estate. Despite knowing I do not like enclosed spaces. Despite knowing that it would—” She stopped abruptly, those violet rings glowing brighter. Her voice had risen with every word, but when she spoke again, it was once again void of feeling. “You locked me in the wine cellar.”

“Shadows are cunning, don’t you think? The light doesn’t realize the shadows are circling until there’s nowhere for them to go. It’s either join the shadows, or drown in the darkness.”

“What happened to your hands, Tessa?” “I couldn’t find a way out. There were no windows. No cracks. No where to dig…” She trailed off as Theon realized she had tried to claw her way out of the cellar.

She’d repeatedly told them she had more self-control than they realized. He hadn’t understood what she meant until now. She was going to emerge stronger than any other Fae. She would be stronger than many of the Legacy in Devram. And she’d stopped trying to control her chaos.

Fingers dragging. Throat humming. Lips still buzzing from the kiss with Theon. I was going to ask you not to let me kiss you again until you were ready to admit this is more than a bond. He was right. This was more than a bond; she just hadn’t quite figured out what that meant yet. She’d realized that as she’d lain on the floor of that wine cellar. They were more than Source and Master, Fae and Legacy. They were more than two people connected by a bargain and a bond. They were more than, but more than what?