Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance (Legacy, #3)

by Melissa K. Roehrich

Tell me how to love you, kitten, because I’ll pluck stars from the sky and walk through your flames.

My heart

Where Theon was intense and anxious, Luka was a solid presence. Calm and stoic, but intense and commanding all the same. A balance she didn’t understand, but some days she desperately wished she did.

“No. I’m only bothered that others will see you in them.” “Like Theon?” “No,” he scoffed. “I’m well aware he’s already seen everything, and even if he hadn’t…” She waited, but he didn’t continue. “Even if he hadn’t what?”

Luka only shrugged before he disappeared into his closet. What the fuck did that mean?

Hehehe

A hand on her hip, she asked, “And what job is that? Making me sick?” “No. It will cover your nipples,” he replied casually, heading for the door. “Let’s go.”

Lmao

“Tessa,” he breathed, heated emerald eyes sweeping over her. “Did you see Lange and Corbin? I told Luka to take you there first.” “You did?” she asked, glancing up at Luka for a moment. “I mean, yes, I did.”

Awwweeeee

But if that was the case, and Serafina was to be with Achaz, was that not the same plan? Would that not also have upset the very same balance? Would Arius then have the same vendetta against Achaz? None of it added up.

Sure doesn't

If it pissed Theon off, good. He deserved every bit of it. But if Theon approved… Gods, the very idea made her entire body hot. Desire coursed through her, and fuck it. She was wild and impulsive and uncontrollable. May as well lean into it.

Her eyes stayed on his as she crawled across the floor, and she could feel him. Wild yet controlled. Untamed yet steady. Impulsive yet restrained.

Theon had always shielded her. She’d always had someone who cared about her. Eviana could tell it was more than a Source bond the minute Theon brought her home to Arius House.

“We’re meant to destroy each other,” she whispered, the words pained and agonized. “Then destroy me, little storm.”

Ungh

The bond was elated. Her magic was elated. Her entire being was elated. Because she needed them both, and gods, she wished she understood why. But like Razik had said, she wasn’t supposed to exist. Everything was altered because of her crossed bloodlines. Wouldn’t it make sense that what this was would be different from the rest of the realms too?

“You are my source of everything I hate about this realm, but you are also my source of the things I crave. You are the source of what broke me, but you are also the source of what saved me. You are the source of my fury, but you are also the source of every dark desire. You are the source of what I have become, but you are also a source of complete acceptance of who that person is. You are the source of my own self-discovery, and how twisted is that, Theon?”

“How wrong is it that you are the source of everything that has happened these last weeks, months—that I loathe you so deeply in my soul—yet here I am?” Her power flared, lighting up the alcove where his darkness swirled around them. He sucked in a sharp breath at their magic mingling. “How wrong is it that I am light, and yet I crave the dark?”

“Because you are light and dark, Tessa,” he said, resolve sounding in each word. “You n...

“It’s more than a bond,” she interrupted, her frustration climbing as she said those words, knowing they would damn her. Her next words were a whisper. “It’s always been more than a bond.”

A bigger part of her didn’t care. Because she had become his villain, and he still kept coming back for her. Again and again and again. Just like he’d promised.

“If there is anything I have learned about my Arius bloodline these last months, it is that we do not much care for fate, little storm.”

“I am wild and untamed. I am uncontrollable. I am utter chaos.”

“And Theon and I? We’ll wait.” “Both of you?” “Yes.” “And you are all right with that?” “Yes.” “What if it is both of you?” She felt his smile as he pressed his lips to the top of her head. “We’ll wait for you to figure it out.”

“Someday you will see what I see, Axel,” she said. “You will see that you are more than a spare heir, more than a bloodline, more than what your father has led you to believe. Someday you will see yourself as I see you.”

“Your tears are red,” Kat whispered. “And yours are heartbreaking,”

“Death has found me, and I have bound him to me,” Tessa answered, lifting a hand to show her the Arius Mark that adorned the back of it.

Auryon glanced over at her, a look of satisfaction flashing in her eyes at whatever she saw. “There she is,” the Huntress said in approval. “The fury of your mother. Use it.”

“Tessalyn!” Auryon snapped. “You are wild and fury, light and dark. Once lost, you were found. The only one who hasn’t realized that is you.”

She was focused entirely on Theon. He might be an overprotective, controlling bastard, but Tessa also needed that sometimes. And thank all the gods and fates if Theon was finally figuring out when she needed it, and when he needed to back the fuck off. Maybe. Hopefully.

“Maybe not her Guardian, but you’re her something, Luka,” Theon said. “Take me to Dark Haven, and then come back here and figure it the fuck out. I think it’s the only way we’re going to survive this anymore.”

Godsdammit, Tessa. It was always you. For both of us,

Something in his soul slipped into place at the thought. A piece that he’d been trying to find for nearly three decades. Trying to belong when he didn’t quite fit in anywhere else. Searching for something and never knowing what exactly that something was.

“You love our mouths,” he replied distractedly. “I can only imagine what you’ll do when we’re both worshipping you.” He felt her heart stutter down the bond. Heard her sharp inhale. “Do you… The two of you… Do that?” His gaze flicked to hers, finding her eyes heavy-lidded and full of heated lust at the idea. And he smirked.

I cannot waittttt

“I was just thinking that if you’ve always been mine, maybe some part of me has always been yours in a way too. We just never understood it because we’re all so…broken.”

The only other person she’d had sex with like that was Theon. It’d been different, but equally intense, and gods. Just thinking about any of it—Luka, Theon, both of them—had her pressing her thighs together.

Because her visions were showing her one thing, and her feelings were leading her down another path, and what was she supposed to do with any of it?

Bc your visions are being messed with woman!

“It is only awkward because you do not know how to accept that someone cares for you simply because you exist.”

He reared back as if she’d hit him with a bolt of her power. And the look on his face? Gods, it shattered her. The pieces she’d been trying to hold together slipped through her fingers. She thought Theon had broken her? This realm? No, she had destroyed herself because there was no coming back from this. She knew it in her bones.

Akira did say she would be broken.…

“If you would ever fucking listen to any of us—me, Theon, Axel—you would know that isn’t true. Theon has wanted you from the beginning. Not to use you. He’s wanted you. It’s all he’s ever wanted. I had to give you a pet name to remind myself not to want you. We’ve loved you far longer than even we realize.” She shook her head, the tears streaming now. “None of you know how to love.”

“Or maybe you just don’t know how to let yourself be loved.”

“You wanted to be a monster? Congratulations, Tessa. You succeeded.”

In the end, she had become her own villain.

A perfect balance. Fire and shadows. The only difference was he’d rule in the shadowed lands of the Underground rather than control the shadows themselves. He’d leave that to his son.

“I create new enemies every day,” he sneered. “It’s just good business. Now get out.”

Something about the Fates and bonds. A genesis bond. That term was circled multiple times.

“Does it call to you too? Do you understand it? Because I don’t, Theon, and I’m trying. I’m trying to understand.” “I’m starting to understand, beautiful,” he said gently. “I’m starting to understand all of it.” “Then you can help?” “I can help,” he agreed.

“We were all so worried about her siding with Achaz, we missed the obvious,” he said. “Even Cienna missed it.” “Missed what?” “Dark must bow and light must rule, but Chaos does not choose.”

What did they miss???

and you, Tessalyn? You are the most powerful being in Devram. No one decides your fate but you. Do you understand me?”

“You are wild and fury. Lean into it, Tessa. Let instinct guide you.”

He looked like the god of death. Darkness drifted across his emerald eyes. His dark hair stirred in the wind as his wings stretched wide behind him. He held the swords as if they were extensions of him, and his power swarmed around him. And her power wanted it all. Tendrils of light reached for it, winding into his darkness.

Maybe the villain had fallen in love with the monster in the end.

“You can try,” she growled in response. Then it was her tugging on Theon’s magic. Light and dark wound around her dagger, life and death, and she sank it into the Hunter’s chest. His wail rang out before he drifted away on the winds, nothing left but wisps of pale, translucent ashes.

Just like sorin and scarletts combined TF power killed the hunters…

“He will,” Theon snarled, cutting off whatever she was going to say. “He will come because we are his as much as he is ours.”