Dawn of Chaos and Fury (The Legacy Book 4)

by Melissa K. Roehrich

It’d been decades since she’d been in this world. She hadn’t thought it would still make her … feel. But she should have known. It would forever make her feel. Because it was the last place she’d seen him. Because it had always been more than a bond.

“You broke me when you walked away from me!” she cried, finally letting that fury win. To fury they both lose. “You promised. You were the one person—the one person—who never balked when I showed you my worst. You promised I would always … You were my only constant in the end, and you walked away from me,” she finished.

“You broke me too,” he called after her, making her pause. “In ways I never could have imagined. So hate me, Tessa. Hate me and break me and make me feel it all, but would you save me? If you could?”

“I know he’s the one you need right now. I

don’t know how to be that. He’s the one who’s always protected us from ourselves, and I know you need him. You hate it, but you know it too.” He fell silent, the seconds stretching on filled only by her humming. Then he said in a voice so low he didn’t even know if she could hear him, “I don’t know how we live without him.”

“We are out of time,” the female said, her voice fire and power. She never slowed, coming right up to Tessa. “You must go. Find the one who chose Death. She has your answers.”

“You chose him. Chose Endings over Beginnings,” Tessa said. “Why?” The female’s eyes softened a touch as she looked at Tessa, never breaking her stare. The snake moved, its tongue flicking in and out as it tasted the air. But no one spoke. There was no other sound, and the silence stretched on for so long, Tessa was wondering if she was going to reply. But she would have her answers one way or another, and the goddess seemed to understand that when she said, “To start a genesis.”

“I do not care,” Tessa said. “I have been forgotten and discarded, used and abused. You think I have any care for what you are? For my own wellbeing at this point? I have nothing to lose anymore. I’ve already lost it all. I am the villain in everyone’s story, including my own. I am the excuse for everyone’s actions, and I am the power everyone seeks. I stand at a crossroads. Salvation or destruction. So either tell me why you chose your path or leave. I will make a choice either way. You can decide if your knowledge is valuable enough for me to consider before I take that next step.”

“Maybe we’re all broken, but maybe together we can form something new. Something whole.”

“We have to be a little mad to dream, Tessalyn,”