Page 90 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“To find me?”
He clicked his tongue. “I told you once, your wellbeing was never my concern. You were always Dex’s main priority.”
“And you?”
“I was sent to aid him and the Achaz Legacy here, but I was given tasks of my own. So was Oralia,” he said, and he sounded almost…sad.
When he didn’t explain further, Tessa said, “How come you and Dex and Oralia can make your wings disappear, but it appears other seraphs can’t?”
“There is a difference between the seraphs and the Elite seraphs, just as there is a difference between dragons and Guardians.”
“So…you are a light guardian? Like Luka is to Theon?”
“Kind of. Only we’re all bound to Achaz, not another individual.”
She mulled that over in her mind for a few quiet moments before she said, “A few months ago, you told me your freedom depended on me being who I was meant to be.”
“And it does,” he said, turning to face her for the first time since he’d sat down. “There are so many paths before you. One path offers freedom to some while condemning others. Another path does the opposite. Some paths free many, while some paths bring only death.”
“And who am I meant to be then?”
“Come now, Tessa,” he chided, his signature smirk tilting on his lips. “I know how clever you are. I’ve watched you outwit the Achaz Lord and Dex these last months.” He chuckled under his breath. “You’ve provided quite the entertainment for me.”
“I’m so glad,” she muttered in irritation.
“You’re smart enough to know only you get to decide who you are meant to be. Isn’t that what you’ve been doing since being Selected? Fighting back? Telling everyone they don’t own you? That you can’t be leashed or collared? And yet…”
“And yet, what?” she snapped, her power stirring beneath her skin before quieting once more.
“And yet I’m not entirely sure you’ve convinced yourself of that yet. It’s why everyone continues to try to use you and trap you.”
She stared at him, words failing to come to her in any kind of retort.
“Anyway, it became about more than survival for me long ago. Well before I found myself in this cursed realm,” Brecken said. “Yet as cursed as this realm is, I’d rather stay in it than return to where I came from.”
Startled at the revelation, Tessa said, “You don’t want to go home?”
“That world stopped being my home when someone I loved was taken from me,” he answered, getting to his feet. “It changed me. Much in the same way you’ve been changed. I am powerful, but you? You could destroy a world, and I think you would. You’ve been on the brink. It’s why they fear you so much. It’s why they keep trying to collar you and leash you. Because as soon as you fully believe in yourself and what you’re capable of? That’s when you’ll be free.”
There was a lump in her throat, and she swallowed around it as she peered up at him. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked hoarsely.
“So you can decide who youwantto be,” he answered. “Not for me or Dex. Not for Theon or Luka or Achaz or Arius. But for you, Tessa.”
She looked away, trying to clear her head. Maybe it was more pretty words. Maybe it was him trying to gain her trust. It was all anyone had done her entire life. Become her lifeline so they could manipulate her. He wanted freedom, and she was his ticket to it. She wasn’t sure there was anything he could do to prove otherwise.
Then again, she’d once thought the same about Theon.
“Do you know how to take this cuff off?” she asked suddenly, lifting her arm. “We hate it.”
Brecken nodded slowly. “Those were designed to contain beings of Chaos during the Everlasting War. It requires the blood of three different First gods, or, in this case, their Legacy to remove it.”
“I am the blood of three different First gods,” she argued.
“Yes, but you’re the one entrapped. Not only that, we all know what your blood can summon,” Brecken pointed out.
The Hunters.
She’d been so careful not to call them forth since that day near the river.
