Tessa and I stood in the cold dark as she tried to call upon her power. As the minutes stretched into an hour, I could sense her growing frustration. Her power frightened her, but deep down, I knew she was far more afraid of losing control than of using it. So she tried. And tried again—and again and again, until her breath became ragged from the effort of it all.
With a frustrated sigh, she slammed her hand onto a patch of iridescent grass. I waited for the blades to shrivel up and die, but nothing happened. After a long moment, Tessa shook her head and sat back on her heels. Sweat beaded on her forehead.
“It’s not going to happen,” she whispered. “My father said…” Her voice cracked, but she shook her head and forced herself to continue. “He said the reasonIhad to use the power instead of him was because he’d spent too long behind Oberon’s barrier. It somehow numbed whatever magic he had in his veins until it was gone completely. Maybe it’s gone from me forever now, too.”
“Hmm.” I strode toward her, took her arm, and helped her stand. “You’re scared, and you’re still blaming yourself after everything that’s happened.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“You know I would. We had twin souls even before we made that bond.”
“Then you understand why this power,” she said, pointing at her chest, at her heart, “is something Ishouldn’tuse. It comes from Andromeda, and I can feel that it does, that it’swrong. I think I’ve always been able to feel it. It’s like a dark cloud of anger and viciousness and rage, and it…well, I can’t blame it for everything because I’m still me, and it’s a part of me.It is me. But I know I’ve been influenced by it, just like Oberon was.”
I nodded. “And Oberon tried to hide from it. He tried to pretend he wasn’t messing with fire and that everything was fine.”
“What are you saying?”
“Accept what you are,” I said, taking her hand and pulling it to my thundering heart. “Accept what’s inside you. Channel that anger into something good, anduseit.”
“But my anger has led to horrible things. People have died because of it.” Her eyes clouded over, as if she were recalling a distant memory.
I had an idea which incident she meant. When Oberon had first taken her to become his next mortal bride, he’d thrown a lavish ball to show Tessa off to his court. Her anger had gotten the better of her when she’d seen what the Albyrian light fae planned to do with one of their unnamed mortal maidservants. And so Tessa had thrown all caution to the wind, stabbing Oberon with a wooden dagger.
It had backfired terribly. Oberon had ordered Morgan to kill the poor maidservant in retaliation.
When Tessa had first told me that story, she’d had a haunted, defeated look in her eyes. Just like now.
“Love,” I murmured. She blinked and met my gaze, and her eyes were hollow. “Both of us have done things we regret, but you know what we can’t do?”
“Erase the past.” Her hand tightened around mine.
“I’ll make another deal with you.”
She coughed out a strained laugh. “No more deals. No more vows.”
“This one won’t be bound in magic,” I said. “It’s just a promise to each other, based on nothing but trust. Let go of your fear and use your anger—really try—and I’ll do the same. With you. We’ll do it together.”
It was a hard thing to say, and part of me wanted to reach out into the air, grab those words, and stuff them back inside. Tessa thought her potential power was dangerous, but mine was far, far worse. It had been hundreds of years, and I still didn’t know how to fully control it. Because I’d feared it all this time. Because I’d avoided it. Because I thought it best for everyone if I locked it up inside me, never to be used again. Only recently had I dared wield it, when there’d been no other option.
“You’ll train your power, too?” she asked.
“You train yours, and I train mine. Together, we’ll be unstoppable,” I said roughly. No matter what Andromeda and the other gods brought, they would never be able to defeat us if we fought side by side. My power would take out any big army—not that they would have one—and Tessa could kill the gods themselves once they got too close. “I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Your power might be the only way to stop the gods.Wecannot kill them, but perhaps you can.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened. “Oh.”
“The power comes from Andromeda. She can kill anything andanyoneby touch. Surely that includes other gods. And herself.”
Tessa sucked in a sharp breath, then loosed it slowly, her entire body tense from the weight of my words. This had been on my mind for a few days, but I hadn’t wanted to burden her with my suspicions, not yet. Not until I could be certain. But we didn’t have much time. A month, if that.
She paced in front of me. “So I could make it right. I could undo what I did and rid this world of them once and for all.”
“WhatOberondid.”
She turned toward me, her eyes flashing. “All right, I’ll take that deal. We’ll train together. You learn to blast the gods down just long enough for me to get to them. And then I’ll kill them all.”
Warmth spread through me at her fire. “There it is.”
She lifted her chin. “Here it is.”
