Passion | | Sebastian Sallow *under slight editing*

Chapter Thirty-Four

The morning after Tana left...

It was a rough night for Leon after having that discussion with Tana about her leaving. It kept him up all night, thinking that Tana actually may leave and the thought of that actually made him nervous. He wouldn't get off so easily if he tried to run from camp like she would, she had the advantage. Not to mention the only reason why he was still around was because he thought he was actually taking Rookwood down, not letting him win.

So after he got ready for his day, he made his way over to Tana's tent. The camp had become significantly smaller as they were preparing to leave for the repository and Leon remembered all those times he had complained about being out here, now he was finally given the opportunity to leave the swamp.

When he lifted the flap, of course forgetting to say that he was opening the flap yet again, the tent was completely vacant besides the empty cot and a few other things scattered around the barren area. Everything important was gone and so was Tana.

She left, she actually left. So of course in Leon's genius mind, the first thing he did was run to Rookwood's tent and down to his office to inform him of the not-so-shocking information.

"Rookwood!" Leon said, throwing the door to Rookwood's office open. Rookwood looked disturbed as his head shot up from the papers on the desk that he was looking at. "Tana's gone, she must've left last night. But she was talking about it and I didn't think she'd actually do it but now everything is gone!"

There was silence after that before Rookwood chuckled, leaving Leon confused. "Figured it would..." He chuckled, looking up at Leon. "But she is no longer any of my concern. I have what I want and I don't need her help. I can bring the new age of my empire without her, she can run all she wants, and I won't stop her. Haven't even thought about her at all honestly, save maybe that little eye injury Astoria gave her."

Leon furrowed his brows in confusion. Tana was right, Rookwood simply didn't care anymore. But the way he was talking so casually about Tana's injury made Leon a little mad. "So you just don't care? You're not even going to send someone out to find her? What if she tells the Ministry about this mess?" He exclaimed, trying to make up a reason as to why Rookwood should go find her.

"As I said, she can run all she wants. Not to mention that in a few day's time, it won't even matter if the Ministry knows. I'll be too powerful for them to stop me." Rookwood said with a smug grin. His ego was bigger than anyone else Leon had ever met and it was angering him.

But he held his tongue, he didn't even want to speak to Rookwood anymore. So he turned his back and left, slamming the door behind him.

In all seriousness, Leon wasn't sure about if he was more mad at Rookwood for not even caring about Tana or if he was more mad at Tana for leaving in the first place. After all, he had sacrificed a lot of time and put his life on the line for her when they were plotting against Rookwood but then suddenly at the moment their plan doesn't work she just gets up and leaves?

To be fair, Tana was leaving after Rookwood was dead if their plan succeeded but Leon knew that and was okay with that. But her just ditching him– he was not okay with that. She was one of his only true friends out here and now he was alone.

As he stormed back to his tent to finish packing, he was muttering to himself. "Maybe I should just get Rookwood to that repository and leave. He won't care then." He muttered, throwing the flap to his tent open and walking in.

He didn't want Rookwood getting that power but he himself had no power to stop Rookwood. "This is a whole mess," He muttered to himself, shaking his head. Leave it to working for Victor Rookwood to give you an existential crisis before the age of twenty-five because that was exactly what happened. Similarly to Tana, he was definitely questioning things. The difference was that he had joined the poacher society willingly and these were the consequences he got for it.