Taunting Destiny

by Amelia Hutchins

  Each night, one of the men would knock softly on the door, signaling him that they were ready to go, and his entire demeanor would promptly close off and become detached, cold, and distant as he left for the rest of the night. We would go back to normal when it was time to train. Nights, I used planning how to call out the person who wanted me dead. As time dwindled down, I was becoming more agitated.

  “Pull the magic around you. Focus,” Ryder said from across the room.

  We trained in the room where my entire existence had been altered by him, the same room where he’d asked Zahruk to replay my past, only his powers had made the room larger. “Ryder, this is pointless. How am I supposed to know the difference between Fae magic and the same magic I have been using all my life?”

  “One is wild magic, the other is dark magic. Try not using the dark magic,” Ryder smirked as he once again leaned against the wall, and folded his arms across his chest. He continued to watch me fumble through the training. I was beginning to think I would never learn how to use Fae magic, and frustration at failing plain sucked. My confidence was already battered and still bruised from failing to save Larissa.

  I grumbled, but tried again. The entire room grew thick with electrical current from the power radiating through me. Dark Arts…I cut it off and shook my head. Several more tries and I still couldn’t pull the power that Ryder thought would be inside of me, out. I was still trying to pull the correct magic from within when Ristan entered the room.

  “Keep trying,” Ryder said while nodding to Ristan who walked to where he stood and leaned against the wall with him.

  “Anything?” Ryder asked, turning to look at Ristan.

  “No, I have a small group out scouting, but I can see nothing. How's the magic training going?”

  “She's unable to pull it out,” Ryder said softly as I continued to try.

  “So, she isn’t progressing?” Ristan asked.

  “No, she isn’t trying hard enough. She’s still using the magic she was taught at the Guild. She should be able to do it naturally, with just a thought. Right now, she isn’t tapping into anything besides my patience.”

  “Oh I wouldn't say that.” Ristan grinned widely. “She's tapping you nightly.”

  “Ristan, figure out who is trying to kill her. I want to know who it is by tomorrow night.”

  “You got it. But, Ryder, whoever it is; he's doing a damn good job hiding from us. There's no scent to follow, or a single trace of him.”

  I turned my back on them, shutting them out as I tried to pull out more magic. It was hopeless. I'd been using magic since I could remember, and nothing was coming but the magic I’d always used. But that wasn’t the magic I needed. Casting came easily, but the only thing coming was what I couldn’t, and shouldn’t use. Not without the help of a coven anyway. Dark Magic could kill, or do damage to the caster if not leveled and kept balanced by a full coven.

  “Ever consider that she's already tapped into her Fae magic and that maybe, just maybe, she's been using it all along?” Ristan said to Ryder, making me spin on them.

  “How is that possible if I've been blocked by the brand on my neck? Wouldn't you have felt the magic?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes.

  “If she's been using it this entire time, we'd have felt it,” Ryder agreed, even though he'd tilted his head, which he did when he was thinking. “Unless the actual magic is being shielded. She has always smelled of wild magic, even if she wasn’t using it.”

  “How old were you when you first used magic, Syn?” Ristan asked softly.

  “Three was my first memory of using it,” I answered him smoothly.

  “She can't lie,” Ristan said, causing me to lift an eyebrow in confusion.

  “Why would I? I have nothing to gain by lying.”

  “You’re also fully Fae now, Synthia. You couldn't lie if your life depended on it,” Ristan mused with a cocky grin on his lips.

  “Point?”

  “Age three is extremely young for a Witch to start casting. What else could you do at three, Syn?” Ryder asked as he pushed from the wall and let his arms drop to his sides. I watched the muscles in his abdomen as they tightened with his movements. He'd come shirtless today for the lesson, and I hadn't complained one bit until now.

  “Simple things; I could control the heat of my bathwater, food that I didn't like I could change into something simple like fries, and clothes—shit!” I stopped cold and blinked. I'd changed my clothes, and even my mother’s on occasion with a simple thought—but I hadn’t used spells then. I realized that I had begun believing in the power of the spells, instead of the power inside of me when I had moved to the Guild.

  “You could change clothes,” Ryder said, tilting his head with a devastating grin. “This whole time you have been struggling to materialize cotton, and you could do it at three. That’s an impossible feat for any but a select few Fae at that age.”

  “You thinking, what I'm thinking, Ryder?” Ristan asked from where he'd stayed leaning against the wall.

  “That Syn is the real Light Princess, whose mother must have had an affair with one of the princes of the Blood Fae, giving us a little Syn?” Ryder smiled wickedly as he watched me closely.

  “I'm not the Light Heir. You said I was Blood Fae.”

  “She's about the right age, and it would account for why she would have known Adam, and bound him as a familiar at such a young age,” Ristan supplied. “Blood Fae had a compact with the Light, as well as the Dark, twenty one years ago. They could have easily met at the Samhain feast, and typically all three castes would have been present.”

  I felt as if I was drowning and couldn't breach the surface of the water. It was horrifying to even consider it, since the Light Fae were the most obnoxious of any caste, with their air of superiority.

  “The glamour you cast when we first met, Syn. How long could you have worn it?” Ryder asked quietly.

  “Not long, I guess, it would have drained my magic,” I replied as I absently fisted my hands at my sides where they had started to shake. It was one thing to know I had family out there, and another to actually have someone figuring it out in front of you.

  On one hand, it was exciting, considering I had lost everything, but scary to think he could actually figure it out and take me to them. What if they didn't like me? What if they thought I was a freak since I could still summon the glow that Alden had pigmented into my skin? There were way too many things that could go wrong. Hell! They could turn around and sell me to Ryder, since the Light Fae had an army of daughters.

  “That was before Transition, though, so it stands to reason that she would drain easily if she used it too long,” Ristan said casually as if we were discussing a nice family vacation in the South.

  “So you're saying I'm a royal bastard who came from an affair, and that the entire time I was supposed to be pretending to be the Light Heir, I was the Light Heir?” They both laughed. I was the only one who didn’t think it was funny. It would be my luck, though. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no damn luck at all.

  “Could explain why someone is after her though. There were rumors for years that the Light King had been trying to find the Light Heir so he could kill her.” Ryder looked at me with a smirk. “Just so you know, that was why we didn’t question it when Arianna’s guards said there were assassins after her, not that we were stupid.” I glared at him for omitting that little piece of information from me before.

  “This makes absolutely no sense, you know that, right?” I grouched, already feeling the resulting hunger from hours of practicing magic today.

  “Because you don't want to be a bastard? Or because…?” Ryder asked with a frown on his face.

  “Because it's one thing to be Fae, Ryder, but it's an entirely different thing to be Light Fae. They’re the worst of the fucking Fairies. They’re a bunch of nauseating, sanctimonious prats that think they are better than every other caste of Fae. I'd rather be Horde than one of those pricks!”

&
nbsp; Something silent passed between Ryder and Ristan, and then he leveled me with a stare that could have lit a wet branch on fire. “It doesn't change the fact that it fits—you fit, Syn. It gives us a lead on who is trying to kill you as well. Now all those rumors are taking on different meaning. It would make sense that she'd dump her offspring if the heir was not legitimate.” Ryder smirked. “Looks like some of what Dresden said was the truth.”

  “I don't give a crap if I'm some royal bastard. What bothers me is that I don't want a family. I don’t need them. They didn't want me. I don’t need them to figure this out, and I sure don't need them to want me because I'm an heir. They threw me away, and whatever their reason was for doing it, it still changes nothing. I had a family, and I know who I am without the Light Fae, or them claiming me for that matter.”

  “You don't want to meet your mother?” Ristan asked guardedly.

  “No. I watched my mother be slaughtered by Fae, and nothing and nobody can replace her. She gave her life to protect me, Ristan. She was my mother, and she proved it with her sacrifice. It changes nothing.”

  “We still need to know who's trying to kill you,” Ryder pointed out.

  “So figure it out without telling the Light Fae you found me, or I’ll figure it out. I never agreed to a flipping Fairy family reunion. I agreed to give you a week, that was it, Ryder. If you push me, or push this, I will leave. I promise you that, I don't want anyone coming to claim me.”

  “And if I can't find the guy who is trying to kill you?” he asked.

  “Then I will.”

  “Give it up. There is no way in hell I am allowing you to go hunt the bastard down. I’m going to figure out a way to kill him, and, when I do, it will be without you being used as bait.” He gave me a knowing little smirk. “I suggest we use this time to feed.”

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Later that afternoon, we were summoned up to the top floor of the club. Zahruk watched us closely as we approached the closed off entrance of the VIP section. He nodded to me briefly, and then we all started up the winding stairway that led to the private rooms of the club.

  “Reconnaissance is complete on the first one, we have the extraction plan formulated, and we have men on the other sites, Ryder. I know you don’t like it, but it’s time to call in the contract,” Zahruk said carefully as he watched Ryder react to the news. Ryder nodded grimly, turning to me.

  “Syn, I will release you and Adam both from the contracts I hold, if you help me recover the relics that will help me secure the future of Faery. This goes against my better judgment, as I did not want to involve you in this, but I need someone who can easily get in and out of tight spaces, which I know you can. After that, I will let you both go. These won’t be simple tasks, and it’s going to take us awhile to retrieve them all. I want your answer, now.”

  I felt my throat grow constricted as the idea of being away from Ryder registered in my brain. I hesitated to answer him, and jumped when Zahruk’s voice boomed from ahead of us.

  “Syn, answer him,” Zahruk demanded.

  I turned my eyes to Ryder and nodded. I couldn’t speak; I was fighting against the pain that came with knowing Ryder would walk away from me soon. I had known, eventually, that the peace we had found would be shattered. I’d known this would end, but I hadn’t expected it to be anytime soon. The thought of being without him made a weird tightening sensation form in my throat, and stomach.

  “So, what do we have to do?” I asked him quietly.

  “Zahruk will explain the operation. You will need black clothes, and make sure they are tight,” Ryder said looking up the stairs to where Dristan had poked his head from the curtain at the top, back to where I stood awkwardly on the stairs. “You getting this?” he asked pointedly. I nodded again and watched as his hands balled into tight fists at his sides.

  We walked into a room that had a model set up, along with a blueprint of a building. Ryder’s men stood silently by the wall, with the exception of Ristan and Z, who were now explaining the plan for tonight.

  “Okay,” Zahruk said. “This is the point of entry.” He pointed to the section of the blueprints that showed the room of a building. “Our intel says it is heavily guarded, but I think we can work around them. We enter through here,” he continued, pointing things out to me carefully. “The window will only have a few sensors which we can easily disarm before entry. Inside, there are alarms that we won’t be able to shut off; those are the first issue we need to deal with when we are inside. We should be able to get in and out during the shift changes; with the right timing we should miss the guards. This,” he pointed to a group of squares on the map, “is where the scepter will be secured. Inside the case are more sensors that will need to be dealt with and not triggered. If they go off, the bars on the ceiling and the doors will seal shut immediately. There are dummy cases set up; basically the entire room is full of traps and tricks that were designed to keep the relics from getting back to the Fae. Ryder will be with us to point out which one is the right one, and which ones are the fakes.”

  “What does it do?” I asked, lifting my eyes to Z’s, and then Ryder’s.

  “It is a very powerful scepter that was stolen many centuries ago by a group, thinking it was a way to control the Fae and gain power as well as immortality, but they never figured out how to unlock its powers. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway; it only comes to life in the right hands. Our time is running out, and we know that once we start retrieving the relics, they will immediately move the other relics, and this will force us to start the search over again. We now have people in place to prevent this from happening when we strike tonight,” Ryder relayed before he turned and started toward the door. I watched his wide back as he left the room, leaving me alone with Ristan and his men.

  Twenty minutes later, I was dressed in a snug leather jumpsuit that I had materialized myself, that was similar to the jumpsuits I had worn on jobs for the Guild. I’d dug through the remains of the items they had saved from my house, and almost squealed with happiness when I found my mission pack. Next to the OPI collection, it was one of the items I’d mourned the most, since it was a gift from Alden when I’d graduated. It came with a silver belt that had a few secret items in it that a girl just couldn’t live without.

  I shoved my feet into the soft soled knee high boots and pulled my hair up into a tight ponytail, and headed back up to the club’s VIP lounge. I smiled as I took in the faces that registered from shock to humor at my outfit. They could laugh all they wanted; this type of outfit had saved my ass a hundred different times. It also fit the description of what Ryder had said to wear. Oh sure, with a lot more concentration and work I could have created the black, Guild-issued fatigue’s, but leather was so much more fun.

  I felt better the moment I caught the look on Ryder's face, until he shook his head with a wicked smile on his full mouth and anticipation dancing in his eyes. “I didn’t say that tight.”

  “You said tight. Besides, this kind of outfit has saved my ass more times than you have, Fairy.”

  He rubbed his hand down his face, and closed the distance, holding out his hand. I looked at it, and back up to him. “So, what is the real job? I know how you guys work, and I need to know what’s really going on.”

  “It’s not a job, Syn, and we told you the details that you need to know. There’s no deceit in tonight’s plans. We are going to take back something that should have never left Faery to begin with. Period,” he replied carefully.

  “Give me details other than just telling me it’s a scepter. I noticed that the building is an old Masonic Temple, but what I don’t know is, why there and what is their involvement? I need more than what you gave me, and I’m smart enough to know that more is going on than you are telling me. I’ve read about the Masons, and, from what I know, they are not the bad guys—normally.”

  “Politics aside, Pet, you are right about that—normally they are not. The group has had many evolutions before they were the Freemaso
ns. The group that stole the scepter was the Knights Templar, who were, for all intents and purposes, thought to have been disbanded shortly after the Crusades ended. They are still active today secretly, behind the scenes and they are a lot like the Guild Enforcers. They are trained to kill, but, unlike the Guild, they only do so to protect their secrets, along with those things they are invested in. What they stand for, and the symbol they have been using since the Crusades are the only constants, no matter which evolution the outer group goes through. They are trained to be no more than rumors. Deadly, efficient, and not people you would want on your bad side. Normally, they stay out of other groups’ business unless they fear it endangers the humans or their own tenets.”

  “Okay, so what's the backup plan? Because planning on missing them is option A. I need to know what option B is for worst case scenario. Do we fight? Do we run? I need to know these things, so I’m not responsible for starting a bloody war, unless you want one.”

  “We are Fae; we don’t believe in a plan B, and no, we don’t want to start a fucking war with them,” he mumbled, and looked at his hand.

  I lifted a brow at that, and placed mine inside of his as he pulled me closer and we sifted. When we materialized on the roof of the Templars’ building, I was fully inside his arms with his lips touching my forehead. I'd felt it before we'd materialized, but I’d thought it was only my overactive imagination. “Stay close to me, Synthia. Watch where you step; there are sensors on the ground to alert the Templars to intruders,” he whispered, and took in our surroundings.

  “How the hell did the Templars get the scepter anyway?” I asked, letting my curiosity out, instead of the nerves in my stomach.

  Ryder’s lips kicked up into a mischievous smile. “Ah, so more story telling for you, eh?” He smirked a little at me. “The four relics we are looking for are ancient relics of our people and thought by many to be magical weapons. Our people would keep them in the strongest caste’s realm, and at that time, the Light Fae were the strongest caste outside of the Horde. Anise, who was the queen of the Light Fae, was incredibly powerful, but she had a daughter who was very foolish and fascinated with humans. She became infatuated, and thought she was in love with one who belonged to the Knights Templar. Even though the Knights themselves were supposed to have taken vows of poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience to their order, we know that the Knights Templar were one of the groups that the Mages had infiltrated, and we believe that they encouraged this young man to return her affections. She thought the Templar Knight truly loved her, and he, probably prompted by the Mages, asked for a sign of her love by giving him the relics. Now, the Light Princess may have been foolish and blind. However, she knew that he would not be able to use the relics. She stole them for him, thinking she could get them back at any time and return them to her mother. When she returned to her Knight with the relics, his order captured her and took control of the relics. Eventually, she obtained her freedom, but by then the relics of the Fae had been scattered to hell and back. I want you to help me find them, and bring them back to our people.”