“I feel a slight connection. Yes,” she said never taking her eyes from me.
I had a feeling that she’d not been an active participant in the death of her child. She’d been given no choice in the matter. She looked as scared as I was and afraid of my reaction to her.
“The Blood Prince? Which one was it that sired this…female? I’d have his name to confirm it.” Dresden barely contained the anger as he spoke to his Queen.
“No name; he was only at our palace for a week, and I asked him no name,” she whispered, hiding her face in shame, but it looked practiced at best.
“You have no name for this…for this illegitimate child’s sire?”
“No, Husband, you had taken to feeding from others. I only sought to sustain a meal from him. The Blood Fae are known for—”
“I know what they are known for, woman! Describe him to me,” he demanded.
“He was a royal Prince. His eyes were the same as mine, and had the royal banding. His hair was midnight black. He made a feast for me, which I could not refuse.”
I fucking hated the Fae right now, more than I had before. Games, these creatures loved playing games. He’d starved his queen, so she’d taken food from where it had been available. He was messing around and mad because she was messing around as well. I had a mother, and a father, and they were nothing like my adoptive parents.
“Was he the only Blood Fae you fucked?” he asked crudely.
“No, I took two others within the same month, Husband,” she replied honestly, letting her eyes slide down my frame. They came back up with a touch of pride in them that went right through me as she didn’t seem to find me lacking as many Fae did before my Transition.
“The nurse who was charged with your care disappeared when you did and never returned to us. I’d know which caste of Fae kept you alive, child,” Dresden said with venom dripping from his lips.
“Humans,” I said to more surprised looks, and gasps from those who came with the King and Queen.
“Impossible!” he argued.
“No. It seems not everyone bows down to your orders. Maybe the nurse who was supposed to kill me, gave me to the humans instead. I was hidden with ink, and taken in by the Guild. I trained as a Witch and became an enforcer for the Guild to keep the Fae in line. Seems fate has a wicked sense of humor.”
“She comes with us!” the Light King demanded.
“No. She stays with me for now,” Ryder said, moving in front of me protectively.
“She’s my wife’s child. Therefore, I can claim her as my own. I am claiming her now.”
“Then I challenge you for the right to become her guardian, Dresden. Right here, right fucking now,” Ryder said with a tone that brooked no argument. The Light Fae stepped away from him as if they were afraid of him, and I blinked as I peered around his shoulder. I guess I could mark the Light Fae down as not being complete idiots. They were trying to set it up so I’d have to go with them, I could see the calculating gleam in the Light King’s eyes as he was trying to figure out the best way to out-maneuver Ryder and Kier, and get me under his control so he could kill me.
Ryder’s head lowered as he met my eyes and held my gaze. He told me with those expressive eyes that he wouldn’t let me go without a fight, and that he’d kill the Light King if it came down to it. I had no question in my mind which of them would win in a fight between the two Fae.
Ryder was hard, cold, and lethal. The man oozed it from his pores as much as he exuded fuck-me-vibes. A warrior who fought for what he believed in with everything he had. He was bred to fight, and win. In any battle, I’d choose Ryder to stand at my side. I knew with every fiber of my being that he would not let anything or anyone hurt me. The Light King was thin, and elegant; more suited for womanizing, and dancing. I smiled up into Ryder’s eyes with my own, showing him I trusted him to protect me.
“I will not fight you, Ryder,” said the Light King. “I’ll fight the Dark Prince that thinks to claim the child as his bride.”
“No, Dresden, it doesn’t work that way. I have claimed her pleasure already, and she is mine under contract. She is under my protection, Dresden. It is I who challenged you, not my brother.”
“You fuck your brother’s intended bride? And the little whore allows it, I’m sure,” the Light King said. He gave a sly look at the Light Queen. “Maybe I should take her daughter, and make her my meal slave, as a warning to my wife to remain faithful.”
“Oh the hell you say! You couldn’t handle me in bed ya skinny twit. I like my men to be warriors, both in bed and out of bed. Which you are not.”
“Syn,” Ryder chided with a smirk lifting his lips.
“Impudent little bitch!” Dresden growled heatedly.
“Careful, Dresden, before you piss me off and I decide to kill you anyway,” Ryder growled low from within his chest.
“You overstep! You are a Prince, nothing more!”
“He has been acting as my heir until his younger brother could be found, Dresden. He is used to ruling, and he has the girl locked into a contract so that she couldn’t slip away until her lineage could be verified,” Kier said, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I looked up at Ryder’s face, taking in his sideways profile as he refused to step back from the Light King. He was standing here for me, protecting me because of the contract, and I wondered, for the first time, if he’d do so without there being a contract between us. It was dangerous territory to tread on, even if it was only inside my mind.
I stepped back into the protective wall that was Ryder and his men.
I listened to them begin to discuss the marriage contract and my future, as I walked silently to the table and sat down, accepting the drink that was handed to me. I was numb and felt completely hollow now that I’d learned from where I had come from. It was anticlimactic to say the least, and the only thing I wanted right now, was to run.
Chapter Thirty
As soon as the Light Fae had left the club, the rest of us gathered in the bar area to go over the next steps. For the most part, we were shocked and a little amazed that the Light Fae had been in agreement with the Dark Fae about my parentage. But, something in Dresden’s smug attitude, along with the terms of the contract with Kier, just left me with an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was silent, though everyone else seemed to be chatting happily as if we’d just had some huge pissing contest with the Light Fae and won. The only other silent person was Ryder, who sat beside me.
“This couldn’t have gone any better. We confirmed that Syn is who we thought she was, and they agreed to the marriage contract!” Kier said, clapping Adam on the back. “I’d have thought they would have argued more, but this is exactly what we wanted, my son.”
“Yes, but something isn’t adding up about them. It looked to me that they perfected that act before they showed up. They didn’t seem too surprised when you told them we had found the missing heir,” Adam said, running his hand through his thick hair.
“The only thing he seemed genuinely surprised about during this entire meeting was that I was alive,” I said out loud, causing Ryder to look right at me.
“He didn’t quite deny or hide the fact that he wanted you dead, Synthia,” Ryder growled, moving his leg that had touched mine. “That being said, we need to be careful in any future dealings we have with them.”
“I saw the Blood Prince that Tatiana described several times while we suffered through round after round of their endless parties,” Kier said. “He had eyes, much like yours, Synthia. If I remember right, he is the Blood King’s younger brother. He may have been there for only one week during that visit, and she didn’t ask his name, because she already knew it—he often acts as his brother’s emissary!” Kier laughed, and seemed very pleased that he’d figured out the Light Queen’s turn of phrase that she had used to dodge the truth. “Everything we suspected is just being confirmed as we dig further into this.”
“Explain the tattoo then,” I said with a calmness I
no longer felt. I was still fishing for anything that could make me not the Light Heir.
“I can’t, but the theory we have put together with all of the puzzle pieces matches the rumors and stories we have all heard,” Kier said calmly, soothingly.
“See? There are still too many questions. I mean, we can’t just take their word, right? They’re Light Fae,” I said, feeling my heart kick up in tempo. Maybe there was a way out of this after all. Maybe I wasn’t the Light Heir.
“Syn, even if you weren’t the Light Heir, which you are, Ristan has seen the future,” Ryder said softly as his hand that had been beneath the table caressed my leg, sending heat scorching to my core. “You two will work together, and Ristan has seen the proof of it. You begin the healing of the world of Faery. We can’t ignore that.”
Well, there went that hope, right down the drain. I lowered my eyes so no one could see the pain that his words caused. His hand played softly on my thigh, teasingly. I turned to look at him, and couldn’t manage a smile when he gave me reassurance. He’d made love to me, and it had broken my heart, because I wanted that softness from him. Between that, and learning that I had been right this whole time—that I wasn’t supposed to be alive—I was two problems shy of a full-blown mental breakdown.
“He could have been shocked to see you alive simply due to the fact that he had you pegged for dead already. Someone did just blow up your house, with you inside of it,” Adrian said, lowering his eyes to me from where he stood behind Vlad. I hadn’t even noticed when they had arrived earlier to catch the tail end of the contract being negotiated.
“Hate to agree with him, but you were supposed to die in the house, Synthia,” Ryder mumbled as his hand slid between my thighs.
I barely suppressed a moan as he applied pressure. His eyes held a playful sparkle in their depths. He rubbed his fingers over the soft skirt I’d glamoured on this morning. His hand lifted it until his fingers touched my tender flesh. I had to control my breathing as everyone chatted around us, and to us.
“So, we need a firm yes or no from you, Synthia,” Kier said, causing Ryder to stop his movement abruptly.
“You want me to marry Adam. I get that. What else? I know it’s not as simple as just marrying him, Kier.”
“You marry him, produce an heir, and you will be groomed to become Queen of the Dark Fae. You will sign a contract agreeing to it, and agreeing to be everything Adam needs.”
“I can’t do that,” I replied honestly, which seemed to make every conversation in the room stop. “I can’t honestly sign anything that agrees for me to become everything he needs, Kier. I love Adam, but I’ll never be in love with him. I’ll be faithful, and I’ll try to be a mother to his children. I had no mother, so I have no idea what one does for her child, but I can try. I don’t want to be a queen of anything. Period. Again, I can try. That is all I can sign my name to. Anything more would be a blatant lie.”
Adam let out a heavy sigh and left the table in long angry strides that took him swiftly to the doors. I watched him go in silence.
“Love will come with time,” Kier said, loud enough for it to carry to Adam, but he ignored it and left the club.
“No, it won’t. Not that kind of love.” Because I’m already in love…I shut down my mind from thinking and looked carefully at Kier. “Do you love your wife?”
“With all my heart,” he replied without hesitation.
“And you would so easily deprive Adam from having what you share with her?”
“Syn,” Ryder said.
“No, I’d like you to answer me, Kier. Because I was raised with Adam, and, yes, I love him, with all of my heart and every fiber of my being. I’d jump in front of him and take a bullet without thinking twice about it, but I’ll never be in love with him. I’ll never play with words to make him feel otherwise, either. It will be a loveless marriage, and, as his friend, I wish for more for him.”
“Synthia, I love her with all of my heart now. When I met and married her, I can’t say I did. Love is a difficult concept for Fae, and it rarely happens to us. When it does, most of us don’t recognize it as such. I appreciate your hopes for my son. You really are a beautiful soul, Synthia. You will make a fierce queen and a strong woman for my son and your children,” he replied, bowing his head.
I closed my eyes and shook my head as nausea rolled in my stomach. “I need something before I agree to anything, Kier. It’s not something you give me, or anything that will cost you.”
He narrowed his eyes and nodded for me to continue.
“I have something I need to settle before I can agree to become his wife,” I choked out the word wife but managed it nonetheless.
“Name it,” he replied, watching me carefully.
“I want one shot at drawing out the Fae that killed my parents and blew up my house. He is one and the same. I want a chance to stop him from ever harming me or mine again. One shot, and, even if I fail to kill him, I will go willingly with you and marry your son. I have to at least try to end this before I can agree to anything.”
“You’re a female; you should be protected and cherished. Not out seeking vengeance,” he exclaimed.
“Sir, no offense, but I’ve taken down plenty of Fae in my lifetime. I’m only twenty one, but I assure you that I can handle myself, and your son can tell you as much. I was top of my class, and I’m damn good with a blade made of iron. I want this, and, while I am sympathetic to your world’s plight, I can’t agree to settle down or anything else until I at least try to take out the person who murdered my parents. I owe them my very life. They saved me, Kier, and I can’t just walk away without at least trying to kill the one responsible for their deaths.”
His blue eyes were thoughtful, and with a nod he agreed to discuss it with Adam. With the promise made that he would think about it, I left the room silently and with a heavy heart.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I went to the room by myself, but it didn’t take long for Adam to show up. He walked in and lifted his hands as if in a helpless gesture. “Hi,” he smiled uncomfortably.
“Hi,” I replied, wishing I had something else to say. It was strange between us now, when it shouldn’t be. I wasn’t sure it would ever go back to normal again, ever. I missed my friend; I missed his jokes and wisecracks. I didn’t want this to drive a wedge between us, and this awkwardness was spiraling out of control.
He exhaled on a deep sigh before he started talking. “Syn, we should talk.”
“It’s fine, Adam,” I answered, wondering if he felt as weird as I did with this tension between us.
“We need to talk. There’s a lot going on, and I know it's happening pretty fast for both of us.”
I snorted and met his green eyes. “That's putting it mildly.” I rolled my eyes at him as he laughed.
“Larissa would know what to say if she was here.” He hesitated, scratching his head carelessly.
“If she was here, Adam, we would be having a very different conversation,” I muttered back at him.
He smiled sadly and nodded. “I know you don’t want this, but, Syn, I’ve seen the infants and children they speak of, and they are dying, and if we can save them…”
“Adam, stop. Just stop, please. I know as well as you do, that this ends with me going with you. I need to finish something, though. I need to find the one who killed my parents before I can commit to anything. Give me that much. You, of all people, know how important this is to me. I have to try. I’ll become your wife, but I’m not sure where this will put us as friends. I don’t love you like that.”
“You want to kill the man who is currently hot for your head?” he asked sitting on the edge of the bed with a sarcastic smile on his lips.
I scooted over and made room for him next to me and turned onto my side. He smiled and curled up beside me, reaching for my hand. It felt natural, and, yet, lying next to Adam was so different from lying down with Ryder. I felt no lust, no heat, and zero attraction. Adam was gorgeous; he was the stuf
f that many young girls’ dreams were made of. He just wasn’t mine.
“I do. I want him gone. I want to be the one who kills him, as well as the others who killed my parents and ruined my life. If we can prove that Dresden sent him and his friends, then he will need to answer for what they did too. I don’t care if that asshole is a king, either. If he is guilty of any part of it, I want him dead as well. Ryder hasn’t made any progress, so it’s my turn to try. Alden agreed to help me, and we have a plan.”
Adam grinned knowingly. “And then you will come with us?”
“You know this won’t work between us, right?” I asked, watching his face as it fell.
“We might not be in love, but I love you enough for this to work. I feel a connection that’s hard to ignore when I’m with you. You may not love me—hell, this might not be love I’m feeling either—but if we can save our people—the people of both worlds, I’m willing to forgo love and do it.”
“You could live without what you had with Larissa?” I asked, resting my head on his shoulder and looking up at his beautiful face. “We shouldn’t have to live without it. Who knows if this will even work? Ristan couldn’t even see my future until this week. Now he’s seeing us having kids, and, what will our kids think? This is just insane!”
“Everything we have ever done together has worked out, Syn. I know we can do this too,” he whispered, nuzzling my hair as he smelled it.
He’d always done this since we’d been children. It was strangely comforting when he did it, and enticingly erotic when Ryder did it. I threaded my fingers through his and held his hand. I tried to think of a way to tell him how I felt about Ryder. I couldn’t come right out and say I thought I was falling in love with him, and I couldn’t lie. “Adam,” I started out, and tilted my head up a little further to look at him.
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