Taunting Destiny

by Amelia Hutchins

  “And if they sift her out before she can drop the shield, and kill her, Warlock…could you live with yourself then?”

  “She needs this. She needs the closure. As do I. If you interfere, she would never forgive you,” the Warlock says, as if I’d give her a fucking choice.

  “If she dies…” I warn with murder dripping from my fangs that have now filled my mouth.

  “She won’t. In all my time on this earth, I have never seen a fiercer fighter, or a more driven need to avenge the death of someone they loved, than her own. She’s the daughter of my heart, Ryder; the only one who has given me joy in this life.”

  “Do you plan to tell her that you made a deal with my Demon to bring Larissa out of the shadows for one night?” I said to the Warlock, never taking my eyes away from Syn. Alden watches with me as she gets into position to face down the monsters of her past.

  “She does not need to be told. It doesn’t matter what I do, Ryder. I’m an old man. She has eternity now. She needed this, and I knew it was only a matter of time before she closed this chapter in her life to start a new one. She needed to say goodbye to Larissa, as did Adam. I needed to see those responsible for killing my sister dead, before I could join her in death. The Guild made a decision; I’m being replaced.”

  “The Guild won’t let you go peacefully,” I reply knowing damn well the Mages will kill him. It’s just a matter of time. ‘Replacing’ Alden was a nice story so that they could get him out of the way without anyone catching on. I wonder if this was Marie’s fate as well. They call us animals; they are the same, cut from the same fucking cloth as us.

  “She doesn’t need to know, as I said. I couldn’t take out my sister’s killers, and I raised her so she was strong enough to. I knew she and Adam were different than the others. Not just that they weren’t human, which, as an elder, I should have been able to spot. Had it not been for my love for them, I might not have been so blinded to their differences from the other children. The Guild would have put them to death, had it not been for Marie and her careful planning.”

  “She will be pissed that you didn’t tell her.”

  “She’ll get over it. She will have you in the end.”

  “She’s marrying Adam in two days,” I snarl because I fucking hate it; hate saying it, hate thinking it.

  “No, I may be just a human, Ryder, but even I have eyeballs. I have seen her look at you and just now, and she wasn’t looking at Adam with the thought that she might not make it—she was looking at you.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that she was brought up by you to value life. In the end, she will do what is right. It’s in her code, embedded in her soul by you. Ristan has seen Syn and Adam with their child. I already know how this story ends.” Without me in it.

  “So you say, but even destiny can change if the will of two people is strong enough. I say fuck destiny, and let us decide what our future is. It changes every time we make a choice, and I damn sure don’t think anyone can say what will happen just by seeing it. Nothing is set in stone until it’s happened.” The beast agrees with him wholeheartedly.

  A flash of a sword catches my eye as one of the Fae decides to make the first move and strikes out at Syn. She feints with one dagger and strikes back with the other. I lose all interest in conversation; the beast unwilling to allow me to play word games with the Warlock as Syn engages in battle.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  I met them head on. The faces I knew from my past that haunted my dreams were here now, facing me. The blades were sure and steady in my hands as I prepared to end these assholes. The blond Fae closest to me lunged, with lightning fast speed as if to grab me, and missed as I sifted just a foot to the right. Another Fae seemed to materialize in the blond one’s space, swinging his sword right at my head. I jumped back, feinted with one dagger and swung with the other, blocking his attempt to separate my head from my neck. I darted after him, but moved away when he lunged at me. These were just his pawns, and I wanted to send a message. I picked up speed and twirled through them deftly and swiftly, light on my feet as I danced around them effortlessly; making sure the blades struck precisely where I wanted them to.

  My blades carved effortlessly into one Fae’s neck, and sliced into the next, swirling and dancing as I did damage. I was weightless on my feet as I circled them from the outside until the last one was met and fell to the ground by my hand. I turned around, blinking rapidly past the blood that covered my face and soaked my hair. I exhaled slowly, and pushed the first one I had taken my daggers to. The fight happened so fast, I don’t think he realized that he was dead until his head detached from his body, and tumbled to the ground.

  The other two lay still on the blood soaked ground. I moved forward and examined the bodies; their necks had been severed enough to drop them, but not enough that they wouldn’t regenerate for some playtime with Ryder and his men. I looked around for the blonde fourth Fae, and he was nowhere to be seen. He must have sifted out when the other Fae sifted in for the kill.

  I could feel Ryder’s eyes as they drilled into my flesh. His anger was palpable, even through the shield’s impenetrable surface. I could hear my own heart as it raced inside my chest. “He’s not coming,” I whispered, feeling disappointment that the one I wanted to kill the most wasn’t going to show up to be slaughtered with his lackeys.

  “Something is, I can feel it,” Lari said, placing her hand on my back as she pushed more of her power inside of me.

  “Lari no, if you give me everything—”

  “I still have enough power to stay solid for a few more hours. I’ll still be able to tell Adam goodbye.”

  “Talking to the dead, Bitch? Hope you are getting acquainted, because I plan to send you to them very soon,” a deep resonated voice said from beside me. I sifted across the shield and met my parents’ murderer face to face across the distance.

  He smiled coldly. His eyes took in the dead Fae on the ground. The others weren’t dead, but they wouldn’t be talking anytime soon. Just a little further away was the decapitated body of the first Fae who arrived here. “You did this?”

  “You killed my parents,” I accused, watching his reaction carefully. “This is my eye for an eye.”

  Nothing—no emotion showed on his sharp features. Only a little madness was showing through his eyes.

  “I was after you,” he sneered and leapt with his sword drawn. I expected it, and dodged his blade easily.

  “Why? What did I ever do to you?”

  “You were born; that’s enough of a reason,” he shouted before he pulled magic around him, intending to use it on me.

  I pulled my own magic around me, and smiled coldly as the ink Alden used pushed past the brands to light them up, and the delicate Celtic knots on my shoulders followed suit. The stars, one for each of my parents, were the last to light up. He was the cause of them, but if I allowed the anger take hold of my emotions, I could lose this, and that was just not an option.

  “I watched you,” I said softly, making him strain to hear me.

  “Impossible!”

  “You’re weak; you missed me. I was there the entire time. Sloppy,” I taunted as I moved closer. His eyes scanned over the beheaded Fae. “You should have searched the house better, because now I plan to kill you for what you did.”

  “You have yet to even tap into your powers little girl! You can’t kill me, but I plan to kill you, and take everything that should have been mine! That stupid old man has no idea what he has done. And that whimpering bitch of a mother we share is a waste of fucking space!”

  I stopped cold and stared at him in shock. “What?”

  “Oh, that’s right; you have no fucking idea what you are. Pathetic, really. They should have killed you when you were born. I should be the heir. It’s supposed to be me!” He lunged, and I barely avoided being maimed by his sword, because I was trembling from his words. Sloppy, Syn, really sloppy.

  “I’m going to cut you open, and watch you die a slo
w death, little sister!” He shrieked, but as he did, he noticed the crowd gathered outside the shield that had all drawn their weapons waiting for a chance to strike at him. Shit! Ryder must have dropped the veil that was hiding them so he could attack. “I’ll find you, Bitch, there is nowhere you can hide that I won’t!”

  “No!” I screamed and lunged, but he’d already sifted out.

  “I’m so sorry, Syn. I tried to keep him inside the shield, but I couldn’t,” Larissa whispered resting her hand on my shoulder.

  “I just needed to get close to him! I should have done this alone, and then it would be over dammit! Dammit!” I shouted, angry at myself for thinking he wouldn’t be able to see the others this time. If I’d come by myself, he wouldn’t have sifted out. He’d be dead by my blade. Finally, after all these years, my parents would have had peace.

  “Z, collect the dead and transport them to Faery. If there are any that can regenerate, I want them in chains. Dristan, any brands you can read?” Ryder asked as he strode across the graveyard, every inch the leader.

  “On it,” Z said as he and a few other men moved to get the bloody bodies ready to be sifted to Faery. It gave me a little satisfaction that the two that could regenerate were going to have a very miserable existence in the capable hands of Ryder’s men.

  “You,” Ryder said, lifting his eyes to meet, and hold, mine.

  “I failed.” I felt it to my very soul. I’d failed the kill him yet again. Tears burned in my eyes as the reality of this being the last real shot that I would have at avenging my parents sank in.

  “You need your ass spanked. But you did not fail; you were outnumbered, and all but two of the men from your parents slaughter, are here. They have peace now; you need to get over this before it consumes you,” Ryder said as Ristan came up to whisper in his ear.

  “I didn’t kill him, though. I had him, Ryder, he was right in front of me.” I cried, frustrated with failing to do what I came here for, all because he had sent my mind into shock with his cryptic words.

  “You didn’t come here to kill them. You came here to show them that you could. You came here for answers. You talked to him. What did he tell you?”

  “He told me he wanted me dead,” I replied, chewing my lip wondering over his words.

  “He said more than that, Syn,” he growled as his eyes locked with mine.

  “He told me how he planned to do it in graphic detail! He said he was my brother, and something about how my parents should have killed me when I was born,” I shouted at him. The tears that had been threatening broke loose, and I shook with everything that was in me. Shock from my supposed brother’s words, adrenaline from the fight, anger at losing my chance at him—it all had me falling apart in front of Ryder and everyone else present.

  Ryder reached out and pulled me in, wrapping his arms around me holding me, tight against his body. For a few minutes, we just stood there with him holding me close and making soothing sounds against my ear. When I finally stopped shaking, he murmured in my ear. “Syn, I’ll find him and bring his bloody corpse to you. I promise he won’t live for much longer. We will find him.” I knew Ryder would do it too. I could let this go, for now.

  I took a deep breath and opened my eyes in time to see Adam and Larissa embracing yet again.

  “Jealous?” Ryder whispered in my ear as one of his hands threaded through my hair at the back of my neck and kneaded my scalp soothingly.

  “Of them? No, not really. My heart goes out to them. They had love, and had it ripped away from them. I just want a love that’s true and earth shattering. I want that, and I want it for them again, too. I want them to have more than just one night in a cold cemetery,” I said softly.

  “You don’t think you will end up loving Adam.” He made it a statement instead of a question.

  “I love him already, but not like they had, and I want that soul torturing love. The kind where you’d die for one last kiss, one last touch,” I said letting my eyes drift to the couple. “I thought being a Fairy would suck, but it’s destiny that really sucks.”

  He smiled hesitantly and nodded, before he turned his eyes to Ristan who was talking to Alden. I watched Alden hand a piece of paper over to him, and shake his head before his eyes landed on me with remorse in them. He smiled wider, his forehead wrinkling as he did so. Fear ran down my spine along with a slight tremble with what I suspected.

  “What did he do?” I demanded, turning to Ryder.

  “He gave his soul for you. You have that effect on men.” His golden eyes said more than his lips. “He made a deal with Ristan, which is how he was able to cast the spell and bring Larissa and the other ghosts back to life tonight. He did it for you.”

  “Oh, the hell he did! Ristan!” I seethed, turning on the Demon who brokered the deal.

  “Flower,” he said genially as he strolled up, as if he hadn’t just agreed to kill the only family I had left.

  “Let’s make a deal, Demon. My soul for his; mine is immortal,” I pleaded, narrowing my eyes on Ristan.

  “I don’t think so. I like being alive,” Ristan said looking over my head to Ryder, who stood behind me.

  “Take mine,” I begged. Ristan’s eyes grew large with the tone of my voice; I meant it, and he knew it. “I don’t need it.”

  “Yes, you do. You’re going to be a mother, Synthia.”

  “No, I’m going to be a baby factory. Alden hasn’t even loved yet! He doesn’t deserve to die to protect me. Enough people have died trying to protect me already. I won’t allow it to happen again.” I cried, feeling my entire body tremble with the knowledge that he’d done this for me, and now he’d suffer because of it.

  “Why would you throw your soul away, Synthia? Alden’s been marked, and, if I own his soul, they can’t touch him,” Ristan said slowly as if I was daft. “The Guild can’t kill him if he’s bound to me.”

  “Wait, you made this deal so you could save him?” I asked, unconvinced.

  “You knew,” Alden said, finally coming into the conversation.

  “I did. I saw you coming before you even decided on it, Warlock. You’re my wedding gift to Syn. She shouldn’t have to go to a new world alone. You are going with her, after you help us with a few more things so we can bring down the Mages.”

  I blinked at Ristan. “You got me my uncle as my wedding present?”

  “I did,” Ristan said, smiling brightly, proud of his own devious deed. “Although I’m not sure you should thank me yet. If you haven’t noticed— he’s a bit of a pain in the arse.”

  I smiled through the tears forming in my eyes, and threw my arms around Ristan’s neck before kissing him soundly on the lips. I wasn’t prepared for his tongue when it pushed through to my own, or Ryder’s snarling growl, which seemed to dispel Ristan’s sudden urge to kiss me. Ryder’s grip around my waist tightened as he pulled me away from Ristan’s reach.

  “Ristan, come, we have business to attend to tonight. Syn, Savlian will see you home when you are ready,” Ryder said, shaking his head at Ristan’s sneak attack. “A word before I leave, Syn.”

  “Go ahead,” I said, turning to meet his gaze.

  “Alone,” he whispered as his lips tugged at the corners.

  We walked over to one of the many tombs that stood above ground. I figured we had gone far enough, but he kept going until we’d rounded the corner of a mausoleum, and, before I could even gasp, he had me pressed up against the cold stone wall. His mouth clamped against mine, and he kissed me until my bones felt like they were made of mush.

  When he pulled away, I was left panting and wanting more. “If you ever do anything as stupid as you did here tonight, I’ll lock you up, and throw away the fucking key. You’re barely through fucking Transition; they could have gotten a lucky swing in, and you’d be dead right now.”

  I searched his face and smiled brazenly up at him. “Aw, did I scare the big, bad Fairy? Afraid I’d get hurt?” I teased softly.

  “I’m serious. You could have been ki
lled, and for what? You have nothing to fucking prove anymore. If that was for me, then I get it. You want to be seen as more than just a pretty face. Fine, I see it, but next time, do it with me, not alone. Don’t make me watch without being able to do a damn thing to protect you.”

  I shook my head. “You’re wrong. It was closure. I needed it before I could go, and be what Adam needs me to be. If I went without at least trying, I’d always regret it. You told me I’d make the right choice, and I will. I needed this, and, yes, maybe I wanted to show you that I could handle myself. But that’s not why I did this. I know who is trying to kill me, as do you. I brought him face to face with you, and now you can finish what I couldn’t.”

  His eyes scanned my faced intently, and his mouth curved into a gentle smile. “Smart and deadly. Loving the woad…Do you have any idea how fucking hot you look right now?”

  “I’m covered in blood, and blue paint,” I snorted, and rolled my eyes at him. Only a male would think this sexy.

  “Right now? You look like a fucking warrior Goddess, and my cock is rock hard because of it,” he whispered, and grabbed my hand rubbing it over his massive erection. The rough jean material pressed against my fingers as I wrapped them around him through his pants.

  My breathing hitched in my lungs as his eyes illuminated a deep, burning, amber color. I licked my lips, and watched as his eyes lowered to them with hunger deep inside of his. “Be ready when I get back. I need to remove the brand from you. I want to be inside of you when it’s removed. I want one more night of nothing but you. Understand?”

  “You need to fuck me to remove it?” I asked breathlessly, with anticipation building inside of me.

  “I need to fuck you. Period.” His lips tilted up, before they landed on mine again, and his hands lifted me up until I wrapped my legs around his waist. When he pulled away, his eyes changed back to their normal golden color. “I have to go.” He kissed me again and ran his hands down my back before he set me back down. “Don’t change. I want you just like this, my little warrior Goddess; woad and all.”