Taunting Destiny

by Amelia Hutchins

  Tall wooden dressers made of oak sat against the far wall, while a clawfoot tub sat in the far corner, on a raised floor with steps leading up to it. Bubbles peeked from over the tubs round edge invitingly. The scent of sweet peas filled the air, and I smiled.

  “Sweet peas?” I asked Adam, who was watching me.

  “It’s your favorite flower and the only bottle of scent I ever saw in your bedroom,” he replied, making my eyebrows rise. “Syn, I was inside your apartment all the time working cases; I paid attention.”

  “I just didn’t figure men did that kind of thing,” I replied.

  “I do. I need to go get my sister. Kier said it takes a few hours to prepare a female for the ceremony—even with magic,” Adam said, scratching his head while he spoke. “Syn.”

  “Yes?” I asked quietly.

  “I’m going to kiss you,” he said before gently pulling me against him and lowering his mouth to mine.

  His kiss was searching, and still I felt nothing, at least nothing I should be feeling. When he pulled his lips away from me, he looked a little torn. “It will come. I promise you, Syn, it will come.”

  “What will?” I asked, pulling away from him.

  “This internal fucking lust I feel for you, but every time I kiss you…never mind. I’ll go get my sister.”

  He left me standing there as confused as he looked. I may be slow sometimes, but I had a sinking feeling that this bond we shared had fed him my emotions; ones that had nothing to do with him, at all. I still had yet to ask Ryder about the bond, and now I had no idea who I was supposed to learn from. Despite Ryder’s assurances that Adam’s mother would teach me everything I needed, she didn’t seem like she was going to teach me anything except the way to the front door, right now. The only one I knew here was Adam, and he was as clueless as I was.

  I sat on the soft bed and waited for his sister to come. Adam had a sister; how freaking weird was that!? I hadn’t even thought to ask about my family, but it didn’t seem like a healthy idea to get too close to them, considering Dresden and my psychotic brother wanted me dead. Besides, they were Light Fae and snotty as all get out from what I saw, and I wasn’t interested in knowing anymore pretentious, adulteress, self-absorbed, homicidal snobs. What an eff-ed up family.

  “I heard she was raised by humans,” a voice sounded from outside the door.

  “Mother says she is to be groomed to become the Queen, and I don’t see that happening. I think Cadeyrn should sire the heir and toss her back to whence she came. Could you imagine it, Astrid? Raised by humans? She must be positively horrible.”

  “She stole your brother; she is horrible, Moira. I say your father should throw her into a pit, and only allow her out to feed Cadeyrn when he is hungry; kill’s two birds with one stone. She can have his heir, and then we can be done with the thieving bitch.”

  They laughed.

  “I can totally hear you,” I said, glaring daggers at the cracked door.

  Silence met my ears until they strolled in. The one looked like a female version of Adam—thick brown hair tumbled down her back, while lime green, and emerald eyes met mine. The other was a bit taller with lustrous auburn hair, and grey and blue eyes. I was off to a smashing start with his family. Both were dressed like something out of Pride and Prejudice. I wanted to laugh, I may not be dressed in the most fashionable of styles, but at least it wasn’t a couple of hundred years out of fashion.

  “Positively rude. You will address us as is our right. I am Princess Moira, and this is my sister in-law. Princess Astrid,” the shorter of the two said haughtily.

  “Sorry, raised by humans. I totally have no manners,” I said, watching as they looked me up and down with distaste.

  Smashing fucking start.

  “Girls, stop. Princesses should not act this way,” Mari admonished, coming in behind them with an angry glint in her eyes.

  “Look, I didn’t mean to steal Adam from you, or Cadeyrn, or whatever you wanna call him,” I blurted with a touch of annoyance in my tone.

  “Only a selfish person would steal a child from its mother,” his mother said, narrowing her eyes. So much for hoping she accepted my apology.

  “Selfish? Didn’t Kier tell you what happened? I watched my parents being raped and slaughtered in front of me. I watched Fae kill them; assassins who were hired by the Light King, to kill me. I was a child; there was no way of knowing that the pain I felt at being helpless would bring Adam to me. Hell, I didn’t even know I had pulled him from your world into mine until this month! We had no idea we were even Fae. I get that it pisses you off, but it was not premeditated, or done maliciously. If I could give you back the years with him, I would.”

  The two girls had the decency to look startled by my words. Not his mother, though, but at least she seemed to be considering my words.

  “If it was your child who was stolen from his bed while you slept, how would you feel?” she asked.

  “I’d be pissed, but not at the other child who didn’t even know what had happened, or what she was. I didn’t mean to steal him from you, and I’m sorry for my part in it. The Guild thought him just another orphaned child and raised us together. He’s a good man. He’s also my best friend, and I’m not sorry for that. I am sorry for stealing your son from you and robbing you of the right to raise him, though.”

  She blinked, and nodded. “I am sorry for being rude. Kier tried to tell me what happened, but I wouldn’t listen,” she said softly. “You can’t imagine my pain to find my son missing. I grieved for him, thinking him dead by the hands of our enemies since the day he disappeared. My husband would not give up, though; he never gave up on him. He told me he would find him, and bring him home to me.”

  “Well it’s a good thing he has Ryder as his brother, or he may never have been found,” I replied and watched her eyes as they grew large.

  “Ryder?” Astrid asked.

  “Moira’s brother,” Mari recovered, and said it smoothly, and yet there was something not right about her answer.

  “Yes, my brother.”

  I turned to Mari as Moira replied. “You gave birth to him, yes?” I could play word games too if that was how they wanted to play this.

  “No. He’s Kier’s son,” she said, moving across the room and giving me her back.

  “From another woman, or?” I questioned. Just how fucked up was Adam’s family? They were starting to sound like mine.

  “You would need to ask him. Come, we need to get you ready for your wedding,” she said.

  “Handfasting.”

  “Yes,” she replied with a hint of disdain in her tone. Obviously, she wasn’t happy with the handfasting.

  “You didn’t want us to handfast, did you?” I asked, walking to the tub she stood beside. I was hoping to sweet baby Jesus that she didn’t expect me to get naked, and jump in that thing with them inside the room.

  “I wanted more for my son; he has just come home. You wouldn’t agree to marry him, which to me seems selfish, since he will be king someday.”

  “I don’t love him, and this will help ensure that one day he can find the love he deserves. The handfasting was also his idea, not mine. This wasn’t my choice at all. I love Adam with all of my heart as a brother. Not as my husband. I wanted to be fair to him; I want him to find real love.” All three women turned and stared at me as if I’d grown another head, or horns.

  “That’s…well that is actually very sweet of you,” Mari returned with a small smile that made her seem much younger than she was.

  “But it’s also a moot point. Ristan has seen us having a child who can stop this world from dying. One who can heal the land from what the Mages have done to it. So, that is why I’m here; the only reason. I came with Adam because he asked, and your husband believes we can save Faery. If you know of another way, I’m all ears, Lady.” Mari sighed and shook her dark head sadly at my words.

  “Come, let’s get you ready.”

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  I s
tood in the room in front of a huge mirror. Only an hour had passed, in which Adam’s feminine family members had done wonders. I looked like something from a fantasy movie. I was dressed in a wedding gown that was created of the softest shimmering white silk that caressed my skin lovingly. The top was a work of art. Beads created a back that held the long train of the gown. Silk wrapped around to create the Grecian cut bodice perfectly and then floated down gracefully to an almost bell shaped skirt. I’d never worn anything so elaborate, or beautiful, in my entire life.

  Curls framed my face, and flowers and pearls had been placed through my hair to hold it up in an elegant double-braided updo. Moira painstakingly painted the thin delicate lines that symbolized unity and fertility in black ink, for the Dark Fae, along my shoulders and upper arms.

  “Wow, you clean up very nicely,” Moira said when she had finished the Celtic symbol for unity on my shoulder.

  “Thanks,” I whispered, fighting the urge to throw up. In less than twenty minutes, I would be presented to Adam as his gift. I wasn’t sure why they gifted the bride, but, then again, I knew little about anything they did. The Guild had a lot of books, but there hadn’t been any need for me to look into weddings of the Fae, or anything like that back then. Something scratched at the back of my mind with that thought.

  “It’s almost time. When you’re ready, Synthia, the men would like to escort you to Adam,” Mari said, looking me over quickly with the keen eye of a mother. “Do you not have anything from your parents? A sash that gives you honors among your own kind?” she asked.

  “Considering the only thing they tried to give me was a painful death, I’m thinking I’m better off without anything from them,” I mumbled as I stepped into the heels that I’d procrastinated putting on until the very last minute.

  “I’m glad that you don’t have much in the way of ties to them. They are a disingenuous people at best. They have been since Anise lost her throne. We will give you a few moments alone, since it is custom for the bride to reflect on her new life. The men will open the door when you knock on it, and then they will take you to Adam and announce your names to the gathering. My boy is fair smitten with you, Synthia, so it should run smoothly. Is there anything else you need to know before we take our places with Adam?” Mari asked, giving me another quick once over.

  “I have no idea what is expected of me tonight,” I replied trying to keep my hands from trembling while keeping my mind off the fact that I would like nothing better than to run right the hell out of here and back to Ryder.

  “We will have dancing, and you will be expected to dance with any whom ask you if they are from a royal lineage. We also have a large gathering of women with children in attendance who would like you and my son to bless their children. Normally, they wouldn’t until you are Queen, but some seem to think it will help their children live long enough for the cure to work on them as well. Word is spreading quickly that you and my son are the cure for what is ailing the land and that a seer has seen the fruit of your marriage. Hope, is all they have right now. The contract signing will begin soon after; this is just a confirmation as to what Kier and Dresden worked out a few days ago. After this, we will progress with the handfasting. Your hands will be bound together with the multi-colored lengths of silk that represent each desirable quality of the union, and then you and Adam will speak the words of the binding of castes before Kier and Dresden. Then we will start the feast and afterward we will continue on with the bedding ceremony.”

  I swallowed the nerves. “Bedding ceremony?”

  “Yes, it has been a custom of our people since eons ago.” Mari got a twinkle in her eye’s that was positively naughty. “Humans in the dark ages were such prudes about sex, one of our kind introduced it to them as a joke to get them to loosen up a little, and I guess they liked it as the custom spread in your world too. The bedding ceremony, is the last of the night’s events, the women will take you to be prepared for your new husband while the Shaman—he is Danu’s Priest for the Dark Fae—blesses the bed and the union for fertility. The men will tell Adam nasty jokes and tease him unmercifully before they bring him to the marriage bed to join you.”

  “Well shit,” I blew out air and tried to think of something to say. “Well shit.”

  “You said that,” Moira pointed out.

  “Shit,” I replied as they laughed, until they noticed I’d turned as white as my dress.

  “Oh my, are you a virgin? Your eyes look like you have been through Transition already,” Astrid said.

  “Oh, I went through Transition,” I said as sinful images of Ryder flashed inside my mind. “I’ve definitely been Transitioned.” And then some.

  “Oh, then I don’t understand the hesitance for the bedding ceremony,” Mari said, scratching the top of her head as her son did when he was confused.

  “Because I don’t like the idea of the whole bedding ceremony part,” I explained, hoping my point got across. I had to bite my tongue from saying there was only one bed I wanted to share, and it included my golden eyed Fairy being in it with me.

  “Okay, well I will speak to Kier again on the subject and address the issue. We will leave you now.”

  I waited until they had left the room before turning back to the stranger who watched me in the mirror. “Run. You could do it. You could sift right the hell out of here and leave, dumbass. This isn’t your fight. You don’t owe them anything. So, why the hell are you still here? Hmmm? Because you think you need to fix everything! This isn’t your fight.”

  Great…I was losing it. I was yelling at the beautiful creature in the mirror, and she was yelling the exact words back at me. I wanted to cross my arms, but it would mess up the paint that Moira had worked so hard on. I fought the angry tears that tried to fall. This wasn’t my fight. Yet, I knew if I sifted out, they’d come and find me. I couldn’t do that to Adam, but I was losing myself in the process.

  I was giving in, and for what? To save a world from dying and damning another as a result, that’s what. I was such a sucker for people in need of help. It was my weakness. I had been taught from a young age to help if I could; to do the right thing. But, this time, it was going to destroy me.

  *~*~*~*~*Ryder*~*~*~*~*

  She is beautiful; so fucking beautiful. Her hair is dressed in flowers and jewels that pale next to her natural beauty. They’d put make-up on her when she needs none to be the most beautiful woman in the world. She looks scared, and it is taking everything inside of me not to become visible, and hold her fears at bay.

  She is no longer mine; I am trespassing now, just to see how she is holding up. She looks ready to run, and I wonder if she’d run back to me. I hadn’t been able to go one fucking day without her. She’s a fucking drug that’s in my system, spiking through my veins and begging me to take her again.

  Her eyes scan the reflection and then she does something unexpected. She’s screaming at herself to run. My hands clench in to fists as she turns around, her eyes scanning the room. Does she feel me? Does she miss me as I do her?

  Fucking hell, she’s addictive. I was supposed to fuck her and let her go, and that was supposed to be it. I didn’t even want to claim her. What the hell has she done to me? I want to pull her against me, just to feel her skin next to mine.

  I want to watch her smile as it lifts her lips and shines in her beautiful unique eyes. You’re a fucking sap. Fuck! She’s reduced me to this; pining after another man’s soon-to-be wife. I fooled myself in to believing I could do this; that I could see her again without needing to be close to her. I should go, because the beast is laughing at me, and that is never a good thing. Never.

  Soon, she will be Adam’s. She will give him and my world what it needs. Then I will come for her, and make her mine. In one year, and one day, she will be given the choice to choose Adam permanently, or leave him. She will choose to become mine, and I’ll be here the minute their time is up to take her home, and deal with the consequences then.

  *~*~*~*~*Syn*~*~*~*~
*

  I’d thought I had caught a hint of his scent—the unique one that belongs only to Ryder. The raw masculine spices that were his alone. I missed him, and I wasn’t sure if any amount of time would fix it.

  I turned and eyed the door warily. I chewed my lip before I finally straightened my spine and walked over to knock on the door, signaling that I was ready. I’d knocked as if I were some simple minded woman who couldn’t figure out how to turn the freaking knob.

  A male who looked exactly like Adam opened it, and stepped back for me to exit the room. “I’m ready,” I said, hating the word ready. I wasn’t ready; not for this. No amount of time could make me ready for this. Fucking ready to run was more like it.

  All of Adam’s brothers filled up the hallway, barely leaving any room for air. Each of them were very similar to Adam in the gorgeous department, and, considering they were dressed in black designer looking tuxedos, they were a devastating lot. The men parted until Ryder was revealed, but his eyes were on the floor as if he was afraid to look at me. I swallowed the urge to run and throw my arms around him. Instead, I stubbornly fisted my hands at my sides as I tried to tear my eyes from him—I couldn’t. It wasn’t until he lifted his that I saw his pain matched mine.

  He nodded and fell in line with the rest of the group, as Adam’s oldest brother stepped to the front of the group and ushered me to the middle of them. “I’m Sòlas, and I’ll be your escort and presenter tonight. I find myself jealous of my newly found brother. Care to accept me instead?” His gentle jade and lime eyes searched my face.

  Another of the men beside him snickered.