Taunting Destiny

by Amelia Hutchins

  I turned to look at Adam, as something tingled inside my mind with awareness. I watched in slow motion as everyone else stopped to look around, confused at what was happening. Something was off; terribly off. The air grew thick around us until it was impossible to breathe it in. Someone screamed, and it looked like Fae were trying to sift out of the room, but something was holding them trapped inside of it. I locked eyes with Ryder’s, who had a look of stunned disbelief in his eyes as he comprehended what was about to happen.

  I looked at Adam and tried to throw up a shield around him, as well as Kier and Dresden, a fraction of a second before there was a blinding burst of light and the dais exploded from an energy bomb that detonated somewhere underneath us.

  *~*~*~*~*Ryder*~*~*~*~*

  Watching her hold infants had been strangely amusing. She was awkward, and, yet, she still accepted one after another. Watching her sign those fucking contracts had been straining my ability to hold the beast inside. I’d wanted nothing more than to sift to her, and take her away from here.

  “Shall we leave now? We have held up our end of this contract. It’s time to go home and finish what you need to there. This is not helping you, or her. I can see the strain on your face. Let’s go home, Brother,” Zahruk said, lowering his eyes.

  “We told Kier that we would stay until the vows were spoken, and the ceremony complete. He thinks I have some control over her,” I reply, balling my hands into fists.

  “You do, but not like he thinks,” Z continues, and I narrow my eyes on him.

  “Ryder, a word please,” Eliran says, pushing his way through the crowd of onlookers.

  “What is it, Eliran?” Zahruk growls, impatient to return home.

  “Sire, I’ve been running tests on Synthia from the blood I took from her house when she was sick,” he said as he stepped closer.

  “And?” I reply coldly. As if it matters now, she hasn’t been sick since I pulled her out of her house and my patience is waning.

  “And I ran tests. Every one of them I could think of. She has no iron in her system, which would be the common culprit for making a newly Transitioned Fae sick, and, well, her being raised in the human world you would think her count high, but it was surprisingly low.”

  “This is what you came here to tell me? That her iron was low?” I growl. The beast is smiling, and he’s pissing me off.

  “No. No, of course not. So I continued running test after test, but everything came back negative.”

  “Spit it out healer. We’ve no time for this right now,” I snarl and have to remind myself that he is only doing his job. He isn’t the one I’m upset with, I remind myself.

  “So, I ran a pregnancy test on the blood, which takes longer when levels are low,” he says, and I narrow my eyes on him.

  “Why would you do that?” I snap. The beast is chuckling, and I feel my hackles rising. What the fuck did you do?

  “Because it is the only test I hadn’t run yet. I had also requested her files from Alden, who had been very helpful in obtaining them from the Guild,” he rambles nervously and takes a small step back as I turn my full attention on him. “I ran it eight times because the hormone levels were very low.” He continues, and I turn to look at the dais where their hands are about to be bound together.

  “And?”

  “All eight came back positive. Synthia is pregnant. She would have to have conceived within the last month. I wanted to be sure when I told you, sire. She can’t be the cure to our world as Ristan has seen. Not with Adam’s child anyway, because she’s already pregnant,” Eliran says, but I’m no longer listening to him.

  Mine, she’s mine; I told you…I fixed it, she’s ours forever! The beast says with a victorious laugh.

  I turn to head toward the dais. But, as I approach them, I feel it and can see the alarm and confusion in her eyes as she looks around the room. Something is wrong. The air is thick with evil. I watch in shock as she allows her brands to glow, and pulse with magic, but they don’t ignite, not enough.

  She looks at me as her shield goes up around Adam and the Kings, and the dais erupts into a mass of blinding light; sharp splinters and stone projecting outward from an energy bomb beneath it. The beast lets out a roar and I try to sift, but something is stopping me from doing so. What the Fuck!? Null spell. No one is sifting, except those who cast the damn thing. I don’t have time for this shit. “Find her!” I shout at them.

  My men run, following me as I move as fast as my legs will take me to her. For the first fucking time in my life, I’m afraid. Fucked, that’s what we are; fucked. Reduced to human strength, none of us can sift until the fucking spell wears off. The dais is gone now and nothing but splintered wood and stone remains. There is a choking fog of smoke and ash that tries to blind us as we dig through the wooden supports and stone. I can see and smell blood. I’ve tasted hers, and I can smell its crimson purity spilled within the room. She isn’t immortal yet. I see Adam, Kier, and Dresden struggling to their feet from the wreckage. My men and I shift through the rubble and can’t find any sign of Syn. Voices shriek in distress all around us.

  “Dristan, anything?” I ask, trying to keep the panic from my voice.

  “Yes, and no, Ryder. Savlian just said he saw another Fae sift out with her right as the dais exploded, but he could not prevent them from doing so. He was one of the Fae from her memory. Not the leader though; it was the one who questioned him. The one who tried to stop it from getting out of hand,” Dristan says, watching me closely.

  “She’s pregnant, Dristan,” I let out a long rumbling growl, wrestling down on everything within me so that the beast is not released. He is fighting me, and I can’t allow him out yet; not even for her.

  “So she is, but Ristan saw her giving birth to Adam’s child. Not yours.”

  I close off all emotion. It’s fucking useless to me. “She has no fucking idea that she is pregnant,” I reply and fight the anger that radiates like a fucking oven out of my pores. She’s been pregnant this entire time, since the beast took over, and now she is in the hands of the enemy with my child in her womb.

  “We will find her, Brother.” Dristan says, but his eyes fill with doubt and it sinks beneath my skin.

  “Just fucking find her, now!” I shout, knowing that wherever she is, she’s alone and unguarded, unprotected and scared.

  “Ryder,” Ristan says, coming up beside me.

  “Unless you have found Synthia…”

  “No, but we will find her, Brother. I’m not sure how this fits into the vision, unless there is more to the vision that Danu hasn’t shown me—or, Syn miscarries your child, and still goes through with the wedding. Which, given she was just attacked...” he replies with a look of guilt and hopelessness.

  “I don’t care if we have to scour the entire fucking earth!” My men sense the beast fighting to get out and swarm around me as my voice shakes the building. “We fucking find her; we don’t sleep, and we don’t feed until Synthia Raine McKenna is safe in my arms. I don’t care who I have to fucking kill. I want her found!”

  Chapter Forty

  I landed hard on cold icy ground. I inhaled a deep breath, but it was as if this place held little to no oxygen in its air. I doubled over from a burning pain that was radiating up from my side. Strong hands wrapped around my waist and hauled me up from the cold ground and kept me firmly pinned against his body.

  “Let me go! Why are you doing this? Who the hell are you? You!” I demanded as I was finally able to turn my head and body far enough to see his face behind me and saw that he was one of the men from my nightmares.

  “We have to keep moving, Faolán and the rest of his guard are going to be here in a moment, and he wants you dead, Princess,” The blonde Fae whispered harshly, his Irish accent stronger than I remembered. Before I could blink, we were in another setting. This time it was a sandy beach, and he was looking around, as if he feared an attack.

  “Why did you take me away from the only man who can protect me then
?” I growled trying to ignore the excruciating pain from my side, which was stealing the air from my lungs. I’d been wounded, and I was afraid to look at it. I had no idea why this man had taken me, or who he thought was after me. I knew him from my parents’ house though; he’d been there on that bloody day.

  “Because you are in danger, and he won’t stop until you’re dead,” he replied as he narrowed his eyes and wrapped me into a more secure hold. Before I could try and slam my head against his nose or kick back at his knees, we sifted again; this time into a thick forest. “Stop! Who the hell are you? I know you; I want to know why you were at my parents’ house that day.” He let go of me, and I fell over on the thick grass on the forest floor.

  “I’m the one who shielded you inside that house when you were a child, or tried to. Faolán and most of his personal guards left without me that day. I followed, as soon as I realized what he intended to do. I knew his intentions were not pure, and my king has been blinded by his love for his child. I failed your guardians, Princess. I have been part of his guard ever since, hoping to stop him if he should ever get close to you again. I will not fail you again.” His voice was full of anger and pain as he ran his hands through his hair harshly, before continuing. “Enough talking, we need to move,” he snapped as he tore off his shirt revealing a well-defined muscular body. He ripped his shirt apart and tossed a piece behind a tree, but kept the bigger part in his hand as he grabbed my hand once more, and sifted us.

  We landed in a dark cave, and I looked around for an exit, or any way to escape the man who was non-stop sifting us further away from Ryder, and his men. He’d find me, I knew he would. I needed to stay put long enough that he could get to me, though, and knew I was steadily losing blood.

  If I was right, Ryder would be able to follow the blood trail to wherever we ended up. Or so I had thought, until I caught the Fae in front of me moving his fingers which made the small drops on the ground disappear. He looked up and glared at me before he sifted behind me, and pulled me back hard against his naked chest.

  Warning bells went off, and I moved to attack him, but he was faster than I was in this stupid dress, and before I could get away from him, he’d pressed me against the cave’s sharp wall and chanted a quick spell. Fuck!

  “Nice try, but no one must know where you are, my Princess,” he gave me a sly smile. “Being able to wield a null spell is one of my few gifts. The Dark Prince and his men don’t have much longer before the one I cast earlier wears off, and they can follow. For now, that will keep you from sifting so I can get you to safety,” he said and grabbed my arm again, pulling me off the wall and up against him. I wanted to scream in frustration, but it wouldn’t do any good. I needed to save my energy to get away from him, and the only way to do so, would be to run. He said he was taking me to safety, but how the hell was I to believe him?

  We sifted several more times; each place new and hauntingly beautiful. It wasn’t until we landed inside a crowded room and had several weapons drawn on us that we stopped sifting. We were inside what looked to be an enormous throne room with over a hundred Fae watching us with a mixture of alarm, suspicion, and curiosity. The room was built with white stonework, and had beautiful Celtic artwork etched in gold, detailing the arches of the high vaulted ceiling as well as in the pillars that supported the cathedral like architecture. The man I was with said something to the soldiers looking at us and his next words couldn’t have shocked me anymore if he’d tried.

  “Tell the King to come at once. I’ve brought Sorcha to him,” he growled.

  “Which king!?” I demanded, feeling my stomach do a somersault with his words. Here we go again!

  There were only four kings, and we’d just left two of them standing in the room where he had grabbed me from. The Blood, and the Horde King were the other two, both of whom had never entered my world to the best of my knowledge. They were the deadliest of the Fae, and I’d just been dropped into one of their laps by this idiot.

  I had no weapons, and I was injured and still dressed in the bell-shaped gown from the handfasting. I looked around the huge hall, making note of each exit and finding none. The only way in was to sift, and as soon as I thought it, the Fae grabbed my arm and shook his head in warning as if reminding me that he had taken care of that little maneuver pretty well.

  “I mean you no harm,” he said softly, and I realized that he showed no fear in his turquoise and lime eyes. He also looked much younger than I remembered him looking when he’d been in my house when I was a child.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” I asked, trying to hide the fear that was licking down my spine with the prospect of being in a strange realm, with one of the deadly kings.

  He didn’t have a chance to answer as a huge male, whom could only be one of the Kings, came out with his eyes searching us. He had light blondish brown hair, and eyes of the deepest violet and cobalt. I swallowed as something in my chest went off, as if something was unlocked. I felt dizzy as my eyes fastened with those of the unknown king. He looked as dazed as I felt as his hand grabbed his massive chest, as if he was feeling everything I was, at the same time.

  “What is this, Cailean?” His voice grated with a heavy burr as he watched me closely. His eyes narrowed on me as I held on to the one he’d called Cailean, my legs threatening to give out from beneath me.

  I felt as if the air was being knocked out of me, and everything inside of me was clicking into place like a puzzle unlocking its secrets. I turned my head as someone gasped and covered her mouth. She was almost a twin to Tatiana; only more beautiful, with golden hair and a more defined face. Tears rolled down her cheeks, from eyes that matched mine in color, and pattern.

  “It cannot be, Lasair, is it true, is it her?” The woman cried, moving closer to the man who had yet to speak since asking my would be protector the question.

  “Cailean, you had better start explaining!” The King snarled.

  “I bring you your daughter, my King,” Cailean said as he dropped to one knee rapidly.

  “We were told she was dead, so explain how this is possible,” the king growled, leveling me with beautiful eyes that didn’t seem to leave mine as if I would disappear if he looked away.

  “Faolán misrepresented what happened, Sire. He abused her guardians and declared her missing, and presumed dead at their hands. He couldn’t find her until a few days ago, and he has been trying to kill her ever since. I had to wait for him to strike at her again so I could bring her to you, or he would have guessed my plan.”

  “Impossible. Why would he lie? He is my heir. He is sworn to abide my word, until he challenges me for such right!” The man shouted, and the magnificent stained glass windows shook from the anger in his tone. I remained silent as they argued, as my mind flew with what was being said, grasping on to small things as they clicked together.

  “My lord, Faolán is not who you think him to be. He is not your Heir; he was never blessed with Danu’s true branding. He has sided with the enemy to inherit the heir’s true powers. He made a deal with the Mages. They told him that if he obtained the true heir that they could drain her powers from her dead body, and make him become what he wanted to be most—an heir acknowledged by Danu. In exchange for their help; he has been helping them destroy Faery.”

  “Be careful, Cailean: for treason upon the land is a serious crime and you speak of my son, who is not here to defend himself against your charges.”

  I didn’t know what to do, or what to say. More people had come into the hall and were now gathering around us. I wanted to run, to sift out of the room, but, somehow, I could feel that the King was sensing my unease and ready for anything I tried.

  “Tis sorry business, Lasair, but Faolán did as I said. The Mages told him that they foresaw Sorcha as your acknowledged heir. You may ask your daughter, for she watched him kill her guardians. He tried to kill her by firebombing her house just recently, but she had the protection of the Dark King’s son and men. He saved her from certain death
as she had yet to Transition fully.”

  “How did this happen? The brand on her neck was to prevent Transition!”

  I felt my entire body shake with his words. He knew of the tattoo on my neck! I couldn’t get words out, and I felt a single tear slide down my cheek. These were the people who had left me with humans to die; this man arguing before me was indeed my father.

  “I sent Faolán to retrieve her! He would not have tried to kill his own sister. He knew how imperative it was to bring her back. It makes no sense at all why he would do something so horrendous.”

  “He wants war with the Horde King and has ensured whenever he can that the war will continue. Sorcha was hidden by her guardians when Faolán and the rest of his guard got there. When I arrived, her guardians were dying, and I barely camouflaged her in time. They tore the house apart looking for her.” Cailean had so much regret in his eyes as he stated his case. “Sorcha has called him to her with the purpose of killing him, Sire. She cut down some of the warriors which were part of his guard, and there the day her guardians were killed.” Cailean turned his face to me, and the plea in is eye was unmistakable. He expected me to confirm his story.

  “What he says is true,” I whispered.

  The king continued to look at me as if he was afraid I’d vanish.

  “What were my parents’ names?” I asked.

  “That matters not child, for I know as well as you do, that you are my daughter, Sorcha. Our bond has once again been connected, and I feel you are of my blood.”

  “You sent me to humans, to die?” I asked, stepping back as the woman moved closer as if she would touch me.

  “That’s a long story, and one that I will not discuss in this crowded room, child. You are dressed exceedingly well,” he said, narrowing his eyes on the dress for the first time.

  “I was marrying the Dark Heir,” I replied.

  “Marrying the Dark Heir?” He asked, looking over my wardrobe again.