"Of course," he replied holding my hand and looking at me with love in his emerald eyes, "Syn, we can be used against you-but the same is true for us, we"d be willing to move the moon for you. We need you, so don"t do anything stupid. I also need you to know that we don"t just stay because no one else will join...we stay because we"re family. We have each other and that"s more than most people have in this world."
I pulled his hand up to my lips and kissed it before standing up to stretch. "We need to get this show on the road, go call Terrance. Tell him we need that flash mob today."
I wasn"t good with emotions, showing them, feeling them-or expressing them. I wasn"t the type to wear them on my sleeves. He knew how I felt without me having to tell him. This idea had to work, the Demon released me to do this and right now it was the only lead we had.
Thirty Three
Downtown Spokane Was.h.i.+ngton was packed, someone had leaked that the Light Heir would be making an appearance. We waited at the back of the crowd in hoodies, pulled up to hide us, the rest of the flash mob who would be causing the distraction were dressed the same to stand out from the crowd when the right time came.
We waited, the magic pulsing inside of me ready to explode, we"d spent over an hour of nothing but collecting and depositing magic inside of me. Adam had laughed telling me I"d be lit up enough to power the city. I was hoping it wouldn"t be the case since the plan was to use and dump the magic quickly enough to not pull attention to us.
The entire crowd was hushed, as if this was a monumental event in time...which it wasn"t. I"d never understood the draw of the Fae until I"d melted against Ryder. His blistering heat had drawn me in, like a moth to a flame. He owned my mind without having to turn me FIZ. My thoughts constantly flowed to him and our time in Faery.
"Showtime," Adam said as a sleek black limo pulled up to the steps of the courthouse which was something they would never allow for anyone else.
I turned my head and gave him a rea.s.suring smile as we pushed through the crowd as the flash mob started up. It was the perfect disguise for what we had planned, or would have been until Ryder stepped from the limo and his men stepped from the crowd to create a guard around the princess.
It was now or never, the mob was dancing to Kesha"s Your Love is My Drug...as if they couldn"t have picked a more annoying song? I stepped from the group with Larissa and Adam pus.h.i.+ng power into me. Ryder"s eyes landed on us fleetingly. "s.h.i.+t dance!" I said starting to move with the group, if not horribly off kilter.
His eyes moved through the crowd and off of us, I almost exploded into laughter at how goofy and bad we danced, but the situation was dire and laughter was something we could do later when we"d finished it. As the group of men parted to allow Arianna to wave at the mob, I stopped moving with the crowd and sent my second sight searching her...nothing happened. I pumped up the magical juice and almost threw up.
"Oh my G.o.d," I uttered, I shook my head and stepped back as if I could not put enough distance between me and the horror I was seeing.
"s.h.i.+t Syn, go dark!" Adam shouted but it was too late, Ryder had seen me.
"f.u.c.k! Split up, blend in!" I shouted, already retreating into the ma.s.s of dancers. I couldn"t shake the power pulsing through me. I growled scaring a few of the humans who had joined the tweet about the flash mob Terrance had sent out.
I could feel Ryder bearing down on me, hunting me. But when I looked over my shoulder it wasn"t me he had gone after-he"d gone after Adam. He held him by the back of his hood, Adam shook his head. He was telling me to go. "Let him go Ryder," I shouted wis.h.i.+ng the music would stop.
"I told you Syn, when I found you I would punish you. You only feel when something is taken away from you Pet," he turned smiling coldly at Adam who was now struggling in earnest to get away from him.
"Ryder, take me. Let him go," I whispered knowing he would hear it over the crowd that had now sensed danger.
He didn"t listen, instead he turned and propelled Adam to Dristan who grinned and touched Adam. I felt the connection I shared with Adam waver briefly, he was trying to keep me from feeling what was going on. I watched his eyes as they settled on me and locked. I shook my head in denial. Ryder wouldn"t allow this.
The noise went silent around me as if I"d stepped out of reality. The only sound, my own blood flowing inside of my ears and my own breathing as everything went still around me-frozen in time. Dristan was trying to turn Adam FIZ. It was too much and everything inside of me snapped as the world stopped around me. Like a vacuum. One minute I was standing silently, the next I was screaming my pain with everything inside of me, everything I had. I would die before I let the Fae hurt my family again.
Gla.s.s exploded from the limo and the surrounding buildings, cras.h.i.+ng to the pavement below. Humans screamed in pain as they hit the ground. I couldn"t stop. Something inside of me had broken open and was demanding to come out. I barely registered the shock on Ryder and Dristan"s faces as they watched me.
I couldn"t stop it, whatever had opened just kept coming, I couldn"t focus on anything and yet I saw everything. As if I was standing above watching as my body reaped havoc on anyone foolish enough to not run away. I could see fear, smell it. It was intoxicating, my hair whipped with electrical current as the ozone grew thick around me.
I tried pulling back, I was in trouble. Whatever was happening-I couldn"t control it. I met Ryder"s gaze and locked onto it. His nose was bleeding, but otherwise he seemed to be handling my power overload better than anyone else. He spoke low, clearly and right to me even though he addressed Dristan, "Dristan, let Adam go," he growled never letting my gaze move from his.
Adam hit the pavement and stumbled over to me. Larissa crawled up from where she"d been taken to the ground with everyone else. The only sound was my labored breathing. I couldn"t take my eyes from Ryder, he looked worried and that wasn"t something you seen him show-ever.
"Back up, now," he said as he and his men started backing up slowly.
"Syn, you have to stop now!" Adam shouted but when I turned to meet his eyes he flinched, "Oh my G.o.d Syn," he whispered horrified.
My chest was heaving, my face tilted to look up at him. Humans sobbed and I tried to look at them but Adrian sifted in and stopped me.
"Syn, look at me," Adrian said. I met his eyes and watched him flinch at the sight of me.
My coven was here, unharmed and all trying to calm whatever was going on inside of me. They should be running away. All of them. Adrian cupped my face while Adam and Larissa tried draining the power from me. Ryder approached silently, his eyes meeting mine as I heard his shoes crunch against the pebbles in the road.
"She needs to come with me," he whispered to Adrian, "She has to release the power. If she doesn"t, it will consume her mind. She doesn"t have-" he stopped narrowing his eyes as Adam touched my face and pushed Adrian aside, "- a familiar."
He frowned, his eyes lighting up emerald and lime green, glowing. He looked as shocked as I felt, but his touch was calming. I felt my heart start up from where it had stopped, as if Adam"s touch alone had jumped started something inside of me. He frowned as he met my eyes, "Your eyes are f.u.c.king purple and blue Syn."
I didn"t answer him. I wasn"t sure about anything just now. I just watched him, confused as to why his eyes also glowed. His were lined in a vivid colored lime and had never been that way before now. Was it because he was taking whatever it was that had broken inside of me out and into his own body?
"I"m...monster," I panted as tears started down my cheeks, Adam"s eyes swirled with a mix of lime and emerald as he held onto me.
"I thought it was dream, only a f.u.c.king dream all those years Syn. I thought it couldn"t be real, it didn"t make sense then-but now, now I remember Syn, I followed you here. I felt you here-from Faery, you pulled me here Syn when you needed me," Adam whispered as his arm dropped back to his side.
My body shook from the drain, my teeth chattered as I backed away from him. My head shaking as Ryder, Adrian and Adam all tried to move in closer to me. "Stop, just stop Adam. This isn"t happening. We have to go. Now."
"Let"s move," I whispered turning to walk away. I felt like I was going to pa.s.s out and we needed to be somewhere safe before I could do so. I didn"t miss hearing Ryder tell Zahruk to pull his men off the warehouse. He had known where we"d had been hiding this entire time.
When we were a safe distance away Larissa spun on us. "Okay, what the f.u.c.k!? What the h.e.l.l just happened and why are your eyes glowing?"
I wiped my eyes and shook my head. "I don"t know, I don"t know what"s happening to me," I mumbled, I couldn"t explain it to her any more than I could to myself. Adam looked as upset as I did. He kept looking at his hands like they belonged to someone else.
"We need to go to the Guild, now," Larissa said keeping a safe distance from us, as if we suddenly had become strangers. "Did you get what we came for?" She continued.
"Arianna, well she"s made of at least a few of the victims. She"s been sewn together magically for lack of a better description-with pieces. But something or someone is controlling her. She has no blood, no heat. She"s just dead. Like a puppet, taking her down would be easy, but it wouldn"t stop whoever is controlling her."
"So she"s a zombie, one who is made up of other people"s parts?" Larissa asked as she sheepishly looked from me to Adam and back again.
"How bad do we look Lari?" I asked reading the fear in her eyes.
She smiled but it didn"t touch her eyes, "You both look Fae right now, we have to get you back to the Guild, Alden will know how to stop it."
"Stop what? Larissa you don"t just choose to become Fae, if we look Fae, then we were born Fae." She was in denial, h.e.l.l, I was in denial. I turned and looked at Adam, he looked exactly as he had before, but his eyes glowed in two different colors now. "The Guild can"t help us Larissa, they don"t allow Fae inside. We need to go home and figure out how we can find the killer before he kills more innocent people."
She nodded but didn"t move from where she stood at a safe distance, "I need to know something first," she hesitated, as if she was picking each word carefully, "Did either of you know what you were? I need you to be honest, because if you did-we need to be prepared for when the Guild comes after us."
"Larissa, I don"t even know how this is possible. I hate the Fae, they killed my parents. Look, we lived inside the Guild with you, how could we have known?" The panic showed in my voice as it shook with tears.
"I"m so sorry guys. I mean I know you couldn"t have known. I just had to ask, this doesn"t change who you are and you"re my family. Fae or not, we only have each other," she whispered before stepping closer.
We walked home silently, the mission had been successful and yet it felt like a loss. I"d felt myself changing, I"d watched the horror on the innocent faces around me that I"d hurt. I had hurt them, not Ryder, not the dead puppet-me. Everything was happening too fast, how could I be Fae? It made no sense and I wasn"t ready to accept it.
I stood in the mirror inside my room, just staring at myself as I listened to Larissa comfort Adam in her bedroom. My eyes now had two layers of iris surrounding the pupil. The first layer closest to the pupil was the same turbulent azure blue it had always been and around it was a ring in a light color of purple surrounded by a very thin black ring.
The m.u.f.fled sounds told me that Larissa was doing a little more than just comforting Adam, so I grabbed a jacket and headed out. I had no idea of where I was going until I stood in front of my parent"s house.
The Victorian style house I had spent a small part of my childhood in was still standing. It was canary yellow. I could still remember my father painting it. Mom had said he should"ve just hired someone to do the job, but he"d laughed and said it was his home and it was a labor of love.
Had they been hiding me as Ryder and his men had been discussing when they"d thought I couldn"t hear them? Why would Guild Witches take in a Fae child? I let out a deep breath realizing it didn"t matter now, no one could answer those questions since they had died protecting me.
"Synthia," Alden"s voice penetrated my mind as he slipped his bigger hand inside mine, "I"m sorry."
"Sorry for what Alden?" I whispered turning my eyes to him.
"I always knew you were different, knew something was off about you. You have to understand something Synthia, my sister-your mother...she loved you. Made me promise to raise you up with other Witches if anything happened to her, she never did say why, but after watching the news today...well I can only a.s.sume she knew what you were."
"I got them killed Alden," I murmured wiping at the angry tears that tried to fight free and won.
"Nah, they chose to help you. They couldn"t have kids, you filled a void Synthia. You became the center of their universe. They died protecting you, from what...well I have no idea, but you need to let them go, it"s time. You can"t keep doing this, blaming yourself. I can"t keep blaming you either. We both need to let them go."
"The Guild will hunt us now, for breach of contract."
"No, I filed a report that said we knew the entire time. Marie had me run those tests on you and that boy, she saved us-even then she was protecting us. That woman stopped me from blaming you, when I found you covered in blood," he stopped clearing his throat his throat from where tears had grown thick inside of it, "I thought it was you and then I realized what you were doing, trying to put her back together." He stopped rubbing his eyes. "You were so young Synthia, you couldn"t have saved them. You would have just died with them," he finished.
"I did die with them Alden," I sobbed no longer caring that I looked weak. "I never left that house that day," I finished and wiped my eyes again before letting a shaky exhale out slowly.
"I know I"m the one who carried you out Syn. I took you to my home and then Adam showed up. He was young and left on the steps abandoned and alone like you. He held you for hours and eventually you both slept. When you woke up the next morning you were no longer a child," he smiled and narrowed his eyes on me, "You wanted to know how to fight, how to be stronger. Here was this little five year old girl who wouldn"t talk, but was working harder than most of the graduating cla.s.s that year. You did everything right down to tapping a Leyline and pulling it to the Guild, which was the first indication that you were different Syn."
"They said I was allergic to the lines," I sad incredulous.
"You weren"t, oh I know they said so," he held up his hands to stop me, "But you are Fae Synthia, if they were hiding you, then they would have had to keep you from connecting to a line. Every time one is tapped by a caste of the Fae, it sends out a trail that would have been made it possible for someone to follow it back to you."
"What if I tapped one, when I was young and it sent whoever I was hiding from a signal?" I was thinking out loud.
"It"s possible Syn, but we could play what ifs all day long. My sister is dead. She wouldn"t want you to be suffering still. I admit that I blamed you for a long time, but I let it go, you need to now as well. She wouldn"t want you to live like this Syn and if she died protecting you-she had a d.a.m.n good reason for doing so."
"Aren"t you supposed to be in lock down, Alden?" I said coming out of my stupor and noticing the twelve Paladins standing around us. Their white metal armor and wicked silver weapons challenged any threat to Alden openly.
He laughed, "I knew I would find you here and I knew you"d have questions. I don"t have the answers Synthia, h.e.l.l. I"ve probably as many questions as you do now. But I knew you"d need family and you"re all I have. Also, Ryder has threatened the Guild with payback for the killings at his club. I issued no orders for an attack, it didn"t come from us and you have his ear girl, use it."
I snorted, "Have you met Ryder? That man makes my stubbornness look like nothing. Besides that, I don"t have his ear. I may be under contract with him, but I"m his enemy right now-right along with the rest of the Guild." We were talking. We"d never spoken about his sister before. h.e.l.l, we didn"t actually talk to each other unless he was training me, or giving me an a.s.signment. It was awkward, but I needed it more than I could admit.
"He"s planning something, we"re evacuating the Guild. Only the Keepers of the Guild will remain. The books and records have to be protected. Syn..." he hesitated running his hand through his messed up hair, he looked as if he"d been doing it for a few hours, "I don"t know all the ins and outs of it with the Fae, but now I know you"re gonna need to feed eventually. Marie thought Ryder could help you. Before it made no sense, but now it"s starting to. She left us instructions in case anything ever happened to her. She told me you would need to seek him out. I figured when they requested our help that it was the perfect time to carry out her wishes and see what came of it," he shrugged his wide shoulders, "Figured if nothing happened, or if Ryder wasn"t able to see anything different inside of you that maybe everyone had just been worried for nothing."
"So you think I should feed from Ryder?" I asked narrowing my eyes.
"No," he turned bright red as he responded, "No of course not Syn," he rubbed the back of his neck and laughed uncomfortably, "I just think that the first time you do...you should be with someone you couldn"t hurt."
"Or kill," I said what he hadn"t.
He nodded, his face sagging with relief that I"d said it instead of him. He looked as if he"d aged since I"d seen him last...and maybe we all had. "Synthia, I"m looking into the records to see if anyone has ever succeeded in stopping a Fae from turning, I can"t promise results, but maybe we can find something to slow it down until I can. I can"t bring back my sister, but I can protect what she loved the most-you."
"I get it Alden," I snapped. I hadn"t thought about feeding yet, h.e.l.l I couldn"t even grasp the reality of what was happening. "We got bigger problems than me feeding. Arianna isn"t what she appears to be. She"s got pieces from our victims magically sewn on to her like a f.u.c.king quilt." I was dodging emotions again and from the grin he flashed he was thankful I had.
Alden swore violently, "Necromancer?"
"Not quite, more like a puppet. Her eyes take in everything, as if someone is controlling her and seeing through her. I need to get to her, to get to the one controlling her. Get the master"s attention, maybe it will stop the killings. Problem is I"d need to kill his puppet to draw him out Alden."
"And doing so could start a war if you get caught before you can kill her and break whatever spell is covering up the fact that she"s nothing more than a f.u.c.king puppet," he said rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Good grief, if she is what you say she is-the implications between the Dark and the Light Fae..."
"I can"t do it without a team Alden. And not without the Guild being cleared out and safe from any repercussions that might come back on us."
"I can"t give you the okay to kill the Light Heir Synthia, even if she isn"t who she says she is," I felt my stomach drop as he shook his head, "But I can give you a team and a.s.sure you that the Guild will be safe."
I smiled slowly, "So unofficially I have your permission, but if anyone asked..."
He smirked, "If anyone asks, this conversation never happened," he stepped closer placing his arms on my shoulders, "I don"t show emotion kid and I think it rubbed off on you a little bit. I"d like to think you know that...well that I consider you family and have ever since my sister brought you home in diapers, be careful Syn. I can"t claim responsibility which means no one will come to help if you get caught. You"d be at the Dark Princes mercy."
I nodded and exhaled slowly, "You have."
"Have what?" He asked narrowing his eyes.
"I"m strong because you showed me how to be, I"m faster because you made sure I knew what could happen if I wasn"t fast enough. I"m me because you raised me Alden, you raised us all. Hard lessons aren"t easy to teach children, we"re stronger because you made us into what we needed to be."
Thirty Four
I watched Ryder and his men moving into the room below, there were hundreds of Fae gathered inside the ballroom of the Dark Fortress along with human dignitaries and members of the press. Security was next to impossible to bypa.s.s, so just getting to the rooftop where we were crouched, had been a death-defying feat without the team being detected.
"Last chance to back out guys, if this goes wrong we"re dead. No one will be able to save our a.s.ses. I need to know you can do this job. If you"re thinking this is too much, then it probably is. I know most of you are here because the Guild is on the line. I get it, you"re p.i.s.sed. So am I. But the Fae are not the bad people here tonight, no attacking them unless you have no other option."
I searched each face of the team I"d trained with. I knew their weaknesses. I knew their strengths. These were my people. They were why I fought and would continue to no matter what DNA I had been born with. They were good people, trustworthy, but this mission was suicide. I was asking for their lives, but if we couldn"t stop Ryder from blaming the Guild-they"d have to hide like rats in the sewers, they deserved better.
Twelve sets of sober eyes looked up to me with no doubt, or reserve about giving their lives to ensure the Guild stayed up and running. I exhaled a shaky breath and looked to Adam and Larissa who like me had dressed in black leather. The others had on black fatigues.
"Adam, blow it," I said clasping the rope into my harness.
We waited, watching the Fae beneath us as they laughed and danced, unaware that we were about to crash the party. As the gla.s.s shattered I jumped, making sure I was first on the surface to throw up the s.h.i.+eld to protect the others as they came down. Eyes closed, arms out from my sides, I sailed through the air with a smirk on my lips as screams erupted.
When I was a few feet from the floor, I flipped so that I landed facing Ryder. I landed hard but tossed up the s.h.i.+eld throwing Fae around the room and cutting one half of the crowd off from the other as it went up smoothly. When it was fully erected I looked up and undid the hook as I watched the rest of the strike team come down.