“You don’t like small surprises?”
She laughed. “Sometimes.”
“Well, this surprise is actually much bigger than the bag, so don’t worry. I was trying to think of someplace to go. We need privacy, and I’m not sure we can get that in the palace.”
Syney frowned. “Can’t we go to the gardens?”
“Let me guess—you can’t leave palace with me.”
“That’s not because of you. Everyone is still on edge because of my being attacked.”
Adam nodded. He had heard about the attack after it had happened. After that he was almost going to follow her around. Not that he distrusted Reed, but he would have felt better seeing everything for himself. But with his luck, Syney would realize he was there and flip out on him.
“You know, there is this courtyard thingy in the back of the palace. Helen told me it’s the queen’s private garden, but Mellisandrianna doesn’t use it. I bet we can break in, or out, or whatever.” Syney grinned at him.
“You OK with that, Reed?” Adam asked, not taking his eyes off Syney.
“Whatever.”
Syney and Adam looked at Reed, who was a few feet behind them. Syney smiled and gave Reed a wink. “You’re the best Protector ever!”
“Until you get me killed,” Reed said with a faint smile.
Syney laughed and took Adam’s hand, leading him down the hall. “Did you hear what happened to the guy who attacked me? He killed himself!”
Adam nodded. “Did they figure out where he got the poison?”
Syney shook her head and looked away. This was the first time he’d seen her scared, and he didn’t like it at all. He instinctively put his arm around her, and she leaned into him. “I’m tired of wondering who wants to kill me,” she whispered.
“It’ll be OK,” he said, planting a kiss on top of her head.
The courtyard was off the main throne room, which wasn’t that hard to get to when the queen wasn’t in there. Unfortunately she seemed to live in that room. Syney poked her head inside and looked back at Adam with a smile. “The bitch must be asleep.” She led the way through the room and to a large wooden door behind the throne. She pushed once, but it didn’t budge.
Reed stepped forward and gave the door one shove. It swung open easily. “I’ll stay in here, in case someone comes in.”
Syney gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You really are the best.”
Adam looked around the courtyard and nodded. It was exactly what he needed for tonight. The area was completely enclosed by high stone walls. There were a few windows that looked in from other parts of the palace, but none had lights on, and he didn’t see any people in them. Nice and private. He saw a wooden platform with a roof off the side and even a small pond surrounded by flowers. It was a beautiful area, even in the dark of night. He sat in the center on the grass and held his hands out for Syney to join him.
Syney sat across from him and smoothed out her light-brown leather skirt. “Um, so I was thinking about…Ugh, never mind.”
He smiled as she bit her lip and turned a cute pink color. “Hey, what is it?”
She shrugged. “I was just thinking about the palace and the Village. I’ve been trying to change some things around here, you know? And as much as I like the whole moving the dining hall thing, I really want to do more to help get equality around here.”
Adam nodded his head as he pulled a book from his bag. “What did you have in mind?”
Syney blew a breath out heavily and closed her eyes. “I was going to motion that royals and nonroyals should be able to join.”
Adam’s heart almost stopped. This was what he had been brought here for, this exact thing. In Gabe’s mind, once Syney was joined with Adam, he would let her in on the whole plan. Joining in the Realm did much more than just leave a magical tattoo on the arm of the mated; it also joined their souls in a sense. There was no leaving your mate once you were joined. It was said that even stepping out on your mate would have disastrous consequences. One story had a wife sleeping with a man who wasn’t her husband and the next day getting into a horrible accident that left her with amputated legs. Most people were too scared to try and risk the possible consequences. Gabe was counting on Syney living up to her vows of joining. Once she knew the truth about what was going on, Adam feared she would hate him, but he had made a promise a long time ago, and he wouldn’t back out on it now that he had fallen in love with her. Her learning the truth would hurt her a lot, though.
Syney slowly opened one eye to gauge his reaction.
He smiled at her. “Are you proposing to me?”
She opened the other eye and frowned. “Not really,” she said slowly. “From what I hear, only Venus has a say in that.”
“That’s true in the Village. But for the record, I’d join with you in a heartbeat.” He took her hand in his.
She smiled and bit her lip. “Thank you. And I want you to know that I’m OK with your…secrets. But I do wish you’d be OK with telling me.”
Adam sighed and wet his lips. “My parents…They were murdered.”
Any trace of a smile fell from Syney’s lips, and her eyes grew sad as she stared at him.
“‘Blaine’ isn’t my real last name. I tend to change it a lot. The murder of your parents isn’t the greatest thing to have happen to you at such a young age. And my adoptive dad did the best he could, but when you live on the fringes, you tend to live the way…criminals do.”
“So you’re a crook?”
He laughed. “No, well, maybe. I find it easy to get what I need through charm, I guess. But I always…”He sighed. “…feel like I have to look over my shoulder. No one knows who killed my parents. So I change my name, to stay out of sight. This is the longest I’ve stayed in a place, to be honest.”
Syney took a deep breath. “OK. So you are hiding from people you don’t know, and you con people to get…money, I’m guessing.”
“Listen, I’m the same guy you’ve been getting to know for the past couple of months. If anything, you know me better than most people do. And I love you.” He threw the last part in without even thinking. He took some deep breaths as he waited for her reaction.
Syney stared at him for a while before speaking. “If you’re conning me, I’ll…” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know…I’ll do something horrible.”
“I’m not conning you.”
She nodded. “Good, ‘cause I love you too. And I don’t think I can do anymore heartbreak right now.” Adam leaned forward and kissed her. She kissed him back, giving him a smile when they pulled apart. “You do that so well.”
He laughed. “I’m just that good.”
Syney rolled her eyes again and looked at the books he had brought. “So what’s my surprise?”
“We’re going to conjure water.”
“Oh, I’ve done that one! It was fun!” she said, her whole face lighting up.
Adam had taught her a few spells over the past few weeks; each one she had picked up much faster than anyone he’d ever seen. After one try, by herself and with the spell, she was able to do it without the spell at all. It had been amazing to watch. “How did you do it?”
“I filled a glass with water.”
He smiled. “I think we can do better than that. Let’s make it rain.”
Syney smiled and nodded like an eager child.
Adam held out his hands, and she grasped them firmly. “The trick is to picture the rain. Filling a glass doesn’t take much concentration, but this does. You’re going to feel the magic pull on you, much stronger than it has before. You have to let it.”
She nodded. “Let’s do this.”
“Adducam aqua,” Adam said, squeezing her hands.
The familiar pull of the magic rushed through him. He also felt Syney’s magic run through his body. He knew their life forces were connecting and joining. This was the most intimate they’d been with each other. His pulse raced as they stared at each other, their magic flowing together. A momen
t later a drop fell from the sky and then another. Syney smiled and looked up just as it started to rain buckets. She screamed, more out of delight than anything else, and jumped up. Adam pulled her over to the roofed platform, both of them laughing and soaking wet.
She looked up at him. “What are we doing? We made this—we should enjoy it!” She pulled him into the rain and danced in circles. “This is fantastic!”
Adam laughed and pulled her close to him, staring into her amazingly gorgeous violet eyes. Every emotion flew through his body, ending on love. This was it for him; he knew it now for sure. When he kissed her, he wished he could convey all that through the kiss. He thought he might have been successful when she pulled back from him only to pull him to the ground with her. This was it. This was what he had wanted from tonight, but suddenly he was scared. And his body did things he didn’t want it to when he was scared. He rolled on top of Syney but held himself up by his hands. He couldn’t get too close to her right now, not when she was smelling like chocolate-covered cotton candy. Her sweet smell filled his nose, causing his fangs to pull out of his gums. No, not now. He needed to calm down, which became impossible when Syney slowly unbuttoned her shirt, biting her lip the whole time.
Adam stopped for a second and slowed his breath. He heard her heart pound like a drum in his ears. But slowly his fangs sank back into his gums, and he leaned down to kiss her. Syney ran her hands up his chest and back, pulling at his shirt. She was just about to get all his buttons open when he moved his mouth down to her neck. He licked her throbbing pulse, and every animal instinct in his body turned on. She gasped in surprise when he bit her then moaned in pleasure as his venom kicked in. He came to his senses the moment her blood touched his tongue. This was wrong, and he had to stop. He pulled away from her, stumbling back onto his heels.
She sat up, putting her hand to her neck, staring at him with wide eyes. “Adam?” she asked.
He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head and running as fast as he could out of the courtyard and through the throne room. He didn’t slow down until he reached Gabe’s room. He needed Gabe right then. He just prayed the Vampire wouldn’t kill him the second he heard that their plan was royally screwed.
Syney closed her eyes. This had to be a dream. She had some messed-up dreams, and this was just one of them. There was no way her nice, handsome Magic User boyfriend had just bit her like a Vampire. She opened her eyes as the rain stopped. Nope, not a dream. She shook her head and buttoned up her blouse. There had to be a good explanation for this. He most definitely wasn’t a Vampire. She had spent enough time with Gabe to know. Adam’s skin was nowhere near as pale as Gabe’s. And his was warm to the touch, unlike Gabe’s, which was somewhere between cold and icy. But that bite…She’d been bitten by a Vampire before, and there was no mistaking the euphoric feeling the venom caused.
“He’s half,” she whispered to herself, running her hands through her soggy hair. Well, that answered one of her questions about the races. They were compatible when it came to reproducing. She had to find him and talk to him. Syney jumped up and rushed back to the door to the throne room.
Reed looked at her oddly when she entered. “Is it raining?”
“It was. Which way did Adam go?”
He shook his head. “He hasn’t come through here.”
“Or he was moving too fast,” Syney whispered. “I have to find him.”
“Well, um…”
She looked at Reed. “Spit it out. I’m having a major relationship crisis right now.”
Reed sighed. “Try Gabe’s room.”
“Why? They don’t even know each other.”
“Commander Leaf doesn’t trust Gabe, so he put a guard on him while he’s in the palace. From what I heard from the guard, Adam and Noelle go to Gabe’s room regularly,” Reed said reluctantly.
It didn’t surprise Syney that Noelle had been visiting Gabe’s room. She had noticed that she and Gabe had gotten closer, and she wished them well. But what the hell was Adam doing with Gabe…unless Adam was part of the big picture? Syney shook her head and mentally kicked herself. Of course the extremely handsome man who found her beautiful was a set-up. Syney gave Reed one more look before hurrying out of the room.
She was crossing the Grand Hall when Helen called out to her.
“Hey, not a good time,” Syney said.
“Wait, this is really important,” Helen said, taking Syney’s hands in hers.
“What is it?” Syney glanced down the hall. She didn’t have time for this.
“Part of my vows was to make amends for things I’ve done wrong in my life.”
Syney almost laughed. “Helen, there’s nothing you’ve done wrong.”
“Maybe not directly, but I’ve been hiding something from you, and I don’t want that on my conscious anymore, especially now that I’m a priestess.”
Syney looked at her. Now she had her attention.
“A few months ago, when Hunter left, you didn’t get the whole story. Cass found out about the two of you and went to my mother. She wanted to execute him and would have if Leaf and I hadn’t stepped in. We begged for leniency, and my mother granted it in the form a choice: Command on the front lines or public execution. Hunter took the assignment, with the caveat that nothing would happen to you and that you never would know what happened. I didn’t want to lie to you, and I’m so sorry for that,” Helen said, taking a deep breath at the end.
Syney stared at her, numb. For months she hated Hunter for leaving her, for being selfish. And now…he had left to save her from whatever sadistic plan Mellisandrianna had up her sleeve. She wiped the tears that fell from her eyes. “How could you not tell me that?”
“Hunter made Leaf swear not to say anything, so of course I couldn’t either. I wanted to so much.”
Syney shook her head. “Cass? Really? I don’t understand.”
Helen sighed and pulled Syney over to a bench. “She overheard you talking about leaving. Ever since Raine died, she’s been your biggest supporter for the throne. I think she went to my mother because it was the only thing she could think to do to keep you here. I can’t blame her there. Although I would have done it differently, I would have found a way to get you to stay.”
Syney looked away. “It was the only way for us to be together.”
“I know.”
“Figures he would do the honorable thing,” she whispered.
Helen put a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry again. This should have come sooner.”
“Yeah it should have,” Syney said, standing up and walking away. She couldn’t deal with this now. She didn’t want to ever deal with it. Right now she could do only one thing at a time, and she needed to find Adam.
He still loved you. He left to protect you. Syney grabbed the nearest wall as tears flooded her eyes. She sobbed and tried to catch her breath. None of this mattered. Hunter still had joined with Fern, and he still had left. She inhaled deeply and wiped away her tears. She continued to Gabe’s room with more passion inside her than she’d had in a long time. Hunter did that to her, whether he was here or not.
Noelle and Gabe were sitting on the bed when Adam burst in. He was soaking wet and paced the room the second he entered. Noelle jumped up and tried to get him to sit down, but he shook his head, tears in his eyes.
“I messed up. I messed up bad,” he said with a hitch in his breath.
Gabe’s amused face fell, and he jumped to his feet. “What happened?”
Adam continued to shake his head and kept pacing.
Gabe leapt in front of him and grabbed his arms. “You need to talk now.”
“I bit her.”
“You what?” Noelle asked, her eyes widening.
“Crap.” Gabe let go of Adam and put a hand to his head. This was the first time Noelle had ever seen him worry…about anything. “How could you let this happen? You normally don’t drink blood.”
Adam nodded, his usually put-together self almost crumbling. “We were
…getting intimate, and I couldn’t help it.”
Noelle shook her head and put herself between the two men. “What the hell is going on?”
Gabe looked at her. “Adam’s half Vampire. His parents worked for Faye and me.”
Noelle looked at Adam. “Oh.”
Adam nodded. “That’s me. The freak of nature.”
“Careful,” Gabe said with a laugh. “You’re talking to a Shifter, or at least part Shifter.”
Noelle sighed. She wasn’t comfortable with Gabe giving away her secret so cavalierly, but she was thankful for the connection to Adam at that moment. He looked like he needed something, and that seemed to work.
“Really?” he asked, his breathing becoming a little more even.
She nodded and offered him a small smile. “Really.”
“Aw, touching. Now we have work to do. We need an excuse or something,” Gabe said, pulling all the energy in the room towards him. Noelle had noticed that he did that when he talked about the plan. When he talked about it, everyone had no choice but to sit up and pay attention. God knows he’d been working on it long enough.
“No more excuses. We’ll tell her everything,” Adam said, his calm exterior returning.
Gabe stared hard at him. “Tell me you didn’t do this on purpose.”
“Seriously? You do know I’m the one she’s going to hate the most when she learns about our plan, right? The only safety net I had with her would be our joining, which will never happen now,” Adam spat out.
“Relax. We’ll figure something out.”
Adam opened his mouth to say something as the door swung open. All eyes went to Syney, whose gaze swept the three of them. They’d been caught, and she wasn’t happy. Tears were already in her eyes, and she looked like hell—bedraggled and wet from head to toe. She slammed the door behind her and gave an ugly smile. “Look! The gang’s all here.”
“Syney—”Noelle started, but Syney raised her hand and shook her head.
“No, I get to talk first.” When she walked over to Gabe, Noelle feared she might deck him. “I’m done with whatever game you’re playing.”
Deviation: Altera Realm Trilogy Book 2 Page 12
