I watched him pull away and smile coldly, “I’ll find you and when I do Syn, I won’t be gentle. And I’m going to find you. I always find my prey Pet.” And then he was gone and Adam was above me, shaking me.
I sat up looking at him in bewilderment. I swallowed and shook off the dream I’d been indulging in. “What happened?”
“You were having a nightmare,” he said in way of explanation. Of course he would think it was a nightmare, I had them a lot growing up. He’d always make me wake up, even when Larissa hadn’t been able to.
“I’m okay, what time is it?” I asked looking up through the broken window that sat high up on the wall of the warehouse.
“It’s 6 a.m. Time to shine, this was on the door when I went for coffee,” Adam said handing me a quickly scrawled note.
“Arianna will be outside the courthouse, what the hell would she be doing at the courthouse?” I asked more to myself but Adam answered anyways.
“Picking up her marriage license more than likely or meeting with the Mayor?”
“Call Terrance, tell him to meet us at nine at the courthouse and to make sure he calls everyone else,” I said taking the coffee he picked up from the floor and handed to me, I smiled and sipped it slowly letting it filter through me. Terrance was a kid who did odd jobs for us when we needed help. He was a good kid, who had been given a bad hand in life. We used him, but we paid him well.
“If this goes south Adam, you need to get Larissa out of Spokane. The Seattle Guild is the best choice to hide from the Fae.”
“Fuck that Syn,” Adam said standing up to place his hands angrily on his hips, “If this goes bad, I’m not leaving you. You’re my only family Syn, you and Larissa are all I have.”
“It wasn’t a question Adam. You will take Larissa and get her someplace safe. Ryder won’t kill me, he might say he will, but he won’t. Not while I’m under his contract—he owns me Adam. I need to know you can do this. I need to know you two are safe. You’re the only ones that can be used against me and Ryder knows it, he’ll use it,” I said grabbing his hand and pulling him down beside me and somehow managing to not spill a drop of coffee in the process.
“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 Washington 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 reassuring 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 pushing power into me. Ryder’s eyes landed on us fleetingly. “Shit 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 God,” 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.
“Shit Syn, go dark!” Adam shouted but it was too late, Ryder had seen me.
“Fuck! Split up, blend in!” I shouted, already retreating into the mass 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 wishing 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.
Glass exploded from the limo and the surrounding buildings, crashing 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 gr
ound 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 God 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 fucking 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 fucking 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 pass 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 fuck!? What the hell 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, hell, 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 muffled 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 assume 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 j
ust 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 class 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 damn 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.
Fighting Destiny Page 30
