“
That was fucking hot as hell,” Sevrin said with a small grin. He looked up to catch the glare Ryder had leveled on him. “What? It was!”
“
If you guys are done, I need you to point out which scepter you want, since they have twelve down here,” I whispered as I looked up into angry golden eyes. Twelve glass display cases, mounted to solid wooden pedestals, were interspersed throughout the room, and each held what looked like an eighteen-inch long oak branch displayed in each case. Based on the plans, I had expected the room to be like a storage room and, instead, it looked more like a museum.
“
Second case to your left, Syn. Be careful, it's connected to an alarm wire.” Ryder exhaled slowly and shook his head as his eyes warned that my ass would be pink after this little escapade.
I looked across the
dark room and counted the cases with my fingers in the dark room. I didn't move, though. I'd studied the room and had a feeling about what was coming, unlike Ryder, who almost called out as I went flat against the floor from a full standing position, as glowing red laser shot out of the wall and ran a waist level scan of the room.
“
Close,” Zahruk whispered.
“
Synthia, are you okay?” Ristan asked.
I d
idn't answer, as yet another laser beeped and shot through the room. This one was lower than the first, and it searched more of the room as a whole. Shit. Another laser shot out, even lower, until it touched the lasers I now laid beside. I waited for it to finish scanning before I carefully looped my leg back through the rope. Another laser shot out, lower again. I waited. Another, lower again. Still waiting. The next one would give me away.
I jumped, and twi
sted my body up through the rope rapidly as a laser blinked to life on the spot where I had just been, then slowly faded out as it found no threat. “Three minutes. They run a scan of the room every three minutes,” I whispered, hitting the ground again and moving through the ones on the floor while I made my way to the display case. I was almost there, when a door opened and closed across the room. I crouched low and backed up against a display case.
“
Room five is empty. Doing a reboot of the system now, over,” a voice said into the room as the lasers turned off. The sound of heavy work shoes hitting across the marble floor started, moving closer to where I was hiding. I listened to his footsteps, counting them as I rounded the display case the moment he would have seen me on the other side. I swallowed, holding my dark magic to me to keep the rope, which was moving with me, invisible, while praying that what little magic I was using, didn’t set the wards off.
When he had walked the room
, he turned and took a secondary route back. It caused me to have a small heart attack. I quickly moved around the small display case and looked up to find only a pair of shining golden eyes watching me. I smiled and winked up at him, before I blew him a silent kiss. He shook his head at me, and I could have sworn I heard him growl inside my head.
“
All clear; rebooting system,” the guard said, and I felt my heart drop. Well shit, this was going to suck. I waited until I heard the door open and close before I dared to breathe.
I couldn't sift
, because I'd set off the Fae wards. I peeked around the case and found the guard still punching buttons on the wall panel. On reboot, it was going to run every laser inside the room, at once. I took off at a quick crouched run toward the side wall that had a corner in it. It was the only wall I could get to, that the guard wouldn’t see me. I was lucky this room had been built in an odd shape for the purpose of displaying artifacts. I placed my feet on both sides of the wall so I could hold myself up, and away from the multiple lasers. I managed to jump right as the first ground lasers started up. I didn't breath, I didn’t move. I held Ryder's eyes for support while the system ran at full capacity, before they returned to their original routine.
I inhaled
slowly, so slowly that my lungs didn’t fully inflate, and watched the lasers on the ground before silently placing my feet back on the floor and taking a step forward, and then another. “Which one?” I whispered again since my sense of direction was off. Ryder pointed it out, and I made my way to it. I held my breath as I found and disconnected the red alarm wire to the display case and then crossed the blue to the green to give it a false safe reading. No alarm went off, but I wasn’t stupid.
I raised th
e glass display case off the pedestal and looked inside, smiling triumphantly. I found a trip wire that would sound an alarm the moment I picked the scepter up and separated it from its mounting. I whispered a spell to make the glass levitate as I reached in and counted wires. I swore as the lasers started up again, making me scramble to lift my body, with the help of the rope, high enough to miss them. When they'd run their course, I lowered my body and made sure my feet missed the ground-level ones. I inhaled and exhaled slowly, before reaching in and twisting wires until the pressure was enough that I could lift the scepter without tripping the alarm. Once it was free, I shoved it into my belt and slowly returned the glass case to its pedestal.
I kicked my feet up
quickly, and crawled feet first up the rope until Ryder grabbed me and set me down on my feet. “That wasn't the fucking deal,” he whispered heatedly.
“
No, but I could get to your stupid club, caveman, and
you
couldn’t. So I did. Get over it, Fairy. I came to help you guys, and we got what we came for,” I whispered back as I withdrew the wooden branch, err scepter thingy from my belt.
“
Good, hand it to me,” he said, holding out his hand for it.
I eyed it
uneasily for a moment, noticing it didn’t change as I held it. When I handed it to Ryder, I immediately felt butterflies of unease set in. I saw his eyes flash with anticipation as it changed from a solid branch of oak, into a beautiful, platinum staff that almost stood as tall as he did. A ruby that was bigger than my fist nestled in an elaborate platinum setting on the top of it. His hand wrapped around the staff, caressing it; much like he did my skin when we were alone.
“Why do I feel like I just handed you something that I shouldn’t have?” I asked.
His lips lifted into a grin. One that was a little too dark, and a little
too deadly for my taste. “Ristan, take Synthia back to the club, please. I’ll meet you there, Pet. I need to secure this where no one will find it.”
I narrowed my eyes on him, but he sifted out
, leaving me standing there angrily staring at the empty patch of the roof where he had just been.
“Flower,” Ristan said
, holding out his hand.
“Demon,” I replied.
“Shall we?” He asked as I curled my fingers into my hand.
“If I say no?”
I joked, knowing I didn’t really have a choice.
“Then I would take you back anyways. I like my women feisty
.”
Adrian was with me today.
Ryder had allowed him to come to the club to keep me busy. Ryder noticed the walls closing in around me, as I waited for him to turn up any information on my would-be assassin. Outside of the little field trip last night, I’d been kept inside, and it was driving me insane. I wasn’t as bothered by staying inside as I was by being idle. I wanted to be doing something helpful, and all I was doing inside was sitting and waiting. Waiting sucked. I'd tried not to let it show, but some of it must have, because Ryder had allowed my ex-boyfriend to come in and keep me company while he'd gone out to hunt today.
“
So, how are you adjusting?” Adrian asked from where he sat across the table.
We'd ended
up sitting at one of the many booths on the club’s ground level. The club looked abandoned in the early morning hours, and the only people inside were Ryder’s crew. Mazzy Star’s
Fade Into You
was playing softly over the club’s music system. “I'm adjusting,” I said as I lifted my eyes and met his vivid turquoise ones. My world used to revolve around those eyes, until he'd left me to think he was dead for years. I was tempted to confront him about his stretching the truth about the night he ‘died’ and the choices he’d made, but I wasn’t really ready to rip that scab open yet.
“
Cute fangs,” he said, smiling as he reached up to move his spiky bangs away from his bronzed skin.
I grinned impishly.
“I'm not going to say the same thing about yours.”
“
Didn't figure you would.” He smiled and licked his fang wickedly with his tongue.
“
You know you’re an ass, right?”
“
Always. You expected it to change?” he asked, raising a brow.
I smiled
softly and shook my head. I was glad he was here, and, yet, I felt uncomfortable under his close scrutiny. It wasn’t the same as it had been before, when we'd been together. “No, I always knew better than to think you’d change.” I grinned, and toyed with the tea bag in the glass mug that sat untouched before me.
Ryder had ordered the tea before he’d le
ft today. He had been a little overprotective since I had gotten sick back at the house, but I hadn’t had another bout of losing my cookies since that awful morning. I knew already that when I tasted it, it would be perfectly made. He knew exactly how I took my tea, and that worried me a little bit. I hadn’t drunk it around him before, so he shouldn’t have been able to figure out that I liked it with sugar. I brought the mug up, and inhaled the soothing chamomile. The light scent of sugar made my lips quirk up. I tasted it, and a smile broke across my face.
“
Wish it was me who brought that beautiful smile to your lips, Synthia. I'm thinking it wasn’t though,” Adrian said with a soft, comforting smile on his mouth.
“
He ordered my
tea
, right down to the two teaspoons of sugar,” I said as if he should know how it made me feel, or that I was a little worried that Ryder knew it.
Adrian gave me a confused stare for a moment
, before moving it to the glass mug. “You like tea?”
A smile tugged on my lips.
“And coffee,” I answered.
“
I knew you liked coffee; had no idea you liked tea though,” he replied as something behind me caught his eye. “We got company.”
I turned
, watching as Adam, his dad, and Ryder's men approached us. “Syn, this is my dad. He has a few things to talk to you about,” Adam said with a little more formality than I was used to from him.
I blinked.
I had no idea how to address a King, and Adam's father was just that. He was the freaking Dark King! “Uh,” I faltered. Even dressed like a human in jeans and a button down dark-green shirt, the man had a regal bearing and radiated power like a generator. His height and frame were exactly like Adam’s was now. However, his facial features, like the sky-blue and sapphire-blue two-toned eyes and blue-black hair that was much like Ryder’s, set them apart.
“
Synthia, it's a pleasure to meet you. I have heard nothing but good things about you from my son,” The Dark King said with a patient smile, and ancient eyes that probed my face.
“
I haven't heard much about you at all,” I replied honestly.
“
May I?” The Dark King asked, indicating a chair next to the booth we sat in. I watched him pull it closer, waiting for my answer.
“
Of course,” I replied, not sure which I wanted more at the moment—to run from the Dark King or to hug Adam. I met Adam's gaze and smiled. “You’re okay?”
“
I've been through hell, but I think I’ll be okay. You?”
“
Same, been through worse.”
He smiled
and nodded, before sliding into the booth next to me. Zahruk stood at my right with a guarded look in his eyes, which was doing little to ease the uneasiness I felt with in this group’s presence. Dristan was standing across the club, observing, and I wasn’t stupid. They were here to guard and protect me in Ryder’s absence.
“
There are a few things I would like to discuss with you, if that is permissible?” Dark King asked gently.
“
Okay,” I replied, straightening in my seat.
“
Ryder said that he believes you might be the Light Heir. Do you understand what that would entail?”
“
That I stand to rule the Light Fae, which won't happen.” I was
so
going to strangle Ryder for going against my wishes. If he reached out to the Light Fae too, there was gonna be some fried Fairy for dinner tonight.
“
You think it would be so easy to just say no?” he countered, folding his massive hands on the table in front of him.
“
No, but the current Queen is healthy, as is her King. I see no reason why I would be forced to claim the crown. They abandoned me. Oh, yeah—I heard the stories when I was in the Guild, that the Light Princess was stolen, but I don’t believe it. If I am her, they got rid of me because I'm more than likely illegitimate, since they have quite a few children they kept, and, personally, I'm okay with that.”
“
Your mother has been known to be unfaithful, and her king also has a wild streak.” He nodded as if it was nothing new.
“
The Light Fae are not a faithful caste. They think that they’re above tradition and above any other caste of Fae for that matter. To put it bluntly, they are self-absorbed asshats.”
He smiled and nodded
, before looking past me to Adam. “I see why you like her, my son. She is blunt and doesn't play with words. Straight to the point, and doesn’t beat the bushes.”
Adam smiled and grabbed my hand softly. I beamed at him
and noticed something was missing in his eyes. He was the same Adam I'd grown up with, but he'd lost the innocence he'd had. Maybe we all had after losing Larissa. I prayed that he would be able to come back from this. I missed my wisecracking best friend.
“
If I may, I'd like to explain some of our traditions, politics, and a bit of history so you can better understand my true purpose here today. I am not sure how much you have learned from Ryder and his men over the past few weeks; however, Adam has been going through an intense crash course in everything he missed out on since he has been gone. If our speculations are correct, it is important to bring you as up to speed as fast as we can.” The Dark King took a deep breath before he continued. “Synthia, if you are the Light Heir, it stands to reason that you’ll gain the crown. Normally, children of royal families in Faery are betrothed early in life, and some even before birth.”
I nodded.
“I believe you met Adam, and he became your familiar, at one of the Harvest Festivals. It's a huge celebration held on Samhain where truce is declared, and all castes of Fae come together for a few days to celebrate the birth of new children, riches, and other developing things such as strength of a realm. At least it makes sense that you and my Adam became linked there, based on everything I have heard about you and your history.”
“
Why would she take me there if she planned on ditching me?” I interrupted, pointing out the obvious.
“
I don’t think your mother did. She has many children. I think she wouldn’t have cared who the father was, but I do think if the Light Heir was birthed of another caste, the Light King would have wanted you gone immediately. You see, an Heir is first identified when a Fae child of royal birth begins using magic at a very early age, usually under the age of one. Most Fae children do not begin showing magic until they are older, about ten or so. You can feel the magic’s presence within Fae children, but they are unable to use it until they are a little older. She may have intended to keep you, as she has done with her other illegitimate children, until you showed signs of being the Heir. Once that happened, they would have wanted your death at the first opportunity. Placing you in a human setting would have assured that you would perish without having the blood of their child on their hands. Or it should have; but the people who raised you, took certain steps to keep you thriving, which the Light King couldn’t have counted on. I think when he found out you hadn't died, he sent those Fae in to kill you.”
The hair
on the back of my neck stood up. “Because another heir wouldn't be born until I was dead.”
H
e smiled. “Smart as well. Impressive. Not many born outside of our world would have put that together.”
“
I've spent a large part of my life learning anything I could to kill those who killed my parents.”
“
I don’t blame you for that. I do blame the Light King, as his actions stole Adam from us as well. He disappeared from his bedroom one night—one minute he was there, and the next he was gone. The pain you felt had to have been tremendous for you to take him. It breached the barrier of Faery to bring him to you, and could have killed him at that age. It would be easy to blame you, but you were no more than an infant yourself at the time.”
I watched him
, and nodded as he continued.
“
You must keep in mind that we knew Adam was our heir. He showed promise from the beginning when he began bursts of controlled, deliberate magic at seven months of age; anything from materializing toys to summoning his mother if he was peckish.” The Dark King chuckled at the memory, and Adam looked slightly embarrassed. “I knew he'd become a familiar to one of the children in attendance at the Harvest Festival about twenty one of your human years ago, but it would have been impossible to pinpoint which one with the hundreds of children that are brought to the Harvest.”
“
Fae like to fuck each other over, so I'm going to take a gander, and say that this festival is more a look-see to figure out who they wanted to dish out trickery the most to that year.” He smiled as a sparkle similar to one Adam often had lit in his eyes.
“
That would be spot on my dear. We do love to play games. As it was, after Adam disappeared, we searched, but we just couldn’t find him. I never stopped looking for him because the chances that he'd sustained injury from sifting at such a young age were very high, and we refused to believe that it killed him. He was so small when he disappeared, almost ten in human years when he went missing, and I knew it had to be one of the other heirs who had claimed him. We kept it very quiet, only family and trusted servants who were sworn to secrecy knew he was gone. The last thing we wanted was to jeopardize his safety by announcing that my heir was somewhere out there unprotected. The Blood King was in attendance that year, as was your mother. Light was the most sensible option, since the Blood King is alpha, only surpassed in strength by the Horde King who normally chooses to skip the Harvest,” he said, watching my face.
“
Why would the Horde not attend when they have more strength than the other castes? It would stand to reason he'd want to get in on the games that would be played.”
“
The Horde doesn't need to play games. The Horde is more inclined to stand back and watch as we destroy ourselves. He knows he can take any caste down, so no reason to see who is coming up when he knows he can easily tear them down.”
“
Why couldn’t I be Horde? I’d take them any day over the Light Fae,” I asked, striking one caste off the list. Out of the castes I had to choose from, the Horde was the only one that accepted everyone. Ryder had said as much anyway, and, right now, they were looking like the one in which I’d fit in best.
“
You have a remarkable resemblance to the Light Queen, but not the Horde. The other option was that you could be from the Blood Fae, but the only female infant of royal birth born around that time died. She was given funeral rites at the second Harvest of her life. Her parents would not speak to anyone that year and handled everything through emissaries. I did, in fact, see the small darling before she was given funeral rites and entombed.”
“
So, not only is it a celebration, but they also bury their dead at the Harvest?” I asked, letting the curious little monster inside of me out to play.