I felt his eyes watching me before I fully woke up. He was leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest as he watched me sleep. I sat up slowly, sensing he was going to talk about what had occurred with Adam and his father this morning. As he continued to stare at me, my heart flipped once before it shattered inside my chest. He was going to choose Faery over fighting for me.
“
I need you to know that if there was another way, I’d take it in a fucking heartbeat, Synthia. The fact of the matter is…right now, this is all we have to work with. I need help finding a few more relics which, when secured, will help heal the land, and allow it to help the child you will give birth to.” He stopped as if saying it tasted foul on his tongue. “It will help the child that you and Adam have,” he paused, and closing his eyes so briefly that I wasn’t sure I had seen it, “bond with the land,” he finished painfully.
“
You think the same thing that they do?” I asked, carefully schooling my emotions. I wanted to scream and cry, deny that I’d go. In the end, we both knew the truth.
“
Unfortunately, yes. It’s what Ristan has seen. He has shown it to me. You give Adam a child; a son.”
“
So, you expect me to just go along with it?” I snarled, tired of everyone telling me what to do. I wanted him! I blinked at the realization that I wanted to stay with Ryder. I swallowed the cry that tried to gain passage from my lips. I was so stupid. He had a harem of women waiting for him, and here I was…falling for him. Stupid heart! Stupid emotions! Why did they always showed up too late to be useful?
“
There’s something Ristan needs to show you. After that, you can decide on what’s the right thing to do, Synthia,” Ryder said softly.
Ristan ma
terialized by the door a moment later, as if he’d been waiting for Ryder to just say the words. His demeanor was sad and uncharacteristic of his normally smartass-self. “Syn,” he said softly, bowing his head to me slightly. His patterned eyes said what his lips would never say, ‘I’m sorry’.
I watched him walk over to the bed and sit beside me. He held out his hand as if he expected me to accept it.
“What?” I asked, unsure of his motives, or if I wanted to actually see what he would show me. It was so much easier to walk away, oblivious to what was happening around us, but knowing could set me on a path I didn’t want to walk.
“
Synthia, allow him to show you what you would fix,” Ryder said, still leaning against the wall with his face now hidden in the shadows.
I placed my hand
inside Ristan’s much larger one and met his swirling gaze. “Beam me up, Scotty,” I whispered, terrified of what I was now bound to see.
“
Remember, it’s only a projection and no one will know we are there, Flower.”
One minute we were in
the bedroom, and the next we were standing in a large medical facility. It looked like something from an apocalyptic movie. Women sobbed as they held lifeless infants against their breasts, men watched them with helpless defeat marked on their brows. Healers and their assistants looked around, hopeless, while infants wailed from small makeshift cribs. Death hung on the air, holding close for the next victim to pass away.
“
Why is this happening to Faery? The Mages? Why aren’t the healers doing anything?” I asked, turning to find Ristan watching me closely.
“
There’s nothing they can do, Syn. Our world is rejecting them because it’s been poisoned. The Fae who were injected with iron…same sort of thing was done with Faery. She’s dying now, and the infants and children perish because the land can no longer welcome them. The visions I get—well—they show the heir’s giving birth to the next generations of heirs—one’s who can bond to the world and start healing it from the inside out. The Mages poisoned it, and Danu will not assist us in healing it unless we make the first move. By going with Adam, you would be doing what is necessary for this world to begin healing. You can stop this, Synthia. I had, at one point, thought you were against us, or some sort of distraction to throw Ryder off his goal, and that was why I couldn’t see your future. Now, I know it’s because you are a part of the cure, and Danu made me wait until the time was right to see your future.”
“
This is crazy. This is happening now?” I asked, unable to take my eyes away from the horrifying scene in front of us.
Ristan shook his head and grabbed my hand. No longer
were we inside the medical pavilion; we stood in a forest surrounded by ancient oak trees. “This is the heart of Faery,” he said, when I looked at him.
I moved from him
, looking all around us at the ancient dying trees. I turned as I felt Ristan’s hand reach for mine, and, once again, he sifted us somewhere else. This place took my breath away. Water covered the ground and, even though we stood above it, you could feel it on your flesh. Moisture completely saturated the air, creating a pureness from its beauty. A thousand tiny fireflies lit up the night sky, as smaller ones covered the trees, giving them a luminescent glow.
“
It’s beautiful,” I whispered holding my hand out for one of the many flying bugs.
“
I wouldn’t do that; they bite,” Ristan said, acting as if he was shooing the small creature away. It wasn’t a bug; it was a Fairy.
They were trying to heal the land. Thousands of them worked together to protect the ancient forest
, but they were fighting a losing battle. “I can fix this by marrying Adam,” I whispered through thick tears that tightened my throat.
“
You can, but you’d have to let Ryder go, Syn. It’s not going to be easy for either of you. He is trying to walk away. You need to let him go, so that he can do it. This is going to hurt you both, but, eventually, both of you are going to do the right thing for both worlds.”
No, it wouldn’t
be easy. I didn’t know if I could do this. Not even to save one world from dying. I wasn’t a selfish person, but Adam? Marry Adam to save the world. Okay, it wasn’t the whole marry Adam part that got me…it was the produce an heir part…sex with Adam. It was laughable. We were as close as siblings, or at least on my end we were.
“
You’re asking a lot. You are asking me to sleep with someone that I’ve considered a brother for most of my life. I’d be giving up my life for your world, Ristan. One that didn’t want me.”
“
I know, but I also know it’s not inside of you to just walk away. You cured the dying in the medical ward because you were tired of death; tired of being unable to save people you cared about. Imagine what would happen if the entire Fae race was to descend upon the human world. Only one percent of our world has left for Earth so far, and billions more would make the jump if they had no choice but to do it in order to live. Would you stand by and allow that to happen if you could help us stop it?”
“
No, but you guys knew that. Ryder knew what choice I would make if I saw this. It’s why he had you bring me here. Dirty. Plain and simple, Ristan. You just took my choice away from me. Bravo, now take me back.” It was the truth. Those faces of the dying would haunt me if I chose to walk away. I’d see them in my nightmares, and every moment of the day. They’d known. So, to make my choice, they’d brought me here to show me, up close and personal, what I would be walking away from.
“
We knew, yes. We had to have you see what was happening, so you would understand why we are doing what we have to. This isn’t something that would go away for either of you. We came to your world to find the heirs, secure the relics, and gain a foothold against the Mages. You’ve already helped us in that department. It’s not fair of us to ask more, but it’s also not fair for us to walk away when we can ask you to help stop this.”
“I just need to know what makes you so sure that I’m the Light Heir, that I’m the
Heir that the prophecy spoke of. Don’t these types of visions have to be interpreted anyway?” I was grasping at straws, I knew it, but I had to try. Ristan nodded solemnly.
“Yes
, they do normally, but it isn’t exactly easy since often the vision is the path that we need to take to get to the solution. Sometimes, what is shown, gets us to the solution; just not the way we thought we would get there.”
“How so?”
Demon lingo was making my brain itch with more questions than I had intended to ask. He didn’t seem to have a simple answer.
“Well, most recently, I had a vision of you and your friends in a late morning setting, in front of a crowd of dancers
in a courthouse. You saw Arianna there and became violently ill at whatever you had witnessed. That vision fast forwarded, and I could only see a flash of the newspaper headline of the Guild being cleared in the attack on the club. I could not see what you did at that moment, but I knew that, even though we did not understand what the Light Fae end-game was with Arianna, the vision told me that I had to free you from the mansion, so that we could get to the bottom of what it was. I also had hoped to do so before Ryder tore the Guild down seeking revenge.” Ristan closed his eyes and did a little mock-shudder. “When I saw her on the ballroom floor after you used her for target practice, I knew what the vision meant. Before that one, I had a vision of the newspaper announcing that Ryder offered a marriage contract to the recently recovered Light Heir who had been named Arianna. Then the vision flipped, fast forwarding a short time frame later, and showed Ryder and Kier together in the foyer of the mansion. He had an expression of wonder on his face as he felt the paternal-bond clicking into place when the true Dark Heir was returned to him. I knew our goals, and I knew that Ryder wasn’t the Dark Heir, and I knew that the only missing Light Princess was named Caitlín. So when the Light Fae approached Kier and offered him the missing princess, who was going by her adoptive name of Arianna—well, you know what we did after that. I never saw Adam in the vision with Kier and Ryder, and you and I both know that it happened just as I described it, Flower.”
“What would you have done if you were wrong, if you’d misinterpreted the vision?” I couldn’t help but ask since it was my life that was now riding on his visions.
“Fortunately for Ryder, some Fae engagements can last a really long time. The visions always led us to where we are supposed to be. It’s the journey that can get challenging and often times it takes a while before we understand Danu’s overall plan. I know we are asking you to put your faith in something that is really outside of your comfort zone and frame of reference, but this can’t continue, and you know deep down that this is the right thing to do. You’re a gentle soul, even if you do bite sometimes, Flower. We already know that you do the right thing here, because I’ve seen it.”
I glared at him before sighing. He was right, this couldn’t go on. I was smart enough to understand that what I was seeing was the truth. Faery was dying, and with it, so too would the human world
when they made the jump. They fed from us...err, humans. It was a no brainer to guess what would happen when that came to pass. “And the relics Ryder needed?”
“
We still need them. Ryder was hoping you’d help us find them before your marriage to Adam, but time is short. Your womb clock is ticking. The Dark King will demand you go to him, so that you can be prepped for your role in our world. Ryder will no doubt be able to work a deal with him as to your involvement in helping us find the lost relics. Adam will be needed as well.”
“
Take me back to Ryder, please.”
Ristan’s projection faded
, and we found Ryder sitting on the bed beside us, his head resting in his hands. He looked up as we came back to ourselves and our surroundings. Pain was carving out my chest, making the path ready for my heart to be ripped out with the decision I would make. I’d lose him; my beautiful golden-eyed Fairy. “Leave us please, Ristan,” I whispered.
Ryder lifted his tortured gaze up to me
et mine from where I sat next to him. He swallowed and tried to look away, as if the sight of me brought him pain. “You saw it. What is your decision?”
“
You,” I whispered brokenly. “My choice will always be you, Ryder.” I sat up and captured his face between my hands, forcing him to look at me.
“
Synthia, sometimes what we want, and what we have to do just don’t align, and we have to do what is right. I have been doing my best to stay on my path, and follow the fucking rules, except with you. When it came to you, I couldn’t leave it alone. Couldn’t do what was right and just fucking walk away. You weren’t something I could have ever prepared for. Your sassy mouth.” His eyes locked with mine as his arms pulled me closer. “Your devotion to those you love, Pet. You are the most selfless person I have ever met. Your soul, while it may be stained, is pure and beautiful.”
“
Did you fall for me, Ryder? The sassy mouthed little Witch, who drove you crazy?” I joked, but his eyes held no humor.
“
No, I didn’t fall in love with you,” he whispered, and my heart shattered a little more.
“
Good, because that would probably make leaving you impossible,” I whispered, and started to pull away from him. He didn’t allow it. Instead, he pulled me closer until I had no choice but to straddle to his lap. “Ryder,” I shook my head, fighting the tears that threatened to fall.