“Clear,” Ristan said, as a series of whistles pierced the wind.
We dismounted, and the men from the wagons began to set up camp once more. I walked beside Ryder and Ristan and the rest of the men as we headed toward the small spring to water the horses. That was where everything changed.
The men continued to talk to each other, seemingly unaware of what was happening. Silas was close behind us with his own horse, and the men had fallen in behind as they always did. Our backs were never left exposed, or unguarded.
“The horse, it needs water,” Ryder said, and his eyes flashed sideways to me.
“That’s why we’re walking them to the water,” I replied. Maybe being on the horses so long had rattled his brain.
“Water, yes,” he replied.
I glanced at the others, who were carrying on varying conversations with each other. None of them made a lick of sense. It wasn’t until Ristan said something that made me go on alert.
“This isn’t right,” he muttered as his skin turned from ivory, to crimson red. I caught a glimpse of fangs, peeking from under his upper lip. “Something is off,” he continued, his eyes flashing as he took in each male.
I smiled at Ryder, who was smiling gently at me. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
Sevrin was smiling at Savlian, and when I looked over my shoulder, I blinked in confusion. Something was very off here, and my stomach was sinking with apprehension with every step I took.
I turned to look at Ryder, who was walking beside me, and caught his eyes flashing with a yellow tint that Ryder didn’t normally have. His eyes were gold, amber, or black. Never yellow. Ristan met my eyes and shook his head.
“Flower,” he whispered, barely audible.
“Demon,” I replied back.
“Duck!” he shouted as he pulled his swords, and swiftly took the head from Ryder’s shoulders. I felt my knees buckle, as everything inside of me went numb with disbelief. Ristan had just decapitated Ryder.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I ducked as Ristan swung his sword in the direction of the next man standing closest to me. The moment his blade pierced Vlad’s heart, I screamed. I cried out as I tried to pull magic around me to take out the Demon. He’d stabbed Vlad! He’d killed my fucking Fairy! Why was it my magic had to leave me now? Screw the trial and not using magic, I was going to kill him. The Demon had fucking lost it!
I felt bile rise in my throat as everything inside of me shook with rage. I was unarmed and my brands either failed to notice I was in danger, or were inactive within the strange barrier. Tears burned in my eyes as I tried to summon the strength to stop the Demon before he could kill anyone else.
I couldn’t move, even though I wanted to take him out. I needed to get away from him, and yet I couldn’t make myself stop screaming. I needed to protect my unborn children from the Demon from hell. Yet, I couldn’t stop crying and screaming with rage so deep and foreign that I’d thought I would sink to the depths of despair from it.
I screamed until I thought my own ears would bleed, and it wasn’t until I caught sight of Ryder over Ristan’s shoulder about a hundred yards away that I stopped. Ryder stood with the rest, separated from us by what looked like an invisible barrier. His hands were pressed against it, with a look of horror on his beautiful face—his beautiful alive face.
I turned and looked at Ristan, who was preparing to go after the others on our side of the barrier with those wicked looking blades he was wielding. They were over three and a half feet long and double bladed. I had never even dreamed of such a thing. He’d know it wasn’t Ryder; not the real one, anyway. My heart still raced as my mind focused on those golden eyes.
I moved closer to Ristan, but made sure to stay out of swinging distance. He swung his blade at the fake Savlian and continued killing until only Sevrin was left. He pulled his blade back high in the air, and sent it sailing like a missile toward his target—but it disappeared in mid-air. He pulled his hand back and looked to where he had aimed the sword, and his bare hand. The blades were both gone now, as were the bodies that had littered the ground.
I moved quickly to stand beside him, feeling the air grow thick with the electrical fuzz that came with power. I watched in disbelief as Sevrin changed from a huge brunette male, into a petite raven haired beauty with piercing ice blue eyes. The woman was dressed in a white silk top that showed off her midriff, and matching pants that hung low on her small hips.
The look on Ristan’s face was warring between lust, anger, and reverence all at once. He had his eyes locked on the woman before us. His skin faded from crimson to its normal color once again.
“Do you see her, Syn?” Ristan asked softly.
“Yes,” I replied, not sure what I should do. Ristan was looking like he was about to go beast mode and jump her—hungrily. I was pretty sure we’d left Kansas on a tornado, and this was one of the Witches we should be trying to avoid. He, on the other hand was not necessarily thinking as I was.
“Do not look so surprised, Ristan,” the woman said in a low seductive voice.
“Danu,” he whispered.
“I told you that I would come when needed, oh ye of little faith,” she smiled, and I found myself wanting to touch her.
“I have faith, Danu, but I’m not sure it’s always well placed.”
Oh hell no. I shook my head to dispel the urge.
“Where have you brought us?” he asked.
“To the maze of warriors,” she replied easily. “Or, as the Dark Fae of old called it, the labyrinth.”
“We came for the relic,” Ristan pointed out.
“You think I wouldn’t know that? I’m the one who brought you here. Ryder has proven himself with his deeds. He has proven, over and over again, how far he will go to heal Faery. He passed his last test when he gave her away to another Fae, just because he thought she was the Light Heir and that he was fulfilling the prophecy. You, my Demon, have yet to show me how far you will go, but that’s not why I brought you here. She chose you as her bodyguard; I brought you because you know me. You will see her through this and ensure that she wins,” she said as she sifted close to Ristan, and ran a thin hand over his cheek.
“Let Synthia go back to the others. She’s pregnant. She has nothing to do with this,” Ristan said, finally finding his inner Demon again.
“She has everything to do with this. The lives of her children depend on it,” she said simply.
“This isn’t her damn fight!”
“Then all is lost. She is only part of the cure for Faery. The other players have yet to be put into the game. Sorcha needs to find her place, and make her heart belong to Faery. She has yet to accept what she is, and still fights me. She feels the power I have bestowed upon her, and she refuses to open up and allow it to come out. She is a born leader, and a warrior queen. I’m in the fiber of her being, as surely as I am a part of Faery. I set the events in motion that made her who she is, and now it is up to her to accept me so she can find what she needs to be.”
“Will my children live?” I asked, not messing around with words.
“I can’t tell you that yet. If I did, you’d stop fighting. I need you to fight, Sorcha. I need you to play your part in saving my world. I can do a lot of things, but I can’t directly interfere with saving this world. That has to be a choice that my creations fight for. I chose you before you were even born. I make destinies, but you are right about one thing, Sorcha; you choose what you can handle and what you can’t. You choose which path you take to get to the end. But in the end, you are where destiny wanted you to be,” she said and winked. “And you got all that without having to eat funky brownies or wear a badass headdress. Although, personally I think I’d look pretty wicked in one.”
“I need to know if they live,” I stated, tired of word games.
“I know you do,” she said and stepped back away from us. She materialized Ristan’s swords and tossed them at his feet. “You have five hours to find the exit of the maze. Fo
r every wrong turn, a challenge will be issued. You will receive one grace, and then for each challenge you fail, someone from your group awaiting you outside the labyrinth, will die. Should you fail, you die,” she blew a kiss to Ristan, and with that, she sifted out.
“Wait! When will we get to the actual relic?” I screamed, but only the sound of my voice echoing off the trees in the forest was heard.
“She is always so fucking beautiful,” Ristan said absently. “Those blonde curls,” he whispered.
Blonde curls? “You mean black?”
“She has blonde hair, with the greenest eyes I’ve ever beheld,” he said, narrowing his eyes on me.
“Uh, black hair and blue eyes,” I said and narrowed my eyes.
“That’s what you saw?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“She is beautiful.”
“She’s deadly, very deadly,” I said, ignoring that she had appeared to him in a different form.
“That’s one thing we can agree on, Flower. She was pushing a tremendous amount of power at us,” he said, and turned to look at Ryder. I watched his face before I turned to look at Ryder, too. He was staring at Ristan, and I realized with clarity that they were discussing what had just gone down.
“What is he saying?” I asked, watching as those golden eyes slid from Ristan, to me. There was a look of helplessness in them that I wanted to wipe away.
“That if I allow anything to hurt you, I will be singing soprano,” he sighed, and looked me in the eye, “and then he will kill me.”
“Oh.” I snorted and looked at Ryder with a small smile lifting my lips. “I’ll be okay,” I sent to him, hoping he could hear it through the mental link.
“Be safe, Pet. Stick close to the Demon,” he sent back. “Come back to me,” he finished, as I gave him a small smile, and blew him a kiss.
I’d thought I’d lost him for a minute. It had been the worst minute of my entire life. I’d lost a lot that I’d lived through, but it wasn’t until I thought I’d lost him, that I’d known some of the most unimaginable pain in my life, and it had cut deep and quick.
“I thought you killed him,” I whispered through tears that still clung to my throat.
“I knew it wasn’t him. They were the guardians of the labyrinth and the first test. I didn’t have time to warn you; not with the odds being in their favor,” he said as he pulled me close and turned me toward the cave, the start of the labyrinth. “We need to get moving. If Danu has been playing with the old Dark King’s maze, we could kill half the people outside that barrier by the time we figure it out.”
“I thought you knew her?” I asked.
“She’s a sadistic bitch who loves to fuck with me. She gets off on trying to find new and inventive ways to screw with me,” he said tightly.
“Nice. Does she scramble the brain cells as well?” I asked sarcastically.
“And then some,” he replied.
We continued walking toward the cave in front of us. I turned one last time and looked at Ryder, who watched us as we slipped out of sight, into the labyrinth.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
We walked slowly into the cave, and before we got very far into whatever hell Danu had planned for us, Ristan stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.
“Here,” he said, handing me one of several short swords from beneath his cloak. “Now just because I’m letting you touch my sword and play with it, Flower, doesn’t mean we’re dating and shit. Don’t go getting the wrong impression here. I like my balls. Ryder would be having them for dinner if he thought there was something going on between us. Now, I know the lure of a Demon is strong, but this shit between us? It’s platonic. I like you, and even though the allure of swapping spit between us is appealing, fight it.”
“Seriously, Demon, you’re so full of it,” I said, shaking my head as he grinned from ear to ear.
“C’mon, admit it. You like me,” he said as he also handed me a dagger, and we started walking further into the maze.
“Oh I like you, but I like you better from a safe distance,” I replied with a wide grin.
“Come on, admit it, you want me.”
“Dream on, Demon,” I said. “So what’s between you and the Goddess?”
He growled, which caused me to give him a sideways glance. “It’s complicated.”
“You don’t say.” I smiled and looked around the colorful, glittery cave that surrounded us. It looked like something from a movie.
“She wants me to submit to her, and I don’t want to. I can’t say no, either. She has too much power, and yet if I say no, I could jeopardize everything Ryder has worked for. Everything we have worked for. You have no idea how much power she has, and how much shit she could cause for us. She fucks with me just because she can. About a century, or so ago, she took over the body of a female I was feeding on, and she has been doing it randomly ever since. One minute, I am in control of the feeding, and the next she is. Some people have to check their food to make sure it is fresh; I have to make sure mine hasn’t been hijacked. I have to have control. It is very important to me, because if I’m not in control, my partners can die. Trust me, it is tempting to submit. The sex is amazing. But those who submit to her that way; well, let’s just say it never ends well for them.”
“That’s harsh,” I said as we walked carefully between massive stalactites and stalagmites that almost touched each other. As we passed through the giant formations, the cave led out to green pillars of shrubbery on both sides that veered sharply to the left, indicating we were now in the maze. “So she wants you as a boy toy then?”
“You could say that. She doesn’t allow me to form attachments to women either. The moment it turns to anything more than just feeding, they die. I can’t prove it’s her, but why else would a fully Transitioned Fae woman just die without any signs of sickness?”
“And you are sure you haven’t drained their souls?” I asked. I had heard Demons fed from souls, and if they fully fed and gorged on one, there would be no coming back from it. There would also be no rebirth, either.
“I’m careful when I feed, Flower. I learned that lesson long ago. The hard way. I also wasn’t feeding when these women died. Danu has been forcing the issue a lot more lately. I’m not sure why, or how to handle it. Not sure why I am telling you this either,” he said, glancing at me sideways.
“Because we’re friends, Demon. It’s what friends do; they listen to problems and help find a solution,” I chimed in and threw him a cheeky smile.
“Hmm...Most people don’t like or trust Demons,” he replied easily.
“I haven’t met any other Demons to form an opinion, and you have to admit that Demons don’t exactly have a good reputation. But you, you’ve grown on me like a fungus.” I smiled when he snorted emphatically. “Most feed to kill. You don’t. You’re different, and while I planned on hating you, I decided I should pick my battles wisely. I’ve been wrong about a lot of things. Like Ryder…I never planned to be here with his children planted in my body…making me fat. And yet, here I am, walking through a maze in Faery, pregnant with his twins, fighting for a world I would have gladly helped destroy only a few months ago.”
“Life is funny like that, I guess. One minute you know what needs to be done, and the next you are fighting against things you never saw coming,” Ristan said, and I had a feeling he was referring to the visions he was given.
“Do you think she gives you the vision as a gift, or as a curse?”
“A curse. Definitely a curse, because half the time she feeds me visions that piss off the guard, and even though they are accurate, I am sure those are just to fuck with me. The other ones, however—I think those are honestly ones she gives me to save Faery. She can’t help or interfere directly, so she helps in other ways,” he replied. “Mostly by setting events in to motion and letting freewill take over. The vision she sent me of you handing Adam one of your children, set in motion Ryder sacrificing you for Faery—yes, I noticed she mentioned th
at Ryder had done that, so it was part of her scheme to show how much he was willing to sacrifice his own wants for the needs of Faery. Let’s see, what else? You being taken into the Blood Realm to be returned to your parents to discover that you were the Blood Princess, and then handed off to the Horde King. Do you know Ryder almost killed me when I shared that vision? But that is pretty typical of how she gets her way, fucks with my head and still abides by the rules,” he grumbled.
“I couldn’t imagine seeing what you do, and remaining sane.”
“Who says I’m sane?” he quipped with a wicked smile.
“Okay, mostly sane,” I amended.
“Shit,” Ristan said, coming to a dead stop at the first directional divide. The path was a three way divide, and there was a thin piece of vellum on the lush green grass that had a few words scrawled on it. He picked it up gingerly. “Riddles, I hate fucking riddles,” Ristan growled and shook his dark head. “Why couldn’t she have sent a minotaur, or maybe David Bowie and a bunch of Muppets to mess with us?”
“Probably because that’s what you would be expecting?” I ventured as he nodded absently.
“The left is but a vision of pleasure. The right is just a vision of horror. The third is the easiest of the three. Choose wisely, for only one will take you in the direction of which you seek to go,” he read from the vellum.
“It’s written on spell paper?” I asked as my fingers itched to touch the vellum.
“Yes, it’s written on spell paper because even now your fingers twitch to touch it.” He pointed at my hands, and sure enough, they were itching to grab the magical paper.
“Sneaky bastard,” I griped.
“Sneaky Goddess is more like it,” he replied as he placed the paper back on the ground. “So, pleasure, horror, or the easy way?” he asked.
“Horror,” I replied after a moment of hesitation.