“Zahruk, second son of Alazander, do you pledge your life to protect your king? Would you follow him willingly into battle to protect the Horde?” The Priest asked.
“Without thinking twice,” he replied with a wicked little smirk on his face for the entire crowd to see.
“Ryder, you kneel before me and accept this crown and the responsibilities that come with it. Danu has chosen you as her Heir, the King of the Horde. Follow my lead and give us your pledge, and accept this crown as a symbol of the bond you will share with your people.”
“I will,” Ryder said, still on his knees.
“Do you take this crown, and vow to protect this land and its people from harm?”
“I take this crown, and vow to protect this land and its people.”
“In times of war, do you vow to defend your people until your last dying breath?”
“I vow to protect them even in my death,” Ryder growled. The crowd gave wild hoots of encouragement at his words.
“Do you vow to give back to this land, for which you take?”
“If I take from this land, I will plant new seeds, I will replenish what we need, and in doing so, always protect the interest of this land. No harm shall befall Faery, or the Horde Kingdom from my hand, or any other under my rule.”
“Then with Danu’s blessing, I crown you Ryder, first born son and Danu’s chosen warrior heir, with this crown you are King of the Unseelie, and the Horde alike. Rise as the King, and face your people.”
The entire room erupted into boisterous cheers as Ryder faced them as their newly crowned king. The crown changed as it formed to Ryder’s head. Gemstones of amber formed in the front as black onyx and ruby appeared behind them. It was beautiful and mysterious, everything that Ryder was.
I turned my head a little and found Cornelius watching me and it was unnerving. The crowd started to disburse as people drifted to the open doors of the hall. Some went outside for fresh air, as others went to the hall where refreshments were served. People moved around freely as music started up from across the room. People started mingling, and soon couples started moving toward the dance floor that had been glamoured with decorations.
“He gives me the creeps,” I said quietly after a quick glance showed me he was still staring at me.
“Cornelius has considerable strength, but he needs Ryder as bad as we need his alliance. He has some pretty powerful connections as well.” Ristan mused.
“So do I,” I mused and caught Ristan regarding me with a curious look. “Hey, I have half of Spokane that owes me for saving their asses.”
“I bet you do,” he said as we headed into the room where dancing had started up. It was a celebration set to last for the entire night. We were on the outside of the people dancing so it was easier for the men to guard me. Adam came strolling up with a smile from ear to ear.
“Wanna shake shit up?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
“I’d say they need a new DJ, and a couple dance lessons,” Adrian stated as he and Vlad came in from the same direction we had.
“We can’t dance to this,” I said as the weird sounding song continued to cut through the room. It had no beat, and the Fae looked more like they needed a room as they slow danced.
Ristan smiled and snapped his fingers, and the song changed to OneRepublic’s Counting Star’s. Many of the Fae immediately departed the dance floor, and I smiled. Idiots wouldn’t know a good song if it slapped them all upside the head.
“Might need to liven it up with a music war,” Ristan mused from beside me.
I knew they’d done music wars at Sidhe Darklands, where Fae would ‘fight’ by changing the songs just like Ristan had and the winner was determined by cheers, but this was Faery, and music from the human world wasn’t something that everyone here liked. Many still held on to the old ways as was apparent from the music that sounded like bagpipes and other ancient instruments.
I moved to stay within sight of Ryder, as Adrian and Adam started dancing on either side of me, both smiling, or more to the point, goofing off as we used to do. It was how we’d used to relieve stress after a mission. It wasn’t long before Adrian had pulled Meriel out onto the dance floor, and I saw Adam was dancing with Darynda. I saw Keeley and Faelyn off to the side dancing with each other as they cast glances to the males around us, hoping that one of them would cut in and dance with them.
I smiled until my face hurt as we danced to the songs Ristan picked. Soon, we had a lot more of the Fae out dancing as we were. Which, let’s just say we all looked like idiots bobbing our heads and shaking it to the beat.
I caught sight of Ryder smiling at me as I danced between Adrian and Adam. He shook his head, but something beyond his shoulder caught my eye and it left me breathless, in a bad way. Danu was behind him, her eyes on me as she nodded her head and looked around the room.
Sinjinn and Silas were making their way toward Ryder with urgency marked in their stride. I looked around and back at the direction they had come from. Nothing. Danu walked in my direction as I came to a standstill.
“Time to choose,” she whispered with a crooked smile on her full red lips, before she moved to stand behind Adrian.
No one else seemed to notice her presence. Ryder shouted out orders in that language that I still couldn’t understand, and as I turned to look in his direction—everything happened at once.
Adrian and Adam were both thrown across the room as if someone had just picked them up and tossed them away. Screams erupted as Ristan grabbed hold of me, and began moving swiftly toward Ryder as he shouted out urgent orders to those around us in the same language Ryder had just used.
I knew it was useless.
They couldn’t stop what was coming.
Ristan was still shouting directions as he moved when he slammed into an invisible barrier that knocked us both back.
“Fuck, they blocked us,” Ristan growled as his eyes searched and found Ryder’s. They were doing their little mind to mind thing when Ristan’s eyes flashed and swirled red. Before I could process what was happening, he crushed me against himself as he wrapped his body around mine.
Something sounded like it exploded, or had inside the invisible bubble we were in. Ristan’s body shook, and he gasped out a curse of pain as his body absorbed the impact. I felt something pull against my skin, like something was trying to bite it. Ristan lifted my chin; his hand tugged at Ryder’s necklace and pulled it free. “Flower,” he whispered.
“It’s going to be okay, Ristan,” I whispered back through hot tears.
It wasn’t okay.
Everything was moving fast, but I felt as if it was in slow motion. I could see Zahruk battling Fae that wore the colors of the Blood Kingdom with a long sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. Dristan, Sinjinn, and the rest of the guard were also engaging Fae in similar colors. Across the hall, I could see Vlad and Adrian fighting with swords and their fangs were out, mouth bloody as they fought.
Ryder, had gone into full Horde King form, and was battling to get to me. I saw him pick up one of the Blood Fae with his magic and literally ripped the male apart. There was something else there other than the Blood Fae combatants that the men were seeking.
Even now, I could see the men shifting, turning to beast. Zahruk had become a hound, the same one who had nipped at my heels at the hunt. Other’s turned easily, including Silas who had become a growling wolf with blood red eyes.
There had to be Mages outside of the bubble that held Ristan and me that must have been wearing some sort of camouflage or invisibility glamour, and the men were fighting against them to get to us. I could hear no sound. The only noise was my heart pounding in my ears, and Ristan’s against mine as he used his body to save me from something I couldn’t see.
I felt tears in my eyes as something wet and sticky spread across my stomach. No! Not the babies. Danu, now! Nothing happened. Ristan made a sound of pain, and pushed me toward the invisible barrier with a force that shocked me.
&
nbsp; His black armor was dripping with blood from thousands of cuts to it. I thought nothing could get through that armor. My lips quivered with an idea of what had happened. I looked down, and none of it was my blood. “No!” I screamed. Something was here, inside the bubble with us, and we couldn’t see it.
Ristan looked like he was being stabbed. His body was jerked one way, and then another. I moved closer, but he held up his hand and shouted. “Stay back, Syn, spell,” he growled as he was being slashed, stabbed, and torn with whatever spell the Mages were using.
As quickly as the attack began, it stopped. Ristan coughed, and blood exploded from his mouth as he went to the ground—hard. I went down to the floor with him. I was on my hands and knees, slipping in blood from the wounds he’d endured. His body was mutilated with cuts, and he was choking on his own blood from the wound that had gone straight through his back to his chest. I tried to pull my magic around me and like my last attempts since coming here, nothing happened. “Ristan, get up! Get up, Demon. Now! Don’t do this to me. Don’t you fucking do this to me, please!” I begged on a broken sob.
“Get up!” No, this wasn’t happening, not again! “Danu!”
The bubble darkened and I looked up at Ryder, wings spread wide as he pushed on the shield, trying to find a weak point or how to remove it safely. Some would explode into a glass like material when broken by anyone other than the person who cast it; others could be crushed by these types of shields.
Ristan shuddered and suddenly became still as more blood poured from his mouth. His eyes stared blankly. The patterns in his eyes didn’t move, swirl, or shift for the first time since I’d met him. I pressed my head to his chest—nothing.
I lifted my hands that were covered in blood, and met Danu’s eyes which were welling with tears that slid down her face. “Now, Synthia. Now will you accept me? Please.”
It was the first time she’d called me by my chosen name.
“I accept,” I growled, finding the fight I had left in me, even as tears fell freely from my eyes. They’d sent Joseph to my home, they killed innocents indiscriminately, and now they had killed Ristan to get to me.
They needed to die, and in a really bad way.
I opened myself to her.
“I want it now.”
“You have it, child; you always have.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
I shook my head at Danu. I couldn’t feel shit, and I had a sinking feeling she’d wanted me to feel helpless and scared. “Help me!” I growled at her, but mid-growl I felt it. I felt it inside my bones, down to my very being. A warm rush of pleasure, that tingled and mixed with pain.
Danu sifted to me, even as the shield vibrated with the force of Ryder’s assault. His men were behind him, fighting against the Blood Fae and Mages that had emerged from the crowd. They had appeared from nowhere, and Ryder’s men were now fighting behind him in a protective semi-circle as he continued his assault on the barrier. “You can do this, Synthia! You need to accept me, really accept what I am trying to give you!” she screamed as something sailed toward us, and Ryder knocked it out of the way easily.
“They are coming after you. Dammit, child, accept me. I can’t hold them back or it is considered interfering. Even I have rules I must follow,” she warned crossly.
I wasn’t listening anymore. I had closed my eyes and extended my arms—shedding the last of my fears, misgivings and accept that I had to stop trying to escape my destiny, and embrace it with open arms. I had to do this to save what I treasured; my new friends and my growing wee little beasties.
I could feel the pull to Darkness. The taste of light on my face, as the Light came in and settled. The Blood Fae in me, it wanted blood. The Horde wanted everything dead who threatened me, or my soon to be family.
“That’s it, daughter,” she encouraged.
“I need a moment,” I said through the power as it radiated through me and around me.
“You don’t have a moment,” she said, shaking her head. “You need to focus, and figure out how to fight them. Ristan didn’t deserve what they did to him, any more than the rest who have been slain from getting in their way. They need to die. You need to do this so that they can’t hurt anyone else.” She smiled sadly.
“They are going to die screaming. I promise you that,” I said, but I was no longer worried about what I had to do. I knew it deep in my bones how to use my powers, and how to make them pay. I took a second to peek at Ryder, who was now issuing orders to those around him as he pointed at the weak points of the barrier. Smart, he’d found them fast in the utter chaos around him.
I smiled sadly and turned to face those who had thought to harm my unborn children. All at once the power I’d been denying surged forth and the air crackled with the power and electrical charge. Thin lines of silver, black, and gold shot along my crimson brands and spread over my flesh as my vision became blurry, and then crystal clear. I blinked and I could see all of the different types of aural signatures from everyone in the room. I could see the Horde Fae shining gold, Adam radiated green, and the Blood Fae radiated a deep crimson color. The Mages radiated black, as if their souls were corrupted and it had stained their auras.
There were four Mages that were still using a type of invisibility glamour, one moving closer to me as I watched. Ryder broke through, shattering the shield’s spell. The wicked taint of it drifted to my nose. It was the same scent that had radiated through the barrier when they’d taken Ristan down. As I watched, the four mages shed their glamour and became fully visible before me.
I wasted no time before moving into action. I sifted behind the closest Mage, and pulled him against me until his back was against my chest. I lifted my hands to his neck, and twisted. I didn’t flinch at the cracking or snapping of his bones. Instead, I closed my eyes and smiled.
I opened my eyes and met Ryder’s shocked face, and smiled. His eyes were taking me in, and I watched as his eyes grew large with surprise as I reached out and held him immobile with my power. Well, at least for a moment before he shook free with a blinding grin.
“Less flirting, more fighting,” Danu snapped as another Mage stepped forward, walking right through her. I noticed Ryder reaching out for me and flicking his fingers at the Mage, who disintegrated into ashes, clothes and all. I was beginning to see why no one fucked with the Horde King. He’d simply flicked his wrist and ended the Mage’s life. It shouldn’t be that simple to end anyone, but I wasn’t going to bring that up anytime soon, not to him.
I sifted to stand in front of the next Mage, and smiled coldly. “You have no idea what you messed with, and now you die,” I said, and extended the fangs inside of my mouth and watched as he stood helpless to move from my magic as it froze him in place. I brought my tongue out to lick one of the extended incisors.
I wanted him to become mute—and he was. I imagined all of the blood inside of him, isolating every one of his blood cells, and redirected it away from where it kept his heart beating in one fast push—and it did. It exploded from his body from his mouth, eyes, ears, and nose. I stepped back as it began to pool around his feet, and headed for the next Mage as he collapsed.
“You guys like shields? Let’s see if you like one of mine.” I cast a bubble around him. He turned, trying to get away from me, and ran into the barrier on the other side. I brought my hand out and pulled with the power surging through me. Unwillingly, he came sliding across the floor back toward me.
As he got closer, he spun around and sliced out with his sword. I dodged it as if he had attacked in slow motion. I sifted in close and my hand had shot out before I could have thought better of it, and gripped something hot and wet. A sickening noise filled my ears as I pulled my arm out of his chest—with his heart in my hand. He fell to the floor lifelessly.
I looked up to see Faolán watching me. His eyes were wide with fear as he started chanting a spell in Latin that sounded an awful lot like one of the ones that the Guild used to make shields like the one Ristan and I had be
en trapped in. I threw the heart at him as hard as I could and watched as he caught it and tossed it to the ground.
I wasn’t stupid; he had more magic than I could deal with right now. Maybe in this form I could kill him, but I was draining from using too much, too soon. Ryder was on me before I could decide what to do, and Faolán sifted out as the remaining Blood Fae sifted out after him. I glanced around and couldn’t see any more Mage aural signatures in the hall.
“What the hell, Synthia!?” Ryder asked as he took me in slowly, with a carefully guarded look in his eyes.
“Ryder,” I whispered as the power vibrated inside of me, wanting to come out. It was the same feeling I’d felt by touching Ryder, only this was my own, and it was coming from me.
“Impossible,” Ryder argued with a note that was more disbelief than anything else. He looked me over and touched his fingers along the multitude of colors from the brands.
“Ristan,” I said and pushed my way through the crowd to where the Demon was lying on his back, covered in blood.
“Bring him back,” I begged of Danu, and watched as she narrowed her eyes on him, as if she was considering what to do. I sank to the floor and pulled the huge Demon onto my lap. “Please!” I screamed it in my mind, knowing she would hear it loud and clear.
“Synthia, he’s a Demon, and one I really like, but I still can’t interfere. It’s against the rules,” she said sadly. I saw Eliran push through the crowd to kneel beside Ristan, as well as the little Demoness, Alannah.
Eliran glamoured off the jerkin from Ristan’s body armor and bent to examine the multitude of ugly stab wounds all over his chest, arms, and throat as Alannah gently stroked Ristan’s hair. His lifeless eyes stared blankly, and my heart broke for her. I couldn’t bear it and reached down and closed his eyes.
“I hate these types of spells,” Eliran muttered. “Nasty things—once it acquires its victim, it keeps slashing until they bleed out. He can’t generate as long as it is in place.” Eliran chanted for a few minutes as I held my breath. His eyes met with Alannah’s and nodded gently. Both of them shot power into the Demon, and his wounds began to close at a rapid rate. His chest rose as he took a deep breath, and I almost cried out with relief from it. He coughed and choked for a few moments before his eyes opened and his lips parted to release a vivid curse.