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 just 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.
He laughed, "I knew I would find you here and I knew you'd have questions. I don’t have the answers Synthia, hell. I've probably as many questions as you do now. But I knew you'd need family and you're all I have. Also, Ryder has threatened the Guild with payback for the killings at his club. I issued no orders for an attack, it didn’t come from us and you have his ear girl, use it."
I snorted, "Have you met Ryder? That man makes my stubbornness look like nothing. Besides that, I don’t have his ear. I may be under contract with him, but I’m his enemy right now—right along with the rest of the Guild." We were talking. We'd never spoken about his sister before. Hell, we didn’t actually talk to each other unless he was training me, or giving me an assignment. It was awkward, but I needed it more than I could admit.
"He's planning something, we're evacuating the Guild. Only the Keepers of the Guild will remain. The books and records have to be protected. Syn…" he hesitated running his hand through his messed up hair, he looked as if he'd been doing it for a few hours, "I don’t know all the ins and outs of it with the Fae, but now I know you're gonna need to feed eventually. Marie thought Ryder could help you. Before it made no sense, but now it's starting to. She left us instructions in case anything ever happened to her. She told me you would need to seek him out. I figured when they requested our help that it was the perfect time to carry out her wishes and see what came of it," he shrugged his wide shoulders, "Figured if nothing happened, or if Ryder wasn’t able to see anything different inside of you that maybe everyone had just been worried for nothing."
"So you think I should feed from Ryder?" I asked narrowing my eyes.
"No," he turned bright red as he responded, "No of course not Syn," he rubbed the back of his neck and laughed uncomfortably, "I just think that the first time you do…you should be with someone you couldn't hurt."
"Or kill," I said what he hadn't.
He nodded, his face sagging with relief that I'd said it instead of him. He looked as if he'd aged since I'd seen him last…and maybe we all had. "Synthia, I'm looking into the records to see if anyone has ever succeeded in stopping a Fae from turning, I can't promise results, but maybe we can find something to slow it down until I can. I can't bring back my sister, but I can protect what she loved the most—you."
"I get it Alden," I snapped. I hadn't thought about feeding yet, hell I couldn’t even grasp the reality of what was happening. "We got bigger problems than me feeding. Arianna isn't what she appears to be. She's got pieces from our victims magically sewn on to her like a fucking quilt." I was dodging emotions again and from the grin he flashed he was thankful I had.
Alden swore violently, "Necromancer?"
"Not quite, more like a puppet. Her eyes take in everything, as if someone is controlling her and seeing through her. I need to get to her, to get to the one controlling her. Get the master's attention, maybe it will stop the killings. Problem is I'd need to kill his puppet to draw him out Alden."
"And doing so could start a war if you get caught before you can kill her and break whatever spell is covering up the fact that she's nothing more than a fucking puppet," he said rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Good grief, if she is what you say she is—the implications between the Dark and the Light Fae…”
"I can't do it without a team Alden. And not without the Guild being cleared out and safe from any repercussions that might come back on us."
"I can't give you the okay to kill the Light Heir Synthia, even if she isn't who she says she is," I felt my stomach drop as he shook his head, "But I can give you a team and assure you that the Guild will be safe."
I smiled slowly, "So unofficially I have your permission, but if anyone asked…"
He smirked, "If anyone asks, this conversation never happened," he stepped closer placing his arms on my shoulders, "I don’t show emotion kid and I think it rubbed off on you a little bit. I'd like to think you know that…well that I consider you family and have ever since my sister brought you home in diapers, be careful Syn. I can't claim responsibility which means no one will come to help if you get caught. You'd be at the Dark Princes mercy."
I nodded and exhaled slowly, "You have."
"Have what?" He asked narrowing his eyes.
"I'm strong because you showed me how to be, I'm faster because you made sure I knew what could happen if I wasn’t fast enough. I'm me because you raised me Alden, you raised us all. Hard lessons aren't easy to teach children, we're stronger because you made us into what we needed to be."
Thirty Four
I watched Ryder and his men moving into the room below, there were hundreds of Fae gathered inside the ballroom of the Dark Fortress along with human dignitaries and members of the press. Security was next to impossible to bypass, so just getting to the rooftop where we were crouched, had been a death-defying feat without the team being detected.
"Last chance to back out guys, if this goes wrong we're dead. No one will be able to save our asses. I need to know you can do this job. If you're thinking this is too much, then it probably is. I know most of you are here because the Guild is on the line. I get it, you're pissed. So am I. But the Fae are not the bad people here tonight, no attacking them unless you have no other option."
I searched each face of the team I'd trained with. I knew their weaknesses. I knew their strengths. These were my people. They were why I fought and would continue to no matter what DNA I had been born with. They were good people, trustworthy, but this mission was suicide. I was asking for their lives, but if we couldn’t stop Ryder from blaming the Guild—they'd have to hide like rats in the sewers, they deserved better.
Twelve sets of sober eyes looked up to me with no doubt, or reserve about giving their lives to ensure the Guild stayed up and running. I exhaled a shaky breath and looked to Adam and Larissa who like me had dressed in black leather. The others had on black fatigues.
"Adam, blow it," I said clasping the rope into my harness.
We waited, watching the Fae beneath us as they laughed and danced, unaware that we were about to crash the party. As the glass shattered I jumped, making sure I was first on the surface to throw up the shield to protect the others as they came down. Eyes closed, arms out from my sides, I sailed through the air with a smirk on my lips as screams erupted.
When I was a few feet from the floor, I flipped so that I landed facing Ryder. I landed hard but tossed up the shield throwing Fae around the room and cutting one half of the crowd off from the other as it went up smoothly. When it was fully erected I looked up and undid the hook as I watched the rest of the strike team come down.
Ryder and his men surrounded Arianna and that would be a problem, one we’d expected. I wasn’t sure Larissa's magic
would be strong enough to bring them in and consume their minds. Adam signaled as he hit the floor and the music swiftly changed to Crazy Town's Butterfly.
"Go time, you're on Larissa," I said turning to meet her smiling eyes.
I met the death shining in Ryder's eyes. He'd kill me without thinking twice now. I was technically only fulfilling my contract. It just wasn’t playing out in a way he had expected. His nostrils flared as the tick in his jaw started up. I blew him a kiss and sent my residual magic into Larissa.
The team took over and kept the shield up protecting Adam and Lari as she started moving, sending her power out to flow through the room. She'd caught enough Fae with her seduction spell to ensure only Ryder and the thirteen would be the only obstacle in my way. Only a few of the Fae had begun to follow Larissa's dance steps. The rest were glaring murderous looks at us.
Ryder strode towards us in long angry strides that made him look dark and seductive while showing just how deadly he was. His body sizzled with electrical current.
I faltered briefly. Images of his mouth pleasuring me flooded my mind. The feel of his naked skin touching mine, sweat covering our bodies while we'd fucked like animals. I pushed those memories away, locking them into a box inside my mind, to view when I was alone.
I smiled at him, flashing him my best come and get me smile while I watched his hands from the corner of my eye. Larissa had gotten a better hold on the crowd and some were now following her moves. It was a slight they wouldn’t let go unpunished. While the Fae were big on fucking over each other, they united when fucked with as a whole. This plan had to work, it was the only one we had. If we failed, the entire Guild would suffer Ryder's wrath. I couldn't allow him to hurt them.
"Stupid Synthia, you shouldn’t have come here," Ryder snarled as his hands rested on his hips.
"I didn’t come here for you Ryder," I said meeting his angry glare head on.
"If you leave now, I'll only punish you," he said lower for my ears alone.