Deviation: Altera Realm Trilogy Book 2 (57 page)

She sighed and nodded. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Syney watched as his gaze drifted to her nightie for the first time. She bit her lip, feeling the heat of his gaze sizing her up.

He smiled at her and gestured around the room. “So all of this just to remove a curse?”

Her face grew warm as she gave a nervous laugh. “Um, the candles were for the seduction afterward.”

“You really think I need a seduction?” Adam pulled her forward and kissed her lightly.

Syney felt all the heat return as he deepened the kiss. Everything felt right, perfect even. She didn’t know what she had been was so scared about. Adam pulled back to kick off his shoes.
This is it
, Syney thought, as she lay in the bed. She closed her eyes as Adam lay on top of her, kissing her passionately. It took only a moment, however, for all the pleasure to stop and the panic to set in. It might have been a touch or smell; it didn’t really matter. Whatever it was flicked a switch, and she was right there, back in that dark room, being held down. Her breathing increased, and her heart jumped into her throat, but she tried to calm both. This was Adam, not him. He loved her and didn’t want to hurt her.

“Syney,” he said huskily.

“It’s fine,” she said, more to herself than to him.

“Syney, it’s not fine.”

She opened her eyes and realized he had pulled back, holding himself off her with his arms. “No, I am fine. Don’t give up on me, please.”

“You’re not fine. You’re shaking,” Adam said, moving back to sit on the bed.

Syney tried to will away the tears, but they poured out of her eyes. “God, I really am broken, aren’t I?”

Adam moved to sit up against the headboard next to her. “You’re not broken. You went through something horrible, and it’s OK to take time to get over it.”

“What if I never do?”

He leaned over and kissed her on the temple. “You will.”

She shook her head and picked at her nails until she chipped her pretty polish. “I don’t want this. You make me feel safe.”

Adam was quiet for a while. “What if it’s not about being safe?”

“Then what is it?” she asked, exasperated.

“Come here,” he said, holding out his hand to her.

She stared at him for a moment before taking it.

He gently pulled her to straddle him. “Maybe it’s about control.”

Syney gently placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned forward to kiss him. She felt his hands rest gently on her hips, and she waited. Waited for the panic, for the terror. Waited to be back in that room. But when she opened her eyes, she was still in her room, still with Adam. She smiled. “Thank you,” she whispered, leaning forward to kiss him again. Adam moved his mouth to her neck, and Syney bit her lip. She was in control right now, and that’s exactly what she needed.

The next morning, Syney woke up alone. She reached across the pillows and grabbed the small square note left behind.

You’re amazing. I’ll see you at the joining. I’ll be the one at the end of the aisle smiling like an idiot in love.—Adam

Syney smiled just like that idiot and sat up in bed. It was weird. Every girl dreamed of her wedding day, and Syney was no different. But this was so different from what she’d always imagined. There wasn’t much she knew about the ceremony besides what Helen had gone over with her. There were a lot of prayers and music. The most important part was the actual joining. Helen said Syney was supposed to actually feel her being joined together with Adam. It wasn’t just about making vows but having their souls combine forever.

She wondered what that actually felt like when Mercy, her new handmaiden, came in to help her get ready. Almost an hour later, Syney stood in front of her full-length mirror, staring at the woman she somehow had become. Her auburn hair was piled high, with ringlets framing her face and crown, which gleamed with the different colored stones she had received from her friends when she was crowned seated queen the year before. Her makeup was understated but still gave her normally pale face a new hint of maturity. But it was the dress that made her heart stop. Helen had helped her pick it out more than a month ago. It had been made especially for her out of piles of white silk and lace. The top was a silk bodice with gem-encrusted lace covering her shoulders and running the rest of the way down the silk. For the first time, she actually felt like a queen.

A knock at the door pulled her out of her thoughts. She yelled, “Come in,” as she nodded in approval at Mercy. The young girl looked in admiration as Reed walked into the room dressed in the typical Lycin suit, a long blue jacket with gold buttons all the way up to the collar. The suit fit his tall lean body well. “Well, don’t you look fancy,” she said, smiling at the young wolf.

His gaze scanned her from head to toe before falling on her face. “Look who’s talking,” he said quietly.

Her smile brightened. “You really think so?”

Reed nodded and offered her his arm. “Ready?”

Syney glanced at the mirror one last time and took a deep breath. “I think I am.”

The two walked in silence to the coronation room, where the joining would take place. The whole palace was silent; it was eerie. Everyone would be waiting for her to arrive for the joining. Once they approached the large wooden doors, a small panic crept into Syney’s chest. This was it, no turning back. She stopped dead in her tracks as that thought sank in.

“You OK?”

She looked at Reed. “I…”

His lips thinned into a line. “Do you want to do this?”

Syney looked away from him and back to the closed doors in front of her. Behind them was her future, if she wanted it. She just needed to open the door. If she wanted to.

It had been quiet—a little too quiet. Fern crouched behind a rock and held up her fist to stop the younger wolves behind her. Considering the number of Shifters there had been on patrol, it seemed odd that they hadn’t run into any actual Shifters more than three miles into their land. It crossed her mind, not for the first time, that this might be a trap of some kind. That didn’t matter much, though. This mission needed to be done and she was in charge. She had a duty not only to Hunter and the rest of the troops on the border but to the rest of the inhabitants of the Village as well. She took a deep breath as the wind turned toward her direction. The air reeked of Shifters, but this was their land. You had to run from the Village for at least an hour to get away from the Magic User scent.

Fern frowned but kept her eye on the flat, broken land in front of her. She and Hunter had reviewed the plan of action more than five times before the group had moved out. “Lay low,” he had warned. She understood his caution but didn’t have to like it. They’d been on the defense for too long. It was time to show the Shifters that the Lycins weren’t a race to be treated lightly. She shook her head.
The Village
, she corrected her self.
The Village shouldn’t be treated lightly
.

She gave the barren land in front of her one last look before calling Wood, her second-in-command, forward. “How are they doing?”

He nodded. “Fine. Ready for some fighting,” the young wolf said.

“If we could find any Shifters, I would be too.”

Wood hesitated with his mouth open for a moment.

“What?” she demanded.

“It’s just…I have a weird feeling. Everything is a little too…still.”

Fern frowned again. “Painfully, I agree.”

He placed his hand on the rock in front of them. “Maybe we should fall back…wait a little before coming back.”

She stared at him. “We don’t fall back unless there’s a reason to.”

Wood’s face grew stoic, his body more rigid. “Yes, ma’am.”

Fern knew she shouldn’t be so hard on him, but that was the only way to cut out weakness. “We’re going to split up, cover more ground. You take your group over those mountains to the east, and I’ll lead out to the west.”

He nodded. “Ye—” He stopped talking.

Fern watched as his face contorted in pain, his mouth opening wide in a silent scream. She reached forward. “What is it?” she demanded.

He managed to look at his hand and the harmless-looking yellowish-green frog on top of it. A second later Wood’s entire body seized up, and he fell backward to the ground.

Fern knew he was the dead the second he hit the ground.
This is it
, she thought, giving one more look at the small frog that hopped toward her. She jumped back and landed with spring in her feet.
Not going to be that easy
, she thought with a smile. She gave the signal for attack to the rest of her men and turned as a line of bears, rhinoceroses, hyenas, elephants, and a few other beasts rushed in for the attack. She was happy they weren’t coming as men. There was no better fight than that between animals. Fern took a deep breath before letting herself shift into a wolf. She bared her teeth and took off at a run. She noticed several wolves going for any Shifter that crossed their path, the sound of growls and screams filling the air. Fern may have been eager but she still ran past several Shifters before eyeing a bear that was a perfect opponent. She headed directly for the large black bear, dodging past it’s large claws and digging her teeth in the fur and skin.

This was the fight she’d been waiting for.

Syney fell back onto her pillows and tried to catch her breath. There were two things she had learned in her five days of being joined with Adam. One: She liked married life. And two: She loved her husband. She licked her lips and ran her hand up her sweaty right arm. The black tattoo that now ran up her arm still looked foreign to her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like the sight of it. The magical tattoos were one thing the Realm did right. It felt much more permanent than a ring, which didn’t scare Syney one bit. She rolled over and gazed at Adam. He smiled at her, satisfied and happy beyond belief. “So,” she said, “we need to talk.”

He frowned and slid his arm along her waist. “Are you leaving me already?”

She bit her lip as his touch sent a shiver up her back. “I am actually. But only for a few hours.”

Adam shook his head. “Not allowed.”

She laughed. “What?”

“It’s too soon.”

Syney slid closer so their bodies touched. She smiled as Adam sharply inhaled, loving the power she had over him. “Honey, we haven’t left this room in five days,” she whispered. “People are going to start to talk.”

Adam touched his nose to hers. “Let them.” He kissed her hungrily, his hands pulling her even closer.

Syney did everything in her power to pull back.

“No, come on,” he whined.

She sat up, not caring that the sheet fell somewhere around her waist. This was all his now, modesty be damned. “I’ve been in heaven these last few days, but we really need to rejoin the real world.”

He pouted up at her from the pillows. “But this world is so much better.”

She nodded. “I know. But I have to go. I promised Helen I’d help her with some of her humanitarian efforts around the Village.”

Adam propped himself up on his elbow. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, these are my people. I guess I never really thought that way before, but if I’m going to be queen one day, I should get to know them and the Village more. Helen already has most of the stuff set up, but she gets too busy with priestess duty to do much anymore. Seemed like the right fit for me.”

After a moment Adam sat up and kissed her lightly. “You’re going to make an amazing queen.”

“I hope so, my king.”

He gave her a disgusted look. “Do I have to?”

She held up her arm. “This means you do. Ha!”

Adam rolled his eyes. “Fine. But I’m not wearing a crown.”

“I think it would look handsome!” she said, jumping out of bed to avoid his inevitable tickle attack, his usual means of torture.

Once she had showered and dressed Adam finally had gotten out of bed and thrown on some boxers. She smiled at him, still not fully believing he was hers and not just for right now. Helen had mentioned that in the act of joining, their souls had been connected through magic. Syney rolled her eyes, figuring this was one of the things Magic Users were told but wasn’t really true, like most things dealing with magic, but after only a few hours of being joined, Syney felt even more attached to Adam. It was actually hard for her to leave the room, especially with him looking so damn good.