Fae Chronicles 01 - Fighting Destiny (38 page)

There was also this restlessness inside of me, as if something was fighting to get out. I'd stared in the mirror for an entire hour trying to figure out what the hell was in my eyes that Ryder had been talking about…they didn’t change once. And yet something inside was changing, I could feel it twisting and turning as it fought to come to the surface.

Ryder said I was Fae, but that was impossible wasn’t it? Wouldn’t I have known if I was? Could I have been what the Fae were looking for when they killed my parents? I had too many questions and no answers. I closed my eyes and groaned, the sun wasn’t even up yet and I already had a million problems to solve.

I must have fallen back to sleep, because when I opened my eyes this time, I was back in the small house inside Faery and Ryder was lying beside me playing with a lock of my hair between his fingers.

"You shouldn’t have left me Syn, I have to punish you now," he whispered.

"You say that an awful lot Ryder. I have to stop this, before more innocent lives are lost," I replied back to dream Ryder.

He smirked and dropped my hair from between his fingers and placed his hand on my face softly. "And if your people attacked mine Synthia? What then?"

"Then we become enemies and I fight against you," I whispered breathlessly.

He laughed, but it was a cold and emotionless sound, "You would lose," he moved over me as he said it, pinning my hands softly in one of his hands, above my head. "I miss being buried in your warmth Syn, I need to fuck you."

I smiled and shook my head. "Not unless you release me from the contract," I uttered breathlessly as his mouth moved dangerously close to mine.

"I don’t think so, you still wear my mark around your neck Syn, I like how it looks on you," his eyes sparkled with amusement.

"Go away Ryder," I growled, but he closed the distance and silenced my mouth with his, his kiss was soft but carried an urgency I matched as the kiss deepened. Moaning against him probably wasn’t the best response since I wasn’t supposed to want his kiss, but it was all I had— until the bed shook violently.

I watched him pull away and smile coldly, "I'll find you and when I do Syn, I won't be gentle. And I’m going to find you. I
always
find my prey Pet." And then he was gone and Adam was above me, shaking me.

I sat up looking at him in bewilderment. I swallowed and shook off the dream I'd been indulging in. "What happened?"

"You were having a nightmare," he said in way of explanation. Of course he would think it was a nightmare, I had them a lot growing up. He'd always make me wake up, even when Larissa hadn't been able to.

"I'm okay, what time is it?" I asked looking up through the broken window that sat high up on the wall of the warehouse.

"It's 6 a.m. Time to shine, this was on the door when I went for coffee," Adam said handing me a quickly scrawled note.

"Arianna will be outside the courthouse, what the hell would she be doing at the courthouse?" I asked more to myself but Adam answered anyways.

"Picking up her marriage license more than likely or meeting with the Mayor?"

"Call Terrance, tell him to meet us at nine at the courthouse and to make sure he calls everyone else," I said taking the coffee he picked up from the floor and handed to me, I smiled and sipped it slowly letting it filter through me. Terrance was a kid who did odd jobs for us when we needed help. He was a good kid, who had been given a bad hand in life. We used him, but we paid him well.

“If this goes south Adam, you need to get Larissa out of Spokane. The Seattle Guild is the best choice to hide from the Fae.”

"Fuck that Syn," Adam said standing up to place his hands angrily on his hips, "If this goes bad, I'm not leaving you. You’re my only family Syn, you and Larissa are all I have."

"It wasn’t a question Adam. You will take Larissa and get her someplace safe. Ryder won't kill me, he might say he will, but he won't. Not while I'm under his contract—he owns me Adam. I need to know you can do this. I need to know you two are safe. You're the only ones that can be used against me and Ryder knows it, he’ll use it," I said grabbing his hand and pulling him down beside me and somehow managing to not spill a drop of coffee in the process.

"Of course," he replied holding my hand and looking at me with love in his emerald eyes, "Syn, we can be used against you—but the same is true for us, we'd be willing to move the moon for you. We need you, so don’t do anything stupid. I also need you to know that we don’t just stay because no one else will join…we stay because we're family. We have each other and that’s more than most people have in this world."

I pulled his hand up to my lips and kissed it before standing up to stretch. "We need to get this show on the road, go call Terrance. Tell him we need that flash mob today."

I wasn’t good with emotions, showing them, feeling them—or expressing them. I wasn’t the type to wear them on my sleeves. He knew how I felt without me having to tell him. This idea had to work, the Demon released me to do this and right now it was the only lead we had.

Downtown Spokane Washington was packed, someone had leaked that the Light Heir would be making an appearance. We waited at the back of the crowd in hoodies, pulled up to hide us, the rest of the flash mob who would be causing the distraction were dressed the same to stand out from the crowd when the right time came.

We waited, the magic pulsing inside of me ready to explode, we'd spent over an hour of nothing but collecting and depositing magic inside of me. Adam had laughed telling me I'd be lit up enough to power the city. I was hoping it wouldn’t be the case since the plan was to use and dump the magic quickly enough to not pull attention to us.

The entire crowd was hushed, as if this was a monumental event in time…which it wasn’t. I'd never understood the draw of the Fae until I'd melted against Ryder. His blistering heat had drawn me in, like a moth to a flame. He owned my mind without having to turn me FIZ. My thoughts constantly flowed to him and our time in Faery.

"Showtime," Adam said as a sleek black limo pulled up to the steps of the courthouse which was something they would never allow for anyone else.

I turned my head and gave him a reassuring smile as we pushed through the crowd as the flash mob started up. It was the perfect disguise for what we had planned, or would have been until Ryder stepped from the limo and his men stepped from the crowd to create a guard around the princess.

It was now or never, the mob was dancing to Kesha's
Your Love is My Drug
…as if they couldn’t have picked a more annoying song? I stepped from the group with Larissa and Adam pushing power into me. Ryder's eyes landed on us fleetingly. "Shit dance!" I said starting to move with the group, if not horribly off kilter.

His eyes moved through the crowd and off of us, I almost exploded into laughter at how goofy and bad we danced, but the situation was dire and laughter was something we could do later when we'd finished it. As the group of men parted to allow Arianna to wave at the mob, I stopped moving with the crowd and sent my second sight searching her…nothing happened. I pumped up the magical juice and almost threw up.

"Oh my God," I uttered, I shook my head and stepped back as if I could not put enough distance between me and the horror I was seeing.

"Shit Syn, go dark!" Adam shouted but it was too late, Ryder had seen me.

"Fuck! Split up, blend in!" I shouted, already retreating into the mass of dancers. I couldn’t shake the power pulsing through me. I growled scaring a few of the humans who had joined the tweet about the flash mob Terrance had sent out.

I could feel Ryder bearing down on me, hunting me. But when I looked over my shoulder it wasn’t me he had gone after—he'd gone after Adam. He held him by the back of his hood, Adam shook his head. He was telling me to go. "Let him go Ryder," I shouted wishing the music would stop.

"I told you Syn, when I found you I would punish you. You only feel when something is taken away from you Pet," he turned smiling coldly at Adam who was now struggling in earnest to get away from him.

"Ryder, take me. Let him go," I whispered knowing he would hear it over the crowd that had now sensed danger.

He didn’t listen, instead he turned and propelled Adam to Dristan who grinned and touched Adam. I felt the connection I shared with Adam waver briefly, he was trying to keep me from feeling what was going on. I watched his eyes as they settled on me and locked. I shook my head in denial. Ryder wouldn’t allow this.

The noise went silent around me as if I'd stepped out of reality. The only sound, my own blood flowing inside of my ears and my own breathing as everything went still around me—frozen in time. Dristan was trying to turn Adam FIZ. It was too much and everything inside of me snapped as the world stopped around me. Like a vacuum. One minute I was standing silently, the next I was screaming my pain with everything inside of me, everything I had. I would die before I let the Fae hurt my family again.

Glass exploded from the limo and the surrounding buildings, crashing to the pavement below. Humans screamed in pain as they hit the ground. I couldn’t stop. Something inside of me had broken open and was demanding to come out. I barely registered the shock on Ryder and Dristan's faces as they watched me.

I couldn’t stop it, whatever had opened just kept coming, I couldn’t focus on anything and yet I saw everything. As if I was standing above watching as my body reaped havoc on anyone foolish enough to not run away. I could see fear,
smell
it. It was intoxicating, my hair whipped with electrical current as the ozone grew thick around me.

I tried pulling back, I was in trouble. Whatever was happening—I couldn’t control it. I met Ryder's gaze and locked onto it. His nose was bleeding, but otherwise he seemed to be handling my power overload better than anyone else. He spoke low, clearly and right to me even though he addressed Dristan, "Dristan, let Adam go," he growled never letting my gaze move from his.

Adam hit the pavement and stumbled over to me. Larissa crawled up from where she'd been taken to the ground with everyone else. The only sound was my labored breathing. I couldn’t take my eyes from Ryder, he looked worried and that wasn’t something you seen him show—ever.

"Back up, now," he said as he and his men started backing up slowly.

"Syn, you have to stop now!" Adam shouted but when I turned to meet his eyes he flinched, "Oh my God Syn," he whispered horrified.

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."