The next logical question was how much did she know about them, or had she been as innocent as she claimed? She’d answered only some of his questions, but with the Mages growing bolder and time running short, he needed answers. Meanwhile, the desire to get his mother out of this place and to a safe location where he could protect her was getting stronger.
Olivia, on the other hand, he wanted to leave tied to the cross, so he could play with her at his leisure. She was now his favorite chew toy and fuck if he didn’t want to chew on her some more. He moved away from the bed and busied himself around the room, glamouring the toys and cross clean after last night’s session, while keeping quiet so he wouldn’t wake her.
She’d be sore after that session, and she deserved the sleep for her body to fully recover. He could feel the tension from inside the castle, but worse, he froze as he smelled the distinct fragrance of Ambrosia. Danu had been inside his quarters.
He paused. His eyes narrowed as they searched the room for anything out of place. He swallowed a growl as his eyes found cold steel, buried to the hilt beside Olivia’s head. He moved to the bed, pulled the serrated blade out of the feather pillow, and threw it across the room.
That bitch; after everything she’d done and said, now she was leaving the same warning she’d given with the other females when he’d taken them one too many times for her liking? Fuck her. He sifted to the pavilion and moved with purpose until he found his mother in her room.
“Get packed, now,” he ordered brusquely. He didn’t wait for her to start and glamoured luggage for her.
“Ristan,” she said softly. “Why are you packing my things?”
“We’re leaving,” he growled.
“I’m leaving?” Alannah asked as she gently placed a calming hand on her son’s shoulder. “I will not leave this place with you fighting beside the Horde King,” she said with a stubborn set to her jawline. “You’re my son, Ristan.”
“That’s why I’m going with you, and before you even think it, know this. I will fight beside Ryder, he is my king. I also need you to be safe, and I have a place I am taking you to outside of Seattle, which will allow me to help Ryder, and protect you,” he said as he finished packing her clothes with a single thought of his mind.
“So you’re sending me away?” she asked as she pushed her silky black hair from her face. “I am not a weakling who needs to be protected. I know exactly what is coming, and why they are coming. Danu assured me…” She stopped.
Ristan spun around on his mother, his lips drawn in a tight line as he narrowed his eyes on her. “Danu assured you of what, Mother?” he said barely above a whisper.
“You think she came to you because you were in pain? No, I asked her to help you because I could not. She has told me you were special ever since you were a child. She assured me that nothing could break you after what your father had done. She told me the Guild would fall, but that you’d pull through.”
Ristan felt his inner Demon rear its head and growl. “That bitch knew what would happen to me?”
“Do not speak ill of the Gods, for they hear us all,” Alannah warned.
“Mother, she is the reason I was tortured. She alerted them to my presence with her thoughtless antics!” he shouted with a white hot rage that shot through him.
It suddenly made sense. She wasn’t necessarily thoughtless; she was calculated, but what else had he expected? She’d used him as fucking bait for her psychopathic ex-husband. She hadn’t been standing across the street from the Guild because of his presence there; she’d been monitoring her crazy-ass ex.
She’d meant for him to sift out and set off the wards, which was why she’d persisted in pissing him off when she knew how he felt about her using an innocent woman for her games. She’d planned it. She planned it all, everything from his torture to her capturing her ex-husband.
He shook his head and looked at his mother. She looked timid and sweet, but she was a very proud princess of the Soul-Seeking Demons. Her people were feared as much for their cunning as they were for their barbarism. As it always was with Faery, beauty was often deadly and he’d always known she wanted revenge. Revenge for being enslaved by the Fae, and tortured by the old Horde King, but this went beyond that. She wasn’t satisfied with the vengeance Ryder had given them all; she wanted more.
“You knew that I’d be tortured,” he whispered through the hurt of betrayal. His own mother had known his fate at the hands of the Mages and one pissed-off God. “Ryder is not the same creature our father was, and yet you continue to plot against him?”
“Not him,” she said. “He wasn’t the one meant to rule this kingdom; you were,” she said with pride in her swirling silver and black eyes. “I have helped Danu so that you would be crowned king.”
“Well, mother, either you misunderstood her or she lied. Danu’s own daughter sits beside Ryder on the throne, and even if he was gone, I’d never take that throne. Now finish packing; you’re leaving Faery. It is past time you and I leave before you end up getting us both accused of treason.”
Ristan waited for his mother to argue, and when she didn’t, he sifted out, leaving her alone while he went to his brother. He found Ryder alone in the office he used for taking care of the day-to-day planning of the kingdom.
“Ryder,” he said as he stepped further into the room, his eyes on the floor as he considered how to tell his king of his mother’s deceit. No matter; it was better for Ryder to hear it from him rather than discover it on his own.
Ryder looked up and closed the pen he’d been using to write with, lifting his golden eyes to meet Ristan’s. When Ristan refused to meet his gaze, the tension in the air grew thicker.
“I’ve let you down,” Ristan said with a deep sigh as he scrubbed his hands over his face and finally met his brother’s eyes. “My mother seems to think I should be the king of the Horde, and even though I do not share her…”
“Ristan, I’m well aware of what your mother thinks should be. I know she hates my station, but not me. I knew she was plotting to set you on my throne, but I also know you do not want it. I’m always ten steps ahead of my enemies and those who seek to place their own children in my position. Your mother is not the first to plot against me, and she won’t be the last.”
Ristan’s heart plummeted with Ryder’s words. “You knew she plotted against the throne, and yet you still have not taken her into custody as a traitor?” he asked, his hope slipping as he held Ryder’s piercing eyes.
“Why would I take her into custody?” Ryder asked, his wide shoulders stretching with tension as he leaned back in his massive chair.
“She spoke out loud of her treachery to have me placed on the throne. Your throne, Ryder. That is enough to have her arrested and tortured to death.”
“She’s a Demon, a very proud one who was tortured for centuries at the hands of our father, just as my mother was. She is no different than Zahruk’s mother, who thought he should be crowned king, or Sinjinn’s. I knew she was aware of everything going on and, like most, they expected their children to be awarded the throne for what they endured. None of them were aware of the customs of the beast. That knowledge is something that was reserved for the closest of my Guard. You’re my brother, Ristan, and my friend,” Ryder said as he clasped his hands behind his head and relaxed. “What you do with your mother and Olivia is your choice. I know of your loyalty to me, and if you need a break from this world, I understand. However, I need you right now, as do my children. I ask you not as your king, Ristan, but as your brother, to help me save them.”
“I’m taking my mother and Olivia away from here, but you have my word, brother, that I will be here when you need me. I need this, to get away and get my head back on right. Olivia is either under a very powerful spell that helps her to be a skilled liar, or she was clueless to what she helped do. I’ve been in her dreams,” he dis
closed, his eyes closing as he told his brother what he’d discovered.
“And?” Ryder asked.
“There’s a door inside the Guild, one I’d like to take her to and confront her with, but other than that, her dreams show me nothing of her guilt. I have been sifting through her emotions and fed from them.”
“You are starting to doubt she knew the extent of her treachery to the Guild?” he asked, picking up easily on Ristan’s doubt.
Of course, his brother’s beast could sense every emotion, which made him one of the best predators around. “I know she is guilty, but not how deep that guilt goes, nor how that information benefits us. I thank you for not interfering in it and allowing me to control her punishment. I know it isn’t easy on Synthia, but this is my fight.”
“You have the right to do what you wish with her, but I’d rather Synthia be left out of it. She’s been through enough and losing the Guild has left a heavy weight on her heart. She’s been tearing the library apart looking for answers on the Tree of Life, and I don’t have the balls to tell her that our sadistic father wouldn’t have given a shit about that Tree.”
“And how do you keep her mind from what will happen if the Tree dies?” Ristan asked with his own heart heavy with the knowledge that it could die, and with it, his nephews and niece.
“I romance her and do whatever it takes to keep her mind from it. Time is against us, though, and each day the children grow weaker, especially Kahleena. I’m trying to figure out my next move to keep her mind from it, but I’m not sure where I go now.”
“I’m not sure anything will help you there, but I also need to make one thing clear, Ryder. If you and Synthia return to confront the Guild for what happened there, I will not be joining you; right now I’d just as soon kill them all, and I know that would only hurt Synthia more. Nor will I allow Olivia to go, because she’s mine now. Whatever I decide to do with her is my choice. I’ll not hand her over to the Guild, and I plan to move both her and my mother before the end of today. She’ll know my will and my unwillingness to sit on your throne because you’re my king. But more than that, Ryder, you’re my brother.”
Chapter Twenty-One
After hours of soaking in the huge, opulent tub, Olivia’s toes were looking like raisins, but she didn’t care. Her body was sore from the Demon’s love games and already craved more. The mere thought of his cock sent her pulse racing and her newly awakened sex drive over the edge.
She was such a masochist, and felt like one of the Viking captives in the romance novel that she’d been reading right before her dark part in the fall of the Guild. She felt like a traitor, and maybe that was why he was so easily seducing her.
He was so different from the man she knew inside the Guild, yet the same. Gone was the soft Cajun drawl; his normal baritone voice now had traces of a Scottish accent. He was taller and bigger than his disguised self and she liked the longer, silkier, inky-black hair. The silver and black swirling eyes were unsettling, yet she easily got lost in them. He was beautiful, and he was everything the Guild had taught her about the Fae. She didn’t doubt that those looks could draw her to her own demise, because one look and she was a goner.
She toed the bubbles floating on the top of her bathwater and wondered how they still remained after the hour or so that she’d been in here. Maybe Ristan—she had to remind herself that was really his name now—had used magic to make the base powder of the bath salts. She wasn’t sure if she should be pleased or disturbed that it was her favorite fragrance.
The rich scent of jasmine wafted through the room, and she eventually closed her eyes and gave in to the need to sleep.
She was alerted to the fact that she wasn’t alone when water splashed her face and she was yanked from the tub. “What the hell?” she demanded as strong arms pulled her up as she coughed up water.
“Are you daft, or do you think to escape me in death?” he growled angrily, his hands working in an up and down motion on her back with the occasional tap as more water dripped from her mouth. Her lungs were on fire, and she was off-balance and disoriented.
“Did you try to drown me?” she accused through sputtering water and trying to get enough air in her lungs.
“Me? You were beneath the water when I arrived,” he said as he turned her in his arms and looked down at her.
She felt as if she’d been asleep for only seconds, but it was almost as if she was missing time. She looked back at the tub, now missing the heavenly scented bubbles that had just been there. Her mind tried to remember what had happened but came back with only the thought that maybe she’d actually fallen asleep in the tub, and had slipped beneath the water.
“I didn’t try to drown myself, I fell asleep,” she admitted.
“Idiot,” Ristan said, but his eyes showed a subtle sign of relief as he released her naked form and stepped back, but in an instant there was a darkness in his eyes as he looked at something over her shoulder.
*~*~*
Danu watched Ristan as he glared a warning in her direction. Olivia hadn’t been asleep; she’d almost been drowned by a jealous Goddess. Ristan watched as Danu snapped her fingers, and Olivia’s form crumpled to the ground.
“Bitch,” Ristan snapped as he moved to see if Olivia had sustained damage, but she gave a gentle snore and his heart beat with relief.
“I know you spoke to your mother, and I know you don’t understand the why or how of this, Ristan, but eventually you will,” Danu said as she moved to where Olivia lay on the floor and knelt beside her to examine her sweet face.
“You knew what was coming. You forced me to break my promise, to fail my mission, and you knew I’d be tortured,” he accused; his eyes were angry and his skin itched to turn red in warning.
“Yes, but not to that extent, Ristan,” she admitted. “I hadn’t thought he’d become obsessed with you if there were hints of a connection between us, nor had I thought him still in love with me. We’ve lived a thousand lifetimes together, and we’ve been at war for just as many,” she whispered as her hand trailed to Olivia’s swollen breast. “How many times have you fucked this one?”
“Go to hell, Danu,” he said, warning permeating his tone.
“I’m already in hell, Demon,” she said unaffected by his tone. Her finger slid over Olivia’s nipple and Ristan felt a tight possessiveness roar to life.
“Get the fuck away from her; you’ve done enough already,” he said, his eyes locked onto the sharp fingernail that slid over the rose colored nipple. “Get out of here, Danu. Go back to your husband,” he growled, and he was as surprised as Danu by the force of his words, and the truth in them.
“Did you get attached to her?” she asked as she stood up, and her eyes turned blood red, as her hair turned black. He’d only seen her take the form of the Mórrígan once before when she’d killed the female he’d once grown close to.
“To some little Witch, one that betrayed, and helped torture me, Danu? Not at all, but I’ll be damned if you get to touch her when I have my own revenge planned for her,” he said smoothly, as he somehow managed to hold Danu’s gaze, which he’d normally never done.
“You’re mine, and you know the rules, Ristan,” she said, the warning blatant in her eyes. “I can’t love you, and I don’t share my things. You are one of those things I prefer to keep for myself.”
“You rarely even use me anymore, so why keep me? I’m not a fucking pet,” Ristan warned, and felt something snap inside of him. “What you have done to me… For centuries, you have used me, and for what? To what end? How can I fight for Faery when all I want to do right now is kill you? Fuck you, Danu; we’re nothing going forward. You don’t get to use me as bait and then come crawling back when you need a good fucking. Find another cabana boy to fetch your towel when you need it. Kill me if you need to for saying it, but me and you? We’re nothing. Get the fuck o
ut of here.”
Ristan waited until she was gone before he reached down and scooped up the sleeping form from the floor. She’d be out for a while, and knowing Danu, she’d give Olivia some vivid dreams while she slept.
Ristan didn’t have time for dream walking, even though he wondered at what nightmare Danu had given to Olivia. He assessed the room and decided she was the only thing he needed from his quarters. He opened a portal, then wrapped Olivia in a soft dark blue blanket he glamoured, and sifted to Vlad’s mansion, which was in the mountains just outside Spokane, nestled in the Colville Forest, and placed Olivia on one of the large couches near the crackling fire of the great room.
“Have you ever considered actually knocking?” Vlad asked as he entered the large room. He paused when he saw the blanket-wrapped form that took up a small spot on the massive couch.
“Yeah, easier just to pop in and get your attention,” Ristan said with a small smile. “I need a safe place to hide her, one where people won’t ask questions.”
He didn’t need to go into greater detail because Vlad was already aware of who Olivia was. Ristan sat beside Olivia and glamoured clothing on her since he’d spaced doing it as he’d left Faery. He smiled as the Hello Kitty pajama fuzz became exposed through the blanket.
“Ryder needs you right now more than ever,” Vlad said softly, his silver eyes so light that it almost made them appear white in color. They were normally a gunmetal color, but it all depended on how much he’d fed and how recently.