I didn’t make a foot before Ryder grabbed me and pulled me back to him. “Wait,” he whispered against my ear.
“Stop crying. Stupid girl, what are you crying for? Huh?” An angry male’s voice sounded from less than a few steps away from us.
“You killed innocent people. You didn’t have to kill them. They wouldn’t have told anybody!” the woman cried, and my spine straightened. My hands itched, and I moved forward. I had to get closer, and Ryder knew it.
He and his men followed me as I snuck up and ducked beneath one of the massive shelves that housed part of the Guild’s history. I couldn’t make out who was crying, and who the men were, but I could feel the hatred pouring off of them. My guess was at least the male was a Mage, and the woman was from the Guild.
Mages.
I felt them in the space now; felt their anxiety and their cocky self-assurance that they’d be successful today. Joke was on them. I’d learned that lesson the hard way, which they’d learn as well. You never got cocky when you hadn’t been dealt your hand yet.
“Shut her up, the Elder is gone. The Fae are in the building,” another male’s voice ground out and I stopped breathing.
I felt the others go still around me as well. We all watched as one of the Mages walked over to where we were, his eyes searching up and down the aisle, and missing us completely. I released the breath I was holding, and thanked the stars that he couldn’t actually see us while we were cloaked by Ryder’s invisibility veil.
Danu looked down at me and shook her head. “I can’t feel Bilé; not yet anyway, which means he can’t feel us, either.”
“That’s good,” I replied and watched as the Mage moved around, heading back in the direction he’d come from.
“You feel that? It almost feels as if we’re being watched,” he said to the others in the room.
“If we were being watched, Bilé would tell us,” another said. We stood up and moved further down the room until we rounded the corner, and the smell that met us, was nauseating. Dead bodies had been piled together.
I had to stop, close my eyes, and seal off my heart at the sight of people I had once known, people who had been killed recently, from the looks of the remains. I moved away from them without bothering to see if anyone followed. I couldn’t stand the sight of it, or the guilt that gnawed on me.
I knew I couldn’t have changed it, but it was a different matter getting my heart to accept that. I entered another room and waited at the threshold for the rest of the group. Inside the room was dark, but I could almost make out a silhouette. Whoever it was had their back to us and their head down.
I used the senses I’d been given, and tried to see through the darkness, but it was as if the darkness was a thick mist, and no matter how much I tried to, I couldn’t see through it.
“That’s not Ristan.” Ryder pulled me back.
“Whoever it is needs our help,” I growled.
“No, they don’t. They’re beyond our help, Pet,” he replied and pointed to the floor where even I could make out the thick dark pool of blood.
“I’m really going to enjoy killing these bastards.” I accepted his outstretched hand as we headed down the hall to where the library was. It would be the ideal place to create a setup, because it had the most unused space.
“You and me both, Syn,” Zahruk said as he moved in front of us.
As we rounded the corner, we all stopped. Ristan was there, and he was tied to what looked like a mediaeval torture device. His arms were tied to one end and his feet were tied to the other. His eyes were vacant, and he had been brutally tortured. His face was a mass of slashes and angry looking bruises and his body had fared no better. His shirt was missing so I could see that his ribs were sunken in, and he had at least six God bolts in his shoulders and upper arms. I could sense there was more damage that we couldn’t see. I couldn’t stand to see him like this.
“He’s not coherent,” Ryder growled.
Inside the room with Ristan was a large number of Mages and quite a few Guild Warlocks I recognized, but they weren’t who I was worried about. Bilé was somewhere in this place, hiding as he waited for us. I stepped further into the room, noting that if I didn’t, Ryder would. It didn’t matter though. Danu passed us, and stopped everyone as she took the lead.
“Bilé,” she whispered.
I watched as one of the larger Mages turned and looked at her, and then transformed. He was over seven feet tall, and beautiful. He had silver hair, and eyes of the clearest summer sky. His mouth was soft, and yet as I watched him, it grew tight with emotion.
He paused, his eyes raking over her and for a brief second, I saw raw need in his eyes. He growled her name, and the entire room shook.
“Husband, it’s been awhile,” Danu purred, and I turned to look at her. She was beautiful as a pure Goddess; her inner beauty was alight with a glow that created a halo of blonde curls that framed her face. Gone were her leather pants, and in their place was the Goddess attire. This was the Danu that Ristan had described to me in the Maze.
She held her hands palm up, her face tilted, pain in her eyes. It was raw, emotional pain that this man had created, and it was strong. They’d held true love at one time, until years of competition had created strife between them. I reminded myself why we were here, and turned back to find Bilé watching me with open curiosity.
“Is she yours?” he asked as his eyes slid down my body.
“Yes,” Danu answered him softly.
“She’s beautiful, just as our own child would have been, had she survived,” he whispered as his eyes moved back to Danu’s.
I looked to where Ryder and his men stood, silently watching what was occurring. They’d remain invisible until Danu made a move, and then they’d become visible to the Mages, to keep them engaged.
I blinked and almost looked away, but Ristan let out a strangled bellow of pain and I turned my attention to where one of the Mages had stabbed yet another bolt in his chest. “Don’t,” I warned as he pulled yet another one up and readied it.
“What are you going to do?” he sneered, which made his features pinch and I was reminded of Joseph, as he removed Larissa’s heart from her chest.
“I’m going to rip your guts out, and I’ll do it while you’re still using them. Then, after I’m done, I’ll show you your insides, and give you a fucking anatomy lesson.”
He blanched, but regained his composure. “We have a God on our side!” he shouted defiantly.
“So what’s your plan, wife? Kill me for what I’ve done to your children?” Bilé asked as he tilted his head, and watched her.
“I’ve no intention of killing you, husband.”
“Ahh, then this newly hatched Goddess must be the one who’s planning to end my life,” he said with a narrowed look my way.
“She’s not a part of this, Bilé,” Danu warned. “She’s mine, of my womb.”
He swallowed and narrowed his eyes on me and for a brief moment, I felt him inside of me, searching my DNA until he found what he wanted, and then pulled back. I felt slightly violated, but something in his demeanor changed and he snapped.
“You mated with those vile fucks!?” His entire body shook with anger and his head swiveled to look at Ristan with an evil glare. His voice actually shook the ancient stone columns of the catacombs, and new leaks appeared and started to fill the floor with water.
It had always been damp down here, but new cracks were forming and water was leaking from the walls of the catacombs. Bilé was coming undone. He was actually glowing with hatred, and I could hear the Mages that were hiding in his cloaking field.
“I lay down with no Fae, I only placed my egg where a seed could plant it,” she sneered angrily. “After all this time and you’re jealous of my children.”
“I’m not jealous. You are min
e! You’ve always been and will always be mine,” he growled.
I blinked and then chanced a peek at Ristan, who was glaring at me with a look of sheer hatred, but I knew it wasn’t for me. He was glaring at Bilé. I smiled. He glared. He was glaring, so hell yes I was smiling! If he could glare, it meant there was hope for him yet. I waited until Bilé moved closer, his angry arms swung out as if he was going to hit me, and I paused.
Danu shoved me, because I was trying to sift and we both knew it. She brought her fist up and slammed it against Bilé’s lips, and blood exploded from his nose. Oh yeah, that relationship was toxic! The Mages stood rooted to the spot, watching and waiting to see who would win. I wanted to, but I had a job to do.
I waited until she sifted behind him and Zahruk’s daggers materialized in her hands as she drove them into Bilé’s back while the Mages called out warnings. Two seconds later, I was left in the room with close to twenty Mages and Warlocks, and one bloody heap of Ristan.
I smiled, and felt a level of pleasure I shouldn’t have at the knowledge that I could now slaughter these sick bastards. I felt the moment Ryder and his men became visible, because the Mages turned a pasty shade of white. I pulled power from within and my brands lit up.
“Showtime,” I growled as I moved toward the Mages. The first one started chanting, and I punched him, right in the teeth, and enjoyed the burn as his teeth cut my knuckle, and then his scream as he choked on them. I dropped low and swung my foot out, catching his feet and taking them out from under him.
I stood up and kicked out with the other foot, catching one in his cheek, and another in the nose. I kept kicking, swinging, and slicing through them with the wicked iron blades Zahruk had been overly willing to part with since he was basically allergic to the metal they’d been formed out of.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ryder and the rest of the men engaging the balance of the Warlocks and Mages. Seeing Fae fighting is a frightening, barbaric thing to witness and I was glad I was fighting with them, and not against them.
I watched as a set of Mages started towards me, and waited until the first one was close enough and swung out—as Alden had trained me to—and slit his throat with the weight of my body. I may have been smaller than a man, but I had enough tricks to hit as hard as one. The other moved closer, his eyes briefly following his friend, right before I let one of the blades fly, which landed in his eye, killing him instantly.
Brains were tricky like that. I turned to find the rest, only to find Ryder and his men watching me calmly as they glamoured the blood from their weapons.
“Missed it, did ya, Pet?” Ryder asked, his eyes diverted from where Ristan was being helped and the bolts were being removed.
“Always,” I said as I moved in the direction of the Demon.
“The girl,” Ristan snarled. His eyes were almost feral. “I want her with us.”
“What girl,” I asked, and turned to look around the room, only to find Sinjinn entering the library holding Olivia by the arm.
I stepped forward, torn on what to do. My heart said to stop them, to protect the poor girl. My head replayed Alden’s words, and in the end, it won out over Olivia being of my Guild. In my heart, I was no longer a part of this place. I was Ryder’s. I was Fae, even if only by choice, because my babies were. If she had betrayed the Guild, it affected my children and that wasn’t something I could ignore.
“Olivia,” I whispered with a questioning look at her.
“She doesn’t talk to anyone, she doesn’t get fed by anyone, nothing. Not unless I myself do it,” Ristan whispered, but that whisper held a level of anger that I’d never thought was possible from my fun-loving Demon.
“Understood,” I said as a single tear slid from my eye.
“I don’t care if you’re her best fucking friend, Syn, cross me on this and you’ll wish you never had,” Ristan growled.
“Understood, Demon,” I growled back.
I watched as Sinjinn took the Guild librarian and Savlian took Ristan, before they all sifted out to await us in front of the Guild. “I want to know what she did that made him hate her that much,” I whispered through the hurt that Ristan had been torn and damaged the way he was.
“Something horrible,” Zahruk replied.
“Synthia, leave this alone. He isn’t up for a challenge and that is what will happen should he do any harm to you,” Ryder said, and I heard the silent plea in his tone.
“She’s his problem,” I confirmed. I knew Ristan; whatever she had done, it had been horrible. Mix that with Alden’s warning and I could make a pretty good guess about what she’d done to them. “We need to focus on replenishing this Guild with Witches, because what happened out there can’t continue,” I said as I looked around helplessly as the Elite Guard winked in and out of the rooms, removing the dead.
“For now, let’s just go home. I’d like to see our children.”
“Me too,” I whispered, and held my hand up to his, intertwine our fingers together. “Take me home.”
“I like the sound of you saying home, and meaning ours,” Ryder whispered as he kissed my neck.
“Wait,” I said as I looked around the place. “Do you feel that?” I asked as my skin grew aware of being watched, and tiny bumps arose on it. I listened, and heard the sound of small hearts racing, and I stepped away from Ryder. I heard the heartbeats of children. Ryder’s head cocked to the side momentarily, listening.
“Children. They haven’t counted yet, but…some of my men found a large group of them hidden; they are terrified,” he said with barely controlled anger.
“Get them out of here, take them to Faery. It’s too dangerous for them here and who knows how many of their parents were killed when the Guild fell,” I said hurriedly and watched as Ryder nodded his head in agreement. I knew without a doubt he was already relaying the orders to his men.
“What the hell, Syn?” Adam yelled as he moved through the rubble and bodies.
“No time to explain, Adam. Did you bring the Dark Fae with you?”
Adam nodded absently as he took in the carnage in the room. “I brought Shadow Warriors as well as Dark Guard from the Fortress. It is all over the news stations that a Fae army stormed the Guild. Humans are panicking out there. I had some of the Guards set up a perimeter out there to keep the Humans away, and others are going through the upper levels looking for survivors,” Adam said, and I watched him in silence since I’d never seen him this angry before.
“There aren’t any more survivors, we’ve already checked,” I said softly as I placed my hand on Adam’s arm, sharing his anger and pain at the destruction of our childhood home.
“We need to go,” Ryder’s voice was a sharp growl.
“Wait,” I said as I pulled back on Ryder’s arm. “We can’t leave the library and the archives for anyone to stumble on; there’s some shit in there that is incredibly dangerous. Is there any way we can seal this area?”
Ryder gave me a nod with an evil glint in his eyes. “I think we can do something.” Ryder led us to the foot of the stairs, just before the entrance of catacombs and once he was assured that all of his men had cleared the area, he spread his arms wide and let loose with a gigantic push of power, causing the entrance of the library to cave in. “That should hold until we can bring back a group to clear that place out. For all we know, there could be one or more of the relics down here,” he said grimly as we turned and made our way to the upper levels and out the front door of the Guild.
Once outside, it looked like pandemonium had taken over. Armed Fae surrounded the Guild, keeping the Humans away from it and from attacking the would-be rescuers. The Elite Guard and Shadow Warriors had been winking in and out, leaving rows of the dead behind the Fae barricade and in front of the steps of the Guild. The most heartbreaking were the small, lifeless bodies of the children. Humans s
creamed and shouted in fury at the Fae. If ever there was a recruiting poster for the Mages, this was it.
The Fae who had been bringing up the bodies gathered around the dead and awaited orders. This had to have been their way of saying the Guild was clear now.
“Have them take the dead to Faery for burial. They died bravely and deserve to be buried with honor.” I looked at the Guild compound where I had spent most of my life one last time. “Burn it down,” I whispered. The Fae overseeing the dead bowed to Ryder and then winked out through the portal with the remains.
I watched as Aodhan smiled as his eyes started to glow an iridescent blue. “Watch the master,” he said and I watched him, but it wasn’t him who had fire. It was Sinjinn. His double colored eyes changed, and turned to an angry red that bordered on creepy. He lifted his hands, palm up and I watched as flames leapt to life in them.
Even from where I stood, I could feel the heat of his flame as he brought it up to his lips and blew, which sent the flames rushing through the air as if they were liquid accelerator. Olivia screamed hysterically and fought against Sevrin’s hold, and the savage smile that took over Ristan’s face floored me. Whatever she’d done to him, I couldn’t intervene, no matter what.
Ryder turned and looked at the crowd of Humans that were wailing and shrieking in outrage at what had happened to the Guild. My heart mirrored their screams as flames licked the sides of the compound, as it caught and started to erupt in flames.
“Fae were not responsible for what happened here!” his voice boomed with regal authority over the crowd, stunning them to silence. “This was an act of insanity, caused by madmen and their accomplices within the Guild who betrayed their own brothers. One of ours was trapped inside protecting a Guild Elder when it happened. We will not tolerate violent acts against our people and we came here to get him out. This travesty had already happened when we arrived. We will go in peace now, but understand this; force will be met with equal force. Do not provoke my people by attacking them over false beliefs.” Ryder’s glare swept the crowd one last time before he looked at me. “Now, let’s go home.”