Deviation: Altera Realm Trilogy Book 2 (42 page)

Adam stopped outside the coronation room and took a deep breath. He wasn’t himself. That was the only excuse he could come up with at the moment. He wasn’t the man who’d gone into the market a short while ago and followed a young Magic User for a half hour before charming her into a dark alley. He made sure not to kiss her; that was something he couldn’t do. It wasn’t romance or even pleasure he was after. It was just blood. He meant it when he’d told Syney he didn’t want to explore his Vampire half. But then he’d felt Syney’s blood course through his body, and it was the most amazing feeling. He had rejected most of what Gabe had tried to teach him, including feeding on blood. Once Adam realized he didn’t need to do it, he had chosen to stop. He’d always seen drinking blood as dirty, which probably stemmed from the way most people in the neutral territories saw the whole process. There were even establishments just for it. He hated it almost on principle. But now…all he could think about was drinking blood. His heart had pounded as he had bitten the girl’s neck. She had no idea what was going on. He knew the haze the bite could give. Even Syney had gotten pleasure from it when he had bitten her the week before. The idea of getting caught never even had crossed his mind.

But now he needed to calm himself down. Syney was on the other side of the door, waiting to go over their joining. He knew he was flushed, but he was already late, so he had to go in. He took one more breath before pushing
through the large wooden doors. Syney was at the front of the enormous room, sitting on the steps that led to the large throne. She stood as he walked down the aisle toward her.

“I’m late. I know,” he said, giving her a quick kiss. Very quick.

She smiled at him. “It’s OK. Gabe and Noelle aren’t even here yet.”

“So I’m not late. Sounds good to me.” He looked away and flexed his hands nervously.

“Are you OK?”

Adam nodded, looking everywhere but at her. He knew that acting this way would make her suspicious, but he couldn’t look at her right now. Guilt bubbled up in his throat.

“Adam, you’re not OK. What’s wrong? Are you hurt? There’s blood on your collar.”

His heart nearly stopped in his chest. He quickly shook his head and brushed her hand away as she reached to touch the collar of his shirt. “I’m fine, really.” He finally dared to look at her.

There was clearly a hurt in her eyes, as she looked his whole face over. He wasn’t fooling her, but coming clean seemed impossible right now. She stepped away from him. “Who was it?” she asked quietly.

Adam shook his head and turned away. This wasn’t the feeling he had wanted.

“Adam, I need you to talk to me,” Syney said, pulling him to look at her. “Rule one, remember?”

He looked down. “I’m sorry.”

She sighed. “We need to talk.”

Adam watched as she sat down on the steps, wringing her hands. “Isn’t this where you start yelling and screaming?”

Syney frowned and shook her head. “I’m upset, but yelling won’t get us anywhere. I mean, you didn’t sleep with her…”She paused, searching his face. “Right?”

He shook his head and slowly sat next to her. “No. I didn’t even kiss her. I just…This need keeps coming over me. I tried to push it away, but ever since you gave me blood last week, it’s been getting stronger.”

Syney turned to him and took his hands in hers. “This is the stuff we have to talk about. I told you I fully support your exploring that side of you.”

“I’m…not sure I want you to see that side of me.”

“Why? It’s you, and I love you. You can’t scare me. I promise,” she said, squeezing his hands.

Adam slowly nodded, not believing how lucky he was right now. “So how do we do this?”

“Well, I’d feel more comfortable and safer if you only took from me.”

“That’s a lot of blood, you know.”

“I know. But it’s for you, so I’m OK with it.”

Adam stared at her. If karma comes back around, he really wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve Syney. “OK.”

She smiled. “Good.” She leaned forward and kissed him lightly.

He stayed forward for a moment, breathing in her scent before looking at the rows of benches in the room. “I didn’t think we knew this many people.”

“Oh, we
so
don’t. I was informed that the whole palace would be invited. And then we have to make a public address to the entire Village.”

“Sounds great,” Adam said, his voice not hiding his displeasure.

Syney put her head on his shoulder. “Welcome to royal life.”

He rolled his eyes. That was probably the only thing he really didn’t want out of all this. But in order to have Syney, he had to be king as well. It was a sacrifice he was willing to make. “You know, it’s funny…We’re going to have thousands of people here and the only two I actually want here can’t be. I wish they had met you, or me for that matter.”

Syney stiffened against his shoulder before sitting up and looking at him. “Your parents.”

Adam nodded. “It’s crazy to miss people you’ve never met, huh?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head.

He watched as several emotions ran over her face, ending with what he was pretty sure was guilt. What the hell did
she
have to be guilty of? “What is it?”

“I…I want to tell you something. But it’s not really my secret to tell you. But I don’t think I can keep it to myself. Not right now, at least.”

Adam put his hands on either side of her face. “Rule number one, remember?”

Syney nodded. “When I tried to call Amelia, she didn’t show up right away. Faye did.”

“Gabe’s Faye?”

“Yeah.” She pulled the ring he had given her off her finger. “This is Faye’s ring,” she said simply, as she held it up.

It didn’t connect for Adam at first. Why was she talking about Faye and showing him his mother’s ring? Sure, her mother and Faye had known each other, but he’d already told Syney that. Why would she be so upset? Then it clicked. He stood quickly and walked a few steps away. There was no way, no how. But why should it be so surprising? Gabe was a master liar and manipulator. Why not lie about who his parents were? But if Faye were his mother, his father had to be…Gabe.

He looked at Syney. “No way.”

Syney stood. “Faye told me. I’m so sorry. I should have said something sooner. I just wasn’t sure it was my place.”

Adam shook his head. “He can’t be.”

“Gabe is complicated. We both know that.”

“
No!
I don’t believe it.”

Syney sighed as the door opened at the back of the room, and Noelle slowly walked up the aisle.

“Hey, guys,” she said. “Sorry for being late.” She walked toward them before taking a seat in the first row.

“It’s OK,” Syney said quietly.

Adam turned away from them, his hands on his hips. This was just ridiculous, he knew. But Syney had a point. Gabe was complicated. And he loved to play with people. Still the denial sat heavily in his chest—the same denial Syney felt when they’d told her she was part Daemon, he bet. He looked back at Syney. “Why wouldn’t he just tell me?”

She shrugged. “I’ve been racking my brain but can’t think of anything.”

“What’s wrong?”

They both looked at Noelle. Adam shook his head and looked back at Syney. He silently told her to tell Noelle, which she did. There was no way the words were going to come out of his mouth.

“Oh, God, he didn’t,” Noelle said talking more to herself than Syney or Adam.

“Are you so surprised?” Syney asked, rolling her eyes.

She frowned. “It’s not that. It’s Faye.”

“What about her?” Adam asked, sensing something bad was about to happen. He watched as Noelle looked down at her hands. She didn’t look well, and he wasn’t sure it entirely had to do with what she was hiding. She looked wan and had bloodshot eyes. “Are you OK?”

Noelle looked up at him and shrugged. “Been feeling a little sick. I’ll be OK.”

Syney stepped forward and placed the back of her hand on Noelle’s forehead. “You’re burning up.”

“It’s just the flu.”

“You should go to the infirmary.”

“She can’t,” Adam said, sitting next to her, “but there’s a doctor out in Colchin I might be able to persuade to come here.”

Noelle smiled at him. “Thank you. I might actually take you up on that if this doesn’t get any better.”

“Why not just see our doctors?” Syney asked.

“Shifters have a specific protein in their blood that’s visible in any blood test,” Adam said. “I’ve had a few Shifter friends over the years.” He smiled at Noelle. “Anything you need.”

Noelle gave a small laugh. “Oh, put that smile away.”

He took her hand. “I’ve seen a few flus run through villages. I think it might be best if I get the doctor sooner rather than later.”

She nodded and started to cough. Once she caught her breath, she looked up at Adam. “You should know this…”

“What?”

“If it’s true…when Faye died, she somehow put herself into the Blocadrian amulet. Gabe was able to see her when he held it.”

This was getting better and better. Adam shook his head and looked at Syney, who slowly closed her eyes and cursed. Not only was Adam’s father not dead, but Gabe also had a direct line to Adam’s dead mother—someone he’d been trying to reach since he was a teenager. His hurt was chased away by a new piercing anger. He stood and took a deep breath. Then walked into the aisle.

“Maybe only he could use the amulet,” Syney said quietly.

“No, I used it to talk to her before he destroyed it,” Noelle said almost as softly.

Adam shook his head, still not believing all of this. It was beyond frustrating. At least he knew now why his parents never came when he had called them forth all those times. He had done it every night for a whole year once. That was before he had turned off the part of him that made him feel and care for people, the part that Syney had turned back on. His eyes burned with tears that he refused to shed. This was a betrayal. There was no other way to see it.

When the large wooden door opened at the end of the aisle, he knew it was Gabe but kept his back to him, not trusting himself at this point. He was either going to rip his dear dad’s head off or weep like a baby. Neither option was appealing.

“Why the long faces?” Gabe asked.

Noelle cleared her throat. “Maybe you should help me back to my room.”

“I thought we had a rehearsal or something?”

“Don’t worry about it. You should go,” Syney said, a distinct edge to her voice.

Adam took some deep breaths and turned to half face them, still keeping his head down.

“Are you two fighting? Because that’s normal before joinings,” Gabe said.

Adam rolled his eyes as he gritted his teeth. He looked at Syney, who looked at him desperately before turning to Gabe. “I talked to Faye last week. I finally get why you won’t give me her journal back.”

Gabe’s eyes darted from her to Adam. “You don’t know anything. It’s complicated,” he said quickly.

“There’s nothing complicated about lying to me about my parents!” Adam yelled, no longer able to hold back his anger.

“It’s complicated. You were never supposed to know,” Gabe said, his voice still calm.

“And that makes it better how?”

Gabe took a step toward Adam. “Because you deserve devoted, loving, dead parents instead of a live one who doesn’t know how to be a parent.”

Adam scoffed and squeezed his hands into fists. “And how do you know what I deserve?”

“Because you’re my son!” Gabe yelled. “The product of two great houses! And you’re just like her! Right down to that damn smile!”

“Really?” Adam stepped to within inches of him. “Because I’ve never actually seen her. You took that away from me.”

Gabe looked at Noelle, who looked away quickly.

“What? No apology?”

Gabe shook his head. “I don’t regret anything. You want to be mad, then be mad. I don’t care.”

Adam took the swing quickly. He felt the bones in his hand break the second they hit Gabe’s face but heal just as fast, thanks to the blood he’d just had. The punch had felt good, almost cathartic. Good enough to keep going. Gabe started to fight back once Adam had him on the floor, which felt better to Adam. At least Gabe cared enough to fight his own damn son. He heard Syney yelling at him to stop, but he needed to get this out. He might explode if he didn’t.

Finally Gabe grabbed Adam by the shoulders and planted his foot into his chest. With one big shove, Adam flew a few feet back, allowing Gabe time to get to his feet. “Are you done?” Gabe yelled.

Adam looked up at him and wiped some blood from his nose. “I am.”

“Good. Now maybe we can sit down and talk.”

Adam stared at him for a moment before standing up. “No. I’m done with you. With all this crap. Don’t talk to me. Don’t come near me. I’m out.” He started to walk down the aisle but stopped after a few steps. He may have hated Gabe, but his heart still ached for Syney. He turned around and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the throne room with him. He didn’t stop until they were in the hallway outside Syney’s room. He leaned against the wall then sunk to the floor. The tears he’d been holding back stung his eyes again as he let them fall this time.

Syney knelt in front of him and placed her hands on his knees. He looked up at her tear-streaked face and let out a sob. She leaned forward and pulled him to her. Adam buried his face in the crook of her neck, not caring if anyone saw them there in the hall. He knew Reed probably wasn’t too far away but didn’t
really care. Everything he’d known about his past had been a lie—a lie made up by the one person who was supposed to support him in life, his father.

After a while he took a deep breath to calm himself and leaned back against the wall.

“What do you need?” Syney asked, wiping the tears from his face.

Adam gave a bitter laugh. “Lots of alcohol.”

“OK, I can do that. I’ll get some bottles of vinum.”

He grabbed her hands. “I need you.”

Syney leaned forward and kissed him lightly. “You have me. Always.”

Later that night, after far too much drinking, Adam looked at Syney as she slept next to him and realized she was his family now. And that was the only family he needed. He’d meant what he’d said: he was out of it. No more jumping through hoops. No more scheming. Gabe was dead to him. Now all he wanted to do was what he actually
wanted
to do. The idea was exhilarating, and just a little scary.