Escaping Destiny (15 page)

He didn’t go fast, and eventually I pulled my
head from his chest so that I could see where we were heading to. I
smiled and squealed again, only this time, with excitement. “Holy
shit, Fairy, you can fly! I thought you said we would sift?”

“And miss you holding onto me this tightly?”
he replied warmly.

He laughed deep from within his massive chest
and shook his head as he landed on a long deck that couldn’t be
more than a mile from the pool we’d just left. I waited for him to
loosen his hold, and my feet to touch the wood deck before I
moved.

There was a long slanted staircase covered
with moss, which led to an azure pool of water that was fed by a
beautiful cascading waterfall. “It’s beautiful,” I whispered as I
took it in. It was a cove with huge cliffs on all sides, except for
the one with the winding staircase that led to the welcoming pool
of water.

Vivid emerald vines with white flowers that
looked like lilies, but had more petals, hung from them. They
covered the sheer rock cliffs. I took one step, and then another
with Ryder close on my heels. When we reached the crystalline pool,
he pulled me back against him.

“I used to play here after training with my
father. It’s heated from the rocks. We call them Core stones,
natural rocks that were once dipped into the cauldron of life, they
stay heated for millennia, or more once they have been removed from
here. Kind of like the natural hot springs of your world.”

I escaped his hold, and bent to my knees and
placed my hand into the cove’s water. It was warm, like a hot tub,
but there were no bubbles or big tub like the hot springs back
home. “Where are the rocks?”

“At the bottom, but you won’t find them. This
waterfall has been here since before your world was created, and it
flows throughout Faery. It is so deep, there are those that thought
that there wasn’t a bottom. All bodies of water are connected in
some way. Everything in Faery has a purpose, and normally works
together.”

I sat on the platform and dipped my toes into
the water, and sighed with pleasure. It was eerily beautiful here,
and yet even as I sat still, I could see the flowers moving closer
to where I sat. “Are the flowers moving?”

He laughed as he sat behind my body, and
curled his legs around my frame, fitting perfectly. His feet joined
mine in the water’s welcoming heat. “Everything in Faery is alive.
Those are not flowers, they are Dagden’s. They keep this place
protected, but expect payment from me, for doing so.”

I watched as one got scary close to us, and
then gasped as Ryder bit into the palm of his hand to draw blood.
The white flower approached, and without needing to be told,
quickly latched onto to Ryder’s palm.

I watched in stunned silence as the white
flower turned crimson red. It continued to stay latched onto Ryder,
but soon began to fade in color, and as I lifted my eyes to the
other flowers, I realized why. They were all feeding from the one
attached to Ryder. Instead of the hundreds of white flowers that
had been there, now hundreds of light pink flowers scaled the coves
cliffs.

I gasped and curled tighter against Ryder’s
chest. It was a reminder that I was no longer home, and that this
place was anything but safe. I’d have never known that those were
not flowers, would never have even guessed it. When the flower had
taken its fill of Ryder, it crept silently back across the water to
slither up against the rock.

Creepy!

I pulled my toes from the water, wondering
what else I had missed.

“Synthia, nothing will touch you while you
are with me. The water is safe,” he said comfortingly.

“I’m tired,” I said, and I was. I had been
getting over taxed easily, and I didn’t like it.

“Come, you sleep with me tonight,” he
whispered.

He flew us back to the castle, yes the
castle. A real life castle that looked as if had been picked up
from Scotland in the 1500s, and deposited in Faery at Ryder’s will.
Instead of taking me inside right away; he flew us to the hill that
overlooked his home.

The castle was built into three different
levels of the cliff that it was embedded into. There were hundreds
of stairs, maybe thousands that led from one castle to the next. It
was lit up, but not from light bulbs, from torches that were inside
the stone walls.

“It looks like something I would read in a
romance novel,” I said, because I knew he was waiting for me to
comment.

“It’s older than any of those books,” he said
with a snort. He took pride in his world, and I wondered what it
would look like through his eyes if he was seeing it as a
child.

“You should read some of them, Fairy. You
might learn a thing or two from them.”

“Like how to throw you over my shoulder and
carry you home to pillage and plunder your sweet honey?” he
teased.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “That’s a
Viking. I was thinking more like a Scottish Highlander.” I smirked
where he couldn’t see it.

“So you want me in a kilt? Is that so you can
have easy access, or so that I can?” he mused as his lips smiled
against my hair.

“Maybe it’s both?”

“Does my lass want her mon to speak with a
thick brogue?” he asked, and it sounded so natural off his tongue
that I shivered with desire.

“Nae she does nae.” I smiled, mimicking him
which made him throw back his head and laugh.

I grinned and turned in his arms. This was
nice; this I could live with. We were happy and together—but it
would be short lived.

Zahruk sifted in silently. I felt the slight
tingle in the air that came when someone sifted and quickly turned
around.

“Ryder, we got problems. The Shifters were
just attacked. It was very bad; we think it was the Mages, and a
message from Cornelius has arrived. He and Abiageal will be here
soon to start preparing for your wedding. I think this is his way
of forcing the issue now that you have ascended,” Zahruk said, but
I’d noticed he wouldn’t look at me. He kept his eyes fixed on
Ryder’s as if I didn’t exist.

“This couldn’t wait?” Ryder asked in an angry
tone.

“No, the Mages are getting bolder. This
attack wasn’t on the colony of Shifters; it was on the pack that
just left this castle.”

I shivered and stepped away from Ryder.

“We are not done, Synthia,” Ryder growled,
noting I’d stepped away and dropped my arms to my sides. I’d let
myself forget that he was marrying someone else.

“Go be the King, Ryder. I’m tired,” I
whispered past the tears constricting and burning in my throat.

Ryder slipped in and out during the night,
and I slept right through it. I had been a mess after the outing,
and sleep had been escaping me until Darynda had brought in some
soothing tea that had knocked me down for the rest of the
night.

Time was running out to make Ryder love me,
and finding a way out of that contract so he didn’t have to marry
someone else was weighing on my mind heavily.

It sounded easy, but things with Ryder never
went smooth. I was always expecting his mood to change, and with
mine own, plagued with hormones, it was a simple matter. We were
adjusting, but the pressure from those around us was also
smothering. It would be nice to go back to the night in his arms
before he’d handed me over to Adam.

“He has to marry her. I don’t see what the
big deal is. They have been betrothed for close to thirty years
now. Alazander made the betrothal contract, but neither side was in
a hurry to consummate it as they were each getting what they wanted
without making it official. The Horde needs the alliance that they
share to stay as it is. No offense, but I don’t see him getting
that from your family.”

“And what, may I ask, is that?”

“Thirty thousand fighting warriors and ten
thousand iron warriors who can wield iron with magic.”

“Oh, is that all?” I snorted and shook my
head. Okay, so Ryder was getting a lot from his soon-to-be
bride.

“I am the Blood Princess, and I have the cure
to Faery growing inside of me. Can she say the same?” I shot back,
because a twinge of jealousy roared within me. Shit. “I’m sorry, I
just don’t understand why being the Blood Princess doesn’t seem to
count for anything,” I amended, because I didn’t want to offend
Darynda who had grown up in this world.

“It’s okay. Being the Blood Princess is a
very high station, higher than Abiageal’s. It’s just that her
contract was negotiated first and the Horde got exactly what it
wanted with both contracts,” she said thoughtfully, and then
switched topics so fast it made me dizzy. “Did you know that The
King has called the Dark Prince into attendance? He’s supposed to
be super-hot.”

“Wait, Ryder called Adam here?”

“Cadeyrn,” she said, narrowing her eyes in
disapproval.

“Um, no. It is Adam now, and he wants to be
called Adam. It is the same as I was Sorcha, but going by a
different name for so many years has a way of making the new name
stick.”

“You really should call him Cadeyrn. It’s
what his mother named him. Anyway, he should be here later today.
All the women in the castle are humming with excitement, because
it’s known he is openly looking for the Light Heir now that you
turned out to be Blood.”

“Adam is looking for the missing Light Heir?”
I felt my heart clench in a vise. Not because I wanted him to be
mine, but because the thought of him being with someone other than
Larissa felt wrong.

“Yes, Ryder is helping of course. If all four
heirs and the relics come into place, Faery could be healed. People
would stop worrying about pregnancies, and dying infants.”

I felt a chill snake down my spine.

“I’m so sorry!” Darynda cried, placing her
hand over her mouth with wide eyes.

“It is fine.” It wasn’t fine. I was having a
child in a land where they didn’t survive. Nothing was okay in this
situation. I’d been so wrapped up in my own head, that I had
forgotten the mortality rate of the children here.

“How many infants have died in the Horde this
year?” I asked hesitantly and very afraid of the answer.

“One in twenty; that’s the odds of them
making it through Transition,” she said watching my face.

“That’s not so bad,” I said, feeling a weight
start to lift off my chest.

“One in twenty will live,” she replied,
dashing it and placing the weight right back on it.

I bolted to the bathroom and threw up. I was
still kneeling, calves to ass, when Ryder picked me up. “Eliran has
medicine for this,” he growled.

“Does he have something to ensure our child
lives?” I asked on a giant sob that rocked my entire body.

“It’s going to be okay, Pet. Ristan has seen
the child, which means he will live to his birth.”

“Has he seen him grow up? Has he seen him
anywhere besides in Adam’s arms?” I was starting to freak out. I
hadn’t wanted to be pregnant, but now that I was, I needed to not
lose this baby.

“We are working on it. I promise.”

*~*
~
*

I was being given nausea medicine when Ristan
sifted in. He was sitting beside me now, and his hand was rubbing
my shoulder. “I haven’t seen the baby beyond the vision in Adam’s
arms. Unfortunately, I can’t just make the visions come,
Flower.”

“So he could die?”

“Yes,” Ristan replied, as Ryder growled, and
Eliran shook his head.

“Ristan,” Ryder warned.

“Would you rather I lied to her? She needs to
know the truth, no matter how bad it might be!” Ristan shouted over
the glowering looks Ryder and Eliran were throwing at him.

“I need the truth. I want the truth. I can
handle the truth. What I can’t handle is allowing anything to
happen to this child. Do you understand?” I asked, looking up at
Ryder and Eliran, and then over at Ristan.

“Syn, just because—”

I grabbed the Demon by his shirt and pulled
him closer until we were nose to nose, the tips touching. “The
truth. It’s all I want. You saw me hand Adam a son. Was he alive,
did he move at all?”

Ristan swallowed slowly, his eyes never
leaving mine. “I have to assume he was based on what I saw. I just
do not know if he makes it to Transition. I also do not know if
that is the child you are carrying now. Based on the severity of
how fast our world is dying and what Danu has shown me, I have to
assume he is. Those are two big educated assumptions.” I slowly
released his shirt, letting him sit back a little.

Okay, this was a little better that I had
thought at first, but still not good enough. Ryder trusted him—a
lot, and Ryder said that Ristan was never wrong. It was just some
things had to be interpreted. It was plausible he’d seen me handing
my child to Adam, because well, I’d want my best friend to see my
son. I’d want him to hold him.

“You’re sure it was me, and that it wasn’t
the real Light Heir who was handing him her son?”

Ristan looked uncomfortable as he answered.
“I saw you, Synthia. I’m sure that it was you in the vision with
Adam and you were both smiling. From all of the visions I have had,
I do know that you, the Blood Princess, will give Ryder a child,
and I am sure that child is the start of the cure to this world.
That Danu is pushing and pulling your fate where she can is another
thing I am sure of, because not even you can deny the odds of you
taking the job from the Guild, and ending up inside of Faery. You
found your way back here, Flower. Through all of this, you were
brought back to our world for a reason,” he finished with his hands
in his lap and a steady look in his eyes.

“Maybe Danu hates me. Ever consider that?” I
asked, feeling the nausea rise again, even though I’d taken the
meds. My heart was hammering wildly, and it wasn’t helping that I
was really starting to wonder why Danu thought I was so freaking
important.