“That’s a little sadistic.” Not really, but I felt as if I should point it out to clear my karma.
“That bitch had it coming, and her sins were mine to eat, but they were hungrier. If I’m right, which I normally am, that meal is going to give them indigestion like a motherfucker.”
“Did you let them out once you’d fed them? Because if not, we have another issue at hand to deal with,” Ryder stated.
“I didn’t let them out. My guess is someone freed them, which is rightly so, a far more worrisome issue than my supplementing their diet. Whoever it was hadn’t been corrupted by the ether, which means we can’t base his spies on the corruption of ether alone. Arius has other avenues of getting information to him as well. They are willingly working against you.”
I slid my eyes to the husk Alden left behind, and my stomach clenched with unease because Layton was correct.
“Alden may be lost to us now,” I whispered through the emotion balling in my throat. “Unless Layton’s plan worked, which we won’t know because he’s gone.”
Adam and Adrian exhaled with the reality that the father figure we’d all shared had become a monster we’d soon be forced to hunt down and exterminate.
“The guild needs to be warded against him, and you need to make sure everyone inside has been tested for ether. Adrian, I am appointing you as head of the guild. Basically, you’ll stay on indefinitely if Alden doesn’t return. Adam can divide his time between his duties in his court and the guild for the foreseeable future. The catacombs beneath the city are large enough to accommodate the fae should we have to abandon Faery and find sanctuary somewhere until a larger shelter can be erected. Until we can figure out something else, we will work with what we have.”
“You’re considering leaving Faery to this prick?” Adam asked. When I merely released a deep breath, he placed his hands on his hips and heaved out a deep breath. “The fae aren’t going to want to leave their homes. I don’t blame them, Syn. I don’t want to abandon it either.”
“None of us do, but if Arius really is who the land chooses to rule, then we may not have a choice.” I prayed that Kahleena would be able to reach him and change his course to something other than destroying this world.
In the moments I’d seen Arius interact with my daughter, his words had contradicted the gentle way he’d held her arm, but there was no way to know if that gesture was genuine or fabricated as part of his game.
I loved my daughter, so I was going to trust that she understood the stakes of her gamble, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t also going to plan for a worst-case scenario. We would prepare for war as well as establish a reasonable exit strategy should we find ourselves on the losing side this time. It would be foolish and irresponsible not to.
“We will be ready and waiting for them to come. Together,” Ryder stated, cradling my face against his. “Together, you and I are unbeatable, Pet. Wherever we go, as long as I have you, it will be my home. So, we will do as our brave, brilliant queen asks of us and prepare for the worst and hope for the best. No matter what happens from here on out, as long as we stick together, we’re going to be okay. I love you,” he murmured.
“She’s just a baby,” I whispered with worry.
“She’s not a baby anymore. Our daughter is going to be okay. Kahleena is part of both of us, and I believe she will make it through this. He’s about to get brought to his knees, either from her pegging him in the balls or him falling madly in love with her. You and I know that if anyone could force Arius to bend to their will, it would be Kahleena. Let’s trust that she knows which path to walk.”
Tears slipped free, trailing down my heated cheeks. My heart swelled, and I lifted on my tiptoes, kissing him softly. “Until the stars burn out and the sun rises no more,” I whispered against his lips. “Forevermore isn’t long enough, though. I don’t think I will ever tire of your dirty mouth or your love. I love you, husband, and no matter where we end up, as long as you and our family are beside me, it will be home.”
After one more lingering kiss, he pulled back. “We need to finish the celebration. Our people need to see us and be assured that everything is fine so no one freaks out or does something foolish.”
“I agree, but I need to check in on Lucian, Spyder, and Erie, and then I need to go see Dristan.”
“I’ll go get our boy, Syn. You go deal with the other thing. We can divide and conquer before meeting in the middle.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I pushed up on my toes, kissing him with the emotion churning through me. “I love you, and whatever happens? You and I? We’re forever, and I wouldn’t want to live any other way.”
He wrapped his arm around my waist, kissing me soundly as he smiled against my lips. “You’re a savage, but your savage embraces my brutality perfectly. Come what may, you’re mine forever. Not even death can part us, and we both know it’s fucking tried several times before. I will always come for you, and claim you. In this life or the next, I will always find you.” Ryder released me and smirks. “Who else is gonna bend that ass over and fuck you like a beast?”
“Wow, we were totally having a moment here, Ryder. I don’t know how you go from wooing to bending my ass over in one breath, but it kind of ruined the moment,” I pointed out, seeing the smile growing on his sensual lips.
“Men woo to get that ass. You understand the logistics, right?”
“Worst wooer ever.” I snorted as his whiskey-colored eyes glittered with amusement.
“I told you, I don’t woo. But if I’m going to put effort into wooing? You’re ending up bent over the first solid, flat surface I can find, howling my name to the fucking moon.”
“I’m not seeing the downside to that at the moment,” I teased as the boys entered and turned the corner of the hallway. “Go get our son and bring him down to meet his sister. The boys can walk me down.”
“Like you need protection.” Cade snorted.
Zander chuckled. “Don’t worry, Father. She’ll protect us.”
I held Ryder’s eyes as we smiled like idiots. Our life wasn’t perfect, and we had our differences, but this was our horde. We’d created it together, and they were imperfectly perfect.
While Ryder went to collect our son, the boys and I went to seal the room in which Kahleena slumbered. Erie, Spyder and Lucian were painting runes to hide the entrance, and I walked closer to where she slumbered. I feared she had miscalculated how to reach Arius. She was splintered, and if he was indeed her mate, I had no idea how she would get him to realize it. Spyder had been very clear when he’d told us Arius was created without the ability to love anything or anyone other than himself. If, by some miracle he’d evolved the ability to do so, he wouldn’t feel the draft to Kahleena so long as she had a foot in both worlds.
She would have to face him with her whole soul fused back together. He wouldn’t feel her without her being whole again. It meant she would return to us, and if she faced him again, she’d need to do so whole, and with her all of her in one place. The thought of it sent fear and uneasiness rushing through me, but also pride.
Kahleena was a part of me, and she was fearless. I couldn’t be angry with her decision to fight fate because it had taunted her. If you couldn’t escape fate, then you seduced it until it tamed. If it unraveled and revealed what you wanted, then you embraced it with every part of yourself. Fate would crown Kahleena, one way or another, but I’d expected nothing less for my fiery, brave daughter.