These types of bolts had been designed to weaken or immobilize a God. Bolts which I had the horror of being pinned with once before—when I’d watched Larissa being murdered in front of my eyes.
“Good work, my lovely,” Ryder whispered lovingly to Claire. “Now go back before they notice you missing. We still need you inside; alert us if he finds anything amiss with her leaving. Remember the plan, and you will be rewarded richly,” Ryder said as I watched his face, and then his hand weaved in an intricate design, and a portal was opened.
He reached down, roughly grabbed my useless limbs, and pulled me up into his arms. He whispered a few words as his fingers began to glow; he reached for the necklace Ryder had given me, and removed it effortlessly from my neck. His features shimmered, and his eyes faded from cold, golden eyes to a lifeless dull shade of blue. His shoulder length hair was a light blonde, and he didn’t have brands, which made me wonder what kind of Fae he was. I felt a familiar pain shoot down my spine and ripple around my abdomen as a contraction ripped through me.
I tried the mental path I’d shared with Ryder, and found it gone. It was Joseph all over again. I felt myself start to panic, but reminded myself that it wouldn’t help me or the babes. Danu would feel my distress; she had to. Ryder would realize I was gone and he’d come for us.
I slowed my breathing as I was picked up and carried through the portal. Faolán was waiting for me on the other side.
“Hello, sister.” He smiled evilly. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue, bitch?”
I glared at him as another pain tightened my stomach. I tried to show no fear, but the man behind me pulled me back up from where I’d hunched down. He held me tightly against his frame, and Faolán produced a knife, and he ran the dull edge over my swollen stomach.
We were in what looked to be an abandoned temple, in a deep, dark crypt which was almost completely empty, other than a few stone slabs and candles, which sat on dingy, decrepit shelves that were placed high in the walls.
“My friends will be pleased now that we hold the King’s brats along with his whore in our grasp. You see; I knew going in as we did at his coronation was not worth trying again, but by taking you, we’ve now gained the upper hand. He’ll come for you, and when he does, we will kill him, and the rest will fall behind him,” Faolán spat; a little spittle hit my face as he grew excited.
Obviously, he hadn’t figured out who my mother was, or that Ryder could only be killed by his own heir. I winced as he continued to push the dull edge of the blade over my abdomen. Fear was playing hell on my mind, but I refused to allow it in, to seep into my soul.
The pain in my shoulders was to the point of unbearable, and he wouldn’t cut me open—not yet. Or so I hoped. I kept trying to make my mouth work, but nothing would come out. I was going to incinerate Claire as soon as I got free, and I knew I wouldn’t waste any time about doing it.
“Hmmm, nothing to say? Nothing sharp and witty?” he taunted as he brought the knife up and ran it over my cheek, poising it beneath my eye. I refused to blink or show a lick of fear as he did so.
His other hand worried me more, because it was slowly tracing down my belly to what the sundress barely hid. “I wonder if you’d like it as your whore of a guardian did; would you beg me to fuck you more, sister? Maybe harder, as she did?”
I felt nausea pushing to come up. He was sick, twisted and so fucking dead. His fingers pushed past my panties and I did it. I threw up on him.
“Fucking bitch!” he growled as he dropped the knife and used his magic to slam my face as if I was being slapped and hit repeatedly. I felt pain but I took it. I could handle it, as long as he didn’t punch my stomach, or harm the babes. He dropped me to the floor and pulled off his shirt and started removing his pants; he wasn’t using magic, which told me he wanted me to beg him, he wanted me to know what was coming without the quickness of using magic; he was taunting me. “Let’s see how you handle a real King,” he snapped.