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.”