“I think I’m going to need a notepad to keep up with the dos and don’ts here,” I mumbled under my breath.
“I may need to borrow it,” Adam said, smiling impishly as he elbowed my shoulder.
Another infant was placed in my arms within moments of the other. I looked at it, and felt its pale, cold skin; it didn’t look as healthy as many of the others had. “It’s sick,” I said to Adam who had also gone still at seeing the child’s pale color. I looked up at the mother to find fat tears rolling down her cheeks. “She is sick already,” I said and watched as the mother nodded with fear lighting in her blue and green eyes.
I felt my heartbeat accelerate, and the beat of it throbbed in my ears. I sent my power rushing through the infant and pushed with a gentle probing that made the tiny infant wail. The mother cried out, but Adam leapt from his chair to hold her back for a moment as I cleansed the infant from the sickness that was killing its small chance of survival.
When I had finished, it had a radiant glow that the other infants had. No longer was the small pale infant sickly, its eyes had opened, and it was staring at me with the same wonder that it’s mother now held. “I‘ve done what I could for the baby for now. We have to figure out what is wrong with the earth, and why Danu isn’t accepting them before it will truly be safe, though,” I said softly as I handed the child back; the entire assembly sat in awe of what I had done.
“That’s enough infants for now,” Mari choked out. She had her hand over her mouth and looked like she was holding back tears. She took a few deep breaths and composed herself. “Time for the binding of the hands,” she whispered and smiled reassuringly at the line of women.
I stood, with help from Adam; the long sweeping skirt of the dress making it impossible to do it on my own. When his mother had fixed the train and made sure I passed another quick inspection, we headed for the dais where the Dark King’s throne was usually placed. Adam’s father and the Light King stood at arm’s length and the Light King had a calculating gleam in his eyes as he watched us make our way to them. Asshole was probably trying to figure out how to kill me after the ceremony was done without getting caught.
We climbed the stairs and stopped just in front of the two Kings. We stood with our hands entwined, and I looked through the crowd gathered around us as we held our hands out for the fathers to wrap the handfasting silk around them and complete the ceremony. I knew who I was looking for, even though I tried to keep him from my mind as I stood next to Adam.
Ryder was standing to my left with his men, close to a set of large cedar doors, as if he was planning to leave me without saying goodbye, again. It was probably for the best; seeing that I had fallen in love with him and was marrying Adam. I hadn’t even thought it was possible for me to love a Fae, and yet, I did. His eyes were locked on our hands as Kier presented the long multi-colored silk ribbons that would bind our wrist together.
When Adam’s father began addressing the assembly, my heart increased in tempo as I felt the silk ribbons begin to wrap around our wrists. I felt a moment of panic before the calm settled over me as the warmth from Adam’s hand sank into me. Or maybe it was a comfortable numbness, since I was giving up my Fairy; my enemy and one of the only men I’d truly ever loved.
I watched Ryder as he looked toward me, his eyes narrowed with a dangerous glint lighting in them. Eliran was telling him something with a helpless gesture of his arms and Ryder turned to him, his mouth slanted at an ugly angle as he snapped at the healer. When he turned toward us with his men at his back, I saw victory shining his eyes.
I turned to look at Adam, as something tingled inside my mind with awareness. I watched in slow motion as everyone else stopped to look around, confused at what was happening. Something was off; terribly off. The air grew thick around us until it was impossible to breathe it in. Someone screamed, and it looked like Fae were trying to sift out of the room, but something was holding them trapped inside of it. I locked eyes with Ryder’s, who had a look of stunned disbelief in his eyes as he comprehended what was about to happen.
I looked at Adam and tried to throw up a shield around him, as well as Kier and Dresden, a fraction of a second before there was a blinding burst of light and the dais exploded from an energy bomb that detonated somewhere underneath us.
*~*~*~*~*Ryder*~*~*~*~*
Watching her hold infants had been strangely amusing. She was awkward, and, yet, she still accepted one after another. Watching her sign those fucking contracts had been straining my ability to hold the beast inside. I’d wanted nothing more than to sift to her, and take her away from here.