Taunting Destiny(133)

“Shall we leave now? We have held up our end of this contract. It’s time to go home and finish what you need to there. This is not helping you, or her. I can see the strain on your face. Let’s go home, Brother,” Zahruk said, lowering his eyes.

“We told Kier that we would stay until the vows were spoken, and the ceremony complete. He thinks I have some control over her,” I reply, balling my hands into fists.

“You do, but not like he thinks,” Z continues, and I narrow my eyes on him.

“Ryder, a word please,” Eliran says, pushing his way through the crowd of onlookers.

“What is it, Eliran?” Zahruk growls, impatient to return home.

“Sire, I’ve been running tests on Synthia from the blood I took from her house when she was sick,” he said as he stepped closer.

“And?” I reply coldly. As if it matters now, she hasn’t been sick since I pulled her out of her house and my patience is waning.

“And I ran tests. Every one of them I could think of. She has no iron in her system, which would be the common culprit for making a newly Transitioned Fae sick, and, well, her being raised in the human world you would think her count high, but it was surprisingly low.”

“This is what you came here to tell me? That her iron was low?” I growl. The beast is smiling, and he’s pissing me off.

“No. No, of course not. So I continued running test after test, but everything came back negative.”

“Spit it out healer. We’ve no time for this right now,” I snarl and have to remind myself that he is only doing his job. He isn’t the one I’m upset with, I remind myself.

“So, I ran a pregnancy test on the blood, which takes longer when levels are low,” he says, and I narrow my eyes on him.

“Why would you do that?” I snap. The beast is chuckling, and I feel my hackles rising. What the fuck did you do?

“Because it is the only test I hadn’t run yet. I had also requested her files from Alden, who had been very helpful in obtaining them from the Guild,” he rambles nervously and takes a small step back as I turn my full attention on him. “I ran it eight times because the hormone levels were very low.” He continues, and I turn to look at the dais where their hands are about to be bound together.

“And?”

“All eight came back positive. Synthia is pregnant. She would have to have conceived within the last month. I wanted to be sure when I told you, sire. She can’t be the cure to our world as Ristan has seen. Not with Adam’s child anyway, because she’s already pregnant,” Eliran says, but I’m no longer listening to him.

Mine, she’s mine; I told you…I fixed it, she’s ours forever! The beast says with a victorious laugh.

I turn to head toward the dais. But, as I approach them, I feel it and can see the alarm and confusion in her eyes as she looks around the room. Something is wrong. The air is thick with evil. I watch in shock as she allows her brands to glow, and pulse with magic, but they don’t ignite, not enough.

She looks at me as her shield goes up around Adam and the Kings, and the dais erupts into a mass of blinding light; sharp splinters and stone projecting outward from an energy bomb beneath it. The beast lets out a roar and I try to sift, but something is stopping me from doing so. What the Fuck!? Null spell. No one is sifting, except those who cast the damn thing. I don’t have time for this shit. “Find her!” I shout at them.

My men run, following me as I move as fast as my legs will take me to her. For the first fucking time in my life, I’m afraid. Fucked, that’s what we are; fucked. Reduced to human strength, none of us can sift until the fucking spell wears off. The dais is gone now and nothing but splintered wood and stone remains. There is a choking fog of smoke and ash that tries to blind us as we dig through the wooden supports and stone. I can see and smell blood. I’ve tasted hers, and I can smell its crimson purity spilled within the room. She isn’t immortal yet. I see Adam, Kier, and Dresden struggling to their feet from the wreckage. My men and I shift through the rubble and can’t find any sign of Syn. Voices shriek in distress all around us.

“Dristan, anything?” I ask, trying to keep the panic from my voice.

“Yes, and no, Ryder. Savlian just said he saw another Fae sift out with her right as the dais exploded, but he could not prevent them from doing so. He was one of the Fae from her memory. Not the leader though; it was the one who questioned him. The one who tried to stop it from getting out of hand,” Dristan says, watching me closely.

“She’s pregnant, Dristan,” I let out a long rumbling growl, wrestling down on everything within me so that the beast is not released. He is fighting me, and I can’t allow him out yet; not even for her.