“So she is, but Ristan saw her giving birth to Adam’s child. Not yours.”
I close off all emotion. It’s fucking useless to me. “She has no fucking idea that she is pregnant,” I reply and fight the anger that radiates like a fucking oven out of my pores. She’s been pregnant this entire time, since the beast took over, and now she is in the hands of the enemy with my child in her womb.
“We will find her, Brother.” Dristan says, but his eyes fill with doubt and it sinks beneath my skin.
“Just fucking find her, now!” I shout, knowing that wherever she is, she’s alone and unguarded, unprotected and scared.
“Ryder,” Ristan says, coming up beside me.
“Unless you have found Synthia…”
“No, but we will find her, Brother. I’m not sure how this fits into the vision, unless there is more to the vision that Danu hasn’t shown me—or, Syn miscarries your child, and still goes through with the wedding. Which, given she was just attacked...” he replies with a look of guilt and hopelessness.
“I don’t care if we have to scour the entire fucking earth!” My men sense the beast fighting to get out and swarm around me as my voice shakes the building. “We fucking find her; we don’t sleep, and we don’t feed until Synthia Raine McKenna is safe in my arms. I don’t care who I have to fucking kill. I want her found!”
Chapter Forty
I landed hard on cold icy ground. I inhaled a deep breath, but it was as if this place held little to no oxygen in its air. I doubled over from a burning pain that was radiating up from my side. Strong hands wrapped around my waist and hauled me up from the cold ground and kept me firmly pinned against his body.
“Let me go! Why are you doing this? Who the hell are you? You!” I demanded as I was finally able to turn my head and body far enough to see his face behind me and saw that he was one of the men from my nightmares.
“We have to keep moving, Faolán and the rest of his guard are going to be here in a moment, and he wants you dead, Princess,” The blonde Fae whispered harshly, his Irish accent stronger than I remembered. Before I could blink, we were in another setting. This time it was a sandy beach, and he was looking around, as if he feared an attack.
“Why did you take me away from the only man who can protect me then?” I growled trying to ignore the excruciating pain from my side, which was stealing the air from my lungs. I’d been wounded, and I was afraid to look at it. I had no idea why this man had taken me, or who he thought was after me. I knew him from my parents’ house though; he’d been there on that bloody day.
“Because you are in danger, and he won’t stop until you’re dead,” he replied as he narrowed his eyes and wrapped me into a more secure hold. Before I could try and slam my head against his nose or kick back at his knees, we sifted again; this time into a thick forest. “Stop! Who the hell are you? I know you; I want to know why you were at my parents’ house that day.” He let go of me, and I fell over on the thick grass on the forest floor.
“I’m the one who shielded you inside that house when you were a child, or tried to. Faolán and most of his personal guards left without me that day. I followed, as soon as I realized what he intended to do. I knew his intentions were not pure, and my king has been blinded by his love for his child. I failed your guardians, Princess. I have been part of his guard ever since, hoping to stop him if he should ever get close to you again. I will not fail you again.” His voice was full of anger and pain as he ran his hands through his hair harshly, before continuing. “Enough talking, we need to move,” he snapped as he tore off his shirt revealing a well-defined muscular body. He ripped his shirt apart and tossed a piece behind a tree, but kept the bigger part in his hand as he grabbed my hand once more, and sifted us.
We landed in a dark cave, and I looked around for an exit, or any way to escape the man who was non-stop sifting us further away from Ryder, and his men. He’d find me, I knew he would. I needed to stay put long enough that he could get to me, though, and knew I was steadily losing blood.
If I was right, Ryder would be able to follow the blood trail to wherever we ended up. Or so I had thought, until I caught the Fae in front of me moving his fingers which made the small drops on the ground disappear. He looked up and glared at me before he sifted behind me, and pulled me back hard against his naked chest.
Warning bells went off, and I moved to attack him, but he was faster than I was in this stupid dress, and before I could get away from him, he’d pressed me against the cave’s sharp wall and chanted a quick spell. Fuck!