“I wouldn’t protect them if they had done it.”
“I know. You’re a fierce protector, but only when what you are doing is right,” Ryder said, smiling wickedly.
“You shouldn’t have killed Adrian. How am I supposed to trust you now?” I asked softly, already having to fight the need to kiss him.
“You shouldn’t trust anyone, including me. If I thought sacrificing you would accomplish my goals, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’m not here to make friends, or to build a life. I’m here for one thing alone, and stopping Fae from dying needless deaths is a part of why I am here. We are not so different in that. We both fight for the weak and vulnerable who can’t do it themselves,” he whispered softly, but with enough force I knew he wasn’t bluffing.
“They sent me to kill you. Alden admitted that he thought they were hoping I’d have some sort of PTSD attack and kill you. I wonder if Arianna was a back-up plan. You knew what they were up to, so why didn’t you just kill me?”
Ryder nodded and ran his finger over my bottom lip. “I didn’t kill you, because I knew when I tranced you; that you had nothing to do with the Guild’s plans. Arianna is a very different matter. We think that she was a plant by the Mages and the Light Fae to kill me, the Dark King, or both of us. We just can’t prove it, or accuse the Light Fae outright of conspiring with the Mages. Syn, now that you know more about the Guild, you need to know the rest of what we found out. Larissa was a message. Joseph was under orders to convert you to their plan or kill you. He was obsessed with killing; he got off on it. He took it farther than they wanted it to go. He was obsessed with you because you took from him what he had built. I killed him tonight. That’s what I came back to tell you, one less thing you have to worry about now.”
My heart skipped a beat; I’d wanted that kill. I didn’t feel better knowing he was dead and wouldn’t hurt anyone else ever again. It didn’t give me closure to the way Larissa was killed, and it sure as hell didn’t lessen the pain of her loss. “Did he suffer?”
“He’s suffered since the moment I found him trying to cut you open. He took from you, so I took his flesh. He died screaming in a very bad way. I removed his beating heart for you, and Ristan ate it, consuming his soul while Joseph watched.”
“Ristan ate his heart?” I asked, and waited for his nod before finishing. “That’s disturbing on so many levels.” Ryder smiled as my own filtered across my face.
“He took from you, and even though you may think I don’t care, Pet, I do. I have a mission here, and thousands of innocent Fae are depending on me. None of the other Fae seem to care, minus Adam’s father.”
“And your father,” I said, watching him.
“Yes,” he said, looking right at me.
“So, he is your father?” I’d hit on something.
“You’re fucking Adam’s brother, yes.”
“I’m not fucking you,” I said, smiling impishly up at him.
“You will be. I can smell your hunger, Pet, and your eyes keep dropping to my mouth, which is why I keep talking. The more you look, the more you want me. All I have to do is wait it out.”
“I don’t feel good,” I said as my body started to burn again. “Shit,” I said, sifting to the toilet and retching again. I didn’t even have time to be glad that I could sift to somewhere else besides his feet.
“I need to know what you ate, so I can tell Eliran when he gets here,” Ryder said from behind me as he pulled my hair away from my face.
“Just normal food. I ate chocolate and drank coffee. I’ve been drinking coffee since right after Transition though, and nothing like this happened.”
“Birth control, Syn?” he questioned as he pulled me up into his arms, and carried me back to the bed.
“Still active from the Guild; I have three more months of it left in my system.”
“Good,” he said, and my heart dropped. It shouldn’t have, but it did.
“Wouldn’t want my child, Ryder?” I quipped and instantly regretted it.
“A sassy little girl, with a mouth like her mother’s?” He smiled and my heart missed a few beats. I didn’t smile back though; something inside of me was sinking further into despair. “Syn, I don’t want children; not until I’ve finished what I set out to do. I have a few other responsibilities as well before I can play the parent. I’m not sure I’d make a good parent anyway,” he said the last almost as an afterthought.
“Eliran, come inside the room,” Ryder said, already stepping away from the bed as I noticed the healer standing in the doorway with Ristan peeking over his shoulder.