Part 28 (1/2)

”Of course,” he replied holding my hand and looking at me with love in his emerald eyes, ”Syn, we can be used against you-but the same is true for us, we'd be willing to move the moon for you. We need you, so don't do anything stupid. I also need you to know that we don't just stay because no one else will join...we stay because we're family. We have each other and that's more than most people have in this world.”

I pulled his hand up to my lips and kissed it before standing up to stretch. ”We need to get this show on the road, go call Terrance. Tell him we need that flash mob today.”

I wasn't good with emotions, showing them, feeling them-or expressing them. I wasn't the type to wear them on my sleeves. He knew how I felt without me having to tell him. This idea had to work, the Demon released me to do this and right now it was the only lead we had.

Thirty Three

Downtown Spokane Was.h.i.+ngton was packed, someone had leaked that the Light Heir would be making an appearance. We waited at the back of the crowd in hoodies, pulled up to hide us, the rest of the flash mob who would be causing the distraction were dressed the same to stand out from the crowd when the right time came.

We waited, the magic pulsing inside of me ready to explode, we'd spent over an hour of nothing but collecting and depositing magic inside of me. Adam had laughed telling me I'd be lit up enough to power the city. I was hoping it wouldn't be the case since the plan was to use and dump the magic quickly enough to not pull attention to us.

The entire crowd was hushed, as if this was a monumental event in time...which it wasn't. I'd never understood the draw of the Fae until I'd melted against Ryder. His blistering heat had drawn me in, like a moth to a flame. He owned my mind without having to turn me FIZ. My thoughts constantly flowed to him and our time in Faery.

”Showtime,” Adam said as a sleek black limo pulled up to the steps of the courthouse which was something they would never allow for anyone else.

I turned my head and gave him a rea.s.suring smile as we pushed through the crowd as the flash mob started up. It was the perfect disguise for what we had planned, or would have been until Ryder stepped from the limo and his men stepped from the crowd to create a guard around the princess.

It was now or never, the mob was dancing to Kesha's Your Love is My Drug...as if they couldn't have picked a more annoying song? I stepped from the group with Larissa and Adam pus.h.i.+ng power into me. Ryder's eyes landed on us fleetingly. ”s.h.i.+t dance!” I said starting to move with the group, if not horribly off kilter.

His eyes moved through the crowd and off of us, I almost exploded into laughter at how goofy and bad we danced, but the situation was dire and laughter was something we could do later when we'd finished it. As the group of men parted to allow Arianna to wave at the mob, I stopped moving with the crowd and sent my second sight searching her...nothing happened. I pumped up the magical juice and almost threw up.

”Oh my G.o.d,” I uttered, I shook my head and stepped back as if I could not put enough distance between me and the horror I was seeing.

”s.h.i.+t Syn, go dark!” Adam shouted but it was too late, Ryder had seen me.

”f.u.c.k! Split up, blend in!” I shouted, already retreating into the ma.s.s of dancers. I couldn't shake the power pulsing through me. I growled scaring a few of the humans who had joined the tweet about the flash mob Terrance had sent out.

I could feel Ryder bearing down on me, hunting me. But when I looked over my shoulder it wasn't me he had gone after-he'd gone after Adam. He held him by the back of his hood, Adam shook his head. He was telling me to go. ”Let him go Ryder,” I shouted wis.h.i.+ng the music would stop.

”I told you Syn, when I found you I would punish you. You only feel when something is taken away from you Pet,” he turned smiling coldly at Adam who was now struggling in earnest to get away from him.

”Ryder, take me. Let him go,” I whispered knowing he would hear it over the crowd that had now sensed danger.

He didn't listen, instead he turned and propelled Adam to Dristan who grinned and touched Adam. I felt the connection I shared with Adam waver briefly, he was trying to keep me from feeling what was going on. I watched his eyes as they settled on me and locked. I shook my head in denial. Ryder wouldn't allow this.

The noise went silent around me as if I'd stepped out of reality. The only sound, my own blood flowing inside of my ears and my own breathing as everything went still around me-frozen in time. Dristan was trying to turn Adam FIZ. It was too much and everything inside of me snapped as the world stopped around me. Like a vacuum. One minute I was standing silently, the next I was screaming my pain with everything inside of me, everything I had. I would die before I let the Fae hurt my family again.

Gla.s.s exploded from the limo and the surrounding buildings, cras.h.i.+ng to the pavement below. Humans screamed in pain as they hit the ground. I couldn't stop. Something inside of me had broken open and was demanding to come out. I barely registered the shock on Ryder and Dristan's faces as they watched me.

I couldn't stop it, whatever had opened just kept coming, I couldn't focus on anything and yet I saw everything. As if I was standing above watching as my body reaped havoc on anyone foolish enough to not run away. I could see fear, smell it. It was intoxicating, my hair whipped with electrical current as the ozone grew thick around me.

I tried pulling back, I was in trouble. Whatever was happening-I couldn't control it. I met Ryder's gaze and locked onto it. His nose was bleeding, but otherwise he seemed to be handling my power overload better than anyone else. He spoke low, clearly and right to me even though he addressed Dristan, ”Dristan, let Adam go,” he growled never letting my gaze move from his.

Adam hit the pavement and stumbled over to me. Larissa crawled up from where she'd been taken to the ground with everyone else. The only sound was my labored breathing. I couldn't take my eyes from Ryder, he looked worried and that wasn't something you seen him show-ever.

”Back up, now,” he said as he and his men started backing up slowly.

”Syn, you have to stop now!” Adam shouted but when I turned to meet his eyes he flinched, ”Oh my G.o.d Syn,” he whispered horrified.

My chest was heaving, my face tilted to look up at him. Humans sobbed and I tried to look at them but Adrian sifted in and stopped me.

”Syn, look at me,” Adrian said. I met his eyes and watched him flinch at the sight of me.

My coven was here, unharmed and all trying to calm whatever was going on inside of me. They should be running away. All of them. Adrian cupped my face while Adam and Larissa tried draining the power from me. Ryder approached silently, his eyes meeting mine as I heard his shoes crunch against the pebbles in the road.

”She needs to come with me,” he whispered to Adrian, ”She has to release the power. If she doesn't, it will consume her mind. She doesn't have-” he stopped narrowing his eyes as Adam touched my face and pushed Adrian aside, ”- a familiar.”

He frowned, his eyes lighting up emerald and lime green, glowing. He looked as shocked as I felt, but his touch was calming. I felt my heart start up from where it had stopped, as if Adam's touch alone had jumped started something inside of me. He frowned as he met my eyes, ”Your eyes are f.u.c.king purple and blue Syn.”

I didn't answer him. I wasn't sure about anything just now. I just watched him, confused as to why his eyes also glowed. His were lined in a vivid colored lime and had never been that way before now. Was it because he was taking whatever it was that had broken inside of me out and into his own body?

”I'm...monster,” I panted as tears started down my cheeks, Adam's eyes swirled with a mix of lime and emerald as he held onto me.

”I thought it was dream, only a f.u.c.king dream all those years Syn. I thought it couldn't be real, it didn't make sense then-but now, now I remember Syn, I followed you here. I felt you here-from Faery, you pulled me here Syn when you needed me,” Adam whispered as his arm dropped back to his side.

My body shook from the drain, my teeth chattered as I backed away from him. My head shaking as Ryder, Adrian and Adam all tried to move in closer to me. ”Stop, just stop Adam. This isn't happening. We have to go. Now.”

”Let's move,” I whispered turning to walk away. I felt like I was going to pa.s.s out and we needed to be somewhere safe before I could do so. I didn't miss hearing Ryder tell Zahruk to pull his men off the warehouse. He had known where we'd had been hiding this entire time.

When we were a safe distance away Larissa spun on us. ”Okay, what the f.u.c.k!? What the h.e.l.l just happened and why are your eyes glowing?”

I wiped my eyes and shook my head. ”I don't know, I don't know what's happening to me,” I mumbled, I couldn't explain it to her any more than I could to myself. Adam looked as upset as I did. He kept looking at his hands like they belonged to someone else.

”We need to go to the Guild, now,” Larissa said keeping a safe distance from us, as if we suddenly had become strangers. ”Did you get what we came for?” She continued.

”Arianna, well she's made of at least a few of the victims. She's been sewn together magically for lack of a better description-with pieces. But something or someone is controlling her. She has no blood, no heat. She's just dead. Like a puppet, taking her down would be easy, but it wouldn't stop whoever is controlling her.”

”So she's a zombie, one who is made up of other people's parts?” Larissa asked as she sheepishly looked from me to Adam and back again.

”How bad do we look Lari?” I asked reading the fear in her eyes.

She smiled but it didn't touch her eyes, ”You both look Fae right now, we have to get you back to the Guild, Alden will know how to stop it.”

”Stop what? Larissa you don't just choose to become Fae, if we look Fae, then we were born Fae.” She was in denial, h.e.l.l, I was in denial. I turned and looked at Adam, he looked exactly as he had before, but his eyes glowed in two different colors now. ”The Guild can't help us Larissa, they don't allow Fae inside. We need to go home and figure out how we can find the killer before he kills more innocent people.”

She nodded but didn't move from where she stood at a safe distance, ”I need to know something first,” she hesitated, as if she was picking each word carefully, ”Did either of you know what you were? I need you to be honest, because if you did-we need to be prepared for when the Guild comes after us.”

”Larissa, I don't even know how this is possible. I hate the Fae, they killed my parents. Look, we lived inside the Guild with you, how could we have known?” The panic showed in my voice as it shook with tears.

”I'm so sorry guys. I mean I know you couldn't have known. I just had to ask, this doesn't change who you are and you're my family. Fae or not, we only have each other,” she whispered before stepping closer.