“Childs play, Synthia. I had Eliran make an amulet that tricked the wards. There are a lot of creatures that the wards did not take into account. We knew the Demon was one of them.”
“Ryder, I asked you straight up if you were the Horde King, and you said no,” I whispered. I realized at that moment, he hadn’t actually answered me any of those times with a solid no. He’d danced around the question.
His golden eyes watched me as everything that his words implied crashed in on me. He’d tortured my brother; he had been the one to set everything in motion that had sent me to the humans, which resulted in them being killed. Because of him, it had always been him. He was the reason I’d lost my family, he was the one who had sent my entire life spiraling out of control—and I’d fallen in love with him.
“You’re Alazander!”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then who the fuck are you? Please, tell me who the hell I have been fucking!”
I was pissed, and his lips that jerked up in the corners with a start of a smirk were not helping. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to strangle him. Worst of all, I wanted him! It all pissed me off in the worst way.
“The Wild Hunt!?” I accused, throwing angry, sharp as daggers at him. I pulled the covers around my naked body, too shocked to do anything else.
“You were caught, and fucked by the Horde King; always winner of his own event,” he smirked wickedly. “I never lied to you, Synthia, if that is what you are wondering. I let you draw your own conclusions, and I wasn’t, in fact, the Horde King until the day you were taken to the Blood Realm. That action forced my hand.” He gave me a small smirk. ”I told you that I would save you, Synthia.”
“Why? How? This doesn’t make sense! How could you be the Horde King, and yet not be him?”
“Because I ascended to the throne,” he answered simply.
“That’s it? You just jumped up on the throne, and the actual Horde King allowed this?” I gasped in surprise.
“Not exactly, Pet. That’s a long story. How are you feeling?” He quickly changed the subject.
“Oh, I don’t think so, you fucking spring it on me that you’re the Horde King, you make me freak the fuck out at the idea of being given to the Horde—to you! I told you I planned on killing you! You couldn’t have thrown me a little bone? No, because you’re an asshole! You made me think I fucked the Horde King!”
“You did just fuck the Horde King, Synthia, and you weren’t complaining,” he said with a small smile.
“I am going to do more than complain in a moment,” I gritted out. “Why couldn’t you just tell me as soon as we got here? Why the act, and scaring me out of my mind? Spill it, Horde boy!”
“I am sorry for scaring you. Too much has happened over the past few days, and I didn’t know how far you had been compromised,” he said tenderly as he reached out and tried to cup my face. I flinched slightly away from him. “I had to know where you stood with me, Pet. I just didn’t count on your hunger being so strong. I felt it, and I couldn’t think past that to anything else.
“Tell me what happened,” I said softly, and relaxed a little. He shifted his body and those wings into a more comfortable position against the pillows and looked at me sadly.
“I killed him. Too much had happened and it was escalating out of control with no end in sight. He pushed too far, and I was left with no choice but to kill him.”
“Ryder.” I felt sweat beading on my forehead. I knew he was not telling me everything. I needed to know more. “How does you killing the Horde King give you the right to claim his throne?” With Fae politics, nothing was that easy.
“Because I am…was his son, Synthia; Danu’s Heir. Killing my father gave me his throne. I had not claimed it, because I didn’t want anyone to know he was dead. I needed to buy as much time as I could to try and save Faery without my father’s sins and Fae politics interfering with that goal. Now everything that I have delayed will come to my realm with a vengeance.”
“Wait, so you didn’t make the contract for me, the one to my parents?” The Horde King who had made that contract was the one who had irrevocably screwed up my life. Hope was thrumming through me, my heart was beating wildly.
“No, Synthia. I sent Ristan with the Horde emissaries to make that contract for you in the name of the Horde King. I’m not proud of the lengths I went through to secure it, but I’d have done much more to secure you.”
“You cut my brother up. You knew it would break my parents’ resolve to withstand your demands.”
He gave a slight nod of his dark head. “His hands? That is the least of what my Father would have done, and your parents would have expected nothing less.”