I moved quickly to stand beside him, feeling the air grow thick with the electrical fuzz that came with power. I watched in disbelief as Sevrin changed from a huge brunette male, into a petite raven haired beauty with piercing ice blue eyes. The woman was dressed in a white silk top that showed off her midriff, and matching pants that hung low on her small hips.
The look on Ristan’s face was warring between lust, anger, and reverence all at once. He had his eyes locked on the woman before us. His skin faded from crimson to its normal color once again.
“Do you see her, Syn?” Ristan asked softly.
“Yes,” I replied, not sure what I should do. Ristan was looking like he was about to go beast mode and jump her—hungrily. I was pretty sure we’d left Kansas on a tornado, and this was one of the Witches we should be trying to avoid. He, on the other hand was not necessarily thinking as I was.
“Do not look so surprised, Ristan,” the woman said in a low seductive voice.
“Danu,” he whispered.
“I told you that I would come when needed, oh ye of little faith,” she smiled, and I found myself wanting to touch her.
“I have faith, Danu, but I’m not sure it’s always well placed.”
Oh hell no. I shook my head to dispel the urge.
“Where have you brought us?” he asked.
“To the maze of warriors,” she replied easily. “Or, as the Dark Fae of old called it, the labyrinth.”
“We came for the relic,” Ristan pointed out.
“You think I wouldn’t know that? I’m the one who brought you here. Ryder has proven himself with his deeds. He has proven, over and over again, how far he will go to heal Faery. He passed his last test when he gave her away to another Fae, just because he thought she was the Light Heir and that he was fulfilling the prophecy. You, my Demon, have yet to show me how far you will go, but that’s not why I brought you here. She chose you as her bodyguard; I brought you because you know me. You will see her through this and ensure that she wins,” she said as she sifted close to Ristan, and ran a thin hand over his cheek.
“Let Synthia go back to the others. She’s pregnant. She has nothing to do with this,” Ristan said, finally finding his inner Demon again.
“She has everything to do with this. The lives of her children depend on it,” she said simply.
“This isn’t her damn fight!”
“Then all is lost. She is only part of the cure for Faery. The other players have yet to be put into the game. Sorcha needs to find her place, and make her heart belong to Faery. She has yet to accept what she is, and still fights me. She feels the power I have bestowed upon her, and she refuses to open up and allow it to come out. She is a born leader, and a warrior queen. I’m in the fiber of her being, as surely as I am a part of Faery. I set the events in motion that made her who she is, and now it is up to her to accept me so she can find what she needs to be.”
“Will my children live?” I asked, not messing around with words.
“I can’t tell you that yet. If I did, you’d stop fighting. I need you to fight, Sorcha. I need you to play your part in saving my world. I can do a lot of things, but I can’t directly interfere with saving this world. That has to be a choice that my creations fight for. I chose you before you were even born. I make destinies, but you are right about one thing, Sorcha; you choose what you can handle and what you can’t. You choose which path you take to get to the end. But in the end, you are where destiny wanted you to be,” she said and winked. “And you got all that without having to eat funky brownies or wear a badass headdress. Although, personally I think I’d look pretty wicked in one.”
“I need to know if they live,” I stated, tired of word games.
“I know you do,” she said and stepped back away from us. She materialized Ristan’s swords and tossed them at his feet. “You have five hours to find the exit of the maze. For every wrong turn, a challenge will be issued. You will receive one grace, and then for each challenge you fail, someone from your group awaiting you outside the labyrinth, will die. Should you fail, you die,” she blew a kiss to Ristan, and with that, she sifted out.
“Wait! When will we get to the actual relic?” I screamed, but only the sound of my voice echoing off the trees in the forest was heard.
“She is always so fucking beautiful,” Ristan said absently. “Those blonde curls,” he whispered.
Blonde curls? “You mean black?”
“She has blonde hair, with the greenest eyes I’ve ever beheld,” he said, narrowing his eyes on me.
“Uh, black hair and blue eyes,” I said and narrowed my eyes.
“That’s what you saw?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“She is beautiful.”
“She’s deadly, very deadly,” I said, ignoring that she had appeared to him in a different form.
“That’s one thing we can agree on, Flower. She was pushing a tremendous amount of power at us,” he said, and turned to look at Ryder. I watched his face before I turned to look at Ryder, too. He was staring at Ristan, and I realized with clarity that they were discussing what had just gone down.