Fighting Destiny (The Fae Chronicles, #1)

I was dragged down the hallway and taken to Ryder's room by a Fae I hadn't met before. He was silent, yet I could feel the sliminess of his aura pressing against my skin. This was all wrong, it made no sense. Alden wouldn’t have done this.

I was pushed into the bedroom door frame as the door was opened, my face taking the brunt of the damage. My nose exploded, blood bursting from it to run down my chin and onto my shirt. I should have fought and run. I wouldn’t leave this place without my coven though and Ryder knew it.

"Fucking whore, move it," the Fae barked when he had the door open. He pushed me again, even though I'd stopped in front of the bed. I knew where the chains were, I'd seen them on my one trip here. "Take your clothes off, let's see what is driving Ryder to fuck something so beneath him," he said crudely as his hands grabbed my breast.

"Wrong fucking girl," I growled as I spun using my hands as weapons, one grabbed his ear and the other connected with his chin and twisted, a sick crunch echoing through the room as Zahruk walked in.

"You broke his neck," he replied calmly.

I wiped the blood that was dribbling down my face without any sign of stopping soon on the back of my arm and replied coldly. "He deserved it."

"He did this?" His hand indicated my face, "You are deadlier than we had thought."

I gave him a nod, "And?"

"And, you could have easily done so to Dristan, yet you chose to only damage his legs and his pride," he mused as he closed the distance between us silently.

He was trying to surprise me, so he could take me down easily. He, like Ryder had the raw electrical current that was palpable when in close proximity. I considered my options as I stood watching him. If he chained me, I would be able to undo them easily. I wouldn’t be able to get away if I took any more injury. I sat on the bed with a calmness I wasn’t feeling. I watched as Z removed the subdued Fae from the room before coming back to place the chains on me.

"You need your nose looked at," he said moving my hair to secure a white metal collar around my neck.

"You gonna let Larissa do it?" I asked but his eyes narrowed as he shook his head, "Pass then."

"She's okay, a little shaken up but otherwise she and Adam are fine," he replied.

I scanned his face, he looked as if he was telling the truth, but I'd already trusted Ryder which had been a huge mistake I wouldn’t be repeating anytime soon. When the collar was on and secured to a chain, he grabbed a remote and turned on the oversized television that was mounted to the wall to the local news channel. I sat numbly watching it, we'd attacked. We'd killed. How the fuck? We didn’t have any Fae killing weapons. No one except the killer had them…

Zahruk left the room for a few minutes, leaving me to absorb the news that played on the TV. This wasn’t fucking happening. Not now. I'd given in to Ryder, just to have him do exactly what I'd been afraid of. I knew better, I was better than this. I shut down my mind and listened to the reporter.

Anger pulsated inside of me. It was a fucking set up. Smart. Calculated. They were pitting us against each other. And what was worse, it was fucking working! I lifted my head as Zahruk came back, his eyes lowering to my nose as he tossed a clean set of clothes on the bed.

"That needs to be healed, it hasn’t stopped bleeding Synthia."

"It will. Took a door frame to my face, I'm pretty sure he meant it to hurt," I said through the thickness in my mouth.

"You know you're stubborn as fuck, right?" Zahruk said with a soft smile on his face, he was making it impossible to hate him.

"Go away," I replied turning away from him to watch the news.

We'd attacked the Fae, or so it had been made to look that way. The reporter said the Guild had been locked down and unavailable for a comment on why they had invaded the club which had resulted in the deaths of seventeen Fae.

I scratched at the collar and eyed the clothing that sat folded on the bed. My shirt was covered in blood, my entire body shook with anger and pain. I exhaled as I moved off the bed and flicked my eyes to the door which stood open a sliver. I unbuttoned my pants and shimmied out of them using the top I had worn to wipe away some of the blood on my face.

Dressed in a form fitting tank top and some short spandex shorts, I curled up on the bed not caring that blood was oozing out on the pillow. I should have let them heal me, but right now I didn’t trust them, they wanted revenge. Revenge for something we hadn't done and we were close at hand to take the brunt of their anger.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on a plan, any plan that would get us all out. I couldn’t focus. I could feel my power draining as I lay there. The blood wouldn't stop and had only increased in flow since Zahruk had put the stupid collar on. I pushed away the feeling of needing to close my eyes and struggled to sit up, but couldn't. I cried out fighting the dread that was consuming my mind.