I awoke to the whispers of people speaking in hushed tones. I winced as fire spread through my ribs, but at least I was able to breathe again. Either that, or we had all died and I'd hallucinated the healer. I blinked and tried to cover my eyes but the IV and Kflex bandage made it a feeble attempt. The scent of bleach and sterile equipment filled the room.
"If I'm not dead, turn the freaking light off," I groaned.
"There's my girl," Alden's voice sounded from beside me.
"If you guys died too, I'm going to haunt that fucking Fairy until hell freezes over," I mumbled over my cracked lips.
Everyone inside the room laughed.
"I'm serious," I said narrowing my eyes as I tried to move. Adam held his head over mine as I realized I couldn’t move.
He laughed and shook his head, "Nope afraid not, you're alive Syn. Ryder saved you."
"Saved me—my ass, his guy is the reason I got stabbed!" I complained remembering the look in his eyes. He'd regretted what had happened. Good.
"Yeah well, it's over and we won, you got her Syn," Larissa said smiling from behind Adam's head as she leaned over him.
"Where am I?" I asked wishing I could sit up.
"Guild hospital. There’s been a lot of wrangling while you were out. Ryder is claiming you and I are Fae and no longer fall under Guild jurisdiction, he tried to keep you and demanded the Guild turn me over as well. Alden filed a formal complaint and injunction against Ryder and brought you back to the Guild until this could be sorted out and speaking of, he failed to protect you from danger so the contract is void. You attended the Engagement Ball which was in the contract, by Fae law you were there by invitation…only problem is, he said if we didn’t want to send everyone else to face a boatload of charges, that you had to come back willingly and renew the contract."
I blinked at the overload of information from Adam "So let me get this right, if I don’t go back to Ryder…the strike team does?"
Adam sighed and shook his head, "They said they would Syn, but that's up to you. You can choose walk away this time."
"No," I snorted, "That wasn’t an option. They were my team last night—"
"Last week," Adam said sheepishly as he scratched his head and crinkled his nose.
"Last week?" I winced as I tried to sit up. "Why didn’t anyone wake me up?" I shook my head as much as it would allow me to.
"You were treated by the Fae, Ryder said it might take your body a while to heal since you haven't um…transitioned yet," Adam winced and stood fully up again.
"Transitioned my ass and no, I'll go Adam. Tell the team they did well, to stand down. I'll go see Ryder," I met his emerald eyes that now had that ring of lime.
"You don’t have to Synthia, I'll find a way to deal with him," Alden argued.
"Alden, listen to me. I did this. It was my idea, my team, my coven, my responsibility. He has answers, I need them. Adam needs them and sooner or later without help —we will end up hurting someone and then the Guild will have to hunt us. I can't live with that, can you Adam?" I asked meeting and holding his eyes before looking behind him to where Larissa held his hand.
"No," he said as his teeth ground together.
"I can do this, you made me strong enough and smart enough Alden. Sooner or later we have to learn to be what we are and you haven't found a way out of being Fae yet. I can't feel my magic right now and without it I'm a sitting duck."
"I don’t like it, Synthia," Alden continued.
"You don’t have to like it, we just have to deal with it," I whispered closing my eyes briefly before opening them back up, "What happened with Arianna?"
Adam snorted, "Well she was one of us, but she'd been dead for a couple years Syn. Her body is being wrapped and readied to be taken back by the Seattle Guild in a few days. They are going back through the missing persons files now. Seeing how many of them might have been the first victims. The press is going absolutely ape-shit crazy over this and hounding Ryder, they're camping on his doorstep. We got you out before they could connect us to anything. You got lucky Syn, this time."
I'd killed his puppet, or her puppet—which meant soon we'd know who had been pulling her strings and why. I closed my eyes and tried shaking off the sick feeling that came with knowing she'd been a victim before a tool.
~~~~~~~~~~*