He smiled, "Trust me, it will help you."
Dristan handed me the glass, his eyes roving over me from head to toe before he walked around and lifted my hair, his fingers grazing my skin as he removed the necklace Ryder had given me for protection. "Run fast, he isn't marking you for death Syn. He's earning the right to claim you as our ancestors have done for many millennia. When he catches you—and he will, you will have to decide."
"Decide what?" I howled shivering as Zahruk and the rest of the men smiled coldly.
"If he is worthy to have what he has caught. If not he will release you for the next hunter to claim. Just remember, not all follow the honor code Ryder does, some won't care if you scream no."
"There's a flag right? If I make it to the flag I don’t have to choose," I seethed as anger from what was about to happen set in.
"Not quite," Zahruk said crinkling his forehead, "If you make it to the white flag, you get the hunter who won last year in your bower."
I raised an eyebrow in question, "And who won last year?"
Zahruk smiled impishly. The others were laughing and snickering around us. I closed my eyes and counted to twenty, hoping I'd wake up in my bed and this would all be a twisted nightmare. No such luck. I took the drink from Sevrin that Dristan had handed off before removing the necklace and gulped it in one drink, much to his boisterous amusement.
"Sevrin, go get her one more," Dristan said carefully.
"I need to tell you the rules Synthia," Zahruk continued, "They're going to open a portal into the enchanted forest and you will get a short head start. Don’t touch anything, no flowers— they're poisonous. If anything calls to you—stay the fuck away from it. Only death calls to you inside Faery. The hounds will scare you at first, but they are trained to find and protect until their rider gets to you. They have been given your scent already. They follow a hunter, only a few can tame the hounds. Nod if you understand what I am telling you."
I nodded while sipping the red liquid down slowly.
"Nothing is safe inside Faery, nothing. Ryder will find you Syn and he will protect you." He said again.
I snorted enjoying the heat of the alcohol as it rushed through my system. The room had stopped spinning, but my heart hadn't stopped pounding yet. I swallowed yet another drink before meeting Z's level gaze. "If Adrian joins the hunt, what happens if I go with him?" I asked letting curiosity get the better of the situation.
The men around us growled with disapproval, but not Zahruk, he was calm, his face showing no signs of anger or disappointment. "If you choose the pup, Ryder will kill him. Inside the hunt he won't care who he takes out Syn, human rules don’t apply inside Faery. Don't be stupid. Don’t make him do something he will regret later. With his mind consumed by the need to hunt, he won't be himself."
"So I go to him, no matter what," I stated, when he nodded I continued, "Why didn’t you just start with that?" Dristan smiled charmingly in reply as if he'd already told Z that. The rest seemed to not care either way.
Zahruk narrowed his eyes and shook his head before smiling, "And to think, Ryder said you would be fighting us every step of the way until we got you inside Faery."
"I know when to fight, just like I know when I'm fucked. Right now it would be futile to argue or fight. Either way I do this, ends up with me inside of Faery with Ryder hunting me down. I could kick and scream if it would make you feel better?" I smirked as he shook his head.
His lips broke into a smile, "Nah, you have balls Syn, you might just have enough to give Ryder a run for his money."
I flinched as the woman started up again, her voice flowing over the noise of the crowd easily. "Are we ready to hunt?"
Shrieks and howls once again erupted as I bent down to undo the heels that laced around my ankles. When I stood back up I handed them over to Zahruk. Metallica's Of Wolf and Man came on, as the wall across the room shimmered to reveal a portal into Faery.
Twenty Seven
The room around us vibrated with powerful magic, it took a very powerful Fae to call open a portal this big. It also meant there was a leyline directly beneath Ryder's club. It was wide open, drawing from this planet and Faery alike to open it.
Wind rushed through as the hole opened, a wide meadow with a forest bordering at the edge of it stood where the wall had once been. I looked around trying to see through the wall of men that surrounded me.
"He isn't inside the club anymore Syn, he opened the portal," Zahruk said noting my quickly measured scan as he held the heels awkwardly as if he had never held a pair before.