“He told me that he wouldn’t be coming with us to the Guild. He also isn’t willing to allow Olivia to go back, either. I’m not even sure what to think about it, but I do know if we force the issue, he won’t forgive us for it anytime soon. He is still trying to figure out what her involvement with the Mages was. I offered to interrogate her and so did Zahruk, but he feels that if he can’t read her, that we probably can’t and he wants a little more time to find out on his own. He did say that if he gets nowhere with her, he will bring her to me.”
“I know things looked bad based on what Alden and Ristan told us, but what if she turns out to be innocent? Do you think Ristan will allow her to leave?” I asked thoughtfully, and Ryder snorted with a smirk.
“You are about to get a front row seat to how Fae and Demons feel about betrayal; more so, how he feels about it. No matter what happened, she betrayed Ristan and Alden and he won’t let her leave until he has exacted his revenge. Ristan will get the truth from her, and until he does, none of us will really know what happened at the Guild. I will not interfere and I hope you don’t plan on it,” he raised an eyebrow at me.
“Hell no. If she turns out to be a Mage and was helping them, I’ll put her down like a rabid dog myself, just like I did to Chandra. I’ve been thinking about that as well,” I said softly as I replayed the time I’d murdered the girl right in front of Ryder. “Looking back, so much of what the Guild told us was basically a lie. It’s too much,” I whispered.
“They’ve been fed lies, yes, but they chose to blindly follow what they’d been told.”
“I did it as well. I never questioned anything until you,” I said guiltily. “How many innocents did I murder for them?”
“Don’t think of it like that,” he said as he moved my hair from my neck and placed a gentle kiss on the soft column. “There’s no undoing it, there’s only learning from it, becoming stronger because of it, and moving forward to better it.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
We stood with Alden in the room where we’d gathered the children of the Guild. His eyes watched them as they played with toys that Sinjinn had created from glamour. There were only a few who were up and moving, while the others watched from where they sat on a soft sofa that Eliran had created. The sofa was a soft creamy ivory, and had places to hold the medical IVs that held saline. Where he’d gotten the saline from was anyone’s guess. The man loved Human medical technology and was always incorporating it with traditional Fae healing at every chance he got.
Some of the children had been injured in some sort of an explosion that happened during the fall of the Guild and some were just dehydrated, as they had been in hiding for at least two days, without food or water from what we could tell. None of them would speak to us yet so it was hard to figure out exactly what happened to them.
“We failed them. I failed them,” Alden said through choked emotion.
“You did your best and no one can say you didn’t. The Guild, however, is trying to say just that. Savlian and Sevrin were at Vlad’s not too long ago, and saw a news station showing one of the Guild Elders offering a reward for your capture. They’re saying you’re a traitor. Of course they’d never admit to the loss of the Guild being an inside job. Instead, they are accusing us, and they have pictures they’ve been smearing all over the TV of us entering the Guild. Vlad and Adrian have been using some outside help, and they say that the Humans are also rising against the Fae in droves now. There are the females, and some males still thinking that the Fae are better than boy bands, but those ones have always been a little brainless concerning them. The others, however, are encouraging the Guild and backing them.”
“Are you serious about starting a new Guild; a better one where we can keep people safe while we do the right thing?” Alden asked as he took in the kids that looked scared as Ryder and his men walked in.
Like me, they’d been raised to fear the Fae. Fear keeps you alert, and it keeps you alive. It was one of the things I prided myself on. I knew I was terrified of the Fae, but I’d been taught to never show it. I’d used my mouth to show them I wasn’t afraid, while holding that fear in check internally.
“I am, and I still want you to run it,” I said, watching as the kids kept their eyes glued to the men, and cowered a little, but I couldn’t blame them for it. “They need to be taught the right things, and not a crap load of lies. You can teach them that, and together we will build something that no one else has ever been able to do before. We can build something that helps to protect any creature that needs it. I’ve talked to Ryder’s guys, as well as Adam. We are all willing to help you, and we will back you whether you decide to run it or not.”
“You’d do that for me?” Alden asked softly.