“His kind is your kind,” I said softly. “You are my kind. We are all Fae, and that’s all they see in their rage of hatred. You think this war won’t come to your door? How long after they kill us would it take them to find you? They don’t want to rule this world; they plan to wipe us out by killing our world. Now correct me if I am wrong, but you live here too. If the entire Horde dropped dead tomorrow, they wouldn’t stop. If the entire high born Fae Castes left this world, they’d come after you next. They’d either want to rule your people, or kill them. It’s hard to say when they are fucking insane.”
“You would have us fight beside you?” he changed his direction so quickly that I had to pause and actually look at him. He was scarred horribly, but he was still beautiful.
“I would, as would my King. We want to unite this world, and make it one. You are a warrior, and it would honor us to have you on our side,” I said softly, pulling a page from Ryder’s book and making them all strain to hear me, “to have all of you on our side, and by our side for the upcoming battle.”
“Then we have a Tree to unthaw so that your children can be accepted,” the Winter Queen said with a brilliant smile.
“Hold,” said the Elf. “Do you accept us into the Horde?” the elf asked, his eyes no longer on me but on Ryder.
“If you swear an oath, but I will not take one under false pretense. I will accept everyone into the Horde, and I have never turned a Sidhe away. My father did turn many Sidhe away towards the last years of his rule, I admit it. His actions went against everything the Horde stands for. I am not him, as my brave, soon-to-be wife has said, and I do not rule my people as he did. I accept any and all that need us, and I do so with no conditions or clauses. You are either with us, or not. That is your choice to decide amongst yourselves. There will be tents and other necessities for you and your people in our great hall and courtyard should you decide to stand with us. Our home is now open to you. But know this: the royal suite is off limits. My children are off limits and protected by my Elite Guard, and while we will accept visits from the ruling King or Queens of the races, we will not welcome those without invitation to see them. I hope you’ll understand our need to protect them.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Are we just supposed to sit here and wait?” I asked as I watched Ryder pace the room. None of the others had come forward to swear an oath, or even agree to help us. The Winter Court was on board, but unless we had more come forward, it would help us little. We needed them all to stand with us, because a race was most powerful when the entirety of it stood as one.
It was doubtful that the Light Court would be with us, which was yet another issue. No one knew where they stood, and since they’d sifted out during the presentation of the babies, no one had heard from them since. They’d locked down their court as if they thought that alone would protect them from the Mages.
“Synthia, we can’t force them to swear an oath or make them stand with us against the Mages.”
“Yes you can, you’re the fucking Horde King!”
“Woman, you’re driving me insane!”
“Bad timing?” Sinjinn asked as he sifted into the room, a troubled expression on his face.
“No,” Ryder growled, looking too happy for the interruption.
“Yes,” I growled at the same time. I then turned my angry glare on Ryder.
“We got trouble, big trouble,” Sinjinn said, quickly changing the subject.
“What is it?” Ryder asked, and I narrowed my eyes on Sinjinn as he moved from foot to foot nervously.
“Spit it out,” I warned.
“I went to check out the Guild. What I found wasn’t good. From what I could see from the front of the Guild it almost looked abandoned. Humans walking by don’t seem to notice, like it’s been spelled to look normal to them. Adrian said there’s been no chatter from the Guild since he got back there. It looks bad, considering we know it was in full working condition only a few days ago. Ristan’s been reporting to you,” he said to Ryder. “I was in on the last report when he said he wanted to pull Alden out against his will if necessary because the old man won’t budge. Said Alden wouldn’t abandon ship, not with the kids still in there and he couldn’t move ‘em’ without raising alarms from the other Elders.”
“Wait, back up. The Guild never looks abandoned. There’s a full school in there, and close to a hundred students at any given time.”
Sinjinn looked at me as if there was a ‘but’ in there somewhere. I stared back at him, and the sick feeling inside of me only seemed to intensify. “Alden wouldn’t abandon those kids, so they have to be there!”
“Synthia, it looks deserted, and I didn’t go in so I can’t say what’s going on. It’s normally heavily warded, and Vlad said that the vamps and Shifters have never been able to make it past the wards either. Adrian said something was off about the place lately, more than usual anyway.”
“So where are they?” I asked with my heart felt as if a vise held it.