You’ve been in Faery, playing with the Fairies!
Guilt heated my face as I moved closer and looked around the room. Something was off, as an Enforcer I’d been trained to look at scenes, and Douglas had been left handed, and yet the gun was in his right hand, as was the entrance wound. The angle of the wound and the exit wound was off, even if he had been right handed. Someone had shot him, and tried to make it look as if he’d done it himself. Why? It wasn’t like the other Guilds would come investigate it, since most were probably run by the Mages, unless they were still trying to cover it up to the Humans.
Everyone had stopped outside the door, except Adrian and Ryder, who both held one of my hands and I had to shake my hands loose to gather one of the many tapestries and pull it from the wall to cover the body.
I’d liked Douglas. He’d always been nice to me…one of the good ones, which was probably why he was dead. I left the room, and started down the right hallway that led to meeting and conference rooms, using my heightened senses to search for anything living, moving, or dead. It became almost unbearable when every room held a dead occupant, but none were the ones I was looking for.
I was getting to the last ones when I heard it, and my heart stopped. I sped up, and turned into the next room. It was empty. So was the next one, but the third one wasn’t, and I ran in, heedless of what else might be in there. Alden was sitting against one of the pillars in the room, and he wasn’t moving. Ropes were the only thing holding his upper body upright. I dropped to my knees and placed my fingers on his artery, and sighed.
“He’s alive, but just barely, Synthia,” Adrian said as he started helping me with the ropes. “I don’t sense any spells or curses around him,” he hissed.
“Alden,” I whispered, afraid to have gotten here too late. I couldn’t have found him just to turn around and lose him. “Alden, get the fuck up, don’t you fucking do this to me!”
“Synthia,” he whispered without opening his eyes to look at me.
“I’m here,” I whispered and kissed his bruised cheek. “Now get up,” I urged.
“Can’t, kid, they broke ‘em’,” he said.
“Broke what?” I asked, and my hands instantly started to feel down his body, but Ryder stopped me.
“His legs, and much more; Asrian, we’re going to have to risk sifting with him; get him to Eliran, and tell him to be ready for when we find Ristan,” Ryder ordered.
“Demon wasn’t so lucky,” Alden whispered and started coughing. “I should have listened to him, should have just moved the kids like he wanted.”
“What do you mean not so lucky?” I asked, as ice wrapped around my heart.
He opened his eyes and I could see veins that had ruptured in his eyes from torture. I sat back on my heels and reminded myself that right now I had to be strong. I had to find my Demon and save his ass.
“Is Ristan alive?” I asked, hoping the lead in my throat didn’t show in my voice.
“They had us both in the catacombs for a while, don’t know how long, and don’t know what day it is. Brought me back up here and left me for dead. They tortured us both to figure out how to get to the Horde King and his girl. Ristan took the brunt of it, never thought I’d hear a man scream like that. They cleaned house. Anyone standing, anyone alive is our enemy. They killed the kids, all the kids…I failed them all.”
“Alden, they’re partially Fae, and while you may train them to fight the Fae, they couldn’t have been ready for treachery from their comrades—their coworkers—and if you tried to tell them, it would have given you away. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a few for the many. You taught me that, remember? We knew this might happen, I told your stubborn old ass to come with me.”
“Synthia, this is my life. This is my world and those were my kids. I raised them; I raise all of them when they come here to be trained. Sometimes I think you got your stubbornness from me, even if we aren’t blood. I sent you to the Dark Prince, because I had to make a sacrifice, and I knew you would be able to stand up to him, but these kids…They didn’t even have a chance.” Tears flowed down his damaged cheeks.
“I survived it, and that choice gave me my babies, Alden. I’m actually happy you sent me to the Dark Fortress, and I wouldn’t change my life for the world. You already know that. Now, do we know if they have wards preventing anything sifting out?”