“I don’t know what wards are left, but there really can’t be any if you are all inside the Guild,” he said wryly as he cleared his throat of the emotion that he’d just felt, shedding it like a second skin. One minute he’d been broken, and in the next he was back and fully in charge of his emotions. “They’ve got a guy with them, scary as shit. Not Human, and not Fae. The way he moves…it’s not normal. Shit, damn thing doesn’t even pretend to be Human.”
“We can handle him,” I whispered as I helped Alden as he tried to get up and failed. Asrian was right behind him and scooped him up as if he weighed nothing.
“Leave me here and go save the Demon,” he whispered brokenly.
“Never,” I answered and looked up at Alden.
We waited for them to sift out before I stood and looked at Ryder and his men. I knew that if Ristan had screamed, something had been horribly wrong. He was a born fighter, as were all of these men. They didn’t show weakness to an enemy, ever.
“They’ve got God bolts. That’s the only way—” I announced, and then I felt power, immense power unchecked in shielding itself. I turned and watched as Danu shimmered in, and then the feel of power was gone.
“It’s a trap,” she announced and I noticed she was dressed for war.
“We kinda figured as much,” I said, and then tilted my head. Well, I had figured it was. Why else bring Alden upstairs where we would find him and keep him separated from Ristan?
“No, Synthia, Bilé is here. Not even Ryder can stand against him. He’s helping the Mages, and he’s close. I can feel him.”
“We’re not backing down, period. Ristan is alive, and down in the catacombs. I won’t believe otherwise unless I see his corpse,” I seethed. I was serious; I wasn’t leaving without him or his bloody heap of remains. I owed him that much.
“I can’t challenge the Mages, but I can help with Bilé. He’s crossed the line, and he’ll pay for what he’s done. That I can do without repercussions,” she said, and I turned to find the entire Elite Guard staring at me like I was insane, except Ryder.
“Mother, show yourself, at least enough that they can see you,” I groaned.
“You think it wise?” she asked Ryder, instead of me.
“Yes,” he said. “My brothers know her secret already. I trust them with my very life.”
I heard them gasp, and knew the moment she revealed herself.
“Shit,” Aodhan whispered and then kneeled at her feet, as did the rest of them.
“Get up, fight now, worship later,” I said and turned back to Danu. “If Bilé is here, that changes everything. Zahruk fashioned some of the bolts that Joseph used on me into daggers, he showed them to me the other day. Will they work on him?” I asked, and then almost groaned as her eyes grew wide with pleasure.
“Yes, they should. He created them to use on me. He and his men tested them on another God who had displeased him first. We can’t touch them though,” she admitted.
“Actually, we can. The guard, grip and pommel of the daggers are bronze wrapped with leather. He’s pretty bad ass with knives and daggers, and I should know, he stabbed me once.” Zahruk rolled his eyes as he glamoured the sheathed daggers and gave them to us.
“Then let’s go take their God, and see how tough they are without him fighting at their side,” Danu said with a little bit too much enthusiasm for my taste.
Chapter Twenty-Three
We were back in the main hall, deciding what would be the smartest route. Ryder had dispatched part of our group to search for the living and the dead in the upper and central areas, keeping the main body of Fae with us. I had showed them to one of the many hidden ways into the catacombs that lay just beneath us in the Guild’s lower levels. We couldn’t hear anything, and Danu couldn’t sense Ristan, or feel him either.
She’d gone back to being hidden from the men, which was how it should be, considering the way some of them had looked at her.
Ryder had decided it best that we not sift to the catacombs, since I knew the Guild had spelled it for sifting, and we didn’t have the time it would take to undo the spell if it was still in place. That meant we had most of the Horde’s Elite Guard stealthily sneaking into some trap.
I waited as Zahruk and Ryder whispered intensely over which would be the best course. Zahruk wanted Ryder to sift out, and I understood his fears. There was only one thing the Mages wanted, and that was to kill the strongest being in Faery, which was Ryder. I wanted him away from here as well, because I needed to focus, and the idea that there was a God down there, waiting to help the Mages hurt him, left me mindless.
“Forget it, not going to happen. I owe Ristan, and I’ll be damned if I hide from a fight.”
We both stared at Ryder, and I got it. It sucked, but I understood his need, and knew how it felt to know someone you loved was in trouble, and the almost suicidal need to sacrifice yourself to save them. Not that Ryder was thinking he’d need to, but he wasn’t going to back down.