“She doesn’t talk to anyone, she doesn’t get fed by anyone, nothing. Not unless I myself do it,” Ristan whispered, but that whisper held a level of anger that I’d never thought was possible from my fun-loving Demon.
“Understood,” I said as a single tear slid from my eye.
“I don’t care if you’re her best fucking friend, Syn, cross me on this and you’ll wish you never had,” Ristan growled.
“Understood, Demon,” I growled back.
I watched as Sinjinn took the Guild librarian and Savlian took Ristan, before they all sifted out to await us in front of the Guild. “I want to know what she did that made him hate her that much,” I whispered through the hurt that Ristan had been torn and damaged the way he was.
“Something horrible,” Zahruk replied.
“Synthia, leave this alone. He isn’t up for a challenge and that is what will happen should he do any harm to you,” Ryder said, and I heard the silent plea in his tone.
“She’s his problem,” I confirmed. I knew Ristan; whatever she had done, it had been horrible. Mix that with Alden’s warning and I could make a pretty good guess about what she’d done to them. “We need to focus on replenishing this Guild with Witches, because what happened out there can’t continue,” I said as I looked around helplessly as the Elite Guard winked in and out of the rooms, removing the dead.
“For now, let’s just go home. I’d like to see our children.”
“Me too,” I whispered, and held my hand up to his, intertwine our fingers together. “Take me home.”
“I like the sound of you saying home, and meaning ours,” Ryder whispered as he kissed my neck.
“Wait,” I said as I looked around the place. “Do you feel that?” I asked as my skin grew aware of being watched, and tiny bumps arose on it. I listened, and heard the sound of small hearts racing, and I stepped away from Ryder. I heard the heartbeats of children. Ryder’s head cocked to the side momentarily, listening.
“Children. They haven’t counted yet, but…some of my men found a large group of them hidden; they are terrified,” he said with barely controlled anger.
“Get them out of here, take them to Faery. It’s too dangerous for them here and who knows how many of their parents were killed when the Guild fell,” I said hurriedly and watched as Ryder nodded his head in agreement. I knew without a doubt he was already relaying the orders to his men.
“What the hell, Syn?” Adam yelled as he moved through the rubble and bodies.
“No time to explain, Adam. Did you bring the Dark Fae with you?”
Adam nodded absently as he took in the carnage in the room. “I brought Shadow Warriors as well as Dark Guard from the Fortress. It is all over the news stations that a Fae army stormed the Guild. Humans are panicking out there. I had some of the Guards set up a perimeter out there to keep the Humans away, and others are going through the upper levels looking for survivors,” Adam said, and I watched him in silence since I’d never seen him this angry before.
“There aren’t any more survivors, we’ve already checked,” I said softly as I placed my hand on Adam’s arm, sharing his anger and pain at the destruction of our childhood home.
“We need to go,” Ryder’s voice was a sharp growl.
“Wait,” I said as I pulled back on Ryder’s arm. “We can’t leave the library and the archives for anyone to stumble on; there’s some shit in there that is incredibly dangerous. Is there any way we can seal this area?”
Ryder gave me a nod with an evil glint in his eyes. “I think we can do something.” Ryder led us to the foot of the stairs, just before the entrance of catacombs and once he was assured that all of his men had cleared the area, he spread his arms wide and let loose with a gigantic push of power, causing the entrance of the library to cave in. “That should hold until we can bring back a group to clear that place out. For all we know, there could be one or more of the relics down here,” he said grimly as we turned and made our way to the upper levels and out the front door of the Guild.
Once outside, it looked like pandemonium had taken over. Armed Fae surrounded the Guild, keeping the Humans away from it and from attacking the would-be rescuers. The Elite Guard and Shadow Warriors had been winking in and out, leaving rows of the dead behind the Fae barricade and in front of the steps of the Guild. The most heartbreaking were the small, lifeless bodies of the children. Humans screamed and shouted in fury at the Fae. If ever there was a recruiting poster for the Mages, this was it.
The Fae who had been bringing up the bodies gathered around the dead and awaited orders. This had to have been their way of saying the Guild was clear now.