“I will not fight you, Ryder,” said the Light King. “I’ll fight the Dark Prince that thinks to claim the child as his bride.”
“No, Dresden, it doesn’t work that way. I have claimed her pleasure already, and she is mine under contract. She is under my protection, Dresden. It is I who challenged you, not my brother.”
“You fuck your brother’s intended bride? And the little whore allows it, I’m sure,” the Light King said. He gave a sly look at the Light Queen. “Maybe I should take her daughter, and make her my meal slave, as a warning to my wife to remain faithful.”
“Oh the hell you say! You couldn’t handle me in bed ya skinny twit. I like my men to be warriors, both in bed and out of bed. Which you are not.”
“Syn,” Ryder chided with a smirk lifting his lips.
“Impudent little bitch!” Dresden growled heatedly.
“Careful, Dresden, before you piss me off and I decide to kill you anyway,” Ryder growled low from within his chest.
“You overstep! You are a Prince, nothing more!”
“He has been acting as my heir until his younger brother could be found, Dresden. He is used to ruling, and he has the girl locked into a contract so that she couldn’t slip away until her lineage could be verified,” Kier said, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I looked up at Ryder’s face, taking in his sideways profile as he refused to step back from the Light King. He was standing here for me, protecting me because of the contract, and I wondered, for the first time, if he’d do so without there being a contract between us. It was dangerous territory to tread on, even if it was only inside my mind.
I stepped back into the protective wall that was Ryder and his men.
I listened to them begin to discuss the marriage contract and my future, as I walked silently to the table and sat down, accepting the drink that was handed to me. I was numb and felt completely hollow now that I’d learned from where I had come from. It was anticlimactic to say the least, and the only thing I wanted right now, was to run.
Chapter Thirty
As soon as the Light Fae had left the club, the rest of us gathered in the bar area to go over the next steps. For the most part, we were shocked and a little amazed that the Light Fae had been in agreement with the Dark Fae about my parentage. But, something in Dresden’s smug attitude, along with the terms of the contract with Kier, just left me with an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was silent, though everyone else seemed to be chatting happily as if we’d just had some huge pissing contest with the Light Fae and won. The only other silent person was Ryder, who sat beside me.
“This couldn’t have gone any better. We confirmed that Syn is who we thought she was, and they agreed to the marriage contract!” Kier said, clapping Adam on the back. “I’d have thought they would have argued more, but this is exactly what we wanted, my son.”
“Yes, but something isn’t adding up about them. It looked to me that they perfected that act before they showed up. They didn’t seem too surprised when you told them we had found the missing heir,” Adam said, running his hand through his thick hair.
“The only thing he seemed genuinely surprised about during this entire meeting was that I was alive,” I said out loud, causing Ryder to look right at me.
“He didn’t quite deny or hide the fact that he wanted you dead, Synthia,” Ryder growled, moving his leg that had touched mine. “That being said, we need to be careful in any future dealings we have with them.”
“I saw the Blood Prince that Tatiana described several times while we suffered through round after round of their endless parties,” Kier said. “He had eyes, much like yours, Synthia. If I remember right, he is the Blood King’s younger brother. He may have been there for only one week during that visit, and she didn’t ask his name, because she already knew it—he often acts as his brother’s emissary!” Kier laughed, and seemed very pleased that he’d figured out the Light Queen’s turn of phrase that she had used to dodge the truth. “Everything we suspected is just being confirmed as we dig further into this.”
“Explain the tattoo then,” I said with a calmness I no longer felt. I was still fishing for anything that could make me not the Light Heir.
“I can’t, but the theory we have put together with all of the puzzle pieces matches the rumors and stories we have all heard,” Kier said calmly, soothingly.
“See? There are still too many questions. I mean, we can’t just take their word, right? They’re Light Fae,” I said, feeling my heart kick up in tempo. Maybe there was a way out of this after all. Maybe I wasn’t the Light Heir.