“I can feel you!” I felt my heart rate increase as a million different thoughts erupted inside of my brain. “You’re alive?” Hey, it had happened once before.
“No, Syn, I’m dead. My soul is here, and you can feel me because of the spell. Alden cast more than just a simple spell to allow you to speak to us. He cast one to allow us to rise for one night as the living.”
“Larissa,” Adam said as he stepped closer with a confused look on his face. His heart was on his sleeve, and tears shined in his eyes as he took her in his arms and held her close.
Larissa smiled, and I felt a hot tear flow down my cheek. I stepped back to allow them to talk alone for a minute. I hadn’t realized that I was crying, or that Ryder had moved closer to me. I backed up into his solid wall of a chest, and turned when I felt the electrical current against my skin that he alone could create.
“Are you okay?” he asked for my ears alone.
“I think so, she looks…happy,” I whispered back and met his eyes.
I turned to watch Adam pull Larissa against him as he kissed her deeply. I felt no jealousy at knowing I would be soon marrying him, or that he was making out with a ghost. The feel of Ryder against my back felt right; I felt safe with him.
Adam pulled away from Larissa, and began to utter apologies as if the same thing had just crossed his mind, but it wasn’t me he was apologizing to. It was her. “Lari, I couldn’t stop the need. I tried…I couldn’t stop, I was in Transition…”
“Shhh, it’s okay. I understood why you did it. I feel no anger toward you or the women who took care of you during Transition. I couldn’t have fed you as they did. I don’t blame you for marrying Syn, either,” she said, shocking us both. “Don’t force yourself on her, Adam. If you do, I’ll haunt your ass for eternity,” she said, smiling amenably.
“You saw that,” he uttered with a defeated sigh.
“I couldn’t leave you. I stayed until they took you from her house. Those Fae packed my stuff with Syn’s, and I was able to follow you because my essence was connected to it. I wasn’t ready to be seen, nor were either of you ready to see me. The pain of loss was too raw for you both. You both needed time to heal before I allowed either of you to see me.”
“I looked for you; everywhere. That fucking Demon pulled me away though. I couldn’t stop it from happening, Larissa; I just couldn’t stop the need I felt!”
Larissa snorted and rolled her eyes as she placed her hands on her hips. “Seriously? You were in Transition. I was there; I know you couldn’t stop it.”
“You watched me?” Adam asked, shocked.
“Of course I did. Besides, I showed you most of the moves anyway. And the guilt you felt kinda held me there. You kept me there. It wasn’t as if I wanted to watch you with other women, but you wouldn’t stop thinking of me while you did so. Which, call me petty, but even though they were absolutely gorgeous, but you wanted me, and it was one of the most wonderful feelings of my life…or death, whichever.”
“Syn, now you on the other hand…bad girl! And Ryder, tsk-tsk I underestimated your skills. I need a word with you, by the way,” Larissa said as she walked over to us. I waited until she tapped her toe on the ground. “Alone, Syn. Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad, or about you.”
“Do you blame me?” I blurted it out before she could disappear with Ryder. “For failing to save you?”
“No, and neither do your parents, Syn. You can’t fight destiny—taunt it, yes, but to fight it will only consume you and, in the end, destiny always wins.” She smiled sadly and cupped my cheek. “I need a word with Ryder, and then we have some payback to dish out.”
~~~~~~~~*
“You okay, Adam?” I asked as I stopped awkwardly beside him.
“Define okay? She watched me, and she knows about us too,” he whispered as if he was afraid Larissa would overhear him from where she stood talking to Ryder.
“Ouch,” I said, unsure what else to say. He’d been planning on asking Larissa to marry him until she’d been killed right in front of me.
“Did you sleep with him again? I need to know you’re being smart when you’re with him.” Adam’s question made my head whip around to look at him. His eyes had turned bright green, and a tight strain showed around his mouth.
“Don’t you think I know that?” I whispered, still watching him.
“I hope you’re being careful. The entire realm of Faery is depending on us.”
“I get it. I’m still on the Guild’s contraceptive shot. It’s stronger than the humans’ birth control. I just don’t know if it will wear off while I’m still in that grace period of Transition that everyone is counting on.”