“If it was your child who was stolen from his bed while you slept, how would you feel?” she asked.
“I’d be pissed, but not at the other child who didn’t even know what had happened, or what she was. I didn’t mean to steal him from you, and I’m sorry for my part in it. The Guild thought him just another orphaned child and raised us together. He’s a good man. He’s also my best friend, and I’m not sorry for that. I am sorry for stealing your son from you and robbing you of the right to raise him, though.”
She blinked, and nodded. “I am sorry for being rude. Kier tried to tell me what happened, but I wouldn’t listen,” she said softly. “You can’t imagine my pain to find my son missing. I grieved for him, thinking him dead by the hands of our enemies since the day he disappeared. My husband would not give up, though; he never gave up on him. He told me he would find him, and bring him home to me.”
“Well it’s a good thing he has Ryder as his brother, or he may never have been found,” I replied and watched her eyes as they grew large.
“Ryder?” Astrid asked.
“Moira’s brother,” Mari recovered, and said it smoothly, and yet there was something not right about her answer.
“Yes, my brother.”
I turned to Mari as Moira replied. “You gave birth to him, yes?” I could play word games too if that was how they wanted to play this.
“No. He’s Kier’s son,” she said, moving across the room and giving me her back.
“From another woman, or?” I questioned. Just how fucked up was Adam’s family? They were starting to sound like mine.
“You would need to ask him. Come, we need to get you ready for your wedding,” she said.
“Handfasting.”
“Yes,” she replied with a hint of disdain in her tone. Obviously, she wasn’t happy with the handfasting.
“You didn’t want us to handfast, did you?” I asked, walking to the tub she stood beside. I was hoping to sweet baby Jesus that she didn’t expect me to get naked, and jump in that thing with them inside the room.
“I wanted more for my son; he has just come home. You wouldn’t agree to marry him, which to me seems selfish, since he will be king someday.”
“I don’t love him, and this will help ensure that one day he can find the love he deserves. The handfasting was also his idea, not mine. This wasn’t my choice at all. I love Adam with all of my heart as a brother. Not as my husband. I wanted to be fair to him; I want him to find real love.” All three women turned and stared at me as if I’d grown another head, or horns.
“That’s…well that is actually very sweet of you,” Mari returned with a small smile that made her seem much younger than she was.
“But it’s also a moot point. Ristan has seen us having a child who can stop this world from dying. One who can heal the land from what the Mages have done to it. So, that is why I’m here; the only reason. I came with Adam because he asked, and your husband believes we can save Faery. If you know of another way, I’m all ears, Lady.” Mari sighed and shook her dark head sadly at my words.
“Come, let’s get you ready.”
Chapter Thirty Eight
I stood in the room in front of a huge mirror. Only an hour had passed, in which Adam’s feminine family members had done wonders. I looked like something from a fantasy movie. I was dressed in a wedding gown that was created of the softest shimmering white silk that caressed my skin lovingly. The top was a work of art. Beads created a back that held the long train of the gown. Silk wrapped around to create the Grecian cut bodice perfectly and then floated down gracefully to an almost bell shaped skirt. I’d never worn anything so elaborate, or beautiful, in my entire life.
Curls framed my face, and flowers and pearls had been placed through my hair to hold it up in an elegant double-braided updo. Moira painstakingly painted the thin delicate lines that symbolized unity and fertility in black ink, for the Dark Fae, along my shoulders and upper arms.
“Wow, you clean up very nicely,” Moira said when she had finished the Celtic symbol for unity on my shoulder.
“Thanks,” I whispered, fighting the urge to throw up. In less than twenty minutes, I would be presented to Adam as his gift. I wasn’t sure why they gifted the bride, but, then again, I knew little about anything they did. The Guild had a lot of books, but there hadn’t been any need for me to look into weddings of the Fae, or anything like that back then. Something scratched at the back of my mind with that thought.
“It’s almost time. When you’re ready, Synthia, the men would like to escort you to Adam,” Mari said, looking me over quickly with the keen eye of a mother. “Do you not have anything from your parents? A sash that gives you honors among your own kind?” she asked.