“That’s enough infants for now,” Mari choked out. She had her hand over her mouth and looked like she was holding back tears. She took a few deep breaths and composed herself. “Time for the binding of the hands,” she whispered and smiled reassuringly at the line of women.
I stood, with help from Adam; the long sweeping skirt of the dress making it impossible to do it on my own. When his mother had fixed the train and made sure I passed another quick inspection, we headed for the dais where the Dark King’s throne was usually placed. Adam’s father and the Light King stood at arm’s length and the Light King had a calculating gleam in his eyes as he watched us make our way to them. Asshole was probably trying to figure out how to kill me after the ceremony was done without getting caught.
We climbed the stairs and stopped just in front of the two Kings. We stood with our hands entwined, and I looked through the crowd gathered around us as we held our hands out for the fathers to wrap the handfasting silk around them and complete the ceremony. I knew who I was looking for, even though I tried to keep him from my mind as I stood next to Adam.
Ryder was standing to my left with his men, close to a set of large cedar doors, as if he was planning to leave me without saying goodbye, again. It was probably for the best; seeing that I had fallen in love with him and was marrying Adam. I hadn’t even thought it was possible for me to love a Fae, and yet, I did. His eyes were locked on our hands as Kier presented the long multi-colored silk ribbons that would bind our wrist together.
When Adam’s father began addressing the assembly, my heart increased in tempo as I felt the silk ribbons begin to wrap around our wrists. I felt a moment of panic before the calm settled over me as the warmth from Adam’s hand sank into me. Or maybe it was a comfortable numbness, since I was giving up my Fairy; my enemy and one of the only men I’d truly ever loved.
I watched Ryder as he looked toward me, his eyes narrowed with a dangerous glint lighting in them. Eliran was telling him something with a helpless gesture of his arms and Ryder turned to him, his mouth slanted at an ugly angle as he snapped at the healer. When he turned toward us with his men at his back, I saw victory shining his eyes.
I turned to look at Adam, as something tingled inside my mind with awareness. I watched in slow motion as everyone else stopped to look around, confused at what was happening. Something was off; terribly off. The air grew thick around us until it was impossible to breathe it in. Someone screamed, and it looked like Fae were trying to sift out of the room, but something was holding them trapped inside of it. I locked eyes with Ryder’s, who had a look of stunned disbelief in his eyes as he comprehended what was about to happen.
I looked at Adam and tried to throw up a shield around him, as well as Kier and Dresden, a fraction of a second before there was a blinding burst of light and the dais exploded from an energy bomb that detonated somewhere underneath us.
~~~~*Ryder~~~~*
Watching her hold infants had been strangely amusing. She was awkward, and, yet, she still accepted one after another. Watching her sign those fucking contracts had been straining my ability to hold the beast inside. I’d wanted nothing more than to sift to her, and take her away from here.
“Shall we leave now? We have held up our end of this contract. It’s time to go home and finish what you need to there. This is not helping you, or her. I can see the strain on your face. Let’s go home, Brother,” Zahruk said, lowering his eyes.
“We told Kier that we would stay until the vows were spoken, and the ceremony complete. He thinks I have some control over her,” I reply, balling my hands into fists.
“You do, but not like he thinks,” Z continues, and I narrow my eyes on him.
“Ryder, a word please,” Eliran says, pushing his way through the crowd of onlookers.
“What is it, Eliran?” Zahruk growls, impatient to return home.
“Sire, I’ve been running tests on Synthia from the blood I took from her house when she was sick,” he said as he stepped closer.
“And?” I reply coldly. As if it matters now, she hasn’t been sick since I pulled her out of her house and my patience is waning.
“And I ran tests. Every one of them I could think of. She has no iron in her system, which would be the common culprit for making a newly Transitioned Fae sick, and, well, her being raised in the human world you would think her count high, but it was surprisingly low.”
“This is what you came here to tell me? That her iron was low?” I growl. The beast is smiling, and he’s pissing me off.
“No. No, of course not. So I continued running test after test, but everything came back negative.”
“Spit it out healer. We’ve no time for this right now,” I snarl and have to remind myself that he is only doing his job. He isn’t the one I’m upset with, I remind myself.
“So, I ran a pregnancy test on the blood, which takes longer when levels are low,” he says, and I narrow my eyes on him.