“Or, he played it out as so. He told me he would drain me, and take what was his. I didn’t know what he had meant at the time. It’s getting pretty clear that he wants to be the acknowledged heir, at all cost. I’ve been branded with markings before. It would have been easily obtainable if he was working with the Mages.”
“She’s right, and he’s been hard as hell to find lately,” Liam agreed.
I eyed him carefully. He’d been abused, and it showed. It was hard to hate someone when their wounds were bare to see in their eyes. He was a warrior, and, yet, he had a vulnerability that you could see. I was still trying to wrap my brain around the Horde King being the monster they described. I saw that Dresden seemed to be impressed with him, but, then again, according to my father, the Horde King had handed Dresden the crown. What bothered me was Kier and Ryder were allied with the Horde. At this point, I wasn’t sure what to believe and I wondered how much of a chance I had at killing the Horde King, or how long I’d live if I tried and failed. Would I be broken by his evil, as Liam now was? Probably. I was good, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t on the same level of badass as the Horde King was.
He caught the worry in my eyes and moved closer, his hands held out as if he was showing me he wouldn’t hurt me. “Please, don’t hate me,” he said softly, his eyes pleading, which made the scar on his face stand out more. Fae normally don’t scar after Transition so what had been done to him must have been beyond horrible. “You, for me. It is one hell of a trade, little sister. If he didn’t also promise to end the fighting this would be going in a very different direction.”
“What does he look like?” I asked curiously.
“He’s a little over seven feet tall, with black wings that make him appear taller when he uses them. He’s pure evil, the worst sort of creature you can imagine. He has long black hair, and blackened eyes of the purest evil in their ancient depths. His power pushes from his pores until you can feel it touching you from the inside. His teeth are razor sharp when he wants them to be. The Sluagh are his warriors, and he is evil enough to rule them. He’s the strongest of the Unseelie, little sister, and he gives no mercy, even when it is begged for,” he said bitterly.
“Okay then, why didn’t you just say he was evil incarnate?” I asked, swallowing down the nerves. They wanted me to kill him!? Seriously; I might as well slap a sticker on my ass that said dead wench walking.
“You must have questions for us, and we have many for you,” Madisyn said and indicated a sitting area that hadn’t been there a second ago. The Fae here used magic a lot more than Ryder ever had when he was around me.
I took the chair that was furthest from the family. They fell easily into them and stared at me expectantly.
“I have no questions,” I quickly skipped the subject. “I didn’t come here for answers. I came, because I was forced to be here. I understand what you did, or some of it anyway. If you would like to ask me something, do so.”
“Your mother, you said she was good to you?” Madisyn asked, wasting no time.
“From what I can remember of her, she was everything a mother should have been.”
“How did the brand on your neck become inactive?” The Blood King asked next.
“I was taken into Faery for the Wild Hunt by Ryder—he’s one of the Dark Princes,” I said, not quite knowing if it was true or not. Nothing was as it seemed to me anymore, so I wasn’t quite sure what to believe.
Hands flew to mouths on that answer. I closed my eyes, and expelled a deep breath as the memory of that night heated me from the inside out.
“I’ve heard of Ryder. He was claimed to be the Dark Heir?” Adaryn asked.
I met his piercing eyes, and nodded. “Yeah, I guess that was the impression they gave until they found Cadeyrn, who is the Heir.”
“Were you hurt? I’ve never heard of anyone coming out unscathed from it,” Adaryn asked.
“I was not harmed. I was claimed by Ryder,” I answered honestly.
“So, he took you to his bed, and you allowed this?” My father asked through narrow eyes.
“Yes,” I answered, not thinking he had a right to care.
“You actually slept with one of the Dark Princes?” he growled reminding me of Ryder.
“At the time, I was only a Witch who worked for the Guild. I had no idea what I was when I allowed it to happen, and after that—after coming back to the human world—I started to change. Adam—uh, Cadeyrn the Dark Heir changed faster, as the brand you put on me had affected him as well. It worked so well it stopped his Transition too, but when I came back from Faery, we both began to change.”
“You lived a good life?” Liam asked.
“I prefer to think I did, yes.”
They’d sat listening as I told them my story. Tears fell from the women, while the men listened in silence. When I was finished, I looked around at the faces of my family, some had tears in their eyes, while the men looked proud of what I had accomplished while I’d been assumed to be only a mere Witch.