“How is your husband, Tatiana?” My mother continued.
“He’s waiting for the Horde King; you know he awarded him our throne. Dresden would like to thank him in person this time. We plan to offer him any aid he may need.” Tatiana’s smiled was cold, as if she thought the Horde King was a god, and, truth be told, she probably did.
I struggled to keep the laugh in, but it was hopeless, and when it came, people rubber necked to see what had made me snicker.
“I’d say she needs a few lessons in etiquette,” Tatiana said, before she turned up her nose and walked away.
“Is she always like that?” I asked.
“Since the day my mother gave birth to the insufferable, two-faced, spoiled bitch,” my mother replied. “Kier, this is my daughter, Synthia. Synthia, this is Kier the King of the Dark Fae,” my mother said.
I wasn’t paying attention to them. Instead, I was smiling at Adam, who was moving up the line to stand beside his father.
“Adam!” I squeaked with happiness and threw myself in his arms. My poor outraged mother tried to pull me back.
“Synthia, you address him as Prince Cadeyrn, for he is the heir to the throne,” my mother chided.
Who gave a shit? I was about to be Horde kibble, and Adam was here!
“It’s quite all right, Madisyn. Adam is Synthia’s familiar. We had the pleasure of hosting her at the palace in hopes for her marriage to my son,” Kier said in his usual good natured manner.
“Ryder?” I looked hopefully at Adam who only shook his head no in reply. “He said he was coming,” I whispered.
“If he is, we don’t know anything about it. He left soon after you were taken and wouldn’t allow me to help search for you. My father sent out warriors to help, but then word came that the Blood Heir had been found, and my father said it’s like some sort of gigantic insult if we were not here for this,” he finished softly.
“He said he was coming,” I repeated.
“If he did, Syn, it was just hopeful thinking on his part. You haven’t seen what is going on outside. It looks like all of the Horde is here, well any that could travel fast enough to make it. Let’s hope he isn’t stupid enough to try anything right now. My father is going to barter for you with the Horde King. He has a plan,” Adam assured me, but I’d stopped listening.
Ryder had said he was coming, and out of everyone I knew that said they would do something, and did it, it was Ryder. If the man said he was coming, he was, and I knew he’d die trying to protect me. Wouldn’t he? I swallowed past the tightness of my throat, and looked up into Adam’s eyes. “You have to find him, Adam, and make sure he doesn’t try to save me. He’s here somewhere; he said he would, he’s gotta be here.”
“Syn…”
“Please, do this for me. Don’t let him do something stupid to save me. We will figure out how to get me out of this later.”
“Okay,” he said grimly as he let me go and turned to look around the room as he stepped down from the dais with his father.
There were hundreds of people inside the room, and a vise tightened around my heart with the reality of the slim chance we had of finding Ryder and stopping him. I was presented to countless others, but I rudely ignored them as I searched the faces of the crowd for one man.
The trumpets erupted in front of us, and clapping ensued as the huge doors were opened and howls from wild animals ripped through the room. It wasn’t until the first creatures of the Horde entered that my stomach dropped to my feet as they started toward us. Where was Ryder? Unless he planned on killing the Horde King…oh shit. Knowing Ryder, which I did, would be exactly something he would do.