“So that is what Ryder is doing, he’s here trying to stop this?”
“Yes, but until we can figure out all of those parties threatening our world, we cannot stop them. Healing the land is important, since it is rejecting the infants when they are presented to the Goddess Danu. If Faery does not accept an infant, then the child’s lifespan is limited, as any ailment can kill them. Not only has Faery stopped accepting them, the world itself is dying. Huge tracts of land that are ruled by the Dark, Horde, and Blood are withering and showing signs of death.”
“And you think it has something to do with the Mages, or the Changelings who you all thought weren’t a threat before,” I supplied, wondering if this was why Ryder would be sticking his nose into it.
“We suspect that they are at the root of it, but I didn't come here just to discuss the problems of Faery, Synthia. I came here to discuss you.”
“What about me?” I asked, feeling my walls close around me as my defenses went up.
“Please, hear me out before you say anything. When one Fae is bonded to another, as you are with Adam, we betroth them or handfast them to one another. Adam was betrothed to the Light Princess by proxy when Ryder agreed to marry Arianna. I don’t want to go into all of the details, but it was my hope that it would draw Adam, or the people I thought might be holding him, out of hiding. At this time, he is to marry the Light Princess, Caitlín, to unite the kingdoms.”
“It would make sense since an alliance is usually made through marriage to broker peace, or, for gain.” I replied, finding the logic in it…
“Exactly,” he said watching me carefully.
“So—wait, what?” I asked as my head started spinning with what he had just said.
“Adam will marry the Light Princess, Caitlín, which is the true name of the Light Princess that Arianna was impersonating. If you are the missing princess…that would be you.”
I choked and then laughed until I snorted in a very unladylike matter. I alone was laughing. “Oh holy mother of fuck buckets, you're serious!”
“Syn,” Zahruk warned in a stern tone.
“He's like a brother to me. This is crazy! You understand that, right? Adam?” I looked at him for help and found nothing but acceptance. He just sat there and watched me. “We’ve been friends forever, and I think of you as my brother, dammit.” Marry Adam? The one who I counted on because we worked together? We were as close as any siblings, and now I was supposed to marry him? No flipping way.
“Would marriage to me be so bad? We know each other inside and out. You grew up with Adrian, and, yet, you developed feelings for him. What happened between you two could happen with us. We would be a strong, steady couple.”
“Adam, I love you, you know that. But marriage? We don’t even know for sure if I’m the Light Heir; it is all just speculation right now. It could be possible, yes, but we don’t know for sure.”
“I get it, Syn. I do. But if marrying you will bring peace to an entire kingdom, and save them in the process, I could marry you easily,” Adam said, staring me down in challenge.
“And if we got married and I wasn’t the Light Princess? What then?”
“Dammit, Syn, I don't know. I just know you ripped me from a life I should have had, and I have a family that I don't even know. You owe me. We could help Faery. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
I felt my heart drop to my stomach. “You've been with them this week, with your family.”
“Yes,” he replied, tightening his grip on my hand.
“I'm glad—or happy for you. Still, I can't marry you because I don’t love you in that way. I'm not sure what you guys came here for today. But if this was it, I'm sorry that you wasted your time.”
“Synthia, there is more to it than just uniting two kingdoms,” the Dark King began. “You were raised in the human world, so this will be difficult for you to understand. At least this is what Adam has told me. Sometimes we have to rely on the most improbable course when looking for answers to our problems. Some call this faith. We are all children of Danu, and she does not want Faery to die any more than we do. Being a Goddess, it is not like she can just tell us outright what we need to do, as the journey is just as important as the answer is, and sometimes you have to have faith that she knows what she is doing. She has given us several prophesiers and seers who have had visions to help guide us to heal Faery. There is one prophesy about a child born of the Dark and Light Heirs who will complete the healing of the world that the returned relics began.”
“No pressure, right?” Adam said, with the first genuine smile I'd seen on him today.