Chapter One
I felt my hair being pulled, and pain ripped through my stomach as something hit it. A pained groan slipped from my lips. Something warm and wet dripped down my face and I cried out even louder than before. We were under attack! I mumbled for Ryder to call for the Elite Guard, and to let loose the beast on whoever had invaded our room and was attacking.
“Synthia,” a deep rumble of laughter sounded; that laugh mixed with gurgling noises, forced me to pry one eye open. It felt as if each lid was held in place by lead weights. “I don’t think we need the Elite Guard or the beast to deal with the babies.”
“The hell you say, those are not babies; they’re monsters. What the hell do they have against sleep?” I mumbled as I watched as Kahleena gurgled and continued to drool on my face and neck as she looked down at me with a cherubic smile. “Minions of darkness—that’s what they are. Ones sent by the Mages to slowly torture us through lack of sleep and cuteness.”
Zander head butted my stomach while Kahleena yanked at a handful of hair to better support herself. Cade continually kicked the other side of my stomach while he sucked greedily on his tiny fist. I was seriously rethinking the entire idea of lessening the handmaidens’ duties to give us more time as a family.
“They wanted their mother,” he said, his golden eyes aglow with laughter. “I doubt they are sent by the Mages, Pet. They’ve been hanging out with Ristan too much, and I think they thrive on mischief,” he laughed huskily. The sound washed over me and I smiled, unable to resist the sound of his husky timbre. He made his way back to the bed and sat beside us, lifting Kahleena as he untangled my hair from her tiny hand. He carefully moved Zander, and gave me enough room so that I could sit up.
Once I managed to sit up, I smiled down at the little monsters, who watched me back. I leaned over, kissing Kahleena on her cheek, and watched as her golden eyes, which were so much like her father’s, glowed, as if they were lit from within. My little one had begun to thrive, and was by far the naughtiest of the three. She was also the leader, and I suspected she was the smartest of the trio. While Cade seemed to be the muscle, Zander would happily watch the chaos the other two wrought on us, which Zahruk speculated would make him the lethal one as they grew older. I was pretty sure Kahleena got her brains from me, even though Ryder was quick to take credit for it.
“My little monsters,” I whispered softly. My throat tightened as I considered just how blessed we were. I picked Cade up and cuddled him to my chest. Zander watched, his little lips quivering until Ryder picked him up in his free arm and rested on the bed beside me.
“They have to sleep sooner or later, right? I’m beginning to understand why my father kept his brood of children locked in the pavilion.”
I hit his arm and smirked. “Maybe we should lock ourselves in the pavilion?” I laughed, and watched as he frowned.
“We could, but we’re planning a wedding, remember?” he murmured, leaning over to place a gentle kiss on my temple.
“We could always elope. Las Vegas is still a viable option,” I offered. “Besides, I totally have a thing for Elvis and all his bling. Those sequins,” I sighed heavily, and added a little growling noise deep in my throat. “It’s sexy as fuck.”
“The entire realm is anticipating this wedding, Synthia. The Mages have been quiet for a while, and I intend to marry you properly. Tell me, who is this Elvis and where can I find him so I can kill him?”
“He’s dead already, and you and I are freaking exhausted. I can’t even keep my eyes open. If the Mages showed up, they could literally push me over and I’d be a goner. I’m getting a little worried that Danu has been so quiet. She’s been constant since the last time the Mages tried something, and now it’s just silence. It’s not like her. I know she was keeping her distance because of whatever happened between her and Ristan, but she has never gone completely dark before. It makes me curious to know what really transpired between those two, and how it could be so bad,” I mused out loud as my fingers absently stroked Cade’s soft curls, hugging him a little tighter as the thought of war played in my mind. “And I’m also worried about their future and what it will hold.”
“They have a Goddess for a mother—their future will be whatever they wish it to be. They will be loved, and raised to be strong and fair to others. We will win this war and heal this world. I won’t allow anything less. Our children will have the world, whichever they choose, at their fingertips, and we will be right behind them, building them up.” He glanced up at me with a smirk of fond amusement. “Things are changing quickly for all of us. I seem to remember that it wasn’t long ago that you thought that the Horde King pranced around wearing high heels and lipstick, Pet. We have come a long way since then.”
“I said that, didn’t I?” I frowned, and he nodded.
“You were perceptive and guarded back then. Now, I just wiggle my eyebrows and your clothes just fall off,” he laughed.
“That’s not how that works. You take them off with magic; I have very little to do with it,” I groaned. “Gods save me, but I love you. Even though you drive me batshit crazy, Fairy,” I smiled. “But you can’t know what the future will hold. Everything can change in a blink of an eye around here. Let’s just try to focus on today,” I whispered as I leaned over to kiss him, only to hear all three babies begin to snuffle and cry. They had something against Mommy and Daddy kissing. It was both cute and annoying at the same time. Zander grabbed his father’s hair, and Kahleena wailed while shedding big fat alligator tears as she tried to push me away from him. Cade…well, Cade growled like a puppy, a trait he’d inherited from his father.
“Maybe they were sent by the Mages,” he groaned and pulled away.
“Told you,” I laughed, as a knock at the door disrupted the bliss inside the bedroom. I watched as Ryder looked in my direction, quickly glamouring me into a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt. Once he was satisfied that I was dressed properly, he quickly kissed my cheek, much to the dismay of the babies, if the disgruntled looks on their faces were anything to go by.
“Enter,” he called out, his eyes twinkling as Kahleena made a growling noise while she watched him, her lip puckered out.
“It’s about time you got the fuck up,” Ristan quipped as he peered around the door at us, his eyes filled with laughter. He leaned against the doorjamb, much to the delight of Kahleena, who gurgled and held her arms up, ignoring her father for her favorite uncle. He returned her smile, wiggling his fingers at her in hello. “We’ve got a huge problem. One that can’t wait for you to eye-fuck each other or for you to cuddle the little beasties,” he said softly.
“What is it?” I asked, curious to know why his mood had shifted so quickly from playful to cautious.
“I think I know why you keep feeling pain, and why we are feeling a disturbance in Faery. I’ve taken the liberty of calling in the handmaidens. They’ll take the babies to the nursery; the Elite Guard is waiting downstairs for you to join us. What we just discovered is something that is hard to explain without showing you.”
The pain that had been randomly coursing through my body had been worsening over the last few days, which was also contributing to the lack of sleep. Danu had connected me to Faery so that I’d be able to protect it, but unlike her, if the land died, I wouldn’t.
I watched as Darynda gracefully floated into the room with a steaming cup of coffee, which she set on the nightstand. She was careful to keep it away from little hands as she straightened and smiled down softly at Cade, who placed his head against my breasts and looked at her carefully. Cade was a momma’s boy to his core; he loved to cuddle and would spend countless hours listening to my heartbeat, unlike Kahleena who preferred her father, or Zander who had a tendency of watching us with a frown on his cute little brow. Mere months old, and they’d been hitting milestones that terrified me.
It bothered me that we had no idea how long they’d remain little. Fae children aged faster than human children, while Gods could mature from infancy to adults in mere days. With their mixed genetics, we were left guessing and waiting to see how fast they’d mature. Eliran had done all sorts of tests, but each one came back inconclusive, and it left us drawing straws at what the answer would be.
It was part of the reason I’d dismissed the handmaidens from the nursery at nighttime, much to their dismay, and done the mothering myself. I wanted to experience what time they had as children to the fullest. The thought of missing out, well, it fucking terrified me to the very fiber of my being. Not even Danu could tell us if they’d age rapidly or slowly.
I handed a fussy Cade to Darynda and watched while she cradled him as if he’d shatter. Then, she nodded to the other girls, who awaited permission from Ryder.
“What is it?” Ryder asked, his golden eyes filling with black as he turned and nodded to Darynda, who in turn nodded to the nearest of the handmaidens to retrieve the babes.
“My guess? It’s the beginning of a huge clusterfuck, which again, you have to see to believe,” Ristan stated as he leaned over and kissed Kahleena on her way out of the room. She frowned and waved her arms for him to pick her up, and his brow creased with a hint of worry as he turned back to his King.
I felt my stomach drop, knowing that it had to be something huge for him to be in such a strained mood that he wouldn’t take a few moments to indulge my daughter’s every whim. I accepted Ryder’s hand and stood up, ignoring the coffee that was calling me its bitch from the nightstand.
“How bad?” I whispered and swallowed hard as I contemplated burying my head beneath the pillows.
“At first we assumed it was Lucian’s shit going awry, but I’m not so sure it is anymore,” Ristan supplied.
“Wait, Lucian’s shit was huge. Like, break down walls, world-changing shit,” I groaned. We couldn’t catch a break. “It’s not that big, right?” My eyes held his silver ones as he swallowed and didn’t do anything to stop the direction my thoughts were moving in. I swallowed hard again. The knot in my throat lodged there firmly and refused to budge. “Let’s go.”
“Agreed,” Ryder stated. His hand brushed against mine, his fingers threaded with mine and he brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “Day by day, Witch,” he reminded me as we exited the bedroom.
The Elite Guard waited in the Great Hall, probably having grown impatient for us to make our way to them. Ryder pulled me closer and nodded to the men, probably using the mental link with his brothers that I’d lost the ability to use over the last couple of weeks. Something had blocked me from being able to channel it, which we blamed on whatever was going wonky in Faery. That or it was because my new powers were playing hide and seek with me as I tried to learn how to use them correctly.
“You go ahead; let me know when it’s safe to bring Synthia,” Ryder ordered.
Once the men sifted out, I turned and glared at him. “I’m not made of glass, and I don’t break easily.”
“I know, but we don’t have babies around right now who will cry when I do this,” he murmured, pushing me against the wall and brushing his lips against mine. Gentle at first, yet that heat grew, as if it was connected to everything inside of me that made me a woman. I growled against his lips as I deepened the kiss, missing the feel of him against me without the babies’ radar going crazy and the inevitable fussing that would break out. His hands cupped my ass, and he lifted me as his mouth made my inner hussy scream for more. Loud coughing behind us forced me to release his lips, a saucy smile and muffled laughter bubbling in my throat as Ristan watched.
“By all means, continue. I’ll just stand here, watching,” Ristan commented. “If need be, I’ll be happy to give some pointers as well.”
“I bet you would too, pervert,” I groaned.
“Most definitely, Flower,” he laughed. “If you two are done fucking around, the area is clear and we are ready for you.”
“Indeed,” Ryder growled, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “The babies can remain with the handmaidens tonight.”
“Let’s see what is happening with whatever the hell is wrong. Afterwards, we can take a long stroll at the Fairy Pools.”
I let my legs slowly drop to the floor before I curled into Ryder’s protective embrace as we sifted and the landscape of our new location materialized in front of me. My eyes took in the disturbance; my stomach dropped and tears burned my eyes. This was worse than I could have ever imagined. My hands trembled as what I was seeing came fully into focus.
“That is Spokane,” I whispered. “How is Spokane in Faery?” I demanded, unable to compute what the hell my eyes were seeing.
“Step back and look again,” Ristan said grimly, his usual cockiness absent from his tone.
I stepped back and exhaled as the magnitude of it hit me. The portal looked new, and it was huge. There was nothing stopping the Fae from leaving Faery, or the humans from entering this beautiful but deadly world.
“What about the other portals?” I asked, trying to wrap my mind around what this meant for both races.
“There is one more like this one; the permanent ones seem to be unaffected,” he informed us carefully. “The one near the Pavilion seems stable. This one and the other are behaving like something triggered them to open and grow; nothing we do is working to stop it from happening. We’ve tried combining magic, and it only makes them grow more rapidly. Without knowing what the catalyst or spell was that triggered this, it’s hard to prevent more from opening and growing. Besides magic, we’re at a loss for how to stop it. At the rate they are growing now, we won’t be able to effectively guard them for much longer,” Zahruk interjected, his luminous blue eyes probing mine for a moment before turning to gaze intensely at Ryder.
Ryder looked at the portal for a few moments and raised both hands towards it. He closed his eyes and cocked his head to the side, as if he was concentrating. A small crease appeared on his forehead as the edges of the portal took on a golden tinge that glowed brightly for a few moments, then faded away as his hands seemed to lose their grip and slid to either side of the portal he must have been envisioning in his mind. Ryder shook his head in disbelief and tried again, only to have the same result.
“Portals tend to feel much the way that fabric feels; I can tear one open or seal one with little disruption. I can feel this portal, but it won’t allow me to manipulate or pull it in either direction,” he said warily.
“Ristan and Cailean said the same thing when they tried. The portals you open are far larger than the ones they create, so we were hoping that you could close this one.” Zahruk tore his eyes away from Ryder and looked at me. “Synthia, perhaps you might be able to stop it from growing. Your magic seems to work differently than ours does.”
“I blow shit up, Zahruk, or did my last mishap slip your mind so easily?” I snapped in frustration. “I can’t use my powers properly, and what happens if I try and I make it worse?”
“It doesn’t hurt to try,” he countered. “We lose nothing by trying, and right now I’m not sure it could get any worse than it already is. There’s a damn open door that leads in and out of Faery—it can’t get much worse than that.”
I looked at the portal and nodded. He was right: what could it hurt to try? I was connected to the land, and I could feel it—something larger than I could explain was working to open these portals. I closed my eyes, drew power from Faery to me, and sent out feelers. I whispered the spell I’d learned from the Guild for strength.
Old habits, but with the gaping hole between worlds, I needed every trick in my bag to be strong enough to heal the damage. I called on Danu, on Hecate, and whoever else I could remember for strength and courage, and I prayed to the Gods of old for any added blessing with the spell.
Nothing fucking happened.
I opened my eyes and shook my head, only to find myself glowing with an iridescent blue hue that I’d seen once before—on Danu, when she’d been pissed.
“Shit,” I yipped as I felt the intense power flowing through me. “Not sure I’m in control here. You guys…should probably back up,” I whispered. I turned, aimed my hand at the portal, and power shot from my hand and through the portal, hitting a building that began to crumble as the beam of power hit it. “Not good,” I groaned, pulling the magic back to me, watching as the world seemed to hit rewind and the building went back to the way it was, stone by stone, until it was in the condition it was in before I’d screwed it up.
“Gods,” Ryder whispered, “did you see that?” he asked of no one in particular, and I turned to look at him.
“Yeah, I saw it, but I’m not sure I believe it,” Zahruk replied.
“Flower, aim your hands at the edges of the portal and try it again,” Ristan directed.
I turned and aimed my hands at the portal and let the power loose from my fingertips, and sound echoed through me, right before we were all thrown backwards by an invisible power shift. I turned and glared at the portal, gasping as it grew in size. As we watched it almost tripled in size until it was the length of a football field.
“Just great,” I mumbled. “I broke Faery.”
“You didn’t break it,” Zahruk offered in my defense, trying to ease my guilt. “If the Horde discovers there’s a way out…”
“They already know,” I interrupted. “They have to; it’s the only thing that explains the reports we have been getting of Horde creatures wreaking havoc in Tèrra. I just don’t understand why the portals would be continuing to grow. What if they found a spell or way to eradicate the very fiber of Faery and take away the thin veil between the worlds? Ristan told us he’d seen a new portal that wasn’t a part of this world before; what if more than the two you know of are opening up and spreading like this one?”
“If they are, we haven’t found them yet,” Zahruk gritted out. “Last week we did a portal check to see if any had been opened by magic not linked to Faery; there was nothing. When we did our weekly check this morning, we found this one and the other one both wide open—and yet there was no trace of magic or taint of the Mages. We tried a few things to close them but nothing worked. The more we tried to close them, the larger they grew. We wanted to exhaust all options before we brought it to you, but with the rate they’re growing, we couldn’t wait any longer.” Zahruk frowned, worried as much as I was about what these portals could mean to both worlds.
“You were aware of this hours ago and yet you’re just telling me now?” Ryder demanded.
“We wanted you to have at least a little time together before we brought another problem to you. We exhausted every idea we could think of before dragging you out to see this.” Zahruk shrugged his shoulders and exhaled a helpless sigh of frustration.
“We can cancel the wedding; at least until we can figure this out,” I mumbled. “Faery comes first.”
“We’re not cancelling the wedding,” Ryder growled. “That is not an option. It gives the people hope. We can manage this. Don’t argue with me,” he added quickly when I opened my mouth to do just that.
“We could do it right now. We could gather everyone today and just say our vows,” I offered. I knew he wouldn’t do it. Madisyn had been looking forward to it, and Ryder wanted me to have the big wedding that would make a statement to all of the Fae Castes. I also wondered if some of the pressure for this whole lavish wedding thing was what he was raised with. Normally, in their world, royal weddings were never for love; typically, they were for political gain and had to be grand affairs. Oh, he said all the appropriate things, like he wanted to give me a wedding that I always wanted—or what he thought I wanted—and I loved him for it, but this was our world. I didn’t need some big ceremony to know he was mine, or to prove that I loved him. I just did, and it was as simple as that. I’d be fine saying our vows barefoot in a meadow, as long as he was beside me.
“I’m giving you a wedding, one to rival the history books. I promised both of your mothers that I would do this properly, and we are doing it. We’ve been through worse shit together,” he whispered. He leaned down and kissed my cheek. “I’m marrying you properly, and I am getting that honeymoon. When the wedding is over, no one will question your position, or which world you belong to anymore.”
I raised a brow and frowned. “Someone has?”
“A lot have; most don’t think you’re truly a Goddess. A few have already been dealt with,” Ryder announced.
“You killed them for questioning me?”
“I’ve killed for a hell of a lot less, Pet,” he smirked. “Besides, if I let them live after bad mouthing my queen, others would do so as well. I can’t show weakness—this is the Horde. The Horde is ruled by strength and fear.”
“You know if you kill them, more will just come forward with a worse theory or opinion,” I stated, and he smiled coldly.
“Let them,” he grinned.
“Fine, we will do the damn wedding. We have too much to do, and all at the same time. We need to start rebuilding the Guild. We need to get teachers in place and a strong group inside of it to protect it from anyone who challenges our right to lead it. We fix this mess with the portals—and once we do all that, we hunt Faolán down like a fucking dog, agreed?” My eyes locked with his in silent battle; a subtle nod was the only agreement he gave.
“Fucking bloodthirsty wench,” he whispered as he narrowed his eyes on my lips. “I love it when you talk like that. Reminds me of the saucy little Witch who walked into the Dark Fortress and shook my fucking world like a snow globe.”
“You know what a snow globe is, but you don’t know who Elvis is?” I laughed.
“We need to get back to the Castle and figure out what to do about posting more guards at the portals. If any humans get in, this world would consume them before we were even aware they were here,” he affirmed as he watched me, ignoring my Elvis dig.
“I’ll try seeing if Danu will answer my call,” I said, turning to look at Spokane through the portal that continued to widen as I watched it. “We’re going to need a lot of help if it continues to grow like this.”
“If it continues at the rate it is, Faery and Tèrra will be one world before we even have a chance to stop it.”