Escaping Destiny (27 page)

“You really think he’d wait for your opinion
if you were hurt? He’s unstable when it comes to you.”

“Unstable?” I asked as I swung the blade
again, severing yet another head. I looked at the blade, and then
at Ristan. “These blades are wicked,” I mumbled as I watched him
take out three zombies as easily as I had taken out the one. I
looked around the dark green grass, to where the zombies were now
all littered upon the ground.

“Well, that was educational,” Ristan said, as
he wiped his blade on one of the pirate’s jerkin. “Goddesses,
Pirates, and Zombies, oh my!” he joked with a smile twisting his
lips.

“The Zombies were the pirates.” I smirked and
took his lead in wiping off my own blade. The blood from the
pirates was black, and just not natural. “These beings don’t belong
to Faery. Look at this,” I said, reaching down to grab the pouch
one of the zombies had tied to his belt. The pouch contained
Spanish gold. “These are actual pirates,” I said in confusion.

“Come,” Ristan replied, pulling me up to my
feet from where I’d kneeled beside the pirate.

“You having to help me up is really getting
old, really fast,” I complained.

“I don’t mind,” he replied, and we both
stopped cold as another fork presented itself. The bushes parted to
open up into a three way junction once again. “More riddles.”

“Let’s hope there are fewer bullets on this
one.”

“Agreed,” he said as he bent low to retrieve
the message. “Take the path for which you seek, but keep in mind,
not all will take you to what you need. Illusions abound, tempt and
deceive, and while men covet that which holds great beauty,
humility is often the key to the King’s needs.”

“Well that’s about a cluster hump of dumb
luck,” I replied, smiling. “But seriously, that’s crap. I hate
illusions,” I complained out loud.

We walked through the maze for at least
another hour that was slow and go, due to the pathway being lined
with landmines for at least a quarter of a mile. I guess if the
ancient Chinese could rig these nasty toys, so could the Fae.

The maze finally ended in a square area that
had many different items placed on pillars that had been made from
the same shrubbery that formed the maze. Most of them shimmered,
while others seemed more corporal. We’d arrived at the illusions
for which the vellum spoke of.

They were all cauldrons. Ryder and his men
didn’t know which relic it was—the scroll just spoke to one of the
legendary Fae treasures being hidden here, and as I scanned the
cauldrons, I realized it was the fabled Dagda’s Cauldron. The
stories said it was bottomless and no man was ever unsatisfied. The
irony wasn’t lost on me that the maze only allowed someone who was
once a witch and her bodyguard to go for a cauldron. Brilliant.

“We have to choose?”

“Very carefully,” Danu said, as she appeared
in front of us from nowhere. “Choose wisely, for you only get once
chance. If you choose poorly, the maze will start over and someone
who awaits you outside will pay the price with their life.”

I stared at her, seriously wanting to kick
her ass, or have Ristan do it. Those choices sucked about as much
as Indiana Jones uber fast-aging, head-exploding poor choices.

I scanned the selection and looked back to
Ristan, who was once again staring at Danu with a mixture of love
and resentment. I ignored them both and searched through the
relics, for the one true one.

Most were made out of gold; one had even been
made out of wood. There was one in which my eye kept going back to,
but it was made from platinum and iron. They were all round in
shape, and looked like bowls or basins.

“Which will you choose, child?” Danu asked,
as she walked over to me. “The gold is beautiful, is it not?”

“It is, but the Fae have never really put a
lot of stock in metals. The platinum would be the smarter choice,
but again, it’s made of metal. No, the Fae of old kept their relics
hidden in ancient settings. They were arrogant as a people, and
sparkly, shiny things didn’t really sway them; they were typically
into natural things. The staff was made from oak, and it wasn’t
until Ryder held it, that anything happened and it transformed into
its true shape and it was beautiful.” I looked around and found the
wooden bowl, which was battered, but still intricate in the
carvings that spanned the base. It was made of oak like the staff,
and the Fae loved oak.

It had too much fine detail, but beside it a
few feet away was a rough, hand carved stone basin. The side was
cracked, but it was natural, and even though it was plain in looks,
it was still beautiful. “This one,” I said.

“It’s broken, Synthia,” Ristan hissed beside
me.

“It is, but so is this world and it’s still
beautiful. Like this bowl, it’s cracked and needs to be fixed. In
the right hands, it’ll become beautiful and whole again.”

“You choose wisely,” Danu said as she picked
up the bowl, and it changed into a beautifully chiseled work of
art. She handed it to Ristan carefully and turned to me. “You were
the right choice for the Queen of Faery, Synthia. You see beyond
the beauty of something, and into its heart. Keep to the path I
have set, accept me, and you will be able to save your unborn
babes. Stray and everything will be lost,” she said as her ice blue
eyes slid down to my belly.

“Let yourself be free here, Synthia. Find
something worth fighting for, and those powers will come forth once
you have embraced me and all that Faery has to offer. You have to
trust what you are, and what you want the most, to find who you
truly are.”

And with that she disappeared, and I felt a
weightlessness come over me. I screamed as the feeling of falling
took hold of my body and mind, and then I crashed against something
hard, and warm. I inhaled and looked into perfect golden eyes.

Danu was wrong. I knew what I wanted, and I
was already willing to fight for him.

“Synthia,” Ryder growled from low in his
chest and pulled me against him tightly. He pushed me away a second
later and was undoing the Demons field dressing, and checking the
graze.

“It’s only a flesh wound.”

“So I heard,” he replied and crushed his lips
against mine.

Yes, I had found something worth fighting
for. I was going to fight to keep the elusive Horde King as my own.
Every beauty needed a beast, and he was mine.

*~*Ryder*~*

She smiles, unaware of how close she and
Ristan had come to death. I sifted the entire party of warriors
back to the Horde Kingdom within seconds of her landing in front of
me. Taking no chances that the enemies who had been trying to creep
into camp, could lay eyes on my beautiful woman.

She’s a weakness within me that I can’t
explain. Her body grows ripe with my babes planted firmly within
her. Never has a woman been more beautiful to me. The subtle change
is there for the world to see, for Adrian to see.

Her breasts ripen as her once slim abdomen
grows round. It’s there, even though she’s only a little way into
the pregnancy. Twins. Only my warrior queen could gift the Horde
with the blessing of twin heirs. I should have known nothing with
Synthia would be done in half measure.

“You should get some rest,” I tell her, and
watch as those beautiful eyes swing around to smile at me. She
hates that I demand it, and I’m learning with her. “Lay with me,
Pet. I’m in need of you.”

She smiles, and that wicked little twinkle
enters her vivid eyes. I reach out, and pull her against me. She
moans. My dick jumps at the noise; such musical sounds she makes
when I’m fucking her deep and hard with my cock.

“I thought I lost you,” she whispers, and I
tremble at the force her words have on me. She watched Ristan fight
an image of me.

“Never,” I assure her. “I’ll never leave
you.”

Never will I concede to death when she’s in
my grasp. This beautiful creature is my match. She’s burrowed her
way into my heart, and into my soul. Finding out she was mine, and
was the one I’d been searching for in the Human world, was
intoxicating. Watching her at my feet as she was given to me was
the most exquisite feeling in the world.

I run my hand over her swollen abdomen
slowly. Knowing my children were safe within her was exhilarating,
and yet scared me. I could lose them all, if the fates are cruel.
Ristan has seen her with our son, but he hasn’t seen the other
child. Nothing yet, anyway, and it bothers me to even comprehend
what it could mean. The possibilities scare me, and nothing scares
me but the idea of losing her. It fucking knocks the wind from my
lungs.

“How do you feel?” I ask, as I eye her
bandage from where the bullet grazed her flesh. I place my hand
over the strip and send a shot of power through her wound, helping
her flesh to speed her healing time. I’d never been so fucking out
of my mind as I was when she’d been inside that maze. Unable to see
what was happening, what she was seeing. It was beyond torture
leaving her in the hands of another, to depend on them for her
survival.

“Good, and hungry,” she whispers, so quietly
that I pull her closer and run my hard, throbbing erection over her
ass.

“That word has never sounded so good, as it
does from your lips.”

“Is that so?” she asks, and my cock jumps for
her. She grins as her face turns toward me. I fucking love this,
her in my bed. She’s finally in my world, without secrets between
us. She stretches like a cat, pushing her perfect ass against my
cock.

“You keep pushing that at me, and I’ll fuck
it,” I growl heatedly into her ear. When she grins wider, I growl
louder. She doesn’t know how fucking tempted I am to fuck her, hard
and deep.

“You wouldn’t dare.” She cries as I thrust
the growing erection harder against her pert ass. I’ve had her
every way possible, but it was in Transition, and she wasn’t aware
of what was happening.

“I would,” I warn her, with the beast purring
like a kitten with what he knows is coming. “I would take anything
you give me, and more.”

“Is that so?” She hikes a blonde brow high on
her forehead, and I turn her over until I’m leaning against her
gentle curves with both arms pinning her body between me and the
mattress. I smile down at her, and lean in to steal her lips.

She moans against my mouth, and I curse—fuck,
she undoes me. Those sweet little noises when I fuck her, the way
she takes me without a care that I am part beast, part man. She
took the beast between her thighs, and fucked him as if he were me.
Without question, she allowed him inside her body and made him come
like some untried youth.

I pull back and lick my lips, enjoying the
exquisite taste that is hers. Peace is a fleeting thing between us,
and I intend to enjoy it while it lasts. I remove our clothes with
a single thought and take in her sweet womanly curves.

Pregnancy suits her; her body is glowing with
radiance from within. Her pink nipples have darkened to rose tipped
twin peaks. I lower my mouth and suckle one greedily. I suck
harder, flicking it with my tongue as my lips clasp against it. I
enjoy the hiss of air that escapes her lips.

She spreads her legs, but I’m not giving in
to the seductive temptation to take her hard and fast. Slow and
steady this time. I plan to fuck her until she’s sore from it. I
bring my hands out and spread her wide. At the same time, I draw my
magic around us and kiss her with a million soft well placed
targeted lips. It’s good to be king right now, good to have the
ability to become more than one man.

I attack the other breast with the same
assault, licking and flicking her tight budded nipple as it hardens
between my lips. I inhale the smell of her pussy at it grows moist
with need.
Not yet
, I tell myself. I pull away and catch her
hands as she brings them up to grab my erection. If she starts to
touch, I will lose control.

I’d bend her over and fuck her as hard as I
could, but she needs gentle right now, so I move slowly against
her, waiting for her to be ready, for me. She needs to know I need
her in my world. I was raised to hide feelings, and she makes me
feel too much. It’s hard to control the urge to spill it out, like
some besotted fool.

I pin her hands on the gentle curve of her
blossoming belly. She glares, but it is short lived as I send my
magic to her sweet petals that even now grow moist with need. I use
my free hand to part her flesh, and impale her with a single digit.
“You’re so wet,” I say, and watch as she moves her slim hips to
push my finger in further. “What do you want?” I want to hear it
from her lips, the thought of her begging for me to fuck her is
wild.

“You, Ryder, I need you,” she cries as heat
flushes her supple body and her pussy sucks against my finger.

“Not yet,” I say. I send my magic slithering
across her naked flesh, kissing, licking it until her pussy
tightens against my finger, milking it. I lower my head until her
pink flesh is slick against my mouth, and then I feed on her sweet
pussy like a starving man at a banquet who can’t get enough.

She cries out, and I lick her harder while
adding another finger, and then another. I send more magic into her
body. Her nipples harden as I watch the magic take over where my
mouth has just been. Her legs fall apart, opening to allow me more
room to make this sweet flesh purr with pleasure.

I growl my approval, as she moves her sweet
hips, thrusting me further inside her sweet treasure. I remove my
mouth and replace it with magic. I get to my knees between her
thighs and watch as she is fucked by a single thought from my mind.
“Good girl,” I growl as I grab my cock and stroke it hard.

She rocks my fucking world with those sweet
fucking noises she gives and the seductive look in her expressive
eyes as she relinquishes her control, to my full domination. I
relish that she allows me to take full control of her mind and
body. I can smell her orgasm hanging just out of reach, and I keep
it there. I pull the magic away every time she gets close. Every
time I feel her going over, I pull it back and watch as her eyes
glow with hunger, and heated with pent up lust. I remove my fingers
and let my magic cock fill her sweet pussy until it can take no
more.