8. Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Ryder
I t was happening. Maybe not quite as I’d thought it would, but it was happening nonetheless.
Alyssa had claimed Tank as her mate and their bond was solid enough that he’d somehow become a fae king without even being a fae. Talk about a mind fuck.
I could see the fury in Dean as soon as the words had left Rhidian’s lips. He wouldn’t be able to hold himself back from her for too long. Maddox had all but declared her as his when his lion had exploded out of him back at the marsh. In fact, I was the only one who hadn’t made my intentions crystal clear to her.
But it was Dean who had stood at her side as she’d claimed the Court as her own, facing down the men who thought they could take control. And she’d leaned into his touch. She’d accepted his support in a way that had these strangers looking at her in confusion.
What we needed now was privacy, and the second we had it, it was time to lay everything on the table. All the feelings. All the hopes. It was time to make a declaration.
But first, we needed to get through whatever this was. And I was pretty sure I could keep it contained until then, even if the urge to throw my arms around Alyssa and run away with her was becoming more than I could resist.
Our footsteps echoed off the stone of the deserted palace as we followed Rhidian to wherever he’d decided they were going to explain themselves. Alyssa seemed to know where we were heading because I could see the tension slowly building in her the further we moved into the palace.
As we had since we’d reached this place, we clustered closely around her. None of us wanted to stray far, and I caught how Dean and Maddox kept reaching out and trailing a hand across her arms or back as if to reassure themselves she was still there.
Part of me was jealous that they’d found that connection with their animal so easily. They already seemed so different and yet completely the same at the same time. It was more like they’d just become more of what they’d been before rather than any actual change. Even I could feel the animal inside them, and they’d embraced it with open arms.
As usual, I was just lingering in the background. I could feel the wolf. He stalked the depths of me, watching and learning. He hadn’t tried to force his way to the surface like Dean and Maddox’s animals clearly had. Instead, he was content to sit back and wait, watching the events unfurl around us.
When it came to Alyssa, he moved closer to the edges of my mind, but never close enough that I felt like he was pushing me aside. She intrigued him. Whenever Alyssa caught his attention, my mouth watered with a need that wasn’t my own. I wasn’t far behind him, though. I was just as obsessed with the blonde beauty in our midst. It had been like this even before I’d first taken notice of the wolf inside. But his need for her built my own to an impossible level. And if it was this hard to resist for me, I couldn’t even comprehend what Dean and Maddox were currently going through.
Rhidian stepped to a set of doors and gently pushed them open, almost reverently as he cautiously stepped inside. My breath caught in my throat as I followed him through with the others.
The throne gleamed in the dappled sunlight that came through a skylight, slightly obscured by a twisting pattern of vines that had grown over the glass. It looked like it was carved from emeralds as its green glow radiated across the room, tinting everything with the colour of spring.
The confusing thing, though, was the setup of the dais it sat upon. Alyssa hadn’t really talked about her life before she’d fled for the human realm, but I was fairly certain she would have mentioned it if she'd had more than two parents.
Because sitting on that dais, on either side of the gleaming throne, there were four other thrones, each carved from white wood, waiting to be filled.
“What is this?” Fizzle asked, taking to the air as he glided further into the throne room on his wings. “What have you done?”
Rhidian grinned, moving off to the side of the room as he leant against one of the many columns that lined the edges of the room. “I made a few adjustments for our current company.”
“The queen has only one king.” Fizzle sounded pissed and amused at the same time. Unfortunately for him, all it did was piss Alyssa off.
“Are you quite done?” Her voice was low and veiled with the threat of violence. Something about her had changed, and it had Rhidian on edge every time she spoke. Beneath it all, though, I knew she was still the same woman I’d fallen in love with. She just had a bit more bite to her now, like the rest of us.
Rhidian looked at Fizzle before turning back to the rest of us, who’d now come to a stop at the centre of the room. I wanted to push Alyssa gently towards the throne. She’d look glorious sitting upon that seat. She was made for it. But I knew she needed to do this in her own time, and this room held far more than a shiny seat for her. It was filled with the memories she spent a lifetime running from.
“Is my life a joke to you? Is there something about this entire situation that you find amusing?” Her voice cracked at the end, and I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or sorrow. “You’ve both kept things from me, and this is your only chance to put it all out there. I won’t be treated like a child, managed and manipulated into whatever goal it is that you have for me.”
Dean grumbled a low growl and then cleared his throat as if he was trying to cover it up. He’d always been a touchy fucker, but this wolf side of him was just making it more known. And frankly, it was funny as hell. But then he sagged back into my side, and I wrapped an arm around him to keep him with me. He was losing whatever energy he had left. It was impressive that he’d made it this far, really. But I could smell the blood on him, fresh and filled with magic. He needed to rest, which meant we needed to get through this quickly, because there was no way he’d agree to leave Alyssa’s side.
It was also the perfect opportunity to get us alone and in one place so we could talk about the issue that was burning at the centre of my mind.
Was I being an ass for thinking the rest of this didn’t matter as much?
Alyssa was always meant to be more than she was. This was her birthright. We’d faced a lot since we’d come to this place and some of us were still suffering from the injuries they’d sustained. All of us were still reeling from the betrayal of a brother we’d come here to save. We hadn’t even had time to talk about Damon yet.
Just looking at our group, you could see that we were hanging together by a thread. We needed time to regroup. To seek comfort in each other’s arms. Space to figure out our next move and deal with the massive amount that had suddenly landed on our plate.
Rhidian and Fizzle, thankfully, were smart enough not to answer the question Alyssa had asked. There was no right way to do so without pissing her off further.
“What exactly do you want from us?” Tank asked, slowly positioning himself between Alyssa and the two we couldn’t really trust until they’d proved otherwise.
I watched in fascination as thick brown fur rolled across the surface of his skin, disappearing beneath his neck line. Tank was close to shifting, and it should have terrified Rhidian and Fizzle. If it did, they were covering it well.
I felt a nudge from my wolf, not understanding what he was trying to communicate. The tickle at the end of my nose had me inhaling, and I caught the scent of something in the air that I’d never registered before. Breathing again, I filled my lungs and a thought that wasn’t my own registered in my mind. Stress . And it was coming off Rhidian in waves despite his calm exterior.
Squinting my eyes, I focused solely on him. Cataloguing the signs on his body that proved how he really felt. I could see the subtle tremor in his legs as he held himself taut with tension. The sound of his teeth grinding reached my ears and the crack of his knuckles as he fisted his hands beneath his crossed arms.
He was scared.
But the question was, about what?
I didn’t get the impression that Rhidian cared all that much if Tank suddenly shifted into his bear. If the stories were right, this guy could throw fireballs or something. He probably thought his odds against a bear were fairly good. Not to mention that Fizzle was clearly on his side and he’d had no problems restraining us all before.
No, it was something else he feared. Something to do with why we were all here.
“We need you.” Fizzle suddenly sighed, his wings twitching in agitation as he paced, his claws clacking on the stone tiles as he did. “Despite my better judgement, we need you here and we need your support.”
He said nothing else, and I resisted the urge to find something to throw at him. This was the Fizzle I knew. Shady with the details. Only answering exactly the question that was given to him and not offering any of the information you actually needed.
“I’m not playing this game, Fizzle,” Alyssa warned him.
He glared in her direction before rolling his eyes and continuing with his pacing.
“I’m building an army,” Rhidian cut in. “We’re planning to strike back at Arik. Take back the Autumn Court. Then when the people see what we can do and join with us, we’ll take Summer next before turning the full extent of Nymeria on Arik at the Winter Palace.”
Even I wanted to ask him if he was joking. It was so ridiculously impossible that I couldn’t believe he was the one suggesting it. He seemed so straight forward back when we’d first met him. Clearly, he could only help the people of Nymeria within his reach, but he’d at least seemed to appreciate that he had his limits.
But this?
Had he been collecting the beaten and the downtrodden just to mould them into some kind of army? A rag-tag group of the abused against The Endless and whatever else Arik had shoved up his arse? He’d wiped out this entire court in what sounded like a few hours. Since then, he’d been collecting an army from whoever he found that had enough magic for him to deem useable. It would take legions to stand against Arik and even then, I had my doubts.
Alyssa sighed, her gaze moving back to the gleaming throne in front of us. “Of everybody here, I understand more than most wanting to strike back against him. But how big is this army of yours, Rhidian? What training do they have? How do you intend to seize control of an entire court that’s just as dead as this one?”
“It’s not dead.” Rhidian strode forward, only stopping a few steps away from Alyssa when he realised Tank wasn’t backing down. “You’re here. You’re alive and you’ve claimed the throne. You can bring this court back.”
Alyssa’s hand came to Tank’s shoulder, and she squeezed it gently in reassurance as she stepped around him. Dean tensed at my side, and I knew he’d be leaping into her path if he had the strength to do it. Instead, it was as if the strength seeped out of him and he leant even heavier into my side. I knew he was minutes away from passing out. I also wasn’t stupid enough to suggest that he leave. So, I stayed at his side, giving him whatever strength I could so he could stay where he needed to be.
“Rhidian, a court is nothing without its people, and the fae of the Spring Court are long gone and buried. I appreciate that you came here and dealt with whatever was left behind. It couldn’t have been an easy task to lie to rest that many people. But whatever strength the Spring Court may have had was buried with them. I don’t see what I can offer you that can help you win this impossible war.”
There was something she wasn’t saying, and I knew her well enough to know what it was by now—Alyssa had no intention of running away again. She was just trying to save Rhidian and whatever army he thought he’d formed. Alyssa fully intended to take this fight on by herself, or rather by ourselves, because she had to know by now that we’d never leave her side.
A smile crossed Rhidian’s lips, completely in contrast to how I expected him to react, and I wasn’t the only one it put on edge. Dean seemed to rally, and even though he had an iron grip on my shoulder in support, he was firmly on his own two feet again and ready to leap into action if need be.
“It wasn’t me. It wasn’t any of us. When we came back to this place, there was no sign of the people or what had happened here. We looked. I looked for days because I didn’t know if you had died alongside them, but we found no one. The palace, the whole court, it was empty.”
Alyssa opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, but then her jaw clicked shut. What was there to say to that? My horrified brain immediately leapt to Arik. Had he done something with the bodies of the fallen fae? Surely, even he wouldn’t stoop to that level.
“No one came back here for years after. The usual stories circulated about the ghosts in the hallways like they always do. It’s why it became the perfect place for us to hide those who couldn’t afford to be found. But even then, we stuck to the outer town. No one wanted to come into the palace when they knew what had happened here. It was more out of respect than anything else. Until the night the forest moved. It happened so quickly. Nymeria swarmed the outer homes first, the trees consuming all that stood in their path. We retreated to the palace then because we had no choice. Even now, we lose people amongst the trees, but we have no choice but to send people in search of food.” Rhidian looked desperate by the time he finished his explanation and, for the first time since we’d met him, I actually felt like he’d dropped the shield he hid behind and we were finally seeing the genuine Rhidian that lay beneath.
“The guards assumed that when Alyssa claimed the throne that Nymeria would withdraw and the trees would retreat,” Maddox pointed out.
“We all did,” Rhidian admitted. “Some think the forest is a sign that Nymeria has had enough. That it’s wiping the realm clean of the fae to start again with something more deserving of its gifts. This isn’t the only place where the forests are moving, it’s just where it’s the most obvious.”
Alyssa shook her head. Whether it was in denial of what Rhidian was saying or just the whole situation, I didn’t know. But from where I stood, I could see the side of her face, and I knew without the shadow of a doubt that she knew more about what was happening here than she was letting on. She just didn’t trust Rhidian and Fizzle enough to share her thoughts. Which was even more reason why we needed to get some space from them. We all knew how dangerous Nymeria was, and we needed to regroup and fully assess our situation desperately.
“Look, nothing is going to be decided tonight. We’re exhausted and injured. We need time to rest and regroup. Let’s table this for today and meet again in the morning to go over our options,” I suggested.
Dean huffed petulantly, hating that I was pointing out his weakness, but whether he liked it or not, it was the perfect excuse for us to slip away. That he wasn’t fighting me on this was confirmation enough that he knew it, too.
Rhidian looked like he was about to argue. He’d been fighting this war for longer than we had and was desperate for answers now that he had the chance to find some. But, Fizzle, regardless of where his loyalty lay, at least seemed to see the sense in what I was suggesting. “I can show you to your rooms.”
“I think I know the way,” Alyssa snarked as she turned and started to leave. The implication was clear—Fizzle wouldn’t be joining us.
“He means the Royal suite,” Rhidian added quietly behind us. “You belong in the Royal suite now, Alyssa.”
She tensed at the mention of what must have been her parent’s rooms but said nothing as she walked out the doors of the throne room, the four of us trailing after her.
“I don’t like this,” Dean mumbled to me. “I don’t trust them.”
“None of us do. But we have each other. Nothing will get past us. We’ll make sure that she’s safe.”
He hummed in reluctant agreement as I helped him make his way down the corridor to wherever Alyssa was leading us.
“Thank you,” Dean whispered, even quieter still, and he didn’t have to explain for me to know what he meant.
The wolf inside me practically purred at being thanked by the alpha. It was nice to know that we had some use in whatever this group was that was forming around our woman. But it was a thanks that wasn’t needed. I’d gladly lay down my life for any of the people around me. Helping them limp back to safety was nothing compared to that.