the tops, making them impossible to climb. It looked like something out of a horror movie, pulsing with a dark power that itched to drink blood.
“When did you discover that ability, Pet?” Ryder’s wide eyes took in the massive walls and deadly thorns, smiling.
“Just now,” I said. “They are safe and within the walls. They can set up camps below, and we will deal with them when we finish mourning. I need a drink, and then I need you alone for a while.”
“I hope that includes us naked,” Ryder grinned, and I turned, finding Spyder watching me, wiggling his brows.
“Hey, not judging. You get that dick, girl. You earned it. You also put a ring on it.”
“I didn’t put a ring on his cock,” I frowned.
“You should. It will make that shit last longer. Not if it’s a vibrating ring though, that shit ruins everything.”
“Nod, smile, and walk by him. He is very immature. He’s Spyder. His entire world revolves around his dick.” Lucian smiled, turning away and vanishing from sight without as much as a ripple of power disturbing the air.
“He’s not Batman,” Spyder announced offhandedly, wiggling his brows. “He’s Papa Smurf, and I’m Brainy.”
“These are the guys that are supposed to keep us safe?” I whispered to Ryder.
“I’m not calling him Big Papa,” Ryder said, cracking a smile.
“There it is,” Spyder chuckled. “We have lost people, and it fucking hurts. The pain seeks to destroy you from the inside out. Don’t let it control you. Channel it. Use it. As Danu said, ‘Anger is good, wrath is better, but rage, rage is fucking beautiful destruction.’ Winning a war is empty as fuck, trust me. We’ve fought a lot of them and never lost. Winning isn’t some glorious fucking thing where you get a trophy at the end.” He exhaled, shaking his head as his dark eyes held mine.
“You get fucking graves, and those deaths follow you everywhere.
“This war isn’t about winning. It’s about saving a world, and that shit isn’t ever easy. Not to mention your mother, God love her tits, but she was a selfish bitch. Danu centered her entire world around her husband. Everything and everyone else that didn’t fit into her world could fuck off or die for all she cared. Keep that in mind, Synthia. She wasn’t lying about what she told you today.”
“And what did she tell you?” Ryder asked carefully.
“That is what I wanted to speak to you about, without ears around us. Preferably after you’ve had your way with me, Fairy.”
“You two kids have fun,” Spyder chuckled, walking away.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ryder stood silently, staring out the balcony window at the funeral pyres that continued to burn long into the night. My heart ached for him, knowing he’d lost three of his brothers in one night. Brothers he had grown up with, protecting them long before I’d ever been created.
He was in pain I couldn’t fix or ease, and that knowledge wrapped around my heart, clenching it hard. It was deep-seated grief tearing him apart from the depths of his soul. He’d walked into the tower and froze, unable to move from the grisly sight awaiting him. I wanted to take the pain away, and yet I knew I couldn’t. No one could erase or lessen his sorrow.
Nothing touched the grief we felt. No amount of alcohol could numb it to a dull ache. It was a soul-deep, earth-altering sorrow that echoed through our souls, imprinting them with a darkness that held its hand upon our throats. We would survive this, but would we want to?
“I love you,” I whispered to the beast, hiding silent agony from within the dark shadows of our bedroom as he watched his men mourning their families below. “I will love you forever, Ryder.” I removed the necklace holding my mother’s essence from my throat. She’d given it to me upon her death visage before I’d left to marry my beast. I’d worn it ever since, refusing to remove it no matter where I