to the Palace of Lights, not because I didn’t like Asher, but because Faery suns were beginning to set when I had finally finished putting shit in random places to drive Adam mad.
I sifted again, standing in the bushes where I looked down at the Fairy Pools where Ryder stood, gazing into the glowing water. Power radiated from him, and I knew without him peering in my direction that he’d felt me entering the clearing. He turned his head slowly, staring up at me as I watched him.
“Time’s up,” he warned. Cracking his neck, he rolled his shoulders as fire ignited in his amber depths.
“Is it? Didn’t notice the time, Fairy,” I muttered, watching as he prepared to hunt me down like a dog.
“I’m not going to lie and say I won’t enjoy this,” he growled, donning his armor. “I enjoyed hunting you down and claiming you as mine last time. If I wasn’t mistaken by the way you screamed my name as I fucked you, you liked it, too. Not to mention, you didn’t run too hard. I give it an hour before I have you beneath me, woman.”
“The difference is, Ryder, last time you promised me passion. This time, you promise me pain. This time, I plan to run,” I smirked, feeling the air displacing as he gave chase and sifted. “Catch me if you can,” I whispered through the fabric of the world as I appeared in another place, sailing straight for jagged rocks. He appeared above me, watching me fall.
“Synthia,” he snapped, and I vanished seconds before I would have landed on the rocks. “Naughty girl, this should be interesting.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
I appeared inside the Winter Court, shivering as icy cold air bit at my skin. Glamouring on a white snowsuit to stave off the chill, I hid against the snowcaps within the Icelandic mountaintops. Ryder sifted in less than ten feet from me, staring down at the snow before he searched the white, well, everything. His nose lifted in the air, and he turned. I hesitated a moment too long, watching him.
He was a predator hunting down his prey. Obsidian eyes burned with the ambers of fiery flecks as they settled directly on my location. A dangerously wicked smile curved his lips as he tilted his head, growling huskily. The sound of crunching snow made my eyes dip to his dark boots, and I smirked as snow began to fall around us.
“You planning to get fucked in the snow, pretty girl?” he rasped, his heated gaze sliding over the tight suit I wore. His mouth twisted into a grin as if he assumed I was giving up and accepting the inevitable.
“Not at all,” I murmured. I held up my hand while he watched, snapping my fingers as snow slid from the mountains above me. He disappeared, and I vanished the moment he hit the snowbank I’d been leaning against. I pictured water in my mind and smiled as I dropped through the air, freefalling.
I fell into a pool of water, pulling myself out as I looked around the area. Heads turned from creatures I couldn’t identify, all staring at me. I winced as I took in their three eyes and the pale, pasty color of their skin. I sifted again the moment the air grew heavy with power. Ryder could get his jollies off with those things, not me. My body slammed against something squishy as I reappeared. I let out a snort of breath before I pushed off from whatever I had landed on, peering sheepishly down at a very dead redcap, now covered in blood.
“Oops,” I said, turning as Ryder appeared, noting the blood that covered my dress.
“Sloppy.”
“Accidental death by Goddess?” I shrugged, disappearing again. Sloppy was right. I glamoured on a new dress mid-sift and tossed the one old one off the edge of a cliff. I sifted, only to appear a few feet from where I’d dropped the blood-soaked dress.
Ryder sifted in, sniffing the air, then he crouched, staring down the cliff’s impressive drop. I sifted in behind him as he spun around and pushed him off before I followed him over