years trying to fix the flaw in her creation and failed. She thought it was impossible, but you succeeded through love. It is truly amazing.” Reaching out, Destiny ran her hand over Ryder’s wings while we all stared at her.
“Yeah, I don’t think Ryder agrees with you. He’s sorta pissed off, in case you didn’t notice from the glares he is giving us.”
“He is unused to it, but he’ll get over it in time.”
“The beast isn’t speaking to me anymore,” Ryder snapped.
“Of course, he’s not. The beast is no longer a separate part of you. You’ve merged, and now you’re what the Horde King was always supposed to be: the Beast of Men. You no longer hold him; you’ve become one with him. You still have all the abilities of the beast, but you don’t have to fight him for control. He allowed Synthia to merge you into one being. You are the perfect killing machine now, as Danu had always intended. You can’t hear the beast because his thoughts are now yours. Danu created each breed of the horde to house their monster on the outside, Ryder. Yours, however, was flawed until now.”
Closing his eyes, Ryder growled as he shook his head and lowered it. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“No, but here’s the reality of what would happen, Ryder,” Destiny shot back at him. “Synthia was created to be your balance, and your anchor to keep the beast sated, but eventually he would’ve wanted more. His sole purpose was to breed and kill, and yours was to survive so that he could live. Why do you think Alazander had thousands of children? It wasn’t because he craved them. It was because his beast would never stop.
“I’m not saying Alazander wasn’t a murderous bastard, but he also was maddened by the beast within him. So, he killed and he fucked, but now man controls the beast and his urges. Luckily, Alazander died before he could give Danu a child of her own, and she created you instead. It may take you time to come to terms with the changes, Ryder, but consider this: Had your beast not accepted Synthia’s magic or wanted to be one with its host, it wouldn’t have happened, no matter how hard she tried. He’d have torn Synthia apart to prevent the transformation, and she doesn’t have a scratch on her. The beast didn’t fight your wife, so why are you?”
Ryder looked at Destiny, then to me, his face red with anger as he clenched his jaw. “I’m preparing for war, and I don’t have time to figure out how to control the beast again.”
“Put your wings away, Ryder. Just like you would the beast,” Destiny instructed, and he glared at me, damning me for something I had little control over. His wings twitched before they vanished, only to reappear again. He did it several times before narrowing his eyes on Destiny. “You are the beast. You have nothing to learn. You’ve spent every moment since he was gifted to you learning to control him. You need to stop thinking that Synthia cursed you, because she didn’t.
“She anchored your fucking beast to your soul, and by adding a sliver of hers, she gave you what Danu would never give to Alazander. Synthia,” she said, turning to look at me, forcing my gaze away from Ryder’s anger. “Don’t be ashamed of what you did for Ryder. You had no more control over it than he did. Your love for him, pure and untainted, offered him what no one else could. Your soul chose him and found him worthy of housing a piece of you. That type of love is endless.”
“Like what Erie gave to Callaghan? Because that didn’t work out well for them,” Ryder countered, still glaring at me.
“Yes, just like that, so if either of you dies, when your souls are reborn, you would find one another again, and love each other. Erie, however, was brought back differently, by force, creating an entirely different situation. I don’t think you should use Erie as an example because she’s psychotic. There’s nothing normal about her.”