I grabbed a handful of her hair, slamming her head into the wall as Ryder watched me. She slid to the floor slowly, and I followed her to the ground. There, I smirked through the tears that filled my gaze.
“You can have him, because I don’t fucking want him anymore,” I whispered thickly. Standing, I glared at Ryder. “You and me, we’re done, asshole.”
“We’re done when I say we are done, Synthia. Go to your room and don’t leave it unless I say otherwise.”
Chapter Fifteen
I surveyed the guard collecting supplies to add to the war wagons. The stronghold was silent tonight. Not a single sound reached me in the tower. I’d warded my room to keep Ryder from entering, or anyone else for that matter. He’d fucked another woman, and that ruined us. Moving the children and hiding them from me had destroyed anything I might have felt for him. He’d tried to enter my room several times this evening, and yet all he’d accomplished was tearing down the entire wall, still unable to gain entrance. I was safely sheltered within the wards, never facing him or acknowledging his presence.
My stomach churned with the uncertainty of my future. The betrayal stung like nothing I had ever felt before, leaving a foul taste in my mouth that hung on the tip of my tongue. Currently, Ryder paced outside of the wards, demanding entrance into the room we’d once shared as I continued to ignore him.
Memories flooded my mind, replaying all the times he’d shown me how much I’d meant to him. Had I missed it? Had there been signs of his cheating that I’d failed to see? There were several nights he hadn’t come to bed, but I’d trusted him. We didn’t have issues with our sex life, none.
The war and the endless planning had made it difficult at times to find a spare moment alone, forcing us to get in a few quick bouts of sex when the opportunity for it arose. I’d always made sure to feed him well, filling him with power so that he was at his strongest. He shouldn’t have needed a feeder.
“Pet, let me in,” he snapped.
“Go to Hell,” I whispered brokenly. Ryder sifted in front of me on the balcony, and I stepped back, moving far enough away that he couldn’t reach me.
“Let me in the room,” he growled, studying me carefully. His hands pushed against the wards, and I watched as he pulled them away, covered in blood. He exhaled, lifting star-filled onyx eyes to mine. “We need to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you. Go tell your dirty little slut whatever urgent matter you need to get off your chest. I’m certain she’ll be a good little whore for her king and listen to whatever you want to say. Me? I don’t care. There’s nothing you can say or do that will fix this situation. I deserved better from you, so did the children.
“You were supposed to be my forever, and now it’s gone. We’re done. The only way you’re keeping me here is by hiding them from me, which you knew. Us? That part was over the moment you chose to fuck someone else. I told you I’d never share you. I don’t care if she was merely a meal, or whatever she was. I hope she was worth it, Ryder.”
I turned away from him, moving to the bed and stripped out of my dress, uncaring that his men inspected me from the rubble of the destroyed wall. I couldn’t care less who watched me strip to my birthday suit and crawl into bed. Every part of me ached with Ryder’s betrayal. I curled into a ball, pulling the blankets around me, closing my lids tight to block out their intrusion.
“Don’t do this, Syn,” he uttered.
“Fuck you, Fairy. You did this. You did this to us,” I said thickly.
“I love you,” he whispered hoarsely.
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have fucked someone else.” I turned to look at the guards, and they were gone. “What’s the matter? Afraid