No one moved. No one said a word. Lex took just a mere step into her and their eyes never strayed or even blinked. It appeared Adele was in some sort of trance and she started becoming more relaxed while her hand moved towards him like she was going to gently stroke his face. He seemed like he was letting her but then he let out a quick breath with his nose in Adele’s face and she passed out on the ground.
“Adele!” Zayden rushed to her, propping her up in his lap but she was unresponsive. “How was that helping?”
“She’ll be fine.” Trever assured him. “He did you a favor.”
“How?” Zayden’s voice was of a confused anger and he had a right to be but I knew she was still alive.
“He took away her pain.”
Zayden’s brow softened and he looked down at Adele’s peaceful face. “Really?”
“She just needs to sleep it off. I didn’t want her to be this way for a reason. That’s why we didn’t tell her. We couldn’t.”
“Does my mother—”
“No worries. She knows but you’ll see a completely different reaction from her when you see her, I think.”
Zayden nodded his head in agreement and looked back down at Adele in his arms.
“Is she really going to be fine?” Ruby asked.
“She’ll know what happened if that’s what you’re really asking me but she’ll know she won’t have to be sad about it anymore.”
“Why didn’t you just do that to begin with?” Troy asked.
Trever laughed and shared a glance with Aleksander. “That’s a little harder to explain.”
“And something we shouldn’t just yet.” Aleksander added.
“Thank you.”
“Well, what’s taking so long?” Ruby asked, getting annoyed. “Are we just going to stand here?”
“It takes some patients to bring back someone alive. You think he’s going to be willing? Doubt it.”
“I just don’t like waiting.”
“I know.”
We stood through a pause and I just couldn’t keep this in. I cupped my hands together in front of my chest and took a small step towards Trever. “I know this is going to sound a little weird but—can I pet him?”
Lex looked up at Trever quickly and stepped back, sitting himself down slightly back to Trever’s left.
“He’s not a pet, Jay. He’s an ancient symbol of prestige and discipline to our country.”
“I know but he’s just so cute and you got to so I want to!”
Trever sighed and looked down at Lex who was looking up at him. “Better let her. She’s awfully persistent.”
Lex huffed with a heavy breath from his nose and started coming over to me.
“Easy, Lex.” Trever smiled, watching him walked steadily.
I waited, trying to hold in my excitement as Lex approached and he just sat in front of me. His eyes were like shimmering gold as he looked up at me, patiently waiting for me to make the next move I suppose.
“Is he even going to let me touch him?”
“He’d never hurt you, Jay. You’re part of something he’s entrusted to protect.”
“Yeah, let’s not talk about that.” I brought my hand to Lex’s head and felt the soft plush fur of his black mane.
“Good. We won’t.”
I mostly didn’t because I didn’t want to talk about how I wasn’t supposed to be with Troy. It was wrong. I love him and we belong together.
Lex perked his head up towards the wall and I looked after him while Rouge came around the corner, pulling a man along with him by the meaty flesh of his thigh. Pain was obvious on his face and the low moaning sounds of his voice made it seem he was weak from blood loss.
“Zayden will take it from here, Rouge. Thank you.” Trever said. Rouge released the man’s leg from his jaws and walked over to Trever.
“I’ve got her, Zayden.” Aleksander said, supporting Adele for him so he could get up.
His eyes were on the terrified spy on the ground and he stood over him, shadowing his face with a look of hatred on his own. “Who ordered this?”
His voice was deep and direct, making the spy quiver on the ground while trying to bow his head. “Your majesty. Please.”
“Who ordered this?” Zayden demanded again, not interested in hearing anything else.
The spy took a shuttering breath, fearing for his life as he looked up at Zayden. “Forgive me, your majesty. I didn’t want it to come to this but Lamar threatened the life of my family and so I had no choice.”
“Lamar did this?”
“Everyone knows how much he hates you, your majesty. Everyone except your father.”
“But it’s my father who would want us to return home.”
“Yes. The King gave orders to the raiders, your majesty but it is Lamar who called upon the spies to make sure that you never reached the city. At least alive.”
Zayden stood angry and I’m sure he was thinking about what to do next. This was proof that Lamar was the one trying to kill him and I’m sure he was ready to confront it. “Jaylyn, heal this man’s wounds. He needs to get back to the city before us and hide there.”
I nodded and went right over, touching the torn skin on his leg. He didn’t seem to notice me at all or what I was doing while he had his attention fully on Zayden. “Hide? But why?”
“I will find you when it’s time to unmask Lamar’s true self to my father. He needs to know this. It’s either me or him this time and we all know who it’s going to be.”
“But, your majesty, my family. If he finds out that I failed, he’ll kill them.”
Zayden paused and Troy stepped up to his side. “Get to them first and take them to Third Street to the old Cappel house. There will be a woman there. Tell her I sent you and she’ll hide you and your family there for as long as you need.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
Troy nodded and Zayden took the reins of his horse, bringing it over while the spy was able to return to his feet. “Here. Go. We’ll send for you and it will be someone from this group so remember faces.”
He nodded and got up on the horse. Zayden made sure everything was secure and he sent the horse off towards the city. We watched him for a second and I approached Troy, speaking quietly as I took his arm in mine. “That was nice of you.”
“I know she’ll help but that changes nothing with us.”
“Well, great.” Trever said. “Doesn’t it feel good to know who’s been wanting to kill you?”
“Not really.” Zayden replied. “I already knew. He’d just never try it himself.”
“Not the type. Right. Well, that’ll be all, Lex, Rouge. You can go now.”
“No, Trever!” I begged. “I want to keep them!”
“We’ve talked about this. They’re not pets, Jay. They can’t stay here. It’s been too long already.”
“Trever—” Aleksander said with widening eyes. “Please don’t—”
“I’ve got it under control.”
“You don’t know that. When?”
“It won’t be now. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Well, we can’t take that risk. Besides, Adele can’t go into the city like this. When will she wake up?”
“When she’s ready, I guess.”
“Then maybe we should think about settling for a night or two to get back on track.”
Zayden nodded to the idea as he looked down at Adele. “You’re probably right but we shall need a proper place to re-energize.”
“Where do you suggest way out here? She can’t make one for us.”
“I know of a place.” Zayden curiously glanced over at Darius.
He instantly figured out something and stepped forward. “Zayden, no. We’re not taking them there.”
“Why not?”
“Because—” Darius pulled Zayden aside but none of us could hear what he was saying or at least I couldn’t. All I knew is that it was about some place that Darius seemed very agitated in taking us but I knew Zayden. He did
exactly what I thought he would do; overrule his decision to think about the rest of us.
Darius sighed again and clearly still didn’t want to as they walked back to us.
“Is everything all right?” Ruby asked.
“Perfect.” Zayden answered. “Like I said, we know of a place so we better get going. It’s northeast from here.”
“So, everything is fine then?” Aleksander asked.
“Yeah.” Darius replied. “We better get going before we lose light.”
“Okay.”
“Darius, hand her to me.” Zayden got up on Adele’s horse and Darius took Adele easily from Aleksander and put her up on the horse. “Let’s go. Rift, come on.”
The pup scampered off beside him while we got up on our horses and Trever turned his eyes down to Lex and Rouge still sitting obedient at his side. “You too.”
The lions looked at each other and slowly started to dissolve back into the golden flakes.
“Trever—” I groaned. I didn’t want them to go. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t stay.
“Don’t worry, Jay. Don’t think of it as dying. They died thousands of years ago.” It lifted off the ground in the same manner it fell and put itself back inside the vial Trever wore around his neck. “See? They’re always with us.”
It wasn’t good enough but I accepted it and took the reins of Ryon’s horse while Zayden led us off the road into the trees.
I had no idea where we were being taken but trusted them enough to know it would be a safe place where we could be housed for a couple of nights if needed.
We only walked through the trees for about a mile but it was slow due to the terrain and the sun was going down by the time we reached our destination with enough light to see.
“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked when we stopped to what looked like still the middle of nowhere.
“Just warning everyone.” Darius said.
“Warning us? Of?”
“The only rule. Don’t break anything.”
Trever laughed. “And if something does break? Are you going to kill us?”
Darius just glared over at him and Zayden answered for him to ease passed the tension. “Actually, the house will do it for him because it’s mostly made of glass.”
They turned back around and brought us around the hillside so we were insight of a beautiful manor. It was huge with the whole front side enclosed with glass.
“What is this place?” Ruby asked.
“It’s mine.” Darius said.
“You lived here?”
“Lived here? No. This was my family’s summer home. We’d only use it a few weeks a year for private soirees and such.”
“And by private, he means anyone bearing breasts has attended.” Trever joked. Darius’s eyes narrowed. “Well, it’s true.”
“Quit acting like you know us.”
“We watched you grow up. There isn’t a thing we don’t know.”
Darius’s eyes narrowed even more and Zayden cut in to it with the plan. “We’ll settle our horses in the stables and see how long we should wait this out. Probably not exactly when Adele wakes up. We’ll have to see how she feels.”
“That’s probably best.” Aleksander replied.
We headed into the stables around the side without another word and readied our horses for an unknown period of resting. It seemed we all waited for everyone to finish before attempting to go inside.
“Hey.” I said, looking back at Trever who was standing at the entrance of the stables, looking south. “Are you coming?”
“Ah—no. I’m just going to stay out here for a while.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, Jay. Just go in. You’ll see me later. I’m not going anywhere.”
I knew why he wanted to be alone and walked to the door without saying another word to him. I didn’t want my time here to be about that and forgot about it completely upon stepping inside. It seemed even larger and the others were sitting on dark burgundy leather couches around the large fireplace in the center of the open space but I noticed one thing missing.
“Where’s Adele?”
“I put her in a room upstairs.” Zayden said. “I’m sure we’ll know when she wakes up.”
“Yeah.” Troy laughed. “She’ll want to know where she is.”
I laughed too and looked straight in front of me when I sat down. Ruby was watching me without a smile from the joke. “Is he—”
“No.” I said quickly so she wouldn’t finish her sentence. “He needs to be alone for a while and could you really blame him?” My eyes started to tear up just from saying it out loud and I pulled my legs up on the couch with my head over my knees. “I’m sorry. I can’t talk about it yet.”
Troy rubbed my back and I heard someone get up.
“Stay inside.” Aleksander went out to tend to him and they began talking in private.
Zayden let out a long breath to start a new conversation while he gently stroked the long white fur of the pup at his feet. “You really think she’ll be fine when she wakes up?”
I lifted my head and looked at Ruby before we both turned our attention on Zayden. I noticed he was quick to get on the subject but he sounded worried like he didn’t believe it could have been possible.
“I don’t know.” Ruby answered. “Ryon meant a lot to her. If she’s going to remember like he said, it’s not just going to go away. At least, I don’t see how it could.”
Zayden sat silent, staring at nothing as Ruby and I looked at each other again for a moment. I didn’t really know if I should continue this conversation but did.
“You shouldn’t be troubled by it. She will get over it. He was a big part of her life. He was always there when she needed someone and she appreciated it.”
Ruby sighed in a sad way and looked at the floor in front of her. “Is it weird that I don’t feel sad about it?”
“Of course not.” Darius answered. “You saw him walking around like he was still alive. If you want to feel something then hate Trever.”
“It wasn’t his fault that Ryon decided to—never mind.”
“Maybe not but the guy’s sick. He didn’t have to bring him back and cause all of this.”
“If he didn’t, Zayden would be dead.” Troy said.
Darius let out a long sigh. He never saw good in anything Trever did and that was okay but he hated talking about it more.
“Okay. Enough.” Zayden cut in. “I’m going to have that over me forever as it is so the least we could do is not talk about it. Rift, stay. I’ll be right back.” He got up and started walking down the hall to the right. The cute pup did exactly what he wanted and stayed where he was.
“Maybe someone should make sure he’s okay.” I said. We looked at each other and there was a pause like no one was sure if they should, even little Rift but I was. “Well, okay. I guess I will.”
I walked back into the bathhouse and my eyes first opened wider from the sight. The whole thing was completely tiled with peach colored tiles from floor to ceiling and it had a huge matching porcelain tub that was the focal point of the room, sitting right in the middle.
Zayden was standing over by one of the sinks just hunched over it and I approached him from behind, touching his shoulder. “Zayden?”
He reacted quickly with his speed and turned around with black eyes. We both seem startled by it and he began to calm down first. “Oh, Jaylyn. It’s you.”
“Are you all right?”
“I guess so.” He sighed, turning back around.
“Doesn’t sound it.”
He sighed again and put his head down. “Ryon took those arrows for me. Even if he was dead, Adele is going to feel grateful for that forever but I don’t know if I should be.”
“Who said you have to be?”
Zayden huffed and looked at me through the mirror with his eyes still black. “He was my brother, Jaylyn and I technically didn’t even find out until he was already dead.”
“Are y
ou feeling regret for that?”
“No!”
His voice was unnecessarily agitated and I stepped up beside him, turning my back to the sinks with a possible solution. “You need to relax.”
“How?”
“How do you think? Look at you. You’re stressed and it’s not going away is it?”
“No.”
“Where would you like to do it then?”
Zayden turned his head to me and his body slowly followed. He seemed unsure about what I was offering but I knew he wanted it. He took a longer breath through his nose and I think he did it in a sense to smell me. “You don’t think it would be weird now after finding out we were supposed to be together?”
“Weird? Of course not. We’re not testing what it would have been like. You’re just going to bite me so you can get rid of that. Now, where would you like to do it?”
“All right. It should only hurt at first. At least, that’s how it’s been for me.”
“It’s okay. I’m used to getting worse pains being inflicted by others just for fun that they can.”
Zayden smiled. “I see but maybe you should look away. It’s probably going to be weird for both of us in the beginning.”
I nodded and closed my eyes, exhaling through my mouth while he gently took my wrist in his hands. “Okay. Go ahead. You shouldn’t be like this when Adele wakes up.”
Zayden brought my arm close to him and it happened quickly.
I flinched for just a second when he initially bit but I kept all sounds of pain quiet while Zayden was sucking on my arm. The pain went away like he said it would but it was replaced with a strange feeling of pleasure. Surely something I’ve never felt before but I didn’t know why I felt it at all.
I couldn’t seem to hold my own anymore and let out a breath similar to that of a moan. I opened my eyes with this odd urge to watch and somehow liked seeing Zayden’s teeth in me and his grip tight around my arm. I brought my free hand over to him and ran my fingers back through his hair with light breaths while biting my lip to keep in my moans.
Zayden’s eyes opened from the touch on his head though and he looked at me, slowly pulling away at the same time as his eyes began to fade.
“If this is the bond Trever was talking about then I think we have a serious problem.”
Raining Light (Fate's Intent Book 5) Page 18
