New Roots (Fate's Intent Book 8)

by Bowles, April

  I kissed his forehead and walked back around the bed, getting in next to him. I kept my distance so I wouldn’t bump him but closed my eyes so I could rest with him.

  Hours passed and I woke from the nap in time to start working on getting down dinner. It was brought to me and I sat on the bed eating it while Troy continued to sleep next to me. I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted to make sure that he was going to be okay.

  Even after I finished and the tray was taken away, I sat in bed with him just watching him sleep. It was hard for me to even look away but I did when the door opened and Zayden and Darius came in, carrying stuff.

  “Is he awake?” Zayden asked.

  “Not yet.”

  “Well, we can start anyway, I guess.” Darius said. “Maybe you should go, Jaylyn.”

  I got defensive and held my place. “No. I’m staying.”

  “Think that’s a good idea?” Zayden asked, setting up everything they’d need next to Troy’s side of the bed.

  “I’m not leaving.” I said again, making it clear that I wouldn’t.

  “Very well. Just keep out of the way.”

  “I will. Where’s your little follower?”

  “Rift? Napping. Long day for all of us.”

  I just nodded and Zayden sat next to Troy on the bed and took his left arm. He used a pair of sheers to cut the bandages and I saw the first cut on his arm. I reacted with a light breath.

  “Jaylyn, watch it.” Darius said. “Do not make me take you out of here.”

  “I won’t. I’m fine. Really.”

  Zayden cleaned the wounds on Troy’s arm and re-wrapped it while he was still sleeping. He was able to get his other arm done too without him waking up but the hard part was coming. “Okay, Jaylyn, I need you to look at me.” I took my eyes off Troy for the first time and met Zayden’s. “This part is going to be worse and he will wake up from the pain. You need to not make it worse by showing your worry.”

  I just nodded again and Zayden put his attention back down on Troy. He took the blankets off his torso so he exposed the bandages and Darius handed him the sheers.

  “Steady, Jaylyn.” Zayden said, bringing the sheers towards the bandages.

  “I’m fine.”

  He cut the bandages on both of Troy’s sides and gently pulled the clean half out from underneath him where he didn’t have his wounds.

  Troy moved around for a moment and Zayden carefully started lifting the rest of the bandages. The change of air directly reaching the wounds caused Troy to wake up with a heavy breath, making Zayden stop.

  I gasped and got closer to him so he wouldn’t act. “Troy, it’s okay. It’s us.”

  “What are you doing in here? I didn’t want you here for this.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “It’s about to get worse.” Zayden said. “You ready?”

  “Like I have a choice. Just do it.”

  Zayden took the bandages off completely and the air probably caused them to sting. I knew that Troy tried his best to hold it in with me right next to him but my sights weren’t necessarily on his pain at the moment. I was looking at his torn up body and my eyes started watering.

  Troy reached for my hand and I was shaking. I wasn’t even blinking. “Darius, take her.”

  “Jaylyn, come on.”

  Darius reached for my arm but I didn’t want to move. “No. I’m fine.”

  “Jaylyn, go with him.” Troy said. “It’s okay.”

  My tears started to fall as Darius was pulling me away. “No, I’m not leaving you!”

  Troy gritted his teeth with pain and spoke through them. “Get her out of here!”

  “Sorry about this, Jaylyn.”

  Darius picked me right up off the bed and forcefully took me towards the door as I screamed. “No! Darius, put me down! Troy!”

  He kept his eyes off me as I was carried out of the room and Darius brought me right into his.

  Ruby was inside. “Jaylyn? What is it?”

  “She saw Troy’s wounds.” Darius brought me over to the bed but I was still crying almost uncontrollably. “Can you watch her and make sure she stays here?”

  “Of course.”

  “It shouldn’t be much longer. Zayden’s cleaning him now. The hard part will be wrapping him up again.”

  “Okay. Go. I’ll calm her down.” She came to me while Darius left and got both arms around me. “Jaylyn, shh. It’s all right.”

  “It’s not all right! Have you seen him?!”

  “Everything will be all right. He can only get better from here. Shh. Try to relax, all right? He wouldn’t want you to be like this.”

  I just kept crying. In all of my years of being around death, even causing it, there was only one time that I saw anything that bad; it was my father and now Troy has the same wounds. It probably would have killed him if I wasn’t there and he could still be at risk. I couldn’t lose thought of it.

  “Jaylyn, shh.” She was still trying to calm me.

  “I can’t. I’ve—I’ve seen him—my father, Ruby. He looked like my father.”

  “It’s okay. He’s not going to die. We would never let that happen and you’re here so it won’t. Here, lay down.” She led me further on the bed and I laid in the middle of it. “Sleep. You’ll feel better when you wake.”

  My eyes closed but my body remained to tremble. I could only hope she was right. I wanted to feel better but I just kept thinking of Troy suffering the same fate as my father and even my dreams weren’t giving me peace.

  Chapter 23

  Darius

  “I need your help now.” Zayden said. “We’ll have to lift him up.”

  “Don’t ask me to help.” Troy muttered through deep breaths. “My muscles are weak. I can’t flex any of them.”

  “That’s all right. I won’t need your help but it’s going to hurt.”

  “Where’d you take Jaylyn?”

  “She’s with Ruby. She’s calming her down.”

  “Good. I’m ready.”

  I nodded and got my hands under Troy’s back, pausing there as I looked at Zayden. Zayden had a bandage ready and nodded. That’s when I got some help with my strength to lift up Troy into a sitting position. He probably felt it worse. His breaths were short and quick but suffered through it while Zayden tried to quickly wrap him up so it was over with.

  As soon as the three bandages were wrapped around him to cover his entire torso, he was laid back down and his breaths got slower and more relaxed. “I like this much better.”

  “You’ll get used to it the more we have to do it.” Zayden said, cleaning up the bloody rags. “We’ll check on them in the morning.”

  Troy was still in pain that all he could do was nod.

  “Get some more rest for a few minutes. We’ve got to get some food in you before you go back to sleep.”

  Troy nodded again and I helped Zayden take the stuff out of the room.

  “I’ll have someone send up his food.” Zayden said. “You can give Jaylyn the okay and get to bed yourself.”

  “On it.” I turned from him and walked right to my room, going inside.

  “Shh!” Ruby whispered.

  Jaylyn was curiously tucked away in the middle of our bed. “Is she asleep?”

  “Yeah, just. She’s going to stay with us tonight.”

  “Where am I supposed to sleep?”

  “There’s room on the other side of her.”

  I looked at Jaylyn and back at Ruby. “That would be weird.”

  “It’s okay, Darius. It’s just for tonight.”

  “Can we at least move her over so I can be by you?”

  “No. She’ll wake up. She needs to sleep. It’s not like I’m asking you to do anything else.”

  “Fine but I was coming in here to tell her she can go to Troy.”

  “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea right now. She was freaking out. She kept mentioning her father and how he looked like him.”

  My eyes widened.
“Oh, shit. Bryce was tortured to death, wasn’t he? I didn’t even think of that.”

  “It’s okay. She’ll be fine. Maybe you should go tell Troy she’ll be staying with us.”

  “Okay. I’ll be right back and we can all get some sleep.”

  Ruby nodded and I walked back to Troy. He was still on the bed where we left him and had his eyes closed.

  “Troy?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Zayden’s having your food sent up but I’m just letting you know that Jaylyn’s staying with me tonight.”

  He opened his eyes. “With you?”

  “Well, and Ruby.” I corrected myself. “She already fell asleep in our bed.”

  “Oh. I thought you meant she didn’t want to see me.”

  “No.” I laughed. “Nothing like that. Ruby is insisting that she stay.”

  “It’s okay. That’s fine. Just don’t touch her or I’ll kill you.”

  “Troy, I would never—”

  “I know but I know her too. I don’t know how long she’ll be able to go when I can’t touch her either.”

  “I think she’ll be fine. She was prepared for the months that were going to pass.”

  “This is different because she knows I’m here.”

  I paused and realized his tone. “You’re worried.”

  “Wouldn’t you be?”

  “You don’t have to worry about Jaylyn. She’d never want to be with anyone else but you.”

  Troy didn’t get the chance to continue this conversation when there was a knock on the door.

  “It’s the food.” I walked to it and opened it, taking a covered tray from a maid. “Thank you.” She lightly bowed her head and I closed the door, bringing the tray over to Troy. “Ready?”

  “Have you ever tried eating while laying down?”

  I just smiled as I set the tray down and stepped closer to him. “All right. Brief pain.”

  Troy nodded and I lifted him up, setting him up against the pillows. He did well to keep the sounds of pain under control and relaxed when he stopped moving. “Thanks.”

  “Sure. Here.” I brought the tray over to his lap and uncovered it for him. “I’ll stay so I can lay you back down.”

  “Okay. That’ll make things easier.”

  I nodded and sat down on the bed while Troy began to eat. He ate half of everything on the tray and downed another strong drink before it became hard to keep his eyes open.

  “I think you’re ready.” I got up and set the tray off to the side. “I’m going to lay you back down now, okay?”

  Troy could only nod because he was so tired and I tried to be extra gentle. I got him laid down and put the blanket up over him so he could sleep.

  “Thank you. Make sure she’s okay.”

  “I will. Don’t worry about her. Just get some sleep.”

  Troy nodded and I left the room, getting back to mine.

  “There you are.” Ruby said, laying in bed on one side of Jaylyn. “Take that long?”

  “I stayed with him while he ate.” I took my boots off and started getting out of most of my clothes. “Has she woken up at all?”

  “Not even a move but I’m ready to sleep now. I was just waiting for you.”

  “You didn’t have to do that. I would have been back.”

  “Well, you are now.” She pulled me down to her and we kissed.

  “Goodnight. I’ll see you in the morning, I guess.”

  She laughed. “I’m going to be right here.”

  “I know but it’s still too far.”

  Ruby smiled as I walked around the bed and got in next to the sleeping Jaylyn. “Goodnight.”

  I awkwardly positioned myself so I wasn’t touching her and tried to get comfortable. “Goodnight.”

  Chapter 24

  Jaylyn

  I woke up from grazing the bare skin of my arm against someone and my eyes popped open, thinking I hurt Troy but instead, I surprisingly saw Darius next to me. I backed up in a hurry and looked around. Ruby wasn’t in the room like I remembered from last night. It was just us and I looked back when Darius started to move. His eyes opened and I was sitting with wide eyes on him.

  “Jaylyn? Are you okay?”

  “Please tell me that we didn’t—you know.”

  Darius sat himself up and looked at the situation I saw and played along with a smile. “You don’t remember? You begged for it. I couldn’t say no.” I didn’t know if it was really a joke or not and I started breathing heavily in a panic until he laughed. “No! Jaylyn, relax! I was kidding! Nothing happened. You just fell asleep here last night and Ruby didn’t want to move you so we ended up sleeping on each side of you.”

  “Oh! Phew! Not that there’s anything wrong with you, it just scared me.”

  “I understand, believe me and Troy knows you’re here so it’s okay.”

  “How is he?”

  Darius shrugged. “Last time I saw him was last night after he ate something.” I got right out of bed and headed for the door. “Jaylyn, wait.”

  He followed down the hall but I entered the room first, eager to see Troy.

  Adele, Ruby and Zayden were in there and just finished changing the bandages.

  “Look at this.” Ruby smiled. “Perfect timing.”

  “Are you okay?” I rushed right over to Troy and wanted my question answered right now.

  “I’m fine.” He smiled. “We were just hoping you didn’t see that again.”

  “I’m over it. I think I got it all out of my system last night.”

  “Well, you can rest for a bit.” Zayden said, picking up some of the old bandages. “Breakfast will be up for both of you soon.”

  “We’ll keep checking in.” Adele said, giving my back a gentle rub.

  “Okay.”

  They left and I still had my full attention on Troy. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I said I’m fine.” He smiled. “And you?”

  “I’m okay. Woke up to a shock this morning but that’s over.”

  “What do you mean? Are you hurt?”

  I laughed to the sound of his worry. “No. I just wasn’t expecting to wake up next to Darius. That was a little weird.”

  “He helped you sleep well I hope.”

  “Not that I can remember. I didn’t even know he was there until I woke up.”

  Troy smiled and grasped my hand just a little tighter. “I know you were there. I allowed it—to an extent.”

  “Don’t worry. That didn’t happen but he didn’t waste any time to pretend that it did. I guess he just couldn’t pass up that joke but now I’m going to be staying with you.”

  “Sure you can really handle it?”

  “I know I can. I said I got passed the shock of it. I just don’t want to be away from you.”

  “I like that but only if you can handle a kiss with me.”

  I paused for a moment and just looked into his eyes. I didn’t want it to hurt him but couldn’t say no to that look. I leaned into him and tried not touching any part of him except his lips with mine. I missed what it was like and Troy brought up his hand to my shoulder, pulling me into him so more of us would touch.

  I let it happen before I realized and pulled away. “No. Stop.”

  “Jaylyn?”

  “I can’t.”

  “It’s just me.”

  “But you’re not you. Not yet and I don’t want to hurt you more. This was my fault to begin with.”

  I started to get out of bed and heard a completely different voice from Troy. “Don’t turn away from me.”

  I spun my head back to him from the strenuous sound and rushed over with a gasp. “Troy!” I pushed him back down before he could fully sit up. “Don’t! You shouldn’t move on your own yet.”

  “Then don’t move away from me.”

  “Breakfast is coming. I was going to get the door.”

  He sighed, resting his head back. “You should have said that.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” I kissed hi
s head. “I would never turn away from you like you were thinking.”

  There was a knock at the door and Troy looked to it. “You going to get that?”

  I smiled and turned from him. I went over to the door and watched Darius take the tray from the maid.

  “What are you doing?”

  “He has to sit up to eat.”

  “Oh, yeah.” I almost forgot and followed him over to the bed and sat on the other side, taking the tray of food from Darius.

  “Ready?”

  “Yeah.” Troy nodded and brought up his arm.

  Darius took it carefully and placed another hand behind Troy’s back, lifting him up. I set all the pillows while he did it and Troy leaned back against them.

  “Good?” I asked.

  “Yeah. It’s fine.”

  “Let someone know when you’re done.” Darius said. “We’re going to get you walking today.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked. “He can barely move as it is.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with his legs. If he doesn’t start using them soon, something could be later.”

  I was still a little worried but Troy took my hand with a reassuring voice. “It’s okay, Jaylyn. I’ll be fine.”

  “Okay. We’ll let you know.”

  Darius nodded and left the room.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Troy asked.

  “No.” I answered honestly. “But I want you to get better.”

  “Then that means I have to get use to this. I can’t just lay here the whole time.”

  “I know. Breakfast?”

  Troy smiled to my quickness about changing the subject. “That would be good.”

  I scooted myself next to him with the tray and we shared it together.

  The whole time I thought of everything he was going to go through and I couldn’t help but worry. I wanted to help him but I knew I couldn’t. This was about his honor and to fully get it back, I knew Troy had to do this. I just didn’t want it to last long. Their biannual trip to the southern colonies was disrupted for a year and I blamed myself for it.

  Chapter 25

  Adele

  Two weeks have passed and Troy was getting well used to his limitations and was out of his room several times a day to walk and even have his meals in the dining hall like he used to. Progress was going steadily and Jaylyn was feeling better when she saw him moving around and not in excruciating pain. Everyone was seeing it as a good sign that he was recovering but Zayden was feeling the hard burden of disappointment by his people on his shoulders that I wished he didn’t have to carry. Blaming Troy for it was not something that crossed his mind. He blamed himself and dreaded what would become of it while he sat up in his room that late morning.