“Where’d she come up with that name?” Troy asked.
Darius shrugged while filling his mouth with food. “Didn’t ask but it’s what she wants so it’s what she’ll get. It doesn’t make that much of a difference to me. I don’t think I know anyone named Dirk.”
“Well, guess what we’re naming ours?” Jaylyn asked.
“Bryce.”
“How did you know?”
“We knew before you.” Zayden said, only helping me to stay out of it. I knew much longer but didn’t think it needed to be mentioned. “We didn’t think you’d reject it.”
“Oh, well, we already know yours too!”
“Yes. We’ve known for a while.”
“A long while!”
“Hello!” Ruby yelled from the other room.
“You okay?” I yelled back.
“I hear laughter and I’m not involved!”
I laughed quietly and brought the conversation into the room. “We’re just talking about names.”
“Oh. When are we going?”
“When are you ready?”
“Dirk fell asleep so now might be a good time.” Ruby pulled her shirt closed and started to get up.
“Wait. Let me see him then you can get up.”
Ruby handed Dirk off into my arms and got up to her feet. “Whoa. Standing feels weird.”
“Probably because it’s been weeks. Think you can walk?”
“Yeah. Just a little tired.”
“If you needed, Darius could carry you back. That’s how you got here.”
“What am I doing?” Darius asked.
“No. It’s okay. I don’t need to be carried back. I want to walk, get my strength back.”
“You should.” Jaylyn agreed, looking down at Dirk in my arms. “You don’t have Darius’s gift anymore because he’s right here and looking as cute as ever!”
“Wait. What?” Darius wondered.
“I’ve had your gift because of him.”
“How is that even possible?” Zayden asked. “Didn’t you get pregnant before he got his gift?”
Ruby paused for a moment and was hesitant to say anything. “Yeah, but I wanted our baby to have both our gifts so when I found out, Trever had Kole fly down to Madam Carla and got me something that would attach to Darius’s blood so the gift could be passed on.”
“Was it like a potion you drink?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s how it’d get into my body then go to the baby and attach to him.”
“So, that’s what Trever knew that he was keeping from us.” Zayden figured.
“He was right to.” Ruby said. “And I didn’t tell him. He just kind of knew. I don’t know if he actually made any sense of my thoughts that day I spent with him but he made sure that I believed it and we talked about all the options.”
“End of story.” Darius said. “Are we going or—”
“I want to carry him back!” Jaylyn cut in, completely forgetting about the conversation and wanting to hold the baby again.
“No!” Ruby laughed, getting to Dirk before Jaylyn could take him from me. “He’s mine. I take him.”
Jaylyn got depressed and sighed like a child. “Fine. I hate you.”
Troy laughed and put his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t be jealous. You’ll get your chance.”
“Yeah, forever from now!”
“It goes by quick.” Ruby assured her. “Believe me. It does.”
“I hope you have everything.” Julianna said, walking out of the kitchen. “Kathryn has been talking sense into Izin about not giving you a punishment from disobeying orders so you should be fine to go back.”
“Thank you.” Ruby replied. “I guess for also helping save my life.”
“You don’t have to thank me. Your friends did the right thing and you have been rewarded justly.”
“Thank you.” Ruby smiled, glancing down at baby Dirk in her arms.
“Yes. Thank you for helping.” I was surprised when Troy spoke to his mother but I don’t think Zayden felt safe about this because he pulled me towards him. “For being here when we needed someone and I don’t mean just now.”
“Of course, my Lord.” Julianna said, lowering her head into a bow in front of him. “It is a Senian’s duty to protect and aid its own.”
“And you’re just now getting it?”
“Troy, please—”
“Know that this changes nothing. You were part in saving Ruby’s life and I only appreciate it for Darius’s sake and nothing else will come of it.” Troy turned from her with his last word and went right out the door.
“I am so sorry about that.” Zayden said.
“Don’t be. Everything’s fine. You just focus on getting back.”
Zayden nodded and turned me towards the door.
Troy was pacing outside and was quick to get going. “You ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s go get yelled at.”
Darius laughed as we started up the street towards the palace. “It’s not going to be that bad. He may not yell, just talk very loudly.”
Troy smiled and Jaylyn approached him, putting her arm around his waist. “You all right?”
“Of course.”
She looked back at the house, unsure just by his tone but said nothing else. I guess it was a good idea not to. Troy would always probably be stubborn about it no matter how many times Julianna is there to help us.
Chapter 40
Ruby
We walked steadily through the doors, looking at Izin standing stiff in front of his throne. His arms were folded across his chest, waiting for us with a stern look of disapproval. “How could you—”
“Before you say another word, you need to see two things.” Zayden cut in.
“All right.”
“First—” Darius moved aside and I stepped through, looking as healthy as ever. “She’s alive which is by far a much better result than what the experts informed you of.”
Izin took instant notice my flat stomach. “Did the baby survive?”
“That was coming second.”
Darius turned fully and was cradling our son in his left arm while he was bundled in a blanket. He was tiny and it hardly seemed Darius was holding a baby at all against the size of his large biceps.
Izin stepped closer, almost seeming cautious and just slightly lifted his eyes to peek at the child among the layers. “How do I know you’re not lying to me?”
I smiled and went to Darius’s left by Dirk’s head. “Maybe this will help.” I gently pulled back the blanket and revealed his hair color.
Izin’s eyes widened slightly as he started to smile and he reach for him. “I don’t believe it. What a little treasure you brought into this world. What do we call him?”
“Dirk.” Darius said. “His name’s Dirk.”
“Yes, I see it.” Izin smiled, backing up to his throne while his eyes were down on the baby. “You get older and there won’t be a soul out there that doesn’t know your name. They’ll respect and fear it at the same time and you’re just going to love it.”
Darius looked over at me and we both smiled to seeing Izin’s reaction to our son.
“Okay, I’m done with you.” Izin said, looking up only briefly. “You can go.” He sat down in the throne with his eyes down on Dirk.
“But—” I muttered, showing a bit of a whimper.
“What?”
“I want my baby back.”
“Oh—” Izin looked back down and it was like he was hesitant to give him up. “Yes, of course but we at least have to celebrate. Just a little thing to welcome him into the family.”
“Anything you want as long as I get him back.”
Izin smiled and stood up, handing Dirk off to me. “Of course you do. Welcome back yourself. We’ve missed your smile around here.”
“Thank you.”
“Acceptable enough, father?” Zayden asked.
“As long as you never ever do it again.”
“Oh, believe me, I don�
��t intend to.” I joked.
“Then enjoy the rest of your day because tonight, we’ll welcome him properly.”
“I hope I’m invited.”
Jaylyn was quickest to turn around to a sight no one expected to see. “Trever!”
“Oh, no.” Darius sighed low under his breath.
Jaylyn ran for him and jumped up in his arms, wrapping her legs around him.
“Hello, Jay!”
“What are you doing here? You couldn’t be done already.”
Trever set her down and started walking with her towards us. “Of course not. Just kind of passing through to Ledia where I’ll spend the next year of my life on a ship.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Oh, yeah. Great fun. Hey, everyone. How are you?”
Adele smiled and gave him a quick hug. “We’re good.”
“Yes, so I’ve repeatedly been told. I didn’t worry once.”
“Hi, Trever.”
He looked over and met my eyes with a smile. “Red. Sorry I missed it.”
I laughed quietly. “You’d actually be glad you did. I almost died.”
“Died, really?”
“Yeah.” Jaylyn said. “The baby.”
“Right. Compliments of Darius. It—shocks me.”
Darius’s eyes became even more narrowed than they already were since Trever showed up and took a step towards him with a heavy breath.
“No.” Zayden put up a swift hand, stopping him in his tracks.
His eyes were still on Trever and Trever looked back to me with his smile. “Should have listened.”
“Please don’t.”
“All right. Can I at least see him then?”
“No!” Darius snatched.
“Darius, relax.” I said. “He’s not going to hurt him.” Trever gained a victorious smile on his face and stepped closer to me. I carefully put Dirk in his open arms and watched his reaction. “You don’t seem surprised.”
“The hair? I’ve always known how this would turn out, remember? What’s his name?”
“You mean you don’t already know?”
“We never caught that little detail.”
“It’s Dirk.”
Trever halted all coming responses and seemed as if he froze where he was. “Really? And you thought of that, did you?”
“Yeah.”
“All by yourself?”
“Why? Is there something wrong with it?” Trever didn’t answer and everyone was getting curious. “Trever?”
“Here.” He slowly handed the baby back to me and started to turn away. “Excuse me for a moment.”
“Trever?”
He turned fully without answering and yelled, echoing his voice through the main hall. “Aleks!”
“My father’s here?” Adele wondered.
“Just. Through the portal.” Izin replied. “He wanted to be here. It would have come up in conversation.”
Aleksander stepped out of the dining hall, answering to his name. “What? Oh, hey.”
He saw us standing in the main hall but Trever wouldn’t let him visit. He turned him around and started walking with him back inside. “Need to talk.”
“Okay.”
They walked out of sight and we all turned our attention to Izin. “Don’t look at me. I have no idea what that was. You’ve might have noticed how weird they tend to get.”
“You mean the ‘going off and talking alone’ thing?” Adele asked.
“Yeah. It must be a family trait. He was the same way with Bryce. Probably because Aleks was really the only person who knew who he was.”
Eyes shifted around.
“What do you mean?” Jaylyn asked like she was trying to hide it.
Izin smiled. “You can dance around it all you’d like but I know who you are, I know who he is.”
“When did you find out?”
“Find out? It was never something I stumbled upon. Bryce was introduced to me as Kalu’s heir. I knew from the beginning. When did you find out?”
“Recently, actually.” Jaylyn said in a bothered tone.
“Kept it from you that long? You’re not affected, are you?”
“Not really. It’s not my problem to fix so I see no point in worrying about it.”
“I see. Well, why don’t you go off and do something for a while. We’ve got to make plans for celebrating the little one.”
“But I want to know what they’re talking about.” I said, looking towards the dining hall. “It’s about my baby.”
“Not a good idea for you right now but I’ll be happy to look into it. I’m sure they’d have to come around and explain something to you eventually. Do something else with your time until then.” Izin turned from us and walked towards the dining hall.
“Come on.” Darius said, putting his arm around my shoulders and turning me. “Let’s get the both of you upstairs so you can rest.”
“He’s been resting.” I smiled, looking down at Dirk in my arms as I walked. “I don’t know why but I was expecting him to cry more.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Jaylyn smiled, patting my back. “It’s coming. Wait till you’re up all night long and he won’t let you rest because he always wants to be attached to your breast.”
“Darius, I swear, if you do that to me you’re in huge trouble!”
Everyone laughed.
“How did you not see that coming?” Adele asked Jaylyn.
“Well, for a moment I guess I forgot what she was like but it’s still good to have her back.”
“Good to be back.” I smiled. “But I am feeling up for a nap.”
“Then we’ll get you one.” Darius said. “You guys can do something for a while, can’t you?”
“As long as we can have your baby!” Jaylyn smiled.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “This is going to be the longest six months for me, isn’t it? Your new roots have already been planted, Jaylyn. Now you have to wait for them to grow just like I had to.”
“But—I don’t want to wait.”
“It’s okay.” Troy smiled, putting his arm around Jaylyn for comfort. “There’s no way they can keep him from you forever. He hasn’t been with us very long. Let them have some time.”
“Yes please.” I agreed.
“Okay.” Jaylyn sighed. “Fine but if you need anything, you better come to me for my brilliant mothering advice and not the people who planned to kill you.”
“Done.” I replied, reaching my door with Darius. “Now leave.”
We walked inside and both took a long breath at the same time.
“That went well.” Darius said.
“Yeah. Perfect.”
“Are you okay?”
“I guess, considering.”
“Considering what?”
“I almost died to give him life then we get back and Trever shows up acting really weird about something we have no idea about.”
“He’s always acting weird about something we have no idea about.”
“Still, it’s about our baby, Darius. Aren’t you at least a little bit curious?”
“I don’t care what he thinks about it. This is our life, not his. He doesn’t get any part of it.”
“All right.” I sighed. “I don’t want to argue it anymore.” I gently lowered Dirk down into the bassinet next to the bed.
“You going to sleep now?”
“Yeah. At least for a bit until he wakes up.”
“Okay. I should probably get some more too, if that’s okay?”
“Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I didn’t know if you wanted one of us awake to watch out for Jaylyn kidnapping him.”
I laughed and climbed into bed. “Don’t worry, she knows better. Come here. I’ll need you.”
Darius got into bed next to me and moved closer. I put my arms around him and started kissing his neck.
“Didn’t we already have this conversation?”
“Oh, just go with it. It might be the only time
I want to for a while if I’m going to be as tired as Jaylyn said. He won’t know what we’re doing. He’s a sleep and not even an hour old.”
Darius caved. “Okay. Let’s just take it easy. It’s been a bit for both of us.”
I laughed and lifted my head to look at him. “What? Don’t want to risk getting me pregnant again?”
Darius didn’t laugh. His tone was serious as he reached his hand to the soft skin of my cheek. “I never want to hurt you like that again. You suffered too much and I almost lost you. That’s a risk I won’t take again.”
“Then we’ll take it easy and work around it later.”
Darius nodded and we leaned into each other.
We shared a soft careful kiss but it was all that was needed to realize the passion that sparked between us. I pulled him up into a sitting position so I could wrap my arms around his neck and he held his hands around my back, running his fingers through my hair.
“Stay right here.” I pulled away and started to get up.
“What are you doing?”
“What? I agreed we’d do this slow so we are.” I stood up on the bed over him, one leg spread on each side.
“Ooh.” Darius muttered, expressing wanting as he moved himself back so he could be in a more comfortable sitting position against the headboard and pillows. “You are by far the most amazing woman ever.”
It was true, wasn’t it? I smiled and tucked my hair behind my ears, moving the rest of it off my shoulders to my back. “And you like that, don’t you? You’ll never get bored of me.”
“And I never intend to.”
It was impossible to remove the smile from my face and I slowly began to reach for my shirt. With just the tips of my fingers, I started to pull it up, only showing Darius inches of my skin at a time. He sat willingly still with his head rested back and eyes up. It’s been weeks since he’s seen this and I bet I was making the wait worth it. I stood topless over him and he was refusing to blink. My breasts were firm and full from a new mother’s milk and I slowly untied the laces on my pants. They fell right off quickly to my ankles from no longer fitting me properly without the pregnant belly and Darius’s eyes widened from the sudden surprise.
“Oops. Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He reached for my legs and pulled me closer to him.
I stepped out of my pants and dropped to my knees over him with my smile still strong. “It seems Fate wants this to happen a little faster than we planned.” I leaned in to kiss him but there was a knock at the door.
New Roots (Fate's Intent Book 8) Page 16
