“That’s too much for a child. He’ll find out when he’s ready if you can manage to be around in your full form so you look alive.”
“I hope you didn’t just say that so I’ll back out. I can manage to. This will be for him.” He stepped closer to the crib and looked inside. “It’s worth it.”
I smiled and joined him by the crib.
“What?”
“Nothing. You’re acting—different.”
“You’re surprised that I care about him?”
I glanced towards Zayden. “A little.”
“You shouldn’t be. He’s family. I always knew.”
“Well, it’s sweet and I’m glad you care. I’m glad you’ll be a part of our lives. I always knew you would be—even this way.”
Ryon smiled and glanced at Zayden. “Yes, you did.”
“Don’t get a mouth about it.” Zayden sighed. “But we are glad.”
“I know.”
Ryon held out his hand to Zayden and he merely looked down at it before proceeding to shake his hand.
“This is so sweet.” I smiled in an innocent voice like Jaylyn would have if she was present. “I hope you finally realize how important family is.”
Ryon chuckled softly, trying not to let it escape. “I didn’t know Jay was in the room. Where the fuck did that come from, Adele? That was horrifyingly touching but it has nothing to do with us being family. I would have done it even if we weren’t. You may have noticed that children tend to like me.”
“Ellie, you mean?”
“Yeah. It was a good ride. It was like we all took a little part in raising her. The best part for me was not having the responsibility. I could go home at the end of the day. Now I get that again.”
“You don’t see her?”
“Of course I see her but she’s protected like crazy. It could never be like how it was. Maybe having a reason to spend more time away will change that.”
“Well, thank you for dropping by.” Zayden said. “Feel free to leave. It’s late and Adele and I like to keep to our schedule of nightly lovemaking.”
“Zayden!”
“It’s all right.” Ryon smiled. “I’m not here to get in the way. I’ve accepted how things are a long time ago.”
“It hasn’t been that long.”
My voice was softer, maybe even showing a little remorse but Ryon kept his smile. “It was long enough. I won’t keep you any longer. Enjoy your evening which—I’m sure that you will.” He kissed my cheek and was gone.
Silence followed and I looked down in the crib before turning to Zayden. “So—are you at least a little happier?”
“With what? Having him around? I never hated him. Just what he did.”
“I meant having a solution.”
“I still never wanted any of it. I just wish we could see that day and know if it was true.” Zayden paused and looked at me a little hopeful. “Wait. Maybe we can.”
“What how?”
“How we always used to see Seth.”
The blood and the herb that lets us see a vision. It was a good plan because I wanted to know too but I was still skeptical. “But we would need hers to see her for sure and Cadence is much too young to get blood from.”
“We’d only need a drop.”
“But I don’t even know if she’s in Kalu. We don’t exactly have to check in for quite a few years.”
“Ryon, come back.” It seemed Zayden had an idea because someone like Ryon could get around our world in an instant.
“Done with the lovemaking already? Wow. I think you need to work on that.”
Zayden wasn’t the slightest bit angry about his joking tone and got right to the point. “We need you to do something.”
“I already told you I can’t show you.”
“We know but there is a way for us to see without you breaking any rules. We just need you to get someone’s blood.”
“You want me to drain the poor girl?”
“No.” I said. “We just need a drop from Cadence and I’m sure you can conjure up some of that herb we’ve used before.”
He sighed like he didn’t know if he should.
“Ryon, please.” Zayden said. “We need this.”
“But I thought it was always so random? You can’t be sure what you’d see.”
“Something will be better than nothing. If you said Seth was there for her, seeing her could confirm that Seth does in fact choose to keep her. It’s something we’d like to know well in advance.”
“All right.”
“Just don’t hurt her too badly.” I said. “She’s just a baby, wherever she is.”
“She won’t even feel it. I promise.”
We nodded and he disappeared from us.
“Okay, I’ll set things up.” I cleared a space on a table and cut my finger enough to draw a circle with my blood.
“Don’t we need his?” Zayden asked, glancing back towards Seth.
I was really hesitant about this. “Is that necessary? I don’t exactly want to risk seeing them too much together.”
He laughed from my worry. “I see. Okay but we’ll have to if we want to see both of them.”
Great. He was right but I still didn’t want to hurt Seth to get his blood even a little. “Fine but we’ll mix ours together to see him.”
“Hope it works.”
Zayden held out his hand so I could cut his finger and let the drop fall, adding one of mine on top of it.
“Got it.” Ryon came back just in time.
“Where was she?”
“Hintus.”
“Still?”
He put the drop in the circle I created with my blood and circled it all with the herb we needed. “Like you said, she’s just a baby. That means her brother is too but they’re doing well.”
“Did they see you?”
“Of course not. I was careful. Mind if I stay for this?”
“You’re a part of this now.” Zayden said. “You should be.”
We gathered around and I lit the herb with a candle on the table. Voices were heard before an image.
“This is your room. You can come in.”
“I know.” Seth was there. He was much older, nearly sixteen I would say. He was standing in the doorway of a room in the Senian palace and a girl was further in.
It was Cadence for sure. She had her mother’s eyes.
“This is weird for you, isn’t it?” She asked.
“Maybe some. The last girl that was in here was you when we were twelve.”
I looked over at Zayden, not pleased but he just smiled. He didn’t have anything to say, at least yet.
“You don’t have to be nervous.” Cadence took Seth’s hand and guided him in. “It’s just me.”
She stood alluringly close to him that I didn’t like but he was acting a bit nervous. “It’s not just you. It is you. There’s a difference. I’ve been waiting to see you again.”
“Well, your wait is over. I’m here.” She leaned in even closer and I kind of wished I could stop her. “What happens now?” She took his hands next and placed them around her waist.
Seth took a slow breath and I cringed. “We won’t do anything you don’t want to. I have no intentions of hurting you.”
Cadence smiled and kissed him right on the lips for the first time I’ve seen. “You’re such a gentleman. I’ve always missed that about you.”
Their noses rubbed together and they kissed again a bit more passionately than before. Their breathing started to get heavier and I had enough. It wasn’t what I wanted to see and I fanned the image away with my hand so it would end early.
“Okay. That’s exactly what I wanted to avoid.”
Ryon and Zayden both laughed.
“That was awesome.” Ryon said. “She’s quite the catch.”
I tried to shrug it off. “That wasn’t even close to what we wanted to see.”
“Well, he was younger when I saw him.” Ryon said. “So that should tell you he lives. He d
idn’t look tormented in any kind of way.”
“No.” Zayden agreed. “He looked very happy.”
I sighed and turned away. “This was a bad idea. Ryon, thank you but you can go. We should get to bed.”
“Okay but just remember that everything will be fine. We’re all going to be there for him.”
I tried to nod confidently and he disappeared.
“You okay?” Zayden asked.
“I will be―I think.”
“Come on, Love. You should be proud. He’s going to grow to be a gentleman.”
He said it jokingly and I would have much rather liked to forget about it completely. “Can we just go to bed please?”
“All right and I know you won’t after that.”
“Of course not!” I hated even thinking my son was at a stage where he was having sex, let alone almost seeing him do it. There’s definitely no way I could now but I was glad Zayden saw it first. There would be time for that later, just as soon as I forgot about ever seeing him that way.
Chapter 26
Jaylyn
The next few days seemed slow and quiet. The plan to have Ryon back in our lives indefinitely was something to get used to. I just didn’t get how they could want that. I mean, I love Kole and I miss him so much but I couldn’t bear to see him every day and not think about the past. Ryon and Adele had one too, maybe even stronger than mine and I couldn’t think of what this was going to do to Zayden in the long run. They all said they were fine with it and it was how it needed to be but I still worried for my friends and our sons.
In other things, Ruby and Darius have been gone with Dirk all this time and Seth and Bryce were beginning to notice.
“I think they miss him.” I said, watching my son sit still and quiet next to me, not being his usual happy self.
“You might be right.” Adele agreed. “We might have to cut our trip short, father.”
“It’s all right.” Aleksander smiled. “We won’t take offense if you do. We’ve see how they are together. They do seem to miss him.”
Adele nodded and looked around at all of the silent faces. “Well, it’s still early. What do you think? Should we start to head back now?”
Zayden let out a long breath and looked around. “You want to?”
“We could.” Troy said. “It will still be a few days more just from traveling.”
“The earlier the better I think.” I said. “I don’t want him to stay this way.”
“All right. We’ll get our things.” Zayden said as he began to climb to his feet. “Thank you for having us, Aleksander.”
“The pleasure was all mine. Hopefully things can be different on your next visit.”
Everyone’s eyes shifted to Trever sitting in absolute silence but he knew what we were talking about; Ruby. He probably would have liked it to be true but it would be a lot longer before he saw her again and he could no longer sit through the looks.
He rose to his feet with a quiet smug laugh to change the subject. “Come see me when you’re ready, Jay. I have something for you.”
“Okay.” I said. “It should only be a few minutes.” Trever nodded without a word and left the room. “What was that about?”
“I’m sure you could guess.” Aleksander said. “Go ahead and gather your things. The boys will be fine with me until you’re ready.”
“Thank you, father.” Adele leaned down to him and they kissed cheeks. “We’ll be right down.”
We left the room and headed upstairs so we could pack the few things we brought and begin the journey home.
“Trever must be in his room.” I said, walking down the hall. “Should we go to him?”
“He did say to come see him.” Troy replied. “We can stop in.”
We approached his door with a steady knock. It took only a moment before the door opened and Trever was standing inside. “Good. Come in.”
“What do we get?!” I asked excitedly.
Trever laughed. “Well, first, I’m glad the two of you came alone. I wanted to show you something without the others around.” Troy and I looked at each other a little suspiciously. “No! Nothing like that. It’s just a painting I did a while ago that I thought you should have.”
“A painting?” Troy wondered, his eyes slowly widening. “You painted your sister naked?”
“No! It’s not exactly a real life painting because I really didn’t have that kind of time and she is my sister so I didn’t really want to think of her that way. It’s more like something that came out of a storybook. Here, let me show you.” He picked up a canvas that came up to his thigh and looked at it. “Ellie told me of this dream she had just before we set out for peace and I just had to paint it when I finally got around to having some free time.”
“Of us?” Troy asked.
“Of sorts. You’re not completely you but there are similarities.”
“Show us!” I smiled.
Trever turned the canvas and I quickly clung tight to Troy and my mouth dropped. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. The image was us but we were underwater with fish tails instead of legs. Troy’s arms curled around my back like he was holding me up, my tail wrapped around his and my hair was spread out above us, floating freely in the water while we stared deeply into each other’s eyes.
“Troy, it’s us!”
“Yes, it does look like us.”
“This is so beautiful, Trever!”
“I hoped you would think so and I hope it’s not breaking any boundaries.”
“No. We love it! She dreamt this?”
“You know, children and their fantasies. Ellie had a remarkable one.”
I smiled and just kept looking down at the painting. “Yes, she did. Thank you. It’s wonderful.”
“Then you’re welcome but that’s not all.”
“You did another one?”
He laughed. “No. This is more for you, Jay.”
“What is it?”
“I think you’ll approve.” Trever turned and pulled a familiar flat box out of a drawer of his desk. It was golden in color with burnt engravings and a golden lion head, holding a black stone in its mouth.
My eyes widened and I anxiously stepped away from Troy to get my hands on it. “Trever, really? Father’s journal but you said—”
“I know but you are much more grown up now. I think you’re ready.”
“Thank you but we’re leaving. How could you teach me to read it?”
“I never had to teach you. When you’re truly ready, you’ll know. Just please say you’ll wait until you get home. Once you start, you won’t want to stop.”
“Okay. I guess I can and I guess that means I’m keeping the key.”
“You’ll need it. I can get it back from you when you’re done. Just so you know, you’re not keeping it. There are still some things in there I need.”
“Okay. Thank you. This means a lot to me.”
“I know. Go ahead. I’m sure they’re waiting for you.”
“You’re not going to say good-bye?” Troy asked.
“I’m sure they don’t need me to. I should be catching up with Bee anyway. She’s around here somewhere. Just be sure you bring all that stuff I packed with you.”
“It’s already outside. They’re probably loading a wagon as we speak.”
“Then I’ll let you get to them and hope you have a safe trip back.”
“We will.” I hugged him and he shook Troy’s hand.
“Take your time with the journal. It may take some to accept things you’ll find out and I hope you can forgive me.”
“Forgive you?” I was truly confused. “About what?”
“About the things I could never tell you.”
“I could never be mad. I know why you couldn’t tell me.”
“Just promise me you won’t seclude yourself. If you need to talk about it, you should.”
“Okay. I promise.”
We hugged again.
“Take care.”
“We will.” We left the room and met with the others outside.
“There you are.” Adele said. “Everything is ready. Are you?”
“Yeah. Where’s Bryce?”
He ran up behind me and wrapped his arms around my legs. “Mama!”
“Hey, sweetie. Ready to go? We’re going to go see Dirk.” Bryce got all excited and anxiously held up his hands so I would pick him up. “I guess so.”
“I’ll just put these things in the carriage with the rest of the stuff.” Troy said, holding the covered portrait and reaching for the flat box in my hand.
“Just be careful with it, okay?”
Troy smiled and kissed my forehead. “It’ll be fine. You can start on it when we get home.”
I nodded and slowly handed it off.
“Is that your father’s journal?” Zayden asked.
“Yeah. I finally get to read it.”
“Did he teach you how already?”
“He said he wouldn’t need to; I’d just know.”
“Oh, well—”
“We should go.” Adele cut in before the conversation became too awkward. “It’s still going to take a few days, remember?”
“Okay. Here. Can you take him for a second?” I handed Bryce off to Troy and got up on my horse.
Adele got on hers too and we were handed our sons for the trip. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter 27
Darius
After three days of rigorous travel, we were the first to make it back home. Our desire to get things unpacked and put away was next to none as we just spent our time with each other in the long silence of the empty palace where we were for the first time, able to spend it alone.
We were curled up together around the fireplace in our room with Dirk playing with wooden blocks within our sight.
“I’ve enjoyed this.” Ruby said, resting her head back on my shoulder for support.
“Yeah. I don’t think we’ve ever had time like this before.”
“No. We haven’t but I guess it’s just nice for a while. I’m starting to miss Adele. We can’t live off my cooking.”
I laughed but it came out a little loud. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“Yeah, right! It was burnt!”
“Just the bottom. The rest was still good.”
Rising Sun (Fate's Intent Book 9) Page 13
