Adele looked and took all the blood off him so he was clean and was ready to get rid of it.
“Just a little.” Izin said. “I’m in complete control.”
“No.”
He didn’t seem to care to listen. He slouched in the chair so he could stretch his leg farther out and just barely tapped the little blob of floating blood with his foot. It bounced right towards him and he sat up to catch it in his mouth. “Too late.”
Aleksander sighed. “That’s sick.”
“Actually, it was quite tasty. I can feel his strength. Zayden, you’ve got to try it.”
He was hesitant. “That’s okay. I don’t have the control like you yet. I’ll stick to the one I can’t kill.”
“Very well.”
“Okay.” Adele cut in after she finished setting up everything else. “We’re next.”
The rest of us offered up a few drops of blood for the cause and Adele circled all of ours with hers.
“Ready?”
I was shaking and clung close to Troy. “I’m so nervous.”
“Why? Not like you haven’t seen before.”
“Nervous with anticipation. It’s so random. We never know what we’re going to see. I want to know his name.”
Adele rolled her eyes and set fire to the herb. Troy was comforting by keeping me close to him and kissing my head. I was relaxing. I just didn’t know what we were going to see and I hated not knowing.
The smoke rose up into the air in front of us like we were used to seeing and the image became clear.
It was quiet except for creeping footsteps but it was so familiar. It was this place, where we are now but we were only seeing two of the boys in the dark hall, Seth and mine. They had to be maybe thirteen or fourteen but I couldn’t be sure.
They opened a door to one of the rooms here and crept inside, each carrying some kind of bucket. I didn’t have to see it before I could have guessed what they were going to do.
We got to see Ruby’s son again too. This time he was sleeping and he looked—bigger like Darius bigger. I guess he was a couple years older than the first time we saw him and he sure did grow.
The boys approached the sides of the bed with their buckets and poured water all over him, waking him from a dead sleep. His eyes were red. We didn’t even get to see them shining gold like Ruby’s and he sprang right up. “Seth!”
“Hey!” My son said rather insultingly. “What makes you think it was just him?”
“Mother!”
“I take it back! It was just him!”
They turned to run towards the door but it was too late. Ruby was standing there with a gentle smile. “Again?”
“Just having some fun.” Seth said.
“That isn’t what I would call it!” Her son shouted, crawling out of his soaking wet bed.
Ruby didn’t seem angry, she seemed more amused. “Clean this up and find a better way to start your day.”
“Doing what?’ Seth asked.
“Not this.”
“Sorry.” Seth said to her son while cleaning up the water with his mother’s gift.
“I doubt it.” He gripped.
“We were just trying to—”
“I know. I get it. I don’t want to be here either. It would be better if father were here.”
Ruby laughed. “Why?”
“I can’t play rough with them! They’ll die!”
“Well, your father is busy. He couldn’t come.”
“No he isn’t. He’s probably just as bored as us right now. They never leave since Zayden became King.”
My eyes widened and I looked over at Zayden. He was just staring straight in front of him.
“They have responsibilities that they take very seriously. This is only for the summer. We’ll be back.”
The loud sigh of his aggravation began to fade and the image of them was gone.
The room was silent for a minute but it wasn’t a surprise that Izin was the first to speak. “Well—I for one am very happy.”
“I’ll be King when he’s fourteen?!” Zayden bellowed at Aleksander. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“I didn’t know. I only saw that you would be King, not when that was.”
“What does that mean?! Will my father be dead?!”
Izin laughed. “Relax, Zayden. I hope you’re aware that I don’t need to be dead for you to be King.”
“You don’t?” Troy asked.
He shook his head. “I could appoint him King any time I felt he was ready but with that little episode, he’s clearly not.”
“You’ve already planned to?” Zayden asked. “When?!”
“I’m not going to tell you. I actually based it on my age, not yours but it may have to be later than I wanted if you’re going to keep this up. It’s your life, Zayden. I’ve been trying to tell you that for years. You can’t get out of it.”
“It’s okay.” Adele said to calm him. “It’s not yet.”
Zayden took a breath to relax because she was right. It wasn’t yet and we didn’t know when it would actually be until it happened.
“So, what did you think this time?” Zayden asked to get away from him becoming King.
Izin paused for a moment, moving his head like he was thinking of an appropriate response. “Still pleased. Boys will be boys. You can’t necessarily change that and as I recall, the two of you used to wake Darius up the same way when you were young.”
Zayden and Troy looked at each other, trying not to laugh.
“No we didn’t.” Troy said.
“Nice try but I know about everything that goes on in my palace and I mean everything.”
“It was Zayden’s idea!”
“Mine?! You were all for it too.”
“I had a reason to be. Darius cruelly tortured me when I first moved in.”
Zayden broke down laughing and of course I was curious. “What’d he do?”
“It wasn’t funny.” Troy said, glaring towards Zayden’s laughter.
“Awe, still crying about that, Troy?”
We looked up and Darius was standing on the first balcony above us with Ruby.
“No. I’m not. Don’t talk about it.”
“What is it?” Ruby whispered loudly.
“We’ll be right down.”
He turned with Ruby to come down the stairs and Troy was grimacing already. “Oh, no.”
They did it again. They came back to us with zero awareness that we just saw an image of their son and like last time, they never mentioned a thing about it.
“So, here’s what happened, Troy was pretty traumatized when he came to us that he used to wake in the soil of his own urine.”
Ruby laughed but I felt worse for him since I knew what his mother did.
“BUT!” Troy shouted as a demand.
“This is the funny part.” Darius said. “It took him three days to realize I was the one peeing in his bed.”
Ruby’s mouth dropped and she pushed on Darius a little to get him to take a step away from her. “That’s disgusting!”
“We were like eleven. It’s not like I’ve done it since.”
“As you can imagine that’s when we started to physically argue and I constantly bathed for a week.”
Zayden was still laughing. “Yeah. He was basically staying in my room at that point.”
It was a little funny but I still felt bad. I’d hate to have something that sinister happen to me. We’ve never pulled pranks on each other like that.
“Maybe we should rethink this raising boys thing.” Adele said.
Darius’s brow flattened immediately. “We weren’t talking about that.”
“We kind of were. It was only brought up because something we saw the boys do.”
“Stop.”
Darius was ready to turn away but Adele clearly wasn’t and stood herself up with her voice only becoming more dominant. “No. You stop. I don’t necessarily care about your problem because it’s a dumb one. Ruby is your wife now—�
��
“Adele, no.” Ruby was shaking her head inconspicuously with her whisper.
“And she’s going to get pregnant one of these times and you’re just going to have to accept that you’re doing nothing to stop it.”
“I don’t need you to tell me—”
“I think maybe you do. We saw him and he was amazing. How could you be so cruel that you don’t care about your own son?”
Darius laughed but it was obviously in frustration. “I can’t even believe I’m still standing here for this. I don’t have a son! Why are you lecturing me about something I don’t even have?!”
“But you will and it’ll be easier on everyone if you just accept it now!”
“Maybe I don’t care about what everyone thinks!”
“You should at least care about what one of us thinks because she’s the one you’re going to hurt when you walk out on her.”
Ruby became saddened instantly and turned away up the stairs before we would have saw her cry.
Darius turned his head back towards Adele and spoke quietly. “I would never do that.”
“Then accept it and let us show you.”
He just stared at her. It would have been nice if he agreed for Ruby’s sake but that would have been too easy. He turned from us all and went up the stairs after her.
“When is he ever going to just—be normal about this?” Adele asked.
“Planning ahead has always been difficult for him.” Izin said. “He knows all too well how quickly things can change. It’s why some don’t focus too much on the future.”
“Some? You mean you?”
“I used to be that way. It was a burden.”
“What he means is, I would always see pending doom to our actions and he would just shrug it off.” Aleksander said.
Izin laughed. “You were too paranoid.”
“And yet it happened.”
“Perhaps but it became hard to believe when we would always have such a great time. I didn’t see it ever happening until we found out my father knew. Then everyone became paranoid but it withered when we had several other meetings before the last.”
“You believed me then.”
“Sadly, the change was pushed on all of us too quickly but the point here is maybe Darius doesn’t want to be pushed into it like when you keep saying that it will happen. Maybe he just wants it to come naturally or a bigger surprise, maybe he doesn’t want to be disappointed in case something does change. He’s never taken well to failure and he hasn’t failed at anything since he was much younger.”
“I could argue.” Troy said. “But I won’t. I know where he’s coming from.”
That struck my interest. “Were you like that?”
He shared a long look with Izin before saying anything. “Not completely. Being a father was never on my to-do list until I met you. Now we’re married and it just seems like it’s the logical next step.”
“That’s a good plan.” Izin said, steering his eyes over at Zayden to make sure he heard it too.
“I know. Working on it.”
“Not right now.”
“It would be a little awkward if it were right now.”
“Indeed.” Aleksander said.
Adele looked at me and laughed from her father’s unenthused tone. I couldn’t hide my smile but it was because I liked what Troy said and he was right. The more we keep seeing him, the more I want him too and—to know his name!
Chapter 36
Adele
The night spent together ended with a decent meal and by morning, my father and Izin left to return to set arrangements for our possessions to be transported to us. In the meantime, we could only rest and wait it out.
Ruby and Darius seemed distant since last night. That might have been my fault but he at least had to know that I was right. I’d like to talk to him some more but without the pressure of being stared at. I had just a pinch of that herb left and I think he needed to see his son to help him see what was right but he would never allow it done here.
After four days had gone by of complete laziness, I knew what I could do to get him alone. The others may not like it because it meant work for them but for Darius and his future with Ruby, it was worth it.
“Okay.” I said. “I know what we can do. We can start cleaning this place up so when our stuff gets here, we’ll be ready.” The others sat still but groaned, unsure of the idea of moving to do anything but I had to convince them or make them. Whichever came first. “Look, I know this is going to take a long time if we do it the normal way so it’s a good thing none of us are normal. When I count to three, close your eyes and hold your breath. Can you at least accept to do that?”
“Why?” Zayden asked.
“Are you doubting my abilities?”
“Not if you’re going to use that against me later.”
“I won’t if you all do exactly what I say.”
“Well, you heard her and you better do it.”
I laughed and walked to the stairs. “Great. Ready? One. Two. Three.” Everyone closed their eyes at the same time and held their breath like I asked and I raised my hands up. Dust was lifted off everything then I quickly spun around one time and lunged forward, pushing it all away and watching it escape out the windows. “Okay, done.”
“Shit.” Darius looked around and they all got to their feet. “I guess that’s a quicker way.”
“Yeah, this makes things easier.” Jaylyn added.
“We would have never gotten it done if we had to do it by hand. I had to do something.”
“Well, we thank you for it.” Troy replied. “Really.”
“Because you’ve never had to do manual labor in your life?”
“What? No. I have so done manual labor before—I think.”
I laughed. “Yeah right. You guys lived in the palace most of your life and you all of your life, you didn’t have to lift your finger for anything.”
“You make it sound like all we did was sit around and make the maids do everything.” Darius said.
“Everything?” Jaylyn smiled.
Zayden and Troy looked over at Darius and smiled like it was true. His reaction was quick, a little humorous but surely defensive. “Oh, what? That was one time and she was looking for a reason to get kicked out. I just helped her.”
“Wow, we’re so going to stop talking about this.” Ruby turned away and started walking towards the stairs before it was carried on. “I’m going to clean up our room some more.”
“Okay, so now that we’re changing the subject, you four can finish in here.” I said. “Darius, I’m going to need your muscle to help me outside. We’ll be back as soon as we’re finished.”
The others nodded and we walked out the door. “So, what are we doing?”
I wasn’t going to tell him the complete truth but I did have an actual reason for coming out here. “We need to clear sections of the road starting just on the other side of that cliff so they can get our stuff here easier.”
“Oh. Good idea. I remember a few spots that could use clearing. I’m sure they’ll need to get wagons through there.” He rode next to me on his horse and there was kind of an awkward silence.
“What?” I saw him keep looking over that only made things more awkward.
“Are you going to tell me about it?”
“About what?” I only asked so he would answer instead of me bringing up the vision thing and pissing him off. I’m sure that’s not what he wanted to know. I was right.
He got a huge smile on his face and tried not to laugh. “The new sex experience with Zayden.”
I was appalled by the question and turned my head forward and kept riding. “Oh, no. How dare you even ask me that?”
“Just curious. I heard you last night.”
“It was you outside the door then?”
Darius laughed. “And Ruby. We were curious. It’s been days. We knew he had to of tried it by now. So, are you going to tell me?”
“Sorry, but
I don’t think you could understand even if I tried to explain. It was—amazing.”
“You think he’s better than me?”
I looked over to the unusualness of the question. “I don’t know what you’re like but I’m sure he’s better.”
“Oh, you’re quick to judge!”
“You couldn’t possibly be better and we’re not going to talk about this anymore. It’s a little weird because you just couldn’t understand.”
“Fine. You win.” He didn’t say anything else and we continued to ride until we saw the first obstruction ahead. “There’s the first one.”
“Let’s be quick about it.”
Darius looked at the pile of rocks with an excited smile. “Mind if I take this one?”
“You want to do it yourself?”
“Yeah, why not? It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to use my abilities and I could use the workout.”
I sighed after just getting off my horse and took a few steps back. “All right. Go for it. That’s what you get for just sitting around for days.”
“You’ll have my back though, right? In case something goes wrong?”
“Is Darius asking for my help?” I wondered sarcastically.
“I am. Don’t make me beg.”
“You begging? That sounds like that could be fun.”
“Adele, seriously. Now you’re starting to sound like me.”
“Fine, I’ll watch your back. The last thing I want to be is like you.”
“Yeah, thanks. That’s sweet.”
I laughed and he started picking up the stones and throwing them up over the other side of the rocky ledge. First, I started watching him in a standing position then that soon led to me sitting down then laying back on the ground while he was still working on it. He was not being quick about it. I was getting bored so I lifted up my hand and one of the rocks was floating by him.
“Hey! Drop it, Adele!” I put my hand down and the rock dropped. “You said you’d let me do this myself.”
“Sorry!”
“Adele?”
“What?” I took my eyes off the sky above me and looked at him.
“I thought you were going to be watching my back? How can you do that when you’re not even looking at me?”
Forgotten Days (Fate's Intent Book 6) Page 15
