Decadence (Tree of Life Series Book 1)
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Decadence
Tree of life Trilogy Book 1
Nichole Austin
Contents
Playlist
Decadence
PART 1
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
PART 2
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright © 2019 Nichole Austin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form on by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are a product of the authors imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Decadence
Map by Covers by Tallulah
Chapter Heading Design by Masha du Toit
Cover Design by Opulent Swag and Designs
Interior Formatting by Pink Elephant Designs
To all the moms who have had to say goodbye to their babies, your pain is felt.
Playlist
Set The Fire To The Third Bar - Snow Patrol
Candy - Mandy Moore
Just Like You - Three Days Grace
Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift
Stuck - Stacie Orrico
Delicate - Taylor Swift
If You Want A Bad Boy - Brantley Gilbert
Leave Your Lover - Sam Smith
Somewhere Love Remains - Lady Antebellum
God is a woman - Ariana Grande
Me Too - Meghan Trainor
Black Widow - Iggy Azalae
Just a Dream - Carrie Underwood
Moment of Weakness - Tenille Arts
Words As Weapons - Seether
All Hands on Deck - Tinashe
Kiss Me - Ed Sheeran
Wolves - Selena Gomez
Chances - Backstreet Boys
Make This Go On Forever - Snow Patrol
All I Want - Kodaline
If Our Love Is Wrong - Calum Scott
Cry Pretty - Carrie Underwood
Listen to Your Heart - DHT
Consequences(orchestra) - Camila Cabello
Marry Me - Thomas Rhett
Say Something(feat. Chris Stapleton) - Justin Timberlake
Heartbeat - Carrie Underwood
Impossible - James Arthur
…Ready For It? - Taylor Swift
In Case You Didn’t Know - Brett Young
I Like It(feat. Bad Bunny & J Balvin) - Cardi B
Be Alright - Dean Lewis
As You Turn Away - Lady Antebellum
Bodies - Drowning Pool
One Last Song - Sam Smith
Wherever You Will Go - The Calling
i can’t breathe - Bea Miller
Oh My Soul - Casting Crowns
Decadence
Moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence
PART 1
Prologue
Where am I? Looking around, I see flowers everywhere. Bright yellow blooms explode in color next to delicate pink ones. All the colors of the rainbow are present in this garden. Everything is lush. It’s like something from a dream or a fantasy. And running through the vibrant beauty is a river, blue and clear.
As I begin to walk toward the water, I hear a creak of hinges. Jumping, I see a gate attached to a big black fence across the water. Mounted on the fence near the gate are four differently colored flags, flapping in the breeze: red, green, silver, and black.
A figure steals through the gate and past someone who has their back turned.
That’s weird.
Biting my lip, I tiptoe over to get a closer look.
The figure who snuck in moves quietly, occasionally ducking behind things. I follow closely in the tall grass. The figure’s black cape billows in the slight breeze, but a thick hood obscures their face. Walking up a dirt path, the figure arrives at a tree so immense it reaches the sky. Its branches extend, almost touching the ground and are draped with small leaves that are every shade of green imaginable.
From their cape, the figure removes a jug and a small cylindrical item with a sharp end. They pierce the sharp end of the cylinder into the tree, and something thick begins to ooze out. The viscous substance is clear and looks sticky like syrup, flowing slowly into the jug.
Quietly, I move forward to get a better look at the person wearing the cape, but as I do, a twig snaps. I make my way quickly to the branches and glance through. The person by the gate raises their face in the air as if they’re trying to smell something. My eyes widen with amazement because now the figure and the jug have disappeared, but the sharp instrument remains lodged in the tree.
A small drop of the sticky substance oozes from the tree, hitting the ground with a soft plop. The earth trembles beneath my feet, and suddenly, a baby starts to cry.
Spinning around, I look back through the branches to try and locate the figure. I cover my ears as thunder booms loudly, and a crack of lightning shoots down from the sky, striking the man standing by the gate. He crumbles to the ground. My hands drop to my sides as I scream at the top of my lungs. Suddenly, I hit the soft earth as I’m pushed to the side by the figure who has now reappeared and is holding a baby in their hands.
“MOMMY!”
Tears stream down my cheeks, and I can’t stop shaking. Xavier bursts into my chamber before anyone else, his eyes searching everywhere, trying to find who’s hurting me. When he realizes no one else is here, he hurries to me.
“I’ve got you,” he says as he gathers me up, rocking me back and forth.
The lightning striking the man doesn’t leave my mind, and I pull at my hair. “Make it go away. Please make it go away.”
Chapter One
Rosalyn
“Rosalyn Addison, what are you doing?” a warm voice teases behind me.
The room spins as I whip around. Hands grip my shoulders to steady me, and I look up to see sandy blond hair and blue eyes.
“Xavier, you’re back!” Jumping up, I wrap my arms around his neck, hugging him tight, and I sigh when he returns my embrace. When he sets me back on the floor, I bite my lower lip before I smile.
“I thought I would surprise you.” He holds his hands out to me. “Come on, let’s take a walk.”
I immediately grasp his hand, and laughter lights his eyes. He knows I’ll never say no to him. With Xavier being gone as much as he is, what little time I get with him is a gift. “When did you get back?” I ask as we make our way down the stone corridor.
He shrugs. “Today. I came to see you right after I saw your mother.” The fatigue in his voice is clear, and now I feel guilty that he’s chosen to spend t
ime with me instead of resting.
When we pass under one of the curved archways, my curiosity gets the best of me. “Where did you go this time?”
He smiles faintly and lets go of my hand, motioning me to follow him down the corridor. “Endennia, Princess.” Stopping, I cross my arms over my chest and wait for him to notice I’m not following him. When he finally stops, he looks at me and rolls his eyes. “Are we really going to do the theatrics today, Rosalyn?”
Arching a brow, I shoot back, “Are you finally going to tell me something about Endennia, Xavier? I’m sick of everyone keeping everything from me about that kingdom. You all tell me about Lapshire and Senda, but nothing about Endennia. And I won’t always be trapped here in Caldia, I need to know about each of the kingdoms.” My shoulders hunch, and I busy myself with my dress.
Xavier steps to me and puts his hands on my shoulders, slowly shaking his head. “Maybe the reason we don’t tell you anything about Endennia is because you’re a seventeen-year-old girl, and there’s a wall surrounding that kingdom for multiple reasons. How about you enjoy the remaining time you have before your responsibilities take over.”
I look out one of the windows with gold sheer curtains hanging over them. My teeth clench, and I whisper, “You mean the responsibilities of running a kingdom? I already have to deal with the responsibilities of the visions I’ve been blessed with since I was nine.” Whipping my head back around, I glare at him. “If you want to talk to me about responsibility and not being ready, you’re talking to the wrong person. Someone thought I was ready to handle the visions, so I’m more than ready to deal with what goes on in Endennia.”
Xavier throws his head back and laughs. “If you had to watch what happens in Senda with the Vampires, you would run home screaming for your mother. You aren’t ready for anything, Addy.” A shiver bursts through me at the use of his nickname for me. He pulls me to his chest and hugs me tight. “For once, can you just trust me when I say you aren’t ready for this? The reason I’ve refused to tell you anything about the mortal kingdom is because I want you to still believe there is some good in this world.”
With my face pressed into his hard chest, I relent. “Fine, I’ll trust you this one time.”
Xavier has always been there for me, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve resented how much he’s away. Now that I can fend for myself, my mother sends him on missions and assignments more often than not, so we don’t spend as much time together. “How long are you home this time?” I ask as I pull away from his chest.
He pushes his hair from his forehead, and while taking a deep breath, his brow furrows. “You know I never have any idea when your mother’s going to send me away again.” He again grabs my hand and pulls my cloak from underneath his cape. “Put this on so you don’t freeze to death.”
The corner of my lip draws up in a smile as I hastily pull on my cloak. Nervously, I wring my hands together. “Do you know where my mother’s sending you next?”
“Lapshire,” he growls as his fists clench. Xavier has hated Lapshire for as long as I can remember. For some reason, there has been a long-standing hatred between the Witches and Lycanthropes. I’m amazed we aren’t in an all-out war with them yet.
Grabbing his wrists, I try to calm him down before he loses his temper. Although he’s over a thousand years old, he can still lose control of his powers when he gets too upset. He slowly takes a few calming breaths and then looks down and grimaces. “Sorry, Addy, I’m still trying to calm down from that conversation with your mother.”
Nodding, I wrap my arms around him and give him a hug. He kisses the top of my head, and a throat behind us clears. I ball his cape in my fists. We haven’t even made it outside, and we’re already being interrupted.
“Well, well, well. . . How’d I know I’d find my sister here with you, Xavier?” Alizon snidely mocks.
Pulling back from Xavier, I look up at him. His pursed lips and blue eyes look like he could kill a bear. “What do you want, Alizon?”
She grabs my arm to pull me from Xavier, but I snatch it away. She’d better have a good reason for interrupting my time with him because I’m sick of her getting in the way. She knows how much I love him, the least she can do is be supportive.
Alizon finally pipes up. “Our mother needs to see her.”
Finally, I look at her face. She’s wearing a smirk.
Xavier gets my attention by running his hands through my curly black hair. “You should go see what your mother needs,” he softly says before kissing my cheek.
My insides slowly turn to liquid, and I’m practically a puddle on the floor. Alizon grabs my hand and drags me away from him toward the throne room. When we’re far enough away, she stops. “Get it together, Rosalyn, before you make a fool of yourself in front of Mother,” she chastens as she puts her hands on her hips. “How you can even be in love with that bastard, I’ll never know.”
Air audibly blows out of my lips, and I slowly count to ten in my head. The two of them are going to make me lose my mind before I’m twenty. “For just today, can you allow me to spend time with him without interrupting us? I’m sick of you getting in the way of our relationship.”
A burst of laughter breaks free from her, and then she’s laughing so hard she puts her hands on her knees, her flaming, red hair making a curtain around her face. “If you think you have a chance with him, you’re sadly mistaken.” She stands up and tucks my hair behind my ears. “I mean well, Rosalyn. But he’s going to break your heart, and I don’t want that to happen to you,” she gently says as her eyes grow soft.
“Allie, Xavier would never hurt me. He worships the ground I walk on, so you have nothing to worry about.” Hugging her hard, I know what I’m saying is true. He loves me so much, he’d never be the one to cause tears or pain. He’s always been the one to make all my heartache go away.
She kisses the top of my head and murmurs, “Let’s get you to Mother before she kills you.”
We let go of each other and rush through the corridors until we reach the throne room. It’s one of my favorite rooms in the castle because it’s so beautiful. My mother used the Elemental Witches to recreate the outside of our snowy kingdom in the room. Icicles hang from the ceiling, and you can see the snowy landscape through the sheer red curtains. Even the chairs look like a winter wonderland with snow around the black edges.
If I could handle being around my mother constantly, I would spend every second I’m not outside in this room. Pushing open the doors when we arrive, I walk in by myself with my shoulders back. When I glance up, my mother’s mouth is pinched and fury burns in her emerald eyes. That’s when I know she’s been waiting for me longer than she wanted.
Rapidly, I make my way to her throne and wring my hands in front of me. “Mother, I’m sorry you had to wait for me. As soon as I found out you wanted to see me, I came.”
“No excuses, Rosalyn!” Her voice sounds like the crack of a whip.
My heart quickens, and I tremble. Making my mother upset is the last thing I want to do. Though she is a great leader, her temper is something to be feared.
Taking some slow, deep breaths, I calm myself down. Weakness is not tolerated, and it’ll give her something else to ridicule. “It won’t happen again, Mother.” Meeting her eyes, I ask, “I know you wanted to see me. Why, Mother?”
Her hands fold in her lap as she looks me up and down. “I don’t approve of the choices you are making with your time, Rosalyn.”
Looking up at the ceiling, I try to figure out what she’s talking about. When I draw a blank, I look back at her and play with the sides of my dress. “Forgive me, but I have no idea what you mean. What am I doing wrong?”
She sits up straighter and narrows her eyes. It’s official, she’s gone into full “queen mode.” When she’s straight as a board, she means business. Dread courses through my veins as I feel my pulse thump behind my eardrum. “Rosalyn, the choice I’m talking about is Xavier.”
Are you freaking kiddin
g me? Her too?
My teeth clench so hard they almost break. “What about Xavier, Mother?” I bite out between my teeth.
Studying me as though I’m an ant behind glass, she says, “I know how close you and Xavier are, but it’s not appropriate that you two spend so much time alone. You are a crown princess. And to be seen going into your chamber with a man, especially one so much older than you, is an embarrassment to this family. From now on, if you want to spend time with him, you will do it outside of your chamber and with a chaperone.”
It’s hard for me not to raise my voice, and my vocal chords become thick with unshed tears. “Mother, this is unfair. I understand us not being alone in my chamber, but needing a chaperone? What would we possibly do together? He’s one of the only people I confide in. And now, I’ll have to do it in front of someone else. You’re taking away one of the only people I trust. Besides Alizon, he’s all I have here at court.” In a few short minutes, she has ruined my life. All I want to do is go cry in my chamber. My eyes sting, and I try to keep my tears at bay.
She slams her fists down on the sides of her throne. “Enough! The decision has already been made, and Xavier knows. I discussed it with him when he got back.” She leans forward, and her eyes bore into me. “Don’t fight me on this, Rosalyn. You won’t like what I do if you disobey me.” Her threat sends a shiver through my core.