Autumn Dawn (Fate's Intent Book 11) (13 page)

Now it was us who looked at each other.

“Wait a minute.” Dirk said. “You really have nothing to say?”

“No.” Darius replied.

“No words of caution or worry?” Bryce added.

“None.” Troy said.

“What’s the catch?” I asked.

My father laughed. “There’s no catch. You clearly already thought about this and we won’t object to your choice. We were, after all, just as adventurous as you at this age. It’s time you broke free and see the world as we did. It’s a good way to see what they’re up to.”

He was looking directly at me through the pause and I lightly nodded, knowing he spoke of getting the information we need on talks of war.

“Let’s just keep this between us until you’re gone. If your mothers find out they will be—unhappy but don’t worry about them. We’ll take care of it after you’re long gone. Now, go get ready and we’ll take care of the preparations for you to leave immediately.”

We were ready—well almost.

Chapter 23

Zayden

We stood together and watched our boys leave to prepare.

“Look how happy they are.” Troy said. “We did the right thing.”

“Yeah, but how are we going to tell their mothers we let them leave?” Darius asked.

“I’ll admit they will be mad.” I explained. “But they’re men now and they need to understand that letting them go was the next step Fate wanted to join them in life. This journey will not only test their skills but their will to be together as we once did. Let’s ready their horses. They have to get out of here before their mothers sense something’s going on.”

We sent someone to do it for us and waited for our sons to come back down, trying to make sure their mothers didn’t catch ear of this.

They were dressed and ready for travel with their weapons equipped and I couldn’t help but show a smile. They reminded me so much of us but it was a good thing to see.

Their colors even matched how we would dress when not travelling in our armor and every step taken toward us was just a reminder that they were grown up.

“You look ready.” I said. “Where are the girls?”

“Should be coming.”

We could hear their footsteps before seeing them but when we did, the boys kind of stood cold and starry-eyed.

It was amusing but I knew what we would have been in store for. The Assassin way never really changed from generation to generation and the girls took on the roles just as I assumed they would. The tight pants and leather corsets in their chosen colors were just how I’d expect. Lana wore white and red, Cadence wore brown and lavender and Naomi was in black and pink. It was only funny to watch them strut towards us because our boys were staring off as if they’ve never seen anything like it.

“This is already turning out to be a great trip.” Dirk muttered.

Seth and Bryce agreed while nodding and the girls joined us.

“Good. Hurry.” I said. We headed out into the stables and I handed Seth his horse. “You must swiftly ride out of the city before they catch wind of this.”

Seth nodded and got on.

“Aren’t you going to get into trouble for this, your majesty?” Cadence asked.

“I appreciate the concern but we know how to handle them.”

Cadence smiled, taking an interested look at her teammates. “I believe it.”

Seth was watching but I didn’t want to make a big deal about it and I pulled Cadence aside. “I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything.”

“I need you to save that kind of talk for my son on this trip.”

“Oh, your majesty, I—”

“I know but you need to know that he’s emotionally distressed with the recent events and seeing you again. I don’t want to put any pressure on you but you know as much as I do that your union is key in holding peace for the future and I’m counting on you to keep it that way.”

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s no pressure at all. I humbly accept my fate with your son and look forward to the days ahead.”

“That’s my girl. Take care of him.”

“I will.”

“Good. Now go. You need to leave at once.” Cadence nodded and walked to her horse. She got on and I walked back over to Darius and Troy by the door. “Everything you need is packed with you. Remember to look after each other and don’t get killed.” They all nodded and I turned to Troy. “Check their position. They need to make it out this gate unseen.”

Troy nodded and walked out of the stables. Darius and I led the others to the exit and waited for Troy’s signal before letting them leave. He used his vision to make sure their mothers weren’t anywhere near a window where they could see the palace gate and he waved his hand.

“Okay.” Darius said. “It’s clear.”

“Ride fast but not until you’re on the other side of those gates.” I told them. “We’ll see you when you return and hopefully everything should be calm by then.”

“As it should be, father.”

“We’ll see. You know they’re having a hard time letting go. We can only hope they accept it in the time it takes you to get back. Now go.”

They nodded and quietly left the stables toward the gate. We were left to only watch.

“And so it begins.” Troy said. “May this be that memorable trip that leads them in the right direction toward their futures.”

“Let us hope.”

Chapter 24

Cadence

We rode to the southern gates of the city and left down the southern road towards the sea. We rode swiftly as told from there until we were out of sight of the city completely and stopped to rest the horses for the remaining of the night.

We sat around a campfire while I was going over the map Aleksander sent me but I wasn’t paying attention to much else.

“So, Cadence, where are we going?” Naomi asked. “You haven’t told us.”

I didn’t answer. My mind was somewhere else.

“Hello!” Lana said. “Cadence!”

I finally looked up. “I’m sorry, were you talking to me?”

“Yeah. Why are you always chewing on that thing?”

I looked down at the chain I was holding. I didn’t even notice that I was running it back and forth between my lips while I was looking over the map.

“I’m not chewing it.”

“What is it?” Seth asked.

I pulled the whole thing from my coat and he saw the little blue stone heart wrapped in a silver wire.

“You still have this?”

“Of course. It’s lucky.”

“What is it?” Dirk asked.

I turned it so he could see it. “You were there, remember? Seth caged his heart for me.”

Naomi awed softly. “That’s so sweet.”

“Swell.” Lana sighed. “Where are we going?”

I put the necklace away to answer. “Rugis.”

“What’s in Rugis?” Seth asked.

“A lot of mountains but I think you mean for whom are we after in Rugis.”

“All right, then who?”

I was quiet for a moment as I looked over at Lana. I haven’t mentioned anything to her about what we were actually doing but I didn’t think it was something that required a group discussion so I stood up. “Lana. I’ve been meaning to talk to you sooner. Come here.”

I started to turn away but she stopped me. “Wait. Can’t you tell me here?”

“I don’t think I should.”

“Then do it quick and get it over with.”

I sighed as I sat back down. She probably just didn’t want to leave the protection of Dirk’s sight but I was okay with that and I took a deep breath. “All right, fine. They found him. It’s Kyos.”

Naomi gasped and looked over at Lana who had a blank look on her face. There was a pause as everyone sat there quietly until Lana started to laugh. Naomi looked over at me and was confused by her reaction. She shouldn’t be laughing about this. It wasn’t funny.

“Lana? Are you all right?” I asked.

“I think this is her freaking out.” Naomi whispered.

Lana tried to calm down. “No. I’m okay. This is all just too funny.”

“How is this funny exactly?” Naomi asked.

“Nearly two years! That’s how long it’s been since he disappeared and now that I’m ready, Fate is sending us to kill him. It’s perfect!”

“Who’s Kyos?” Dirk wondered.

It was quiet. Naomi and I looked over at Lana and we could tell that she started to think about her past a little more and was getting upset on the inside. Anyone would. It was heartbreaking.

“Kyos is—” Naomi trailed off as Lana remained to look at the ground in front of her.

She didn’t want to say it but neither did Lana. She stood up and turned away. “Soon to be dead and then it won’t matter.” She leaped up into the air and turned herself into a bird as her clothes fell to the ground where she stood.

The guys all looked up and surely began wondering what happened to her if she couldn’t even say.

“I know you must be curious.” I said. “So I’ll tell you because everything will make much more sense when we get there.” Naomi nodded and waited for me to start from the very beginning. “Naomi and I have known each other for about seven years. We’ve met with, well, your mothers on several occasions since then pertaining to what we do now and we’ve been looking for the third. We met Lana three years ago and immediately got our hopes up. I mean, obviously, she’s got the look and I’m not going to lie, we wanted her.”

The guys looked at each other and smiled but that was the only happy part about this story.

“It seemed so simple but when we actually approached her about joining, she was very skeptical. She’s always been real big on family. Being the oldest of five other siblings, she had a pretty big responsibility to them and declined our offer. We didn’t want to but we respected it and tried moving on. I say tried because we just could not succeed after meeting her. There’s no one like Lana.

“Then that night came that changed all of our lives. There was a fire on her farm that claimed the lives of everyone in her family. Her mother, father, three little sisters and twin brothers but by morning, she was the only one found alive; barely. When she started to come to, she was vigorously questioned about what happened but she kept saying she didn’t know. No one believed her. She was called crazy and was blamed for the fire and their deaths and was locked up for it.

“It was nothing more than a small town jail but Kyos was the man in charge. She was beaten and raped for two straight months by him and the other guards that patrolled there and even some of the other prisoners.”

The guys remained quiet and Dirk looked back up to the tree. I hated saying all of these things but it was something they had to know.

“By then, we still haven’t found our third member. We just couldn’t after meeting her. Even Ruby was in love. She’s actually the one that decided to check in on her again but the farm was gone. She asked around and the information led her to that jail where she was kept. Ruby is the only one that saw firsthand what was happening and she lost it. Everyone present in that jail that day suffered greatly for their deeds; everyone except Kyos. He fled and has been hiding ever since but now we know where he is and he won’t be able to get away this time.”

Dirk seemed to hate this story the most and probably wanted to make Kyos suffer by his hand but we all should have known this was Lana’s mission.

“Don’t worry, Dirk. She’ll be back. She won’t stay up there forever, not knowing you’re down here anyway.”

“But it’s strange.” Seth said. “She doesn’t seem to let it affect her so much.”

“That’s because she knows what happened to her wasn’t her fault but it’s very important that you knew about her past especially you, Dirk and that it won’t be completely over for her until she sees him dead too.”

He nodded. I’m sure he understood. It was a relief for me when I knew they had killed Curtis those years ago even though he never touched me the way Lana has been touched but she would still need this.

We sat for several more minutes until she decided to fly back down. “Don’t even because I’m fine. I didn’t want to stick around for that story which was pointless because I heard it anyway with this bird hearing.” She hopped closer to her clothes and burrowed herself in them.

“What are you doing?” Seth asked.

“You’ll see.” I said.

Lana transformed back into her human form and was fully dressed.

“I thought you couldn’t do that?” Dirk wondered.

“I can if I’m an animal small enough to fit back inside my clothes but when I turn into something bigger I can’t do that and therefore have to come back naked.”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.”

Lana smiled, feeling the disappointment in his tone. “Awe, you were hoping I was going to come back naked, weren’t you?”

“I might have been.”

Lana leaned into him and they started kissing while the rest of us sat here to watch.

“Okay.” I mimicked Seth’s power and separated them. “Do that on your own time.”

“Whose time is it if not my own?” Lana asked.

“It’s mine. We’re not done talking about this. It was only delayed because you flew away.”

Lana sighed and laid her head in Dirk’s lap. “Fine. Go ahead. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Okay, well, I’ve calculated that it’s going to take us about six days to get to the southern docks.”

Naomi’s mouth dropped. “What? Six days of this? Great. What are we going to do for six days?”

“I can think of something.” Lana smiled as she looked up at Dirk.

He smiled back. “I’m liking the sounds of that.”

“That’s enough. No one wants to hear about your sexual fantasies, Lana. At least I don’t, so just stop.”

“Awe, you’d agree but you’re more of a bed-girl. I’ll do it anywhere.”

“We’re not talking about that. Now, as I was saying. Once we reach the docks, Porter will be waiting there with a ship to carry us across the sea into Rugis.”

All Lana’s thoughts of pleasurable enjoyment left her mind when she let out a disturbed groan. “The sea? I hate the sea. It always smells bad and makes you want to throw-up.”

“Well, you better get used to it. It will take us a day to sail to the island he’s on.”

“A whole day? Yay, I can’t wait.”

“Aleksander has graciously sent us a map of the mountains there where he pin pointed Kyos’s location. It should be simple to follow and when we find him—”

“I know. It’s playtime.” Lana held up her hand and claws came out.

“Just don’t be long about it. I know you went through a lot because of him but please just get it done and get out. There’s no time for long periods of torture.”

“Don’t worry. First, I’m going to make sure he remembers me. Then I’m going to rip off his—”

“Ah!” Naomi shouted. “Maybe you forgot but we have some guys here that I’m sure don’t want to hear about how you plan to do it.”

Lana looked up at Dirk and smiled. “Oh, right. Sorry. It’s a good thing you stopped me.”

“Yeah. Cadence, is there anything else?”

“No, not really. It’s pretty straight forward. We get there, Lana kills him and we leave. It should be simple.”

Naomi smiled. “Oh, good. So, it’ll be like a vacation.”

I laughed. “Only, we never been on vacation.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a first time for everything.” Naomi pulled out one of her metal fans and opened it up.

“Whoa. Let me see that.” Bryce took it from her hand. “Is this your weapon?”

“Yeah, it comes in a pair. See?” Naomi pulled out the other one and opened it.

They were both about eight inches in length when closed and when open, every other segment of the fan was black with pink in between and each with a sharp pointed edge at the top.

“And you can really use these things?” Bryce wondered as he tried opening and closing the one in his hand.

Naomi laughed. “Yes. Unlike you we got to create our own weapons so I’d hope I know how to use it.”

“Really?” Dirk looked down at Lana still with her head on his lap. “Let me see yours.”

She smiled as she sat up and pulled out one of her fang blades from the back of her belt and handed it to him. It was a unique piece in the way that it looked just like an oversized fang from an animal with the main part of the weapon curved down eight inches below the handle and a smaller fang at the end of the hilt.

“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.” Dirk said as he was looking at it.

“Really? Because I have another one just like it.” Lana pulled out the other one from the back of her belt.

“Let me see one of those.” Seth said as he held out his hand.

“Catch.” Lana tossed it over the fire towards him.

Seth used his power to slow it down as it got closer to him so he could get his hands on it safely. “It is pretty interesting.”

“Then you should see her thing.” Lana said as she pointed at me.

“The sword?”

“No, the other thing.”

“She means this.” I pulled my dual winged blade off my back to show him.

It had a short six inch handle in the middle that held the two winged shaped blades at the ends that matched the handle guard on my three foot straight sword.

“That is interesting.” Seth said as he put Lana’s aside and took it from me. “And it’s so light.”

“Easier mobility for when I throw it at someone. It has its uses.”

“It’s nice.” He gave it back and picked up Lana’s fang blade again. “Lana, catch!” He tossed it back over to her and she caught it by the handle effortlessly.

“So, where are we going to sleep?” Naomi asked.

Seth and I looked at each other and smiled.

“Give us a second.” Seth said as we both stood up.

“You might want to hurry.” Lana replied.

We walked away from the fire and Seth used one of his gifts as I mimicked him and together we created a shelter out of the surrounding landscape for us to sleep in.

Lana sat up and looked at it when we were finished and started to stand up. “Good. It’s going to start pouring soon.”

“How do you know?” Dirk asked as he climbed to his feet.

“Animal instincts. We better hurry.”