Deciding Skies (Fate's Intent Book 2) (27 page)

He looked worried. “Of what?”

I looked at the door, placing my palm against it and rubbing it for a moment. “You have to be careful about how you approach her. She’s fragile and scared. I’ve already seen her this morning but she wouldn’t mum a word to me.”

“Is she all right?”

“I don’t know. Just be careful.”

“All right. Thank you.”

“Of course, your majesty.”

“And don’t worry. I won’t get you into trouble for this. My father never has to know it was you.”

“Thank you.” I enjoyed getting to interact with his sweeter side and I turned down the hall to let him see her alone.

He would fix things. I knew he would. He was good at that. It’s something he got from me.

Chapter 37

Zayden

I turned my attention back onto the door. I was worried and sorry that I ever made her go through any of this. I opened the door and stepped in cautiously. My eyes eagerly traced the room but I saw no one. “Love?”

No reply.

I stayed still and Adele stepped into view at the entrance of my father’s bathhouse with a glass of water in her hand. “There you are.”

She looked up. Her immediate reaction was to quiver, dropping her glass and backing up. “No! Please! Stay away!”

I was more than concerned to see her this way and tried to ease into getting closer. “Love, it’s all right. It’s only me.”

I took a single step but it brought tears to her eyes. “Please don’t hurt me anymore!”

“Love, it’s me, Zayden. I’m not the King. The King is gone. It’s only me.”

Adele stopped herself from backing up anymore, squinting her eyes for a better look. “Zayden?”

“That’s right.” I smiled, taking another small step forward, hoping she would see me as me. “It’s me.”

She began to smile. “Zayden!” She ran to me and I opened my arms to welcome her back into them. “Please don’t ever leave me alone!”

“I won’t. I’m right here. I had to see you. My father is gone. Nothing else could have stopped me.”

She started to cry. “Please don’t ever let him find me again!”

I was both confused and worried about her sudden outburst. “What happened last night, Love?”

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“What did he do to you?” I pulled her back so I could see her face and it was already soaked in her tears.

“I was so scared. I never thought I was going to see you again then I somehow thought he was you but things went too far before I realized it and he wouldn’t stop. He just wanted to make it hurt and all I could do was let him.”

“You mean, he raped you?” Just hearing it made Adele’s eyes water more and I pulled her back into my chest. “Oh, Love. It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I’m here now and I’ll never allow that to happen again. I’ll make sure of it by firstly telling you that we’re leaving tonight.”

Adele pulled away and looked up with hope I finally got to see. “We are?”

“Yes. There’s no other reason to stay.”

“Okay.”

“That’s really all you have to say?” I was expecting more.

“The last thing I want to do is fight with you right now.”

I smiled and stepped into her, taking her body into mine and kissing her lips.

Adele stopped it after only a second. “Can we please take this slowly? I’m not really up for—”

“I’m not him, Love and I would never hurt you.”

“I know that. I just need some time.”

“Okay and don’t worry, this will work. We have to talk about leaving more securely with the others after we get you out of here. Get your things.”

“Are you sure that’s safe?”

“My father is gone, Love. No one is going to keep us apart. Kathryn even brought me right to you the second he was out the gate. Nothing will get in our way.”

Adele nodded and turned towards the pile of her belongings taken from my room just hours ago. They found their way back.

“Thank goodness you’re not dead!” Jaylyn’s upbeat voice hugged around Adele with her tight arms the moment she saw her.

“Why is it you always think I’m dead?” Adele asked with a sigh.

“Well, we didn’t know what happened. You were just taken away from us and probably spent you’re night cold and alone in some dark place somewhere.”

Adele paused for a moment and shifted her eyes back towards me. Hers were almost watering again and I could tell she didn’t want to answer. “Why don’t you take your stuff inside? I’ll handle it.”

Adele only nodded. If she spoke, it would have been with broken words and she went right into my room without looking at anyone else.

“Is she okay?” Jaylyn whispered.

I looked back and waited for the door to close. “No. She’s not okay.”

“What happened?” Ruby asked.

“She was taught a valuable lesson through strenuously induced intercourse.”

Ruby and Jaylyn looked at each other to my very vague explanation. I hated even saying that.

“Is that supposed to be a nice way of saying she was raped?!” Jaylyn asked.

“I don’t like thinking about it either.”

“Are you sure?” Darius asked. “I never knew he had it in him.”

Ruby and Jaylyn looked at each other with a light nod and started to walk the other way down the hall.

“Where are you going?”

“Oh, nowhere.” Ruby replied, not looking back. “We’re just going to kill the Senian King. We’ll be right back.”

Our eyes widened and we hurried to get in front of them.

“Wait a minute.” I said. “I don’t think so.”

“You going to try and stop us?” Ruby’s eyes were red with a light breeze blowing around her hair. “No one gets away with treating Adele that way.”

“I understand that. I’m not happy about it either but killing him won’t change anything.”

“It’ll make me feel better.” She extended her pointer finger to me and moved me out of the way without touching me. I backed off on my own.

“Ruby, wait.” Jaylyn said, grabbing her arm. “You know he’s right. It won’t.”

“You know what I just love?” Ruby turned back around to us with a smile but her eyes remained red. “How men think, just because they have the dicks, that they can do whatever they want and get away with it, especially if it involves a woman because hey, we have no feelings so who cares how it’s going to affect us.”

“That’s not how we think.” I said.

“Sure now only because I’m standing in front of you like this and could kill you if you moved wrong.”

“That’s not why. I’m not afraid of you.”

Ruby laughed because I may have lied a little. I respected what she could do and let her walk around me to go to Adele. No one hesitated to follow.

“I’m fine.” Adele said, pulling away from Ruby’s hug.

“Don’t worry. We’ll deal with it at a later time.” Ruby replied, moving her eyes back to me. I knew she was kidding even if she didn’t sound it. She knows what something like that could have done, not just for us but the world.

“That’s not necessary.”

“I’m still having a hard time believing it.” Darius said.

“I’m not asking anyone to. Only I was there and would much prefer not reliving it.”

“And so you won’t have to.” I said. “I hope all of you are ready. We’re leaving tonight.”

“We are?” Troy asked.

“Yes. Staying longer would just be foolish. Father has left Lamar in charge until he returns.”

“What?!” Darius and Troy shouted together.

I sighed to it. “I know but he says I’m not fit for the job, I’d be too distracted and he’s absolutely right.”

“Is that why we’re leaving so soon?” Ruby asked. “Does Lamar know?”

“I don’t think so. My father was very vague. You weren’t mentioned in the open to him but we still shouldn’t give him the chance. He’s not going to believe that my father is letting you leave. He will have you killed if he finds out. He has the authority to do so now with my father’s word.”

“So, when exactly do we leave?” Jaylyn asked anxiously.

I laughed by her behavior. “Late tonight after everyone is well asleep. We’ll do what we’d normally do for today then leave tonight so no one suspects a thing. Everyone ready?”

Darius nodded. “We will be.”

“Good. Now, I’m sure you can find something better to do with your time. Adele will need her rest. You have all day. Just don’t leave the walls.”

“All right.” Ruby’s eyes rolled and she took Darius’s hand, pulling him towards the door. “Don’t worry. We won’t.”

The four of them left the room and I was left standing with Adele. “Go ahead and get some rest. You don’t have to do a thing all day.”

“Thank you. What are you going to do?”

“What do you want me to do?”

She took a step back. “Can you—”

She trailed off and I understood completely, taking no offense to it. “It’s okay. I know you still need time. I’ll stay around. I haven’t even changed since yesterday so I’ll take a shower first then find something to do while you rest.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

I was glad she appreciated it and went back into the bathhouse so she could start resting. I knew she was going to need it. We would be up the rest of the night and only stop shortly the next few days just until we made it into Kalu safely. It was finally going to happen.

Chapter 38

Darius

We walked down the hall slowly away from Zayden’s room. None of us seemed to want to mention anything. I would have been up for arguing that there was no way father raped her but I also didn’t want to get Ruby all worked up again so I kept to myself.

“So—” Jaylyn began.

“Yeah. I guess I should apologize.” Ruby said. “I didn’t mean to go all crazy on you guys back there.”

I smiled. “It’s okay. I would have been mad too but something just doesn’t seem right.”

“I’d like to not argue it. Any man is capable of raping someone. Even someone who seems nice like he’s been to us.”

Okay. Now I wasn’t going to continue it. I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to me just so I wouldn’t.

“So, let’s say it’s a normal day.” Jaylyn said, clung tight at Troy’s side as usual. “What would you be doing?”

“Hmm―” Troy thought, sharing a quick look with me. “Not being able to leave the walls? I have no idea.”

Ruby laughed. “He really means they’d be adding to their list of women but he didn’t want to tell you that.”

I tried not laughing.

“Do you think that’s all we ever do?” Troy asked.

“It’s what our spare time has been like so far.”

“We do other stuff, have responsibilities. Maybe not like the extent Zayden has but it’s still boring. We wouldn’t punish you by bringing you along.”

“Like there would be anything to do anyway with father gone.” I sighed. “He didn’t request anything to be done so we get to just do nothing.”

“You live an exciting life.” Jaylyn smiled. “Just forewarning you, ours isn’t that much better.”

“We’ll be together. That alone will make it better.”

I rolled my eyes to Troy’s comment but Ruby is the one that said something about it. “Can you put the mushy stuff on hold? This is something that you really need to think about. You’re running out of time.”

“But we’ve already decided.” I reminded her. “And we’re going with you. What’s to think about?”

“How different things will become. I hate it when Adele is right about these things but she was. It’s going to be dangerous for you.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“Have you met others like us before?” Jaylyn asked.

“Like you how?”

Jaylyn’s eyes shifted around for other listeners. “Gifted. Well, I mean besides Zayden and the King?”

I laughed, amused just to hear it. “No. We can definitely say that we haven’t. Why? Is this finally you getting to tell us about those other two?”

Ruby and Jaylyn looked at each other with a little worry but I wanted to know and thought they should tell us.

“Is there a safe place around here? Somewhere that no one could hear us talking?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Our walk became silent and no one said another word until we were closed securely inside the conference room.

“Is this really something you’re allowed to tell us?” Troy asked.

We all sat around at the table and Jaylyn lowered herself down with a sigh. “Probably not but the more informed you are, the safer you’ll be.”