Broken Road (Fate's Intent Book 7)

by Bowles, April

  “I know you do and somewhere I am too. She’ll always be my friend but you’re where I want my life to be.”

  I was glad to hear it and couldn’t be gladder that we both agreed to put this crazy mess behind us. I was ready to finally get back to our life of peace and move forward but it would seem not all things would be as perfect as I hoped.

  Chapter 51

  Zayden

  I waited until the following morning before I checked on Troy again. He seemed much more confident now and said he and Jaylyn were fine. He must have taken my advice and I was glad for it. We were all ready to put those days behind us and make sure future years were never like that again.

  We left our wives asleep upstairs and decided to get ourselves some breakfast.

  We walked into the dining hall that was in the process of being cleaned and saw my father and Aleksander already in there having their breakfast.

  “Morning, father, Aleksander.”

  “Morning, boys.” My father smiled. “Have another late night, I see. We expected you to be up already. We have your horses waiting for you.”

  Darius laughed. “You’re eager to get rid of us.”

  “Of course not. If it were up to me or you for that matter, you’d live here.”

  “We may someday.” Troy replied.

  “Well, you shouldn’t be so surprised about your departure. You do it every other year.”

  We paused from eating and looked at each other, trying to figure out what he meant.

  Then it hit me and I was not pleased. “Father, you can’t be serious. The trip to the southern colonies takes months!”

  “Yes and is your duty as Crown Prince. We mustn’t make our people think that we’ve forgotten them just because they don’t live here in the city. It’s your duty.”

  “Oh, good.” Darius smiled, looking over at Troy. “We shouldn’t have to go.”

  “Don’t count on that. You boys haven’t done a thing on your own since you met as lads. That’s not about to change now. Your futures are tied into Zayden’s based on what you’ve chosen in the past. You will follow him and show assurance to the people that their future leaders care.”

  They both sighed at the same time but for me, this argument wasn’t over. “But father our pregnant wives can’t come with us and you can’t possibly be asking us to leave them for months and not be there when they need us.”

  “I’m not asking you. You’re going and that’s final. I gave you an extra day to mend things with them and now that everything is back to the way it should be, it’s time. Have it at good heart that you’ll be back for the birth of your sons and you will be.”

  “No we won’t. Father, Ruby is only a few months away. If we go now, Darius won’t make it back in time.”

  “It’s okay, Zayden.” Darius cut in, stopping my father from replying. “If this is what he wishes of us then we’ll do it.”

  My father nodded, respecting that Darius didn’t choose to argue it. “And we will make sure that the girls stay here and have access to the finest doctors, nurses and maids our country has to offer. Now you better get in a good breakfast and pack before you go.”

  He stood up with Aleksander.

  “I should be doing the same thing.” Aleksander said. “I’ve got to get back before the place burns down.”

  My father laughed and patted his back then turned his head back to the table. “Finish and get ready, boys. You also might want to think of what you’ll tell the girls.”

  We sighed at the same time while they disappeared out the door.

  “They are going to hate us.” Troy muttered. “Again.”

  “You have no idea. I’m sorry about this, Darius.”

  He sat still for a moment then looked over. “I said it’s okay. We do this every other year. We’ve just forgotten since we’ve been with them and we didn’t go last year because we were already stationed in the mountains ready to meet them.”

  “But you’re going to miss your son’s birth. Even thinking I might saddens me.”

  “Well, this is our job. It can’t be helped. They might understand.”

  Troy laughed to himself. “Yeah, right. Jaylyn was depressed when we were gone for four days. I can only imagine what months will do to her. We don’t even know exactly how long it will be.”

  “Maybe you can speed it up, Zayden.”

  “I’d like to say that I could for your sake but it’s not just us. We always travel with a royal announcement party. Besides, I don’t think it would be a good idea to just suddenly appear to the people. Our goal isn’t to scare them.”

  “Then I guess we better think of what to tell them.”

  We agreed with nods I didn’t really want to make but I knew we had to. It was going to be rough.

  We finished breakfast in silence then headed back upstairs to break the news. “Rift, wait for me outside. I need to do this alone.”

  He looked sad for me but he turned away and scampered down the hall like he was at least happy he was coming with us. There’s no way I could really leave him behind since he only listened to me and I guess I was glad for that. Now I had something else to do.

  I walked in my room and Adele was still peacefully sleeping. I walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed facing her. I really didn’t want to have to go through with this. She was going to be upset and I knew it. A part of it had already played out in my mind and I didn’t like what I saw.

  I reached my hand to her anyway and gently moved some of her hair away from her face.

  “I was having a good dream.” She said softly

  “I’m sorry to wake you. There’s just something we have to talk about.”

  “What is it?” Adele tried to sit up and seemed urgent. “Jaylyn and Troy aren’t talking about separating, are they?”

  I had to laugh. “No. Of course not. They would never. Everything’s fine with them now. Just how it should be.”

  “Good. What did you want to talk about then? Is there something wrong?”

  “We have to leave.”

  “Okay. Then we should pack.”

  Adele started to get out of bed and I put my hand on her shoulder, making sure she stayed. “No. Not we as in us. We as in Darius, Troy and myself.”

  “You’re leaving without me? Where?”

  “It’s this thing we do every other year and we didn’t go last year due to our absence from being in the mountains for months so this is the year for it. As Crown Prince, I have to make an appearance in the southern colonies.”

  “Okay. It sounds like you just have to do your job. I can understand that. Why do you sound so sad?”

  I paused for a moment and took her hand to do this as gently as possible. “It’s going to take me away for months.”

  “What?!” She sprung right up with no time to stop her and her eyes immediately started to water. “Zayden! You can’t!”

  “I have to, Love. I don’t have a choice.”

  “Then I’m coming with you!”

  “You can’t, Love! You know it won’t be right for you to go in the condition you’ll be in. We have to go alone.”

  A tear escaped her eye as she sat completely still and it rolled down her cheek. “How many months?”

  I paused again and thought about it for just a second, only being able to come out with one thing. “It’s going to come close.”

  “Zayden! You’ll be missing everything? What if you don’t make it in time? I want you here when our son is born!”

  “And I’m going to try to be, Love. I promise. I don’t want to miss that either.”

  “But what about Darius? He’s not going to make is back, is he?”

  “I’m afraid not but this is what we have to do and I’m sure he’s telling Ruby. You’ll all be together here. I want you to stay here so you’ll have everything you could possibly need within yelling distance. You can do this.”

  “I wish you didn’t have to go.”

  “I know. Me either but father’s
not changing his mind about this.”

  Another tear fell from Adele’s eye and she rushed into my arms almost with speed I could use. “I’m going to miss you so much!”

  “I know, Love. I’m going to miss you too. Just think of it as preparing for our future. I have to do this for us and for our son.”

  “I understand. I just don’t know how well I’ll be able to handle not seeing you.”

  “I’m sure you’ll do just fine. I’ll need you to be. For Seth.”

  Adele smiled and kissed me. “Just come back in one piece.”

  I laughed. “It’s not exactly going to be dangerous. This is us we’re talking about here.”

  “Just be safe, okay? You won’t have Jaylyn around so don’t let anyone do anything stupid.”

  “Okay. I have to pack.”

  Adele just nodded and let me get up off the bed but she watched me the entire time as I gathered everything I’d need. I dressed in a more Prince-like outfit of blue and silver and attached my weapons. Adele was still watching with her head relaxed on her pillow.

  I could see the sadness on her face and approached the bed while placing my crown on my head. “Are you sure you’re going to be all right here?”

  “I’ll have to be won’t I? You’d probably be angry if I followed.”

  “Never angry. Just disappointed that you didn’t stay here where it’s safest for you right now.”

  “I miss you already.”

  She started to cry and I did everything I could to comfort her. “Shh—it’s going to be okay. I’ll see you again.”

  “I don’t want you to go!”

  Her grip on me got tighter and it just made me feel worse about doing this. “You think I want to? I don’t have a choice. It’s my duty. We’ll both be able to get through this. I promise.”

  Adele still held tightly onto me as she continued to cry and I didn’t want to but I knew I should be leaving and started to slowly pull away. Adele wasn’t giving up her grip though and it was making things hard on me. I didn’t like to see her this way.

  “Love, I have to get going.”

  “No!”

  Her breaths were fast and deep, only making this more straining. “Please don’t do this. I’ll be back.”

  “I can’t let you go! I won’t!”

  “Don’t make me do what I don’t want to, Love.” I kept pulling her hands off me but she just kept putting them right back. “The sooner I leave, the sooner I’ll be back and I will be back on time.”

  “Zayden, don’t leave me! Please! I don’t want you to go at all!”

  “I have to, Love.” I was finally able to pull her off of me and held her wrists tightly as tears were still pouring from her eyes. “You’re making it hard on me but I have to and you have to stay here.” I kissed her lips as I rose to my feet and slowly let loose her wrists. Adele was sitting still except for her flowing tears and I tried my luck at taking a slow step back.

  “No.” She moved forward a couple of inches and reached out for me.

  It was still hard for me but I made sure I stayed out of her reach. “I’m sorry, Love. I have to go.”

  I took another step back and Adele moved a few more inches forward. “Zayden!”

  “I’ll try to write but I’m not sure how many messengers I’ll find for that.”

  “Please don’t go!” I was taking more steps back and she reached out to me again but stayed on the bed.

  “I love you and I’ll be thinking of you every day.”

  “Zayden, no.”

  “You better stay well for me.” I reached the door and opened it. “Good-bye, Love.”

  “Zayden!”

  I stepped out, closing the door behind me and I could hear Adele’s screaming cries from inside and glass breaking. I stood with my eyes closed and listened to the pain I was putting her through. I wanted so badly to just turn around and go to her. I didn’t want our separation to be this way.

  “She’ll calm down with time.”

  I opened my eyes and my father was walking towards me. “How can I leave her now?”

  “She’ll be fine. She’ll have to get used to things like this happening in the future. Better to start now. There are going to come times when you can’t always be together no matter how much you want to be.”

  I sighed and looked back at the door. Adele was still screaming inside and glass was still breaking. It sounded like someone was slowly killing her and I felt it was me. “I can’t leave her like this, father.”

  “Yes, you can. Come.” He put his arm around my shoulders and started to lead me down the hall away from the door. “She will be well taken care of. You best head off before she decides to chase after you.”

  I nodded with a heavy sigh. Deep down I knew he was right but I just didn’t want it to be so. “You’ll make sure she doesn’t follow, won’t you?”

  “Of course. Your horse is waiting.”

  I walked with my father outside to the stables and Darius and Troy were already on their horses waiting. Their faces were emotionless and I knew exactly why.

  “There you are.” Darius said in a not so impressed voice. “It’s about time.”

  “How’d it go?” They just looked at me with a raised eye brow while I was handed my horse. “Yeah. Adele’s still crying too.”

  “Let’s just go so we can get back.” Troy suggested.

  I nodded and we started to ride towards the palace gate. Rift was right next to my horse and he seemed to be the only one excited about this.

  “We’ll see you when you get back and by then their faces should be happy.” My father said.

  “Hopefully. Good-bye, father.”

  The gates were opened and we rode out with the royal party following behind, holding up the royal flag of the great white horse like the ones we rode upon. Our longest test of separation had begun and it was the worst one by far. Being there for the birth of my son was at risk and I could not let it happen without me; whatever it took—I’d be back.

  Coming Soon—

  The Eighth Installment

  Of The Fate’s Intent Series

  New Roots