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.”
“I’m not exactly sure.” Ruby leaned back in her chair, appearing comfortable while putting her foot on the table. “They seemed rather eased the few minutes we saw them here.”
“Clearly an act. They wouldn’t have started a fight here.”
“Who exactly are they?” Troy asked.
“Well, we usually don’t tell people this because we don’t want it leaked in the wrong places but they are part of Kalu’s secret trio of professional fighters. They actually kind of remind me of you.”
Jaylyn instantly perked up and gave Ruby a swift slap on the leg. “How dare you compare them?! They are not like them at all!”
“Kind of.” Ruby repeated. “I didn’t mean behavioral wise. No one that’s ever crossed them has lived to tell about it. In that sense, it is like them.”
Jaylyn let out a long sigh and rolled her eyes.
“How come we’ve never heard of them before?” Troy asked. “Wouldn’t enemy territories heard something?”
Ruby shook her head and didn’t seem nervous or afraid about talking about this like Jaylyn was. “No. Their missions are self-chosen. The Queen doesn’t even have control over them and they always make sure their targets don’t survive or remember what happened.”
“What are their gifts?” I asked.
“Well, we couldn’t tell you Trever’s gift even if we wanted to. We don’t even know what it is. He says we have to guess but I’m sure whatever it is, it’s stupid.” Jaylyn said. “I’ve never seen him do anything weird or at least not humanly normal.”
“And the others?”
“You won’t have to worry about Ryon.” Ruby said. “At least physically. He’s going to be more out to kill Zayden than you two when you see him on our turf. He was fighting to keep it happy here. I could tell.”
“Is this because of Adele?” Troy asked.
“Yeah. He’s in love with her. Everyone knows.”
I was surprised about how bluntly she just said it and glanced over at Troy. “Does she know?”
“I’m sure she does. She’s just never responded to it but it’s not like he’s that open about it. It’s just obvious at times.”
“Well, if he’s going to be a problem to Zayden, he’s a problem to us. He wouldn’t need to handle it by himself.”
“And by handle it, I hope you mean just ignoring him completely. You’re not allowed to kill anyone.”
“Yeah.” I smiled jokingly and glanced towards Troy who was trying to douse his. “That’s exactly what I meant.”
Ruby’s eyes narrowed.
“Why wouldn’t he be more of a threat to us?” Troy quickly asked, trying to hold back his laugh. “His gift not powerful?”
“Oh, it is. It’s just not anything he could really use against you. He can look into the past.”
“Look into the past?” I repeated it as a question. “Why would anyone want to do that?”
“To know things you normally wouldn’t have because you weren’t there. It’s how he knew exactly what happened since we’ve been with you. Even a second ago would be considered the past.”
I looked at Troy again and I think we may have been thinking of the same thing, remembering them talking in the bathhouse after the duel. They had mentioned something about them knowing and I guessed that Ryon’s gift had to be why.
“So then why was Kole so confident that he’d kill Zayden if he chose to fight for her?”
“That was just Kole being Kole but I believed him when he said Ryon wouldn’t.”
“What of Kole then?” Troy asked. “We saw him do what Adele can, including moving me which felt pretty weird.”
Ruby looked to Jaylyn who’s been sitting in silence, staring off at nothing.
“Well—” Ruby began slowly.
“We’re all going to die.” Jaylyn’s eyes were still blank with her stare. It was quiet again and we were all looking at her.
“We’re not.” Ruby said.
“Then you have way too much faith in him.” Jaylyn blinked and finally met someone else’s eyes. “Kole gets what Kole wants and no one will be able to stop him.”
“Not even you?” I asked. “He not conveniently in love with you or anything?”
I was hoping maybe that would help us if he was but Jaylyn laughed. “In love with me? Did it look like it? No. Kole can’t love anything besides causing pain and anguish to others. If he holds any kind of love towards me it’s only how he loves to hurt me.”
Troy sat right up. “He abuses you?”
“No.” Jaylyn smiled, touching his arm quickly with her hand. “Not like that. Not physically. He’s not allowed to touch me in that way whether I would heal right away or not. Trever would kill him. It’s really the only good thing about having an older brother.”
“Good.” Troy muttered as a sign of relief. “I’d hate to make him regret ever doing it.” Ruby laughed. “How is that funny?”
“Oh, no. I’m not laughing at you. I’m just imagining Kole watching this. He’s the one laughing at you.”
“It’s a reasonable argument.”
“Yeah but he’s not effected by threats. You’d be dead before you could even try to avenge her.”
Jaylyn’s hand slid from Troy’s arm to his hand, grasping it tightly.
“That won’t happen.” Troy assured her, placing his other hand over hers.
“You don’t know that.” Jaylyn muttered with tears gathering in her eyes. “You don’t know him. His gift is deadly. He could kill you just by meeting your eyes.”
“Really?” I leaned forward and was interested in knowing more. “Like the Touch of Death without the touch?”
“Kind of.” Ruby said. “That’s just a small part of what he can do. I don’t even know if his gift has a name but if it does, it’s Endless Power. He can change things with both his mind and hand movements like you’ve seen but there’s also so much more. He can just make something app
ear if it was needed and kill you with a look or just put you through so much pain you wish you were dead. That’s just the stuff we know about. We’ll have to be careful.”
“Careful?” Jaylyn laughed. “Try avoiding him completely. He sees them there and they’re dead. He’s already planning how he wants to do it.”
“Then I hope he is listening.” Ruby smiled, glancing her eyes around the room. “You can try, Kole but you and I both know what will happen if you do and you and I both know you don’t want that.”
“Stop encouraging him watching.” Jaylyn sighed. “I’d like to think that he wasn’t.”
“Well, you know he is and I’m sure he got the message.”
“You’re plan won’t work.”
“What plan?” I asked.
Ruby kept her smile and turned her eyes to me. “There’s only one thing that can stop Kole and—”
“Yes.” Jaylyn cut in with another sigh. “But Trever is not going to care if he kills them. Believe me.”
“I guess we’ll have to see. Trever is usually much more loosened up than how you saw him. That was his determined intimidation act. He’s really quite good at it.”
“You mean because it made him sound like he was in charge?”
“Yeah. He probably only wanted us to think him being here was a big deal so he had to act it. You’ll see him much more relaxed when you come with us. Is there much you have to pack?”
I laughed. “Pack? No. That would only slow us down. We won’t need much.”
“Really?” Jaylyn wondered. “You’re going to leave everything behind? You understand that you may not come back.”
Troy smiled and grazed his finger down her left cheek to her chin. “Of course we know that. We chose this, remember?”
“I just—I just thought you’d want to bring something.”
“It’s not our past that we’re concerned about. It’s making our future with you.”
Jaylyn fought to not smile and they leaned in closer to each other for a kiss.
“Could you please not grow up somewhere else?” Lamar had stepped in with papers in his hand, looking down at them as he walked.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Well, some people have work to do. The kind that actually know what that is.” I looked at Troy, narrowing my eyes at his comment. “Get them out of here. You know Izin doesn’t allow you to bring your tramps in here.”
Deciding Skies (Fate's Intent Book 2) Page 20