Oh, no. Now I was getting worried.
“Where’s Adele?”
I tried focusing to answer his question. “Ah, she’s still at the palace.”
“You didn’t bring her?”
“You made it sound too urgent. I didn’t want to waste time looking for them when I could have done it myself.”
He looked down at Kole and Ryon on the floor. “Yes. I see. Thank you. Now, go get Adele.”
“Why?”
“Because she might still be there looking for you and I’m sure you can imagine she’s not happy about it.”
He was right, wasn’t he? Great. Why didn’t I just look for her first? Now she’s going to be mad at me. I just thought I had to get here quickly. Who knows what they really had planned? Whatever it was, I was glad I stopped it.
I didn’t want to leave Troy again but I did know that I had to get Adele even if that meant going back there and looking like my dress had just caught on fire. Maybe no one would notice. It was a costume ball anyway. I could be a burning meadow instead of just a normal one.
“It’s okay.” Troy said. He must have been watching my hesitation. “I’ll still be fine. Go find her.”
I nodded and slowly started backing away. “Okay. If he bothers you or threatens to, I’d like for you to step in Darius and put him on the floor next to his friends.”
“I absolutely will.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary, Jay.” Trever said. “But thank you.”
I was still nervous to leave but there was something wrong with Zayden. He hadn’t said a word and I needed to find Adele.
Chapter 17
Darius
I was standing ready for him to say something threatening so I could act on Jaylyn’s request. I imagined getting to do it over and over in my head but he didn’t seem much bothered by what she said. At first maybe I thought it was because he was apparently one of Kalu’s secret fighters. I haven’t forgot about them mentioning that to us back in Randal then I thought maybe it was how these two unconscious fools on the floor talked about him being too good of a fighter to fight anyone publicly. Well, he hasn’t fought me and I was definitely up to the challenge.
“Sorry about this.” He said after Jaylyn had walked over the door and left. “I don’t think I can apologize enough for them but you know how it is. Ask your friends to do you a favor and all they can think about is how it’s going to ruin their lives.”
“Huh.” I mumbled in a complete unimpressed tone.
“But it seems he got to you worse than I thought. How do you feel?” He looked down at Zayden and I was careful about anything he was about to do.
“I’m tied to a chair.” Zayden said to point out the obvious. “How do you think I feel?”
“No. I mean about that.” Trever pointed to his own eyes while looking at Zayden’s. “You can’t shut it off can you?”
Zayden’s black eyes glanced at me and he seemed surprised somehow. “How did you know that?”
Was Trever really right? He couldn’t shut it off? We’ve never seen him not be able to do that before. Even I was becoming curious about what he may know.
“I know a lot about you. First time it’s happened?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’ve never reached this stage in your gift before. It’s triggered by anger and the only way to get rid of it is to bite on something.” Trever reached into his pocket and pulled out a palm size object. “Here.” Zayden looked at it in his hand and up at Trever, unconvinced. It sounded a little ridiculous so I knew where he was coming from. “I’m not tricking you, Zayden. You should believe it. How else did I know?”
“I’m sure I don’t even want to know.”
“Then look at it this way, you can’t get out of here unless you do it. You’ll be a danger to everyone, even those closest to you.”
Zayden sighed and looked down.
“How did it happen?” Zayden didn’t reply and Trever looked at us.
I wasn’t closest to him so I wasn’t even sure when it first started. It could have been from anything they said but then the answer was clear.
“Ryon said something about father lying to him about his mother being alive.” Troy muttered.
That had to be it. Zayden did get really mad about that with every right to. If someone tried to tell me my mother was still alive, they’d be missing their head already. I knew for a fact she wasn’t. I saw her.
“I apologize again.” Trever said. “He didn’t mean it. Mothers around here are never well thought of. It makes those of us quite used to the insults. Kaluian mothers are a hard breed to love.”
“But was he right?” Zayden looked up, his eyes still black with hate. “He certainly was about me not knowing my father. I just couldn’t tell him that.”
Trever paused. I was wondering what he would say. Was it really true and he was thinking about telling him or lying to him? “That wouldn’t be up to me to say. It is your father whom you should be asking these questions.”
“And so the list keeps growing.”
“You’ll soon find that the longer you’re here, the longer it will become.”
“You mean us staying?”
“We’ll have to see won’t we?”
Zayden glanced to the object in Trever’s hand and leaned in for it with this bit of hope he had for us staying. Personally, I wasn’t sure how well it would work out with how our night has gone so far.
“You made the right choice.” Trever got closer and held it right in front of Zayden’s mouth for him and he carefully sunk is teeth into the hard surface.
He changed from it. He took a breath out like some pressure was released and his eyes gradually faded back.
“Good.” Trever turned slightly towards the mess on the floor from the flipped over table and pulled out a syringe from the other instruments. I watched him put the needle down into the tooth imprints and extracted a few drops of a clear liquid into the syringe.
“What is that?” Zayden asked. I think we all were thinking it.
“Perhaps we should take this conversation elsewhere.” Trever took the scalpel in his hand and cut Zayden free. I expected him to do something else or maybe just hoped for it but I guess he did the right thing. He would have been dead if he hurt Zayden.
“What about them?” Zayden stopped before following and looked at the two still on the floor. “Are you just going to leave them there?”
“I didn’t think you would have been one to care.”
“I don’t.”
“Well, now that you mention it, I should do something.” He grabbed a wrist from each of them and shown some of his strength by dragging them towards the back wall.
“Why don’t they wake up?” Troy asked.
“Well, when Jay puts you out, you have to wake up on your own. It’s a dark deep sleep that nothing else can wake you from.”
“Now what are you doing?” I asked it aloud the same time I thought of the question from watching him attach shackles to their wrists.
“Well, normally, another downfall to being put to sleep like this, you wake up angry and right now, these two angry around you wouldn’t be the wisest of choices. This will only buy you some time if they happen to wake up before I can get back down here to get them out. Come on.”
“Where are you taking us?” Zayden asked.
“To a more respectable place unless you like it down here. Your choice. It’s called freewill.”
Freewill? Did we really have that or was that a nice way of telling us to follow. I didn’t like it one bit but I did it.
Chapter 18
Zayden
Trever led us back up the stairs into the dining room and offered us a seat at the long table. “Please, sit. Do you want anything? Just say the word and you’ll have it.”
“How about some answers?” We sat down and that’s all I was looking for. Answers.
“About your—inherited gift?” Trever put the syringe on the table’s surface
and my eyes found it. “I thought you didn’t want to know?”
“Well, I do now. I don’t have time to wait for my father to tell me. What is it?”
“All right but only because you’re a danger now. This is what’s known as the deadliest thing in the world. It’s your venom.”
“You mean like in snakes?” Troy asked.
“Quite so. Except in this case, Zayden’s senses are purely based off the entire arachnid family who also possess a potent venom.”
“So, it’s spiders?” Some of it makes sense based on other things I knew I could do.
“Yes. Not any one in particular but all of them and some can be quite dangerous as where the poisonous venom comes from. In several cases, it’s used mainly to feed but others have the tendency to use it as a source of aggression like you have. Inject this into an animal or even a human and their chances of living are zero. The poison would take an immediate effect once it reaches the bloodstream and your victim would only have seconds to live once it hits their heart.”
“How the fuck do you know so much about this?” Darius asked. He let out a breath of annoyance with it and I knew he didn’t like to be sitting here at all listening to Trever’s voice or worse that he was in his presence. I knew before it happened that he would hate anyone who has successfully been with Ruby and Trever was that someone many times over.
“Well, let’s just say this isn’t the first crossing between us where there were no intentions to harm anyone. You should have guessed that. Izin and I have a mutual respect for each other but I’m sure he’s told you all about that already.”
“About what?” I asked.
Trever looked at me curiously like he didn’t understand my question at first. “He didn’t tell you who I am?”
“He never spoke of you at all.”
“Interesting. Then you must have never asked why he agreed to see us.”
“Why did he? Was it something about our meeting being planned?”
“Surprisingly, no but I can’t tell you about that now. It’d ruin all the fun of the surprise later.”
This wasn’t making any sense. I wanted to know what he was talking about but it was already clear that he wasn’t going to tell us so I moved on to something maybe he would. “Was this planned too?”
“You coming here? We knew you would, we just didn’t know when. That’s what we had Ryon for. We needed to know exactly how it would happen.”
“Why?” Troy asked.
“You have to know what you being here means. We’re doing this to protect them. You being alive means their death and not just any death. Assassin traitors have their own unique way of dying.”
I was curious. “What is it? They’ve never mentioned it.”
“Of course they haven’t because it’s only revealed to the leader, so only Adele knows.”
“How does it happen?” Troy asked, hoping it would actually be answered.
“Publically. They’re forced to battle each other until there’s only one left alive but it doesn’t mean they won anything. It just means that they get to endure a slow death. First, they’d be stripped of their title which means the Black Wings of Death would be cut from their body but that’s only the beginning of their torture. So, naturally, Adele would be the one to knock off Red and Jay quickly and painlessly so she would take the ultimate punishment in their place but I don’t think it’s quite something that even needs to be mentioned. They’ve had a hard enough week. They don’t need to be thinking about that now that you’re here.”
It sounded awful. I definitely wouldn’t want Adele to go through that. I was glad he was going to do what he could to stop it, even if we couldn’t be with them.
“What do you mean about their hard week?” Darius asked.
“I guess you don’t fully realize what you put them through by taking as long as you did whether it was your fault or not. Adele had herself locked up in here for the past week, Jay has been living in denial under Kole’s protection so she wouldn’t eventually breakdown and tell someone and Red had spent most of her time trying to sleep the pain away.”
“Just sleep? That’s it?” It didn’t sound too bad to me. Must have gone by quickly for her, unlike Adele’s lonely suffering.
“Not fully. She wakes up a few times screaming from the nightmares you’ve given her then cries herself back to sleep. She’s refused to be alone so I’ve had a pretty lazy week.”
“That’s enough.” Darius muttered. “We don’t need to hear anymore.”
Trever laughed. “No, you probably won’t want to but nothing to worry about. She’s officially yours. Just be careful. You don’t want her killing you or anything.”
“I don’t need your advice!” Darius snatched. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to step in. We would need our energy for what was to come.
Trever only laughed again. “Oh, yeah, that’s right because the chances of it happening again anytime soon are quite slim due to your agreement but let me just tell you that she’ll be the one to break first. She’s always first so you should think about the consequences of your decision when she does. She’ll have no problem going elsewhere to get what she wants and you already know where that will be.”
Darius’s eyes were narrowed and placed right on Trever without a word. His look said enough. I knew what he wanted to do and was proud of him the way he held it off.
“What are you doing?” The Kalu Assassins finally made their appearance back to us and Jaylyn had her angry eyes fixed directly on Trever.
“What? I’m just sitting here.”
“Where’s my father?” Adele asked, looking around. “He wasn’t at the palace anymore. Is he here?”
“If he were here, I think you’d notice.”
“Are the other two still—” Jaylyn hesitated even asking.
“Do you see the house in total chaos? Smell the blood in the air?”
“No.”
“Then yes, they’re still asleep.”
“Then what are you—”
“No! Stop!” Ruby’s voice startled us all. “Don’t talk to him.”
“Why?” Jaylyn asked.
“He’s just delaying us, making us wait until the General finds us instead.”
“Awe, Red. You hurt my feelings.” Trever said maybe like he was joking but it was hard to tell. I didn’t know him enough to know if he would do that or not.
“Whatever you’re planning, it won’t work.”
Trever laughed. “Excuse me. I merely laugh because you don’t know how wrong you are. I’m just doing my job.”
“Yeah, what’s in it for you?”
“What do you got?” Trever leaned back and looked her over by moving his eyes down her body.
“Watch it.” Darius said as he pointed across the table.
“You know what I mean.” Ruby put her hand on Darius’s arm for him to relax. I was glad he listened. “There’s always something in it for you.”
“But what do you give to someone that already has everything? Hmm, I can’t think of anything. What do you think, General?”
The Kalu Assassins all gasped and we turned around to see General Balwin standing in the doorway. His face was still but cold. His eyes were focused but burning fear through their veins. I’ve seen this look before on me; the only difference, I wasn’t afraid.
Chapter 19
Adele
My heartbeat was almost visible through my chest and I felt this fire of dread trace through me. The only thing I thought to do was get this started and try to get him to understand. “Father, I can explain this.”
“Silence!” My father made even me jump from his deep voice. “Trever.”
“Good luck.” Trever muttered under his breath as he got up from his chair and walked around to him. They talked to each other so we couldn’t hear and my father put his hand on Trever’s shoulder with a nod. Trever smiled to it and nodded back before he left the dining room.
It was quiet for a moment and my father turned
back with a long breath.
I had to do something before things went wrong. “Father—”
“Do you realize the extent of the trouble you’re in?”
“Father, please.”
“Lying to the Queen may be acceptable enough as I’m sure you’ve done it a lot but lying to me is not. I can’t even believe how long you’ve kept it from me but if this gets to her ear, they’ve just ensured the dishonor that my daughters are kill by the hand of their own.”
“Father—”
He held up his hand to silence me once again as he was stepping closer to us and we were backing up towards the table. “Not this time. This time, you’ve taken things too far. It would seem that I’ve been generous to you for too long. Opening up my home, giving you a place to call yours and just plain giving you anything you could ever ask for and this is how you repay my hospitality? By lying to me and trying to isolate yourselves from the world?”
I backed all the way into the table and I honestly didn’t know what to do. He’s been mad at me before but never like this.
“Stop talking down to them!”
No! This would have been worse. “Zayden, please.” I took his arm and tried pulling him back.
“No.” He only pulled away and continued. “He doesn’t have the right to treat you like this.”
“Oh, I don’t? My house, my daughters and I don’t have the right?”
I tried to stop him but I couldn’t and Zayden pushed the boundaries to get right in his face. “Stop acting like they did this alone. If you’re going to be mad at someone be mad at us.”
“Oh, I am mad at you and I shall have you know that your trip here has been in vain.”
“You know why we’re here and it has nothing to do with war.”
“Yes. I know all too well why.” My father rested his hand on the handle of his sword and my eyes watched him cautiously. “But I’m going to have to deny your staying here. It’s for their safety. You need to leave.”
“Father, please—”
Zayden held out his hand to me and continued this, only strengthening my fear. “My father didn’t spare your life and suffer in his own so you could live to condemn ours.”
Endless Night (Fate's Intent Book 3) Page 7