The moment Zayden saw her stilled expression it was like he finally remembered something because he panicked. “Ruby!” Ruby stood with wide eyes and slowly started to back up out the door in shock. “No.” Zayden took a single step towards her. “It’s not what you think.”
She quickly turned and ran down the hall.
Zayden looked back at Bianca on the bed but didn’t hesitate to chase out after Ruby, probably trying to stop her from telling me. It was too late. I’ve already seen it.
Now I was alone with her. I took the silence as my chance and moved to the door, pushing it closed. Even the pup didn’t wake.
“Adele.”
“Sorry, Bianca but Zayden is mine.”
I started walking toward her in steady steps and she was definitely scared.
“No.” She went to the balcony to find a way down but I went after her. She was already trapped and turned to see me while begging. “No, please. I’ll do anything. Please.”
“There’s no other way. I’m sorry.” I pulled out my dagger and stepped toward Bianca but she panicked too much and fell over the side of the balcony when she tried backing farther away.
I rolled my eyes to the Princess’s clumsiness and went to the edge, looking over. Bianca was still alive but seemed to have broken her leg from the fall. That didn’t stop her from wanting to get away and she tried crawling along the ground. She was utterly terrified and she should have been.
I slid down the pillar and jumped to the ground with ease, eager to get this done. I needed Zayden back. Nothing was going to stand in my way, especially not Bianca’s attempt to escape. It merely only made me more determined, hungry for the chase.
She was still panicked and couldn’t move herself away well enough. Her broken leg was too much to ignore. She probably hasn’t felt anything close to it for pain in her life. She was a Princess after all.
I reached for her and grabbed her good leg, pulling her off the stone path into the grass, not to get her blood to stain the nice white stone while she screamed. “No! Please!”
“It’ll be quick.” I dropped her leg and kneeled down. Bianca got an even more scared look on her face when I pulled out the dagger again and her eyes were locked on it. It made her shake and I grabbed a nice handful of her hair, lifting up her head and slit her throat in the middle of a scream.
It was a clean cut, deep and effective to kill her instantly. I dropped her head and she was dead. It was over. I felt this sudden relief from it and was proud of the outcome. I hadn’t realized how nice it was to set my own missions until I actually got the chance to complete one.
I used my gift and easily made a hole in the ground where I put Bianca’s body and covered her up for good. No one would find her out here, not without my help.
Now all I had to do was wait but images of Zayden kissing her like she was me made me believe I killed her for a whole other reason than I intended. I was becoming saddened by it but anger still coursed through my veins and I took those feelings with me back to my room. I knew I was going to see him soon and hoped Ruby was successful in doing her job as I was.
Chapter 12
Zayden
I had chased Ruby down a few halls of the palace until finally I ended up using my speed to catch up to her when I could figure out her direction clearly. “Ruby! Stop! It’s not how you think. I don’t know what came over me.”
“Oh no, Zayden. You didn’t leave poor Bianca alone, did you?” Ruby gave me this evil conniving smile like she faked the whole thing.
I believed that she did in that instant and I got wide-eyed, immediately running back to my room. “Bianca?” There was no answer and I didn’t see anyone. Rift lifted his head to look at me and then around the room like he didn’t even know that I had left which would mean he didn’t see anyone else either. The balcony door was open though. It was the only thing different in the room and I curiously went to it. I looked high and low but still saw no one. If Ruby had been truthful, I knew where I needed to look and left for Adele’s room with Rift following in tow.
I wasn’t happy about this by any means. I knew he could sense it from me as he tried to keep up and I pounded on the door upon arrival with a bellowing voice. “Adele!” I opened it without an answer and Adele was sitting up on the bed in a robe with a book open in her hand. “Adele! Where is Bianca?”
“Who?” She casually looked up like she was trying to make sense of the question but I knew better.
“Don’t give me that. You know who.”
“Oh, Bianca. Right. That lovely Princess you’re going to marry. Haven’t seen her.”
“I don’t believe you. Where is she?”
“No, really. I don’t know what you mean.”
“I know you better than that. Where?”
Adele finally sighed as a sign of giving up this game and got up. “I’ll at least show you the whereabouts that I saw her last if you think that will help.” She led me out of the room and brought me outside in complete silence.
“What are we doing out here?”
She was walking around while looking around. “She should be somewhere around here.” She started walking onto the grass with me following. “Bianca? Where are you? I could have sworn that I just saw you.” She stopped and turned around toward me. “Oh, there you are.”
I looked behind me but didn’t see anyone but Rift sniffing around several feet away by the hedges maybe to do his business. “Where? There’s no one here.”
Adele took the smile off her face and replaced it with a cold glare. “You’re standing on her.”
I slowly turned my eyes to my feet and noticed the freshly dug dirt and uneven grass. Worry struck and I jumped back to look up at Adele. “You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t.”
Adele started walking toward me and walked right over the grass like she were wiping her feet on it. “You should think about how I felt when I saw you all over her like she was me then tell me that what I did was wrong.”
“Love, I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s been happening to me. Please.”
“Save it and just stay away from me!” She pushed her way passed me and I turned to watch her walk away. I knew I was in trouble but I had to make her see somehow. I didn’t want it to be over. My head seemed clearer and all I thought of was her while I walked back inside.
“Rift, come.”
He went with me but I knew I couldn’t face Adele yet. What would I say? The truth for sure but I didn’t know if she would believe it yet. I knew what I did was unforgivable and I wouldn’t blame Adele if she didn’t. I could only hope that our love was as strong as I thought and more importantly, hoped.
After hours of pacing the halls and going over every possible solution, I finally found the nerve to approach her. I walked to her door in the early hours of the morning and knocked.
There was no answer. I walked in with Rift cowering next to me like he was nervous and Adele was laying on the bed but she wasn’t sleeping. She was right on top of the covers.
“Love, can we talk?” She didn’t answer. I sat on the bed next to her with a sigh and she rolled away. “I know you’re mad but I still think we need to talk about this. I don’t want us to be over.” Adele still didn’t say anything. “Look, it’s not how you think. I don’t know what happened. My mind seemed to have drifted after our dance.”
“It looked like it worked.” Adele said quietly. “You just gave her what she wanted.”
I was surprised she said anything and tried continuing with it so we could get somewhere and hopefully resolve this. “What? No. I can’t really explain it further because I don’t completely know what happened myself. It could have just been the wine. It always does stuff to me.”
Adele rolled over angrily. “That doesn’t make it all right, Zayden.”
I laid next to her and faced her. “I know and I’m sorry. I want you. How can I make this right?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if this can ever go away.”
; She turned away again and I put my hand on her. “But it can. You made sure of it.”
“I took out the problem but the deed has already been done.”
“I’m sorry, Love. I just want us to be us again. You’re the only one I ever want to be with.”
Adele rolled back and we looked right at each other. “And you’re the only one I ever want to be with because I always loved you and I thought you felt the same way but now I’m not so sure.”
“No, Love. Don’t say that. Of course I love you. You should never doubt that, ever. You’re the only one for me and I won’t lose you now.”
“How do you know that? How can you be so sure this will be forever?”
“Because I know someone who has seen it.”
“Yeah, my father but that doesn’t prove anything and neither does that book.”
“You saw it too. With our child. I was there. I was a part of it.” Adele still didn’t say anything. “Look, Love. Everything happens for a reason and I think this is just a test.”
“A test?”
“Yes. Something we have to overcome to get passed and I know we will because it’s what we want, isn’t it?”
Adele paused again and I hoped she was thinking about it. “You might be right but you haven’t even confronted your father about us.”
“I will. Bianca is no longer here. He can’t force me now.”
“You’re not going to tell him that I killed her, are you?”
Her voice was scared and innocent and I smiled. “Of course not, Love. I’ll tell him that I sent her home. She’s nice but she’s not you. I’ll get him to understand. You have to remember that we have my mother on our side.”
She started to smile too. “I know. She’s the one that forced me to go just so you’d see me.”
“See? My father can’t say no to her now or to us. This will happen. I promise and I’ll never do anything to hurt you again if you call us together.”
She finally reached for me and touched my face. “We still are. I can’t really stay mad at you no matter how hard I try, can I? It bothers me sometimes.”
“It doesn’t bother me at all.”
Adele noticeably tried to restrain from kissing me but she did and I held her tightly, never wanting to let go and I never would. Her forgiveness was where my true peace lied and I just wanted to stay with her even though the sun had already begun to rise. This was the day I would do something to keep her forever.
Chapter 13
Darius
I woke and looked next to me. Ruby was sitting up on the edge of the bed with her back turned and I moved closer, reaching out my hand. “Hey, Ruby—”
“Don’t touch me.” She shook her shoulder to move my hand and I knew this was still about last night.
“Please.” I moved right up behind her but made sure to keep my hands off. “I’m sorry, all right? I overreacted.”
“Yeah, you did.”
“How long are you going to be mad at me?”
“Why should it matter? You’re never going to change. You’re always going to hate him and will never accept that he’s a part of our lives.”
“He is not.”
“See?” She turned around to look at me but was still mad. “That’s exactly what I mean but he is, whether you like it or not, he is and I’d wish you’d just—”
“I can’t.”
“But I can still wish it.”
“Do we have to worry about this now? He’s gone. We’re not going to see him for a while. There are some other things we need to focus on now.”
She sighed but in a good way. “Okay. I know you’re right. I’m sorry I was mad.”
“It’s okay. Where’d you go last night? I notice you left.”
“I—ah, helped Adele.”
“Really? Did she do it?”
Ruby nodded. “I was just the distraction to get Zayden away. I walked in on him just minutes from screwing her.”
My eyes widened. “Really? I wonder how everything will turn out now.”
Ruby shrugged and there was a knock at the door.
I went to it since I was closest and saw Jaylyn on the other side. “Hi! Do you know you have no doorknob on the outside?”
I looked at it, seeing the broken crystal on the floor and smiled. “Yeah. I know. Good to see you not covered in blood.”
“Please don’t.”
I smiled and pointed. “Ruby’s over there.”
“Thanks.”
I nodded and let her walk in.
“I’m sorry about Trever, Jaylyn.” Ruby muttered softly, getting to her feet.
“It’s fine. He did what he had to. You don’t need to be sorry.” There was a pause and Ruby sat back down. “So, how did it go with Adele last night?”
I walked by and laughed.
“What? What happened?”
Ruby was about to tell her when Troy stepped through the open door on the broken crystal.
“Oh, good.” I said. “You’ll want to hear this too.”
“What did you do to that?” Troy asked, looking at the missing doorknob.
“Broke it obviously. Don’t you want to know?
“What? This about Adele? Did she do it?”
“Yup.” Ruby said. “And buried. She didn’t have a problem with it at all when she saw them get intimately close.”
“What?!” Jaylyn and Troy said at the same time.
“Apparently that’s what happened.” I said. “I didn’t see it. Ruby walked in on them to get Zayden away so Adele could finish it.”
“Oh, no. She must have been pissed.” Jaylyn muttered.
Ruby nodded. “And now Zayden is with her trying to make it right.”
Troy sighed and put his hand over his face. “That’s going to be tough.”
“Actually, I don’t think it will go that bad.” Jaylyn said. “I mean, she did take out the source of the problem.”
“Bianca?” I wondered. “Maybe but I’m sure she’s still pretty steamed after what she saw. I know I’d be and I’d probably still be killing people.”
Both of Ruby’s eyebrows raised. “Really? Remind me to never cheat on you.”
I laughed. “Why would you?”
She paused for a moment and saw my smile. “Yeah. Good point. I guess you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Come on.” Jaylyn said as she stood up. “Let’s go see how things are going.”
Everyone looked at each other and we immediately walked to the door. I wanted to know if they worked things out or if she’s calling it over for good after what she saw. It was always hard to tell with Adele and the suspense was killing all of us.
Chapter 14
Jaylyn
We walked down the hall to Adele’s room and stood outside the door to listen but I didn’t hear anything.
“What do you think is happening?” Ruby asked.
“I don’t know.” Darius said. “I can’t hear anything.”
“Are they even in there?” Troy wondered. “Because I can’t even hear anything either.”
“Let’s check. That’s what we’re here for.” I reached for the doorknob and the door creaked open. We snuck in as quietly as we could and Adele and Zayden were sleeping on the bed right on top of the blankets with that adorable little wolf pup sprawled on the floor on Zayden’s side.
“Do you think they’ve talked about it yet?” Troy asked.
“I don’t know.” Ruby said. “It appears like everything is fine by the way they’re laying but it’s hard to say.” She snuck up to Adele’s side and got close to her.
“Ruby, get away from her.” Darius whispered. “You don’t know what’s going through her mind.”
“Oh. Come on. It’s not like she’s going to kill me.”
Adele woke up instantly from hearing her and grabbed Ruby’s hand, twisting it back as she pulled a dagger out from underneath her pillow and pointed it at her.
“Well, maybe I was wrong. Hey, Adele. It’s me.”
&n
bsp; When Adele realized it was Ruby, she let loose her grip and put away the dagger. “What are you doing? I could have killed you.” Ruby stood up and we were just looking at her. “What?”
“How was your night?” I asked.
“Which part?”
Troy smiled. “Both.”
“Both fine.”
I sat down on the bed with a voice of a caring friend. “Want to talk about it?”
“No. Not really.”
“So, what about him?” Darius asked pointing at Zayden. “Are you okay?”
“We’re fine. I’d just like to forget about it.”
We nodded and Adele leaned over Zayden to wake him up. First, she gave him a slight nudge. He noticed it a little bit but did so by rolling away. Adele got out of bed and walked around to his side, stepping over the pup and leaned down in front of his face. “Zayden!”
He jumped awake with the same loud voice. “What?!”
Everyone started to laugh that also made the wolf wake up and be curious about our presence.
“Wake up.” Adele said as she stood up and walked to the closet.
“So?” Ruby said, breaking the silence. “How was your night?”
“I’m sure you already know about that so I shouldn’t have to tell you.”
“Feeling okay?” I laughed when I saw how drowsy he was.
“I think I’m suffering from a mild hangover or it could be the fact that I’ve only slept for about an hour.”
“So, is she really not mad anymore?” Darius asked.
Zayden looked to the closet, knowing Adele was inside. “She didn’t seem so before we fell asleep. Just don’t mention it. It’s behind us now. Nothing major happened.”
“You mean other than you almost breaking up the family?” Ruby wondered.
“The family?”
“Yes! Us! We’re the family! I really hope I’m not the only one who’s noticed that.”
“Okay.” Zayden said as he started to get to his feet. “That proves it. We’re the weirdest family I’ve ever seen.”
I laughed. “That’s kind of what makes it so great. Where would the fun be if we were a normal family?”
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