Forgotten Days (Fate's Intent Book 6) (6 page)

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.”

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?”

Everyone shared in my laugh and Adele came out of the closet all dressed. “Okay. I hope you’re done. I’m sure we all have something we need to do today.”

“We do?” Zayden wondered.

Adele rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Like you need to get dressed and go face the music downstairs by telling your father that you sent Bianca home.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Wait a minute.” Troy cut in. “Didn’t you kill her?”

Adele laughed. “Yeah but do you see that story going well with Izin? Not likely.”

“I don’t really see the other one going well, either.” Darius replied.

“It’s Zayden’s problem, okay? Let him deal with it.”

“Oh, gladly.”

“I’m going to find my father. Good luck.”

Zayden sighed as he looked back at us and we were all smiling, at least I was and quoted Adele but with a bit more humor. “Yeah, good luck.”

He was clearly exhausted and didn’t think I was amusing. “Five more minutes.”

He fell back on the bed with resting eyes but we couldn’t let him go to sleep. He needed to fix this.

“Not yet.” Darius said, easily getting him to sit up. “Sleep after you accomplish something.”

“Sleeping would accomplish something.”

“But not the something you should worry about first.”

He let out a long sigh and got all the way up to his feet again. “All right. Come on, Rift. Let’s go find father and get the yelling out of the way.”

Chapter 15

Zayden

I got to my room and put on clean clothes then went to find my father. I walked all around the palace with Rift easily being able to keep up this time because of how slowly I was going from being exhausted and we found him in the ballroom. He was standing with my mother and Aleksander while a bunch of servants were rushing around. “Father!”

“Zayden! We’ve been looking all over for you. Have you—” He paused and his eyes shifted down to my feet. “What is that?”

I looked down and Rift looked up at me, taking a slow step back.

“This is Rift. He’s mine.”

“Yours?”

“Yes.”

“Awe, he’s so sweet.” My mother knelt down to pet him but I was cautious about it.

“Careful, mother. I’m the only one he likes.” I guess I was wrong because Rift moved forward when she drew out her hand and he actually let her pet him. It suddenly sank in as to why. She was Ryon’s mother too. Rift must have felt him in her like he did with me.

I didn’t want to mention anything about it and my father didn’t seem to either. He sighed in this disgusted way and went on as if he never saw him. “Do you know the whereabouts of Bianca this morning? No one can seem to find her.”

“She’s not missing or anything, father. I sent her home.”

“You what!?” His voice echoed in the ballroom and sounded furious, making everyone stop and look over.

“Everything’s fine!” Aleksander assured them. “Continue on your way!”

They started moving again and I tried to explain more quietly. “She’s a wonderful girl but I can’t marry her.”

“We’re not having this conversation again. You seemed quite warmed up to her last night.”

I laughed a little shamefully. “Ah, yeah. That might have just been the wine. You must have been saving it for a while.”

“You’re missing the point! You’re supposed to be married. The whole country knows of your engagement.”

“I know, father but I have another Princess in mind.” I looked up at Aleksander and Adele came in looking for him. It caught my eye and I stepped towards her and took her hand, bringing her closer to me. “Mother. Father. I would like you to officially meet Adele.”

My mother smiled but my father looked at her with a cold face. His eyes locked on hers with an expression of displeasure. It made Adele nervous. I could feel her shake under my arm.

“I thought we’ve already talked about it?” My father said with his eyes still on Adele.

“Father. You can’t be serious. Things changed. This is what I want. She is a Princess.”

He laughed smugly behind his closed lips and entertained a half smirk, having yet to move his eyes from Adele. “She’s no more Princess than she is a lady. She doesn’t know how to be one. She’s disrespectful to everyone and knows not when to keep her mouth closed.”

I hoped Aleksander would have intervened here about these accusations my father was putting on her but he said nothing like he agreed. I had to do something.

“No. She just knows what she wants and I love that about her.” I looked at Adele while I continued and she looked right back, unable to stray her eyes from mine. “I love how she’s not afraid to speak what’s on her mind. She’s not afraid to take chances or risks and I wouldn’t change anything about her. She’s everything I could ever want in a woman. She’s perfect and I love her for all of those things. I always will.”

She was getting tears in her eyes but what I spoke of was true. She was everything to me.