Broken Road (Fate's Intent Book 7) (4 page)

“And yet here you are, being careless.”

“Go home, Gwenyth.”

Her eyes rolled much like Ruby’s would upon hearing a command but they fell on Izin and just lit up. “Izin?! Bryce! You didn’t tell me he was going to be here!”

“A happy surprise. Go home.”

She ignored him completely and sat near Izin. “Oh, look at you! You’re still just so adorable!” She was being cute and seemed to have an attitude more like Jaylyn.

“Hello, Gwen.” Izin replied. “Still looking as lovely as ever.”

“Of course. Still pleasantly charming, I see.”

Bryce sighed rather loudly to disrupt the flirting. He probably didn’t like that Gwen thought Izin was still charming. “Gwenyth. Go.”

“Why? Is there something wrong with me being here?”

“I could think of a few reasons, yeah.”

He was clearly talking about us but none of us said anything and Gwen looked right at me. “I trust he won’t tell. Ruby still thinks she’s at fault for my passing.”

“Of course I won’t say anything.” I said. “But―it’s good to meet you.”

“Oh, you’re so sweet. Izin did well in raising you.”

“Yes he did.”

“My daughter is very lucky.”

I don’t think my smile could get wider. “Yes she is.”

“Okay, Gwenyth.” Bryce said. “You’ve had your special moment. Time to go. For both of us.”

“Oh, all right.” She slowly climbed out of her chair like she didn’t want to. “You win.”

“I always do.”

“Izin, it was amazing seeing you again. I wish it could have been longer.”

“So do I but I understand the danger.”

She smiled shamelessly. “Yeah, sorry you had to witness that.”

“No. It’s okay. Quite interesting in fact.”

“Only the strong ones are capable of obliterating another soul. When you join us, I’ll teach you.”

“Then I guess there is something to look forward to in dying.”

She giggled like a little girl. “You’re right. I am worth it.”

“Ease up, Gwenyth.” Bryce said. “And go.”

She blew us a kiss with her familiar lips and disappeared.

“Until we meet again.” Bryce said.

Izin nodded and he disappeared next, leaving us in an awkward silence.

It was interesting but I couldn’t help but notice Izin fighting a smile and had to ask. “So, father, have you and Gwen ever―” I paused. I’m sure he could have finished my sentence.

“Why would that be relevant?”

“Just curious.”

“You’ve seemed close.” Zayden said, getting a little intrigued to find out my unasked question.

“It was a momentary weakness. That’s all.”

“No way!” Troy laughed. “Bryce must have hated you.”

“Why?”

“We know that he loved her.”

“Yeah but he was never physically with her. That’s not what their relationship was about, well, at least when they were alive. Things could have changed since.”

“I would guess they did.” Zayden said.

“That’s awesome though that you were with her.” I said.

He was modest about it of course but I was still right. “It was only one time and it was kind of technically before Kathryn so it didn’t really mean anything.”

“I guess I should be glad about that.” Zayden said.

“You didn’t happen until well after and Ruby is even younger than you so I know I’m not her father.”

“Do you know her father?” I asked. “She’s never said a thing about him.”

“I wouldn’t be one to know. We were all split apart by the time that happened. I only knew about Gwen’s death through Kathryn. She still had ties to Kalu that she kept.”

“Ryon.” Zayden said.

“I’m sure it wasn’t hard for you to guess but I really don’t want to get into that again.”

“You still hate him, I know and that’s okay.”

“I’m still sorry about it all, Zayden. I really am.”

“I know.”

I think they were well passed it that they didn’t need to go on about it. Ryon could still come around and Izin would probably always hate it but really, nothing could be done about that now. It was the choice he made and I think he actually made it for Zayden not because of him.

“Hey.” Aleksander walked back in after being gone for an appropriate amount of time not to see Gwen. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s okay.” I said. “We don’t want to hear about it.”

“Darius!” Izin bellowed my name kind of classically. I’ve heard that tone before. “What he means is, we’ve gotten passed it and don’t find it necessary to bring up painful things.”

“Thank you.”

I felt my eyes roll. I just wanted to get this trip over with. Seeing Gwen made me miss Ruby even more. It was a shame I couldn’t ever tell her about it. I’m not quite sure how she would react. I know she’s seen Bryce but she’s never mentioned anything about seeing her mother. Conversations like that don’t really happen between us. Our pasts aren’t exactly something either of us want to reminisce about and that was okay. I could keep this quiet since there was a good chance of me forgetting completely by the time we make it back. We were still days away.

Chapter 7

Troy

When we finally arrived hours after the unexpected visits, we began our travel through the rocky passes of Hintus by carriage towards the palace just listening to the sound of the wheels rolling across the ground and the marching horses prancing ahead.

“So are you going to tell us?” Darius asked, looking at Zayden.

He looked up from petting Rift at his feet and saw all the curious faces. “Tell you what?”

“What you saw or what it is Ryon showed you so you can finally rejoin normal society?”

Zayden looked at him, unimpressed about his choice of words. “Why are you just asking? We talked about a million other things since then.”

“I know but we got you to agree to come on this trip based on the hope of getting away for a while. We never planned to run into Ryon.”

“Well, I was shown what I needed obviously. I saw him.”

“And?” Aleksander wondered.

“And he was exactly the same as we’ve seen before. Nothing changed.”

“See?” Izin said like he was only proving that we were all right when we tried to tell him he’d could have that again.

“We don’t need to talk about it.”

“Let’s not.” Darius agreed. “I’ve been blocking out that instance of my life.”

I laughed while I had my gaze out the back of the carriage. “Ruby is a good distraction. You should see what she’s doing right now.”

“You’re watching her?”

His voice was a little harsh, making me laugh again. “No. I said you should. That doesn’t mean that I am. Jaylyn is taking a bath that I’m sadly missing.”

“What is Ruby doing while you’re at it?”

“She’s—” I moved my vision around the mountain palace to find her. “Oh, imagine that. She’s trying to sleep the time away.”

“What about Adele?” Zayden asked.

“She’s in the library reading. I skipped over her already.”

“Reading what?”

“Why is that important? It’s a book. You know, filled with words and possibly an illustration here and there.”

“What is it?” Zayden demanded.

“All right. Ah—” I moved back there and turned the image around so it was as if I was standing behind her, looking over her shoulder. “It’s a book on—” The words on the page stalled me and I turned my head to look at Zayden with the widest of eyes.

“What?”

“It’s—um—a book on—child—birth.”

His eyes got just as wide and he looked back at Izin.

“Told you. How many times do we have to keep saying it?”

“But you don’t know that it’s for her.” Zayden said, snapping his head back to me.

“I could probably try to get her attention if it’s going to bother you the entire time we’re here which I know it will but I doubt that she’s going to answer that question.”

“You can really do that?” Aleksander asked.

“Well, eventually I’ll be able to move things from wherever I am to where I see but the step in between is disrupting a scene I’m not really in.”

“Can she respond?” Izin asked.

“If she knows it’s me. Let me try.” I brought my vision all the way back to the mountain palace and into the library where Adele was still sitting with the book in front of her. I reached out my hand to it and acted as if I was closing the book. It did close but I kept it from the others until Adele knew it was me.

She lifted her head right up and looked around, mouthing a name but it wasn’t mine.

“Ah, I have good news and bad news.”

“What are they?” Zayden asked with a sigh.

“The good news, she notices my presence. Bad news, she doesn’t think it’s me.”

“Who does she think it is then if not you?” Darius wondered.

“It was pretty clear. She said, Ryon.”

Zayden sighed again. “Well, try something else. He doesn’t need to know about this yet.”

I nodded and put my focus back on Adele. I reached for a quill pen on the table in front of us and wrote on a scrap of parchment beside it.

No. It’s Troy.

Adele looked around again and this time mouthed mine name.

“Okay. I’ve got her. Now what?”

“You know what.” Zayden said obviously.

I nodded and started writing with the pen.

You going to tell me why you’re reading that particular book?

I waited and saw the look on her face. It was curious like maybe she was hiding something. She started to reach for the pen and I allowed her to take it to get somewhere.

No.

I sighed and immediately took the pen from her.

“What?” Zayden asked.

“She’s being Adele. What else? Hang on. I’m not done.”

Is it you?

Adele took the pen back.

No.

She held it out to me, knowing I would right something else and just waited.

Then who?

I watched Adele look around like she was trying to keep something from someone else that was there and she went over to the door, closing it. I sat anxious but kept this to myself until I had an answer for something.

“Well?” Zayden asked. “What’s going on?”

“I think she’s going to tell me. She just closed the door but it’s not her.”

“I think I’m going to throw-up.” Darius sighed.

Izin laughed. “Perhaps you can hold that for a few more seconds.”

I kept my focus on Adele as she ripped the pen from my hand. She kept glancing up at the door while she wrote like she was worried that someone would come in.

All right but you didn’t hear this from me. She wanted to tell you before you left but she didn’t want the news to interfere with the trip.

I stared at those words very carefully and it slowly began to sink in what the words ‘she’ and ‘you’ meant. Adele was talking about Jaylyn. My eyesight became blurred and images of Adele’s smile were fading out. I blinked one time and I was all the way back in the moving carriage.

“Troy?” Darius asked, giving me a little shake.

I didn’t move my eyes away or even blink when I verbally tried to tell myself the news. “I should have seen it.”

“Seen what?” Zayden asked.

“That’s why she didn’t want me to go.”

“Oh, shit.” Darius said. “Jaylyn’s the one that’s pregnant, isn’t she?”

I could only nod.

“Well, I suddenly feel better.”

“Congratulations.” Izin said. “But I think she didn’t tell you so you wouldn’t be like this the whole time.”

“That was exactly it and now I’m going to be.”

“We can help keep your mind off it.” Aleksander said. “We’ll be there soon and you’ll get a lovely Kitten to help distract you.”

“What the fuck would I want a kitten for?”

Aleksander laughed when he saw all of us baffled by this. “No, it’s a Hintin tradition. Kittens are temporary gifts for their high class guests to entertain them in any way they wish.”

That still made no sense.

“They’re women. They just call them Kittens. You get one if you didn’t bring a date which you didn’t.”

“And what are we supposed to do with this Kitten?” Darius asked.

“Whatever you want.”

“For someone that dislikes their ways, you seem pretty content with that tradition.” Izin said.

“I’ve been acquainted with it for a long time. You can’t decline them. That would be very disrespectful.”

I suddenly became quite uncomfortable with this and I knew I wasn’t the only one.

“So, we’re supposed to just spend our nights with a strange woman while being away from our wives and be okay with that?” Zayden asked.

“Yeah. I won’t breathe a word of it. What happens here, stays here.”

“Something’s wrong with you.” Izin said. “It makes me sad to see you this way. It’s like you forgot completely.”

His mood completely changed and he looked at Izin with a serious tone. “I don’t live in the past. That was fourteen years ago and no, I’ve never forgotten. It’s not something I could. You may have pretended to know what it’s like all these years but you knew nothing. I had to watch her die and knew there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. So, yeah, something like that changes a person.”

“But I do know about that. You weren’t the only one affected.”

Aleksander looked away and everyone kind of kept to themselves after that. We didn’t want to carry it on any further and drag out the loss of Adele’s mother all those years ago and the silence set in.