Forgotten Days (Fate's Intent Book 6) (21 page)

“As you can imagine that’s when we started to physically argue and I constantly bathed for a week.”

Zayden was still laughing. “Yeah. He was basically staying in my room at that point.”

It was a little funny but I still felt bad. I’d hate to have something that sinister happen to me. We’ve never pulled pranks on each other like that.

“Maybe we should rethink this raising boys thing.” Adele said.

Darius’s brow flattened immediately. “We weren’t talking about that.”

“We kind of were. It was only brought up because something we saw the boys do.”

“Stop.”

Darius was ready to turn away but Adele clearly wasn’t and stood herself up with her voice only becoming more dominant. “No. You stop. I don’t necessarily care about your problem because it’s a dumb one. Ruby is your wife now—”

“Adele, no.” Ruby was shaking her head inconspicuously with her whisper.

“And she’s going to get pregnant one of these times and you’re just going to have to accept that you’re doing nothing to stop it.”

“I don’t need you to tell me—”

“I think maybe you do. We saw him and he was amazing. How could you be so cruel that you don’t care about your own son?”

Darius laughed but it was obviously in frustration. “I can’t even believe I’m still standing here for this. I don’t have a son! Why are you lecturing me about something I don’t even have?!”

“But you will and it’ll be easier on everyone if you just accept it now!”

“Maybe I don’t care about what everyone thinks!”

“You should at least care about what one of us thinks because she’s the one you’re going to hurt when you walk out on her.”

Ruby became saddened instantly and turned away up the stairs before we would have saw her cry.

Darius turned his head back towards Adele and spoke quietly. “I would never do that.”

“Then accept it and let us show you.”

He just stared at her. It would have been nice if he agreed for Ruby’s sake but that would have been too easy. He turned from us all and went up the stairs after her.

“When is he ever going to just—be normal about this?” Adele asked.

“Planning ahead has always been difficult for him.” Izin said. “He knows all too well how quickly things can change. It’s why some don’t focus too much on the future.”

“Some? You mean you?”

“I used to be that way. It was a burden.”

“What he means is, I would always see pending doom to our actions and he would just shrug it off.” Aleksander said.

Izin laughed. “You were too paranoid.”

“And yet it happened.”

“Perhaps but it became hard to believe when we would always have such a great time. I didn’t see it ever happening until we found out my father knew. Then everyone became paranoid but it withered when we had several other meetings before the last.”

“You believed me then.”

“Sadly, the change was pushed on all of us too quickly but the point here is maybe Darius doesn’t want to be pushed into it like when you keep saying that it will happen. Maybe he just wants it to come naturally or a bigger surprise, maybe he doesn’t want to be disappointed in case something does change. He’s never taken well to failure and he hasn’t failed at anything since he was much younger.”

“I could argue.” Troy said. “But I won’t. I know where he’s coming from.”

That struck my interest. “Were you like that?”

He shared a long look with Izin before saying anything. “Not completely. Being a father was never on my to-do list until I met you. Now we’re married and it just seems like it’s the logical next step.”

“That’s a good plan.” Izin said, steering his eyes over at Zayden to make sure he heard it too.

“I know. Working on it.”

“Not right now.”

“It would be a little awkward if it were right now.”

“Indeed.” Aleksander said.

Adele looked at me and laughed from her father’s unenthused tone. I couldn’t hide my smile but it was because I liked what Troy said and he was right. The more we keep seeing him, the more I want him too and—to know his name!

Chapter 36

Adele

The night spent together ended with a decent meal and by morning, my father and Izin left to return to set arrangements for our possessions to be transported to us. In the meantime, we could only rest and wait it out.

Ruby and Darius seemed distant since last night. That might have been my fault but he at least had to know that I was right. I’d like to talk to him some more but without the pressure of being stared at. I had just a pinch of that herb left and I think he needed to see his son to help him see what was right but he would never allow it done here.

After four days had gone by of complete laziness, I knew what I could do to get him alone. The others may not like it because it meant work for them but for Darius and his future with Ruby, it was worth it.

“Okay.” I said. “I know what we can do. We can start cleaning this place up so when our stuff gets here, we’ll be ready.” The others sat still but groaned, unsure of the idea of moving to do anything but I had to convince them or make them. Whichever came first. “Look, I know this is going to take a long time if we do it the normal way so it’s a good thing none of us are normal. When I count to three, close your eyes and hold your breath. Can you at least accept to do that?”

“Why?” Zayden asked.

“Are you doubting my abilities?”

“Not if you’re going to use that against me later.”

“I won’t if you all do exactly what I say.”

“Well, you heard her and you better do it.”

I laughed and walked to the stairs. “Great. Ready? One. Two. Three.” Everyone closed their eyes at the same time and held their breath like I asked and I raised my hands up. Dust was lifted off everything then I quickly spun around one time and lunged forward, pushing it all away and watching it escape out the windows. “Okay, done.”

“Shit.” Darius looked around and they all got to their feet. “I guess that’s a quicker way.”

“Yeah, this makes things easier.” Jaylyn added.

“We would have never gotten it done if we had to do it by hand. I had to do something.”

“Well, we thank you for it.” Troy replied. “Really.”

“Because you’ve never had to do manual labor in your life?”

“What? No. I have so done manual labor before—I think.”

I laughed. “Yeah right. You guys lived in the palace most of your life and you all of your life, you didn’t have to lift your finger for anything.”

“You make it sound like all we did was sit around and make the maids do everything.” Darius said.

“Everything?” Jaylyn smiled.

Zayden and Troy looked over at Darius and smiled like it was true. His reaction was quick, a little humorous but surely defensive. “Oh, what? That was one time and she was looking for a reason to get kicked out. I just helped her.”

“Wow, we’re so going to stop talking about this.” Ruby turned away and started walking towards the stairs before it was carried on. “I’m going to clean up our room some more.”

“Okay, so now that we’re changing the subject, you four can finish in here.” I said. “Darius, I’m going to need your muscle to help me outside. We’ll be back as soon as we’re finished.”

The others nodded and we walked out the door. “So, what are we doing?”

I wasn’t going to tell him the complete truth but I did have an actual reason for coming out here. “We need to clear sections of the road starting just on the other side of that cliff so they can get our stuff here easier.”

“Oh. Good idea. I remember a few spots that could use clearing. I’m sure they’ll need to get wagons through there.” He rode next to me on his horse and there was kind of an awkward silence.

“What?” I saw him keep looking over that only made things more awkward.

“Are you going to tell me about it?”

“About what?” I only asked so he would answer instead of me bringing up the vision thing and pissing him off. I’m sure that’s not what he wanted to know. I was right.

He got a huge smile on his face and tried not to laugh. “The new sex experience with Zayden.”

I was appalled by the question and turned my head forward and kept riding. “Oh, no. How dare you even ask me that?”

“Just curious. I heard you last night.”

“It was you outside the door then?”

Darius laughed. “And Ruby. We were curious. It’s been days. We knew he had to of tried it by now. So, are you going to tell me?”

“Sorry, but I don’t think you could understand even if I tried to explain. It was—amazing.”

“You think he’s better than me?”

I looked over to the unusualness of the question. “I don’t know what you’re like but I’m sure he’s better.”

“Oh, you’re quick to judge!”

“You couldn’t possibly be better and we’re not going to talk about this anymore. It’s a little weird because you just couldn’t understand.”

“Fine. You win.” He didn’t say anything else and we continued to ride until we saw the first obstruction ahead. “There’s the first one.”

“Let’s be quick about it.”

Darius looked at the pile of rocks with an excited smile. “Mind if I take this one?”

“You want to do it yourself?”

“Yeah, why not? It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to use my abilities and I could use the workout.”

I sighed after just getting off my horse and took a few steps back. “All right. Go for it. That’s what you get for just sitting around for days.”

“You’ll have my back though, right? In case something goes wrong?”

“Is Darius asking for my help?” I wondered sarcastically.

“I am. Don’t make me beg.”

“You begging? That sounds like that could be fun.”

“Adele, seriously. Now you’re starting to sound like me.”

“Fine, I’ll watch your back. The last thing I want to be is like you.”

“Yeah, thanks. That’s sweet.”

I laughed and he started picking up the stones and throwing them up over the other side of the rocky ledge. First, I started watching him in a standing position then that soon led to me sitting down then laying back on the ground while he was still working on it. He was not being quick about it. I was getting bored so I lifted up my hand and one of the rocks was floating by him.

“Hey! Drop it, Adele!” I put my hand down and the rock dropped.  “You said you’d let me do this myself.”

“Sorry!”

“Adele?”

“What?” I took my eyes off the sky above me and looked at him.

“I thought you were going to be watching my back? How can you do that when you’re not even looking at me?”

“I’m sorry, this is taking you a long time. I got bored.”

Darius picked up the last few rocks and threw them then walked over and stood over me. “Well, I’m done now so get up.” He held his hand down to me and pulled me to my feet. He pulled a little too much and I stumbled toward him, falling in his arms. “Ooh. Sorry about that.”

I moved myself away to stand up fully. “I’m f—” I paused while looking in his eyes. I’ve never been this close to him before and it was like I was just learning how his eyes pulled one in. It was hard to look away and it made my voice stutter. “I’m fine. Now let’s go find another one.”

I walked back to my horse and just wanted to get this over with. I don’t know what just happened but I couldn’t stay any longer to find out. I still had to get to the vision at some point, probably on our way back.

“Hello? Didn’t you hear me?” I rode up to him with his horse but he was still standing there as if I was still in front of him.

“Yeah, sorry. Let’s go.” He got on and we traveled down the road through a silence, neither of us wanting to bring up what that was about and I was glad.

We came around a turn and saw another obstruction blocking the road.

“I’ve got this one.” I turned around and stopped Darius by putting my hand out.

“All right. Only fair.”

He stayed back but we both got off our horses and I took a few more steps closer. I raised my left hand and the left side of the pile risen out of the road. I moved it up and it was tossed over the high ledge. Then I picked up my right hand and did the same thing on that side.

“That was quick.”

I smiled as I wiped my hands together in victory and walked back. “Yeah. I don’t even know why I bothered to bring you.”

“Adele, lookout!” Darius pushed me out of the way and shielded me with his body while the rocks fell around us. I didn’t even see it coming but was glad one of us did.

Once it was quiet, he looked back and sighed in relief. “That’s why you brought me. Are you all right?” He turned back with his body still close to mine.