Raining Light (Fate's Intent Book 5) (2 page)

“What?” She asked.

“You look—” Darius paused while they approached farther and he had his eyes on Ruby, moving them all over her. “How exactly is that supposed to protect you? You’re hardly wearing anything.”

Ruby got a wanting smile on her face and stepped right in close to him, putting her hand on his armored chest. “Really? What’s the matter? Is it—distracting?”

“A little bit. Yeah.”

“Well, good.” Adele laughed. “That’s the goal. You shouldn’t have been surprised. You’ve seen them.”

“In a case and on a body are two completely different things.” I said, tracing her body and seeing the exposed Black Wings of Death marks on her hips. “And it’s definitely something different.”

“Different bad or different good?” Jaylyn asked.

“Definitely different good.” Troy said.

Adele sighed from all the casual flirting. “Okay, we look good, you look good. Now that we’ve gotten the obvious out of the way, can we leave please?”

“I don’t know. I was thinking about just staying here and admiring you.”

Adele smiled and hit my chest, making the sound of metal echo through the high ceilings. “Get going. We don’t want him waiting on us.”

I agreed. Putting off this trip could have been a bad idea but I still wouldn’t have minded staying here a little longer with her.

After we retrieved our still disguised horses, we left sight of Balwin Manor and rode through the city to meet Aleksander outside the gates.

We gained all kinds of stares with the three of us clearly showing that we were Senian. Everyone that we passed seemed confused. They looked as if they didn’t know what to do. Adele tried to hide her smile from seeing all the expressions we were getting but kept us moving forward proudly through the streets towards the gate to something completely forgotten.

Aleksander was not the one waiting for us but Ryon and Kole, sitting a distance away from the gate up on their horses and dressed in the same manner of Kalu’s black armor with a winged-lion etched in gold on their chests. I was too focused on going back that I completely forgot about Trever mentioning them being ready. That meant they were coming too but why? That was my biggest concern.

“Oh, no.” Ruby muttered.

Jaylyn let out a light gasp when she saw them and addressed them first as we got closer. “Where have you been? We haven’t seen you in days.”

“Is that necessarily a bad thing?” Kole asked.

“It is when I wanted to see Ellie before we left but had no clue where you were.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. She’s fine.”

“What are you guys doing out here?” Adele asked. “Are you coming with us?”

Ryon and Kole looked over at each other and Ryon simply turned his horse away without a word.

“Did I say the wrong thing?”

Kole let out a laugh as he looked back at Ryon then answered with a joking tone. “No. Temperament issue. I’m sure you heard that excuse before.”

Ryon whistled as he was trotting away and Rift, the little white wolf pup he saved went running after him out of nowhere.

“What is that?” Adele asked.

I kind of laughed. This must have been the first time she’s seen him but she had the same reaction everyone did.

“That’s Rift, the pup he took in.”

“Why does that sound familiar?” I just stared at her and waited for her to answer it on her own. “He’s the one with Seth.”

I nodded and she looked—I don’t know, concerned?

“Relax, Adele.” Kole said. “You know that wolves don’t live that long. He gets his life prolonged by Jay. It doesn’t exactly lay out a timeline.”

“How did you know about the vision?”

“Heard about it.”

“What are you doing here?” Ruby asked.

“I thought it was obvious by now.”

“You’re coming with us!” Jaylyn sighed.

“Oh, don’t be so disappointed. We can’t let you have all the fun. I always said I wanted my last trip to be a good one.”

“Your last?” Ruby wondered.

“You’re serious? None of you have thought about what this little adventure means? We all get to retire! Isn’t it exciting?”

“Hardly.” Adele replied. Her eyes glanced behind him and Ryon was still slowly riding east. “Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”

“Things change is all.” He turned away just like that and started after Ryon, riding slowly as he was.

Adele was just getting more confused. None of us knew what he meant. “Father?”

Aleksander and Trever rode up from behind. “Let them be. I’m not already going to regret this, am I?”

“Of course not but you should have told us they were coming.”

“Thought it was apparent.” Trever said. “This is kind of a family matter after all.”

“And who said you were a part of it?” Jaylyn cut in.

“We made this family. You’re the ones that had to go and make it weird.”

“We did not!”

“Father, you said nothing about this.” Adele said, taking the conversation away from their sibling bickering. “Why are they coming?”

“Well, they’re here to help guard the company, of course.” Trever answered for him. “I can’t protect all of you, all the time.”

“We don’t need protecting.” I said.

“Perhaps but they are coming along merely in my defense so see them as that.” Aleksander explained.

“Father, you have us. You don’t need them.”

“There will be no more discussion on this. They’re coming with us and that’s the final word I want to hear about it. All right? Everyone? Let’s go.”

He followed after Ryon and Kole first and Trever stayed behind for a moment and lifted his eyebrow as he began to move his horse forward. All we could do now was follow.

Chapter 3

Troy

We traveled all that first day towards the crossroads and the silence among us lasted for most of it. No one seemed to want to say a word and I started to notice that Darius was quite displeased that Trever was with us. His eyes remained on him riding ahead with Aleksander, probably just to watch out for anything that might happen. He’d be ready.

At sundown, we stopped for our first break and the first words were spoken in hours.

“We’ll be stopping for just a little while.” Aleksander said. “Use it to water the horses and sleep if you wish but know it will not be a full night. If you think just a few hours will leave you even more weary then I suggest you stay awake but rest as we’ll all need it.”

We started getting down off our horses but Zayden did with a sigh. “That’s great but my horse doesn’t need water. He needs his dignity back.”

“Fuck yeah.” Darius agreed. “We’re far away enough, right? Adele!”

She turned from speaking briefly with her father. “What?”

“I think they’ve suffered long enough.” Zayden said.

He held his horse still by patting his neck with long steady strokes and Adele approached. His horse became uneasy when she lifted her hand to him.

“Shh. You’re getting it back. I promised.”

He became calm again and Adele touched his nose. The once blackened hair on its body began to turn as white and flawless as the first winter’s snow and even under the shadows of the trees, the horse shone with its brilliance.

He stomped his foot and held his head high while Zayden smiled and looked him over. “There you are, my prized perfection of beauty.”

“Why aren’t we so surprised?” Trever walked over while Adele went to our horses to change them back. “You brought your own horses.”

“Well, of course.” Zayden said. “Would you ride on anything inferior to your own?”

“Personally, no but you must have already knew that. Roslyn and Rajet are breeds of their own virtue who have been handed down through many generations.”

“Many?” I wondered. “They must be old.”

“Old indeed.” He shared a glance with Kole and he walked right off, leaving the conversation completely open.

“Okay.” Ruby muttered. “So, how exactly are we going to do this?”

“Well, I don’t think we should sleep.” Adele said. “I know how cranky you can get with just a couple hours when it’s not in the middle of the day.” Ruby laughed quietly to herself with a quick look up at Darius. “So, we should try to stay up and just rest for the time. Unless anyone else feels differently about that?”

Darius’s eyes glanced up at Trever talking with Aleksander a distance away. “No problems here. I wouldn’t even dream about letting myself fall asleep around them out here.”

“I agree.” Zayden said. “Staying up and just resting seems like the best way to go if it’s only for a few hours.”

“Okay, then we’ll do that.”

Adele bounced up on her toes so she could kiss his cheek and we settled our horses for the short break by taking off their gear and letting them get the rest they needed as well. Adele made her usual circle of chairs around a fire pit and we sat close next to each other, just trying to enjoy the time after getting out of all of our armor to truly rest ourselves.

“I so wish it were going to be longer.” Ruby groaned, leaning her head back on the back of her chair.

“It will be eventually, I’m sure.” Jaylyn said. “There’s no way we could make the full trip without any sleep at all, right, Adele?” She didn’t answer and we waited for her to say something but she was just staring off into what seemed like nothing in front of her. “Adele!”

“Huh?”

“I said we’ll be stopping at some point during this trip to sleep, right?”

“Of course. That would be foolish to go in there completely exhausted from traveling.”

“See?” Jaylyn smiled, looking over at Ruby. “You’ll get your chance. Maybe tomorrow night.”

“You all right?” Zayden turned to Adele, seeing her start to stare off again.

“Yeah, just wondering what they’re doing.” I looked up and saw that she was in fact watching her father and Trever talk privately away through the trees.

“Who knows?” Ruby said.

“Kole!”

He was walking by about ten feet away and turned to look at Adele after hearing her call. “What?”

“Do you know what they’re doing?”

He turned his head and looked at where she pointed with her eyes. “Talking?”

“Obviously.” Jaylyn sighed. “She wants to know what about?”

“Well, if I were to guess, they’re probably talking about when they should tell you about some prophecy thing that involves all of you and this road to peace but more so about what you should know before they can actually do that.”

“That was pretty specific.” Ruby said.

“Thought you wanted to know?”

“Is any of that even true?” Jaylyn asked.

Kole just smiled and started to turn. “You didn’t hear it from me.”

“Hey, wait!” Adele stopped him by getting out of her chair with a voice seeming urgent.

“What?”

“Where’s Ryon?”

Kole smiled as his eyes glanced around at the rest of us and he took a step towards her. “Why do all of your bad ideas involve him, at least lately?”

“I just wanted to know where he is.”

“Don’t worry. He’s scouting the perimeter to make sure we’re not being followed by anyone or anything and don’t count on him joining you anyway. He doesn’t want to be here.”

“Then why is he?”

“We thought he’d make it fun for us but he’s thinking too much instead.”

“About what?”

“About what’s happening. He knows that once you get to the city—you’re not coming out.”

“You underestimate our survival abilities, I think, Kole.”

“That’s not what I mean. You will be staying there—with Zayden. He knows that and it’s already killed him.”

We sat in silence, looking around at each other but Adele looked through the trees instead of at us. “Where is he?”

“Just a quarter mile north. If you intend to go after him, know it’s at your own risk. I cannot protect you from him.”

“Why?”

His eyes shifted north. “He’s grown too powerful.”

“From what?” Ruby asked.

“Something terrible. It wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“I don’t care what you say. I’m going.”

“Fine but at least try and accomplish something and make him fun for me, okay?”

Adele rolled her eyes as she started walking away.

“Love, wait!” Zayden leaned forward in his chair, ready to go after her.

Adele continued on without a glance back and Kole stepped in the way with his hand out so Zayden couldn’t continue. “No. Let her go.” Adele was out of sight quickly and Zayden started to sit back but the look on his face was obvious that he didn’t want to. “This falls under the ‘you can’t tell Adele anything’ rule. She doesn’t tolerate being controlled and whether you want to believe it, whether she even wants to admit it to herself, she loves him.”