Deciding Skies (Fate's Intent Book 2) Read online

  “Oh. I’m not surprised. Jaylyn always seems to get up before everyone else.”

  “Troy’s the same way.”

  Just mentioning them made me think of them more and I started off asking slowly. “Did they—you know—talk to you about anything?”

  Zayden laughed as if he already knew what I was really asking. “I told you we wouldn’t be able to stop it.”

  “Then he got over his fear of hurting her? I was hoping that would be a good reason for them to wait.”

  “I didn’t right-out ask but I’m sure he did. I know him. They were just heading to the lounge when I left. You can meet them there when you’re done if you want.”

  “What about you?”

  “Well, being home doesn’t necessarily mean relaxing for me. I have a few things to look over and sign but it shouldn’t take me too long. I can meet you down there if you’d like.”

  “Okay, but am I supposed to just walk around aimlessly until I find it?”

  He laughed again. “No. Just go right out this door, down the first stairs you see and straight through the hall then go left, around the arena. It’ll be right in front of you. You really can’t miss it.”

  “Got it. Right. Straight. Left.”

  “Good.” He stood up. “Now, I’m going to get to that stuff I have to do out of the way so I can meet you there.”

  “You mean, you’re not even going to wait until I’m finished?”

  “The sooner I start, the sooner I finish. If I go now, I might just be almost finished by the time you’re dressed and ready. Oh, which reminds me.” He walked away and picked up a set of clean clothes sitting on a chair. “You can wear these. I had the maids find something for you to wear while they’re washing the blood out of your clothes.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m going to get going now so you just finish that and you have everything you need right in here. Closet, back to your right, though I don’t know what you’d need that for and my private bathhouse, back to your left that you’ve been in before.”

  “Thank you.” Zayden started to turn to the door. “Oh, wait!” He stopped and turned back and I got out of bed, still wearing the sheet around me. “You forgot something.”

  “What?”

  I approached him and planted a kiss on his lips.

  We stood kissing for a moment and Zayden brought up his hands, pulling my waist even closer to him and I knew what it meant. “You’re making leaving hard.”

  I smiled while I kept kissing him. “So fix it.”

  Zayden didn’t hesitate. He grabbed a hold of the sheet around me and ripped it off. I was surprised but knew it was what I wanted. He pulled his lips from mine and looked around the room. The bed was occupied with my breakfast so he pulled me over to a side table and moved stuff without caring if a mess was made. I was put up on it and we started kissing again.

  Zayden placed his right hand on my lower back and pulled me towards him for the second amazing time. I was a bit surprised about how quickly it all happened but the feeling helped me forget. I locked my right arm around his neck, gripping a handful of hair around his crown. My moans and the wanting motion of my own hips were with his and everything in my life just felt perfect; right. I couldn’t have dreamt up a better moment and when he kissed me, I felt my entire body weaken with this indescribable desire.

  My legs were shaking while locked around him and I just wanted him to stay.

  “You’re going to make me later than I want to be.” His voice was soft in my ear as he began to pull away.

  “Then just don’t go at all.”

  “It would be nice but I don’t exactly have that luxury.”

  I hopped off the table and turned to get the sheet thrown across the floor.

  He put his hands on my hips and let out a soft moan like he were hungry. “I have to ask.”

  I laughed when I turned back, obviously still tired and Zayden was standing like nothing had just happened and I was the one still naked. “What?”

  “That mark I’ve seen on your back before. I’ve been wondering about it.”

  “Wondering what?”

  “Just why you have it.”

  “What do you mean just why I have it? A girl can’t permanently decorate herself?”

  “No, I didn’t mean that. Blue roses are a symbol of Seni. I wouldn’t expect to find them on a Kaluian body.”

  Oh no. What was I going to say? Quick! Think! I had to come up with something fast because there’s no way I could tell him the truth right now. I wasn’t ready to.

  “Oh. I never even thought of that. I have them because blue is my favorite color and roses are my favorite flower. I saw a lovely portrait of them one time but they’re actually real?”

  “Sort of. They have to be created since blue isn’t a natural color for a rose but we have florist that do it for special occasions.”

  “Really? That’s amazing. I’d love to see some.”

  “I could check in with them while I’m off doing the other stuff to see if they have any but that means I’ll have to leave first.”

  “Okay. I can let you go now, I guess.”

  “We’ll have the rest of the day, I promise.” I smiled and Zayden kissed my forehead. “Just take your time if you don’t want to go down to the lounge without me. I’ll come back here and check just in case.”

  I nodded and Zayden walked to the door to leave.

  Wow, some real blue roses. I was excited to see them and took my excitement over to the bed and sat on it to finish my now cold breakfast. It didn’t take me long and I looked at the neatly folded clothes on the bed and picked them up.

  I brought them into the bathhouse and got the chance to look around this time. Last night I was breathing too heavily and my eyes were glassy so everything just seemed blurred but it was so elegant inside with white tiled floors and walls and a clear glass wall dividing the bathing area and the area with the long sink.

  I walked right over and placed the folded clothes on the edge of the sink as I looked in the mirror. My hair was still a little messy after my unplanned morning so I brought up my hand and used my gift to easily straighten it out. Then I took some water in my hands and splashed it on my face before I took off the sheet and started getting dressed.

  I was relieved to see that it was a set of white pants and not a skirt and I put them on first then the silver silk shirt next and the matching white button up shirt over it. I pulled my hair out of the back and used my gift again to tightly braid it together then wrapped it up in a tight bun.

  I walked back out into the room and headed to the door to go down into the lounge, taking Zayden’s directions.

  It was quite large inside with high walls all around that was covered in glass panes that were probably taken off during warmer weather. The seating area was sunken into the ground with four steps leading down into the large circular area outlined with a couch and a short table in the middle of them.

  Jaylyn and Troy were already in there. Jaylyn was wearing the same thing I was and Troy was just in a pair of white pants, no shirt. He was sitting slanted against a stack of pillows with one leg bent up on the couch and the other on the floor. Jaylyn was sitting in between his legs and he had his right hand over her right shoulder, hanging down in front of her chest with his left arm propping up his head.

  “Oh, hey, Adele. Where’s Zayden?”

  “Busy. He said he’d come down after.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  There was a pause and Jaylyn and Troy were just looking at me—annoyingly.

  “What?”

  Jaylyn looked up at Troy with a smile and Troy tapped her shoulder. “Shush.”

  “Oh, I can’t help it! Did you make your baby?!”

  I just sat there for a moment and wasn’t really sure how to answer but I knew I didn’t want to. “We’re not discussing that.”

  “That means you’re going to do it then, right?”

  “Can we not talk about it? Zayden could
be back any second and he’s not necessarily a hundred percent about the outcome if that were to happen.”

  “What do you mean?” Troy asked.

  “I don’t feel comfortable talking about it around you.”

  He laughed. “What?!”

  “I don’t know you.”

  “I like him.” Jaylyn smiled. “What more do you need to know?”

  I only sighed again, keeping my eyes in their direction.

  “What did I do to make you hate me?” Troy asked.

  “You got us all into this mess.”

  He laughed again. “Did I?”

  “Yes, and you know exactly what I’m talking about so don’t play.”

  “Well, you’re still benefiting from it so, you’re welcome. Now, why isn’t Zayden necessarily a hundred percent with the outcome?”

  All right. Fine. His persistence was killing me. I quickly looked around to make sure no one was coming before I said anything about it. “Let’s speak hypothetical for a minute. If it were to happen, us having a child, I would be doing it alone. Seth could never know who his father is.”

  “Oh, Adele.” Jaylyn sighed with sadness.

  “Wait, Seth?” Troy asked.

  “It’s his name.”

  “And you’d let him grow up without ever knowing Zayden?”

  “It’s how it would have to be. Somewhere behind his vision of us living in an ideal world, Zayden knows that so just leave it. I don’t want to make it worse right now.”

  “Okay.” Jaylyn said quietly then started to get louder with a smile. “Want to know what we did?!”

  “I already know.” I did but kept myself from saying anything about what I’ve seen. Jaylyn would be completely optimistic about it like everything else in her life and I didn’t want to give her any kind of hope that she’d be with Troy forever. It couldn’t last and that’s how it had to be.

  “How?”

  “Because I know you. I’m surprised you haven’t done it sooner.”

  “Thought about it.”

  “I bet. Just good to see that you’re alive.”

  “I wouldn’t hurt her.” Troy cut in defensively.

  “Oh, don’t worry. I didn’t spend my night worrying about that. Have you seen Ruby yet this morning?”

  “No.” Jaylyn answered. “She must still be sleeping.”

  “I wonder why.”

  “Oh, yeah! Her long night! I wonder what she got!”

  “I hope she didn’t test it and end up killing him.”

  “You seriously don’t have to worry about that.” Troy laughed. “They didn’t have sex.”

  “Really?”

  “How do you know that?” I asked. I might have sounded a little anxious but I really did want to know.

  “I don’t really feel comfortable talking about it around you.” I folded my arms and my raised eyebrows at his joking tone. “Not a good feeling, is it?”

  “You know something that could stop my paranoia and you’re going to tell me or I could easily make sure you could never have sex again.”

  “Well, besides Ruby not wanting to hurt him, there’s something about Darius that you don’t know.” He answered as an immediate response to my threat. “We’ve all had a pretty rough childhood but he takes his more seriously and as a result, he’s come a custom to never being with the same woman twice. That’s actually why he’s slept with so many. We just like to joke about it so it doesn’t seem as bad as it really is.”

  I looked at Jaylyn. Troy’s explanation seemed improbable and we both were confused.

  “So, what does that mean? He’s going to get around that by never having sex with her?”

  “Well, no. He has to go through a breaking period before he could ever allow himself to be with her and he says he’d do it but only for her.”

  “Awe, how sweet!” Jaylyn smiled. “But how long could that take?”

  Troy took a deep breath and shrugged. “Can’t say. Only he knows but I at least know that it’s awhile and you can’t tell Ruby about any of this.”

  “Why not?”

  “He wouldn’t want her to know especially when he’s trying to change it. It’s a personal thing and if he found out you knew, he’d kill me.”

  “Kill you? Yeah right!” Jaylyn laughed. “I thought no one could kill you guys.”

  “No outsider but with the right amount of spite, we could easily become deadly towards each other like what you saw before we even got here. We always taken that kind of stuff very seriously as is why we’ve never trained with a real weapon.”

  “Neither do we.” I replied. “Mostly because of Ruby. She’s pretty accident prone.”

  “Hey, sorry that took so long.” Zayden unexpectedly walked in on our conversation and I tensed. “I’m still waiting on one thing but who knows how long that could take. I thought I’d come down here and wait.”

  I tried fighting passed it and smiled as Zayden sat down next to me. “Good.”

  His eyes shifted around. “What?”

  “Nothing.” I quickly answered, maybe a little too quickly.

  “Were you talking about me?”

  I tried laughing but it sounded a little obvious even to me. “What?! No!”

  “I don’t know what that was.” Jaylyn laughed realistically. “We really weren’t.”

  “Okay. So—where’s the others?”

  “Still upstairs. We haven’t seen them yet.” Troy answered. “They’re probably still sleeping.”

  “Yeah, probably and I’m shocked. He can be pretty lazy sometimes.”

  “Who are you calling lazy?”

  “You.” Zayden turned and Darius walked in with Ruby laying in his arms.

  “I’m not being lazy. Just because we haven’t been down here as long as you, doesn’t mean I was being lazy.”

  “All right. Then what’s wrong with her?”

  He paused for a moment and looked down at Ruby in his arms with her eyes closed. “Oh, she’s being lazy but it’s because she’s ah—still recovering. We had a late night.” He walked over with Ruby and laid himself down, keeping Ruby on top of him.

  “I never thought Ruby was capable of being worn out!” Jaylyn smiled. “What did you do?”

  Darius laughed. “I hope that question was directed towards me because she didn’t do a damn thing.”

  “Oh! So it must have been fun for you, huh, Ruby?”

  She opened her eyes and propped herself up on Darius’s chest. “You want to know the best part?”

  “No. Not really.” I answered for her.

  “Well, there were many best parts but I meant this.” Ruby completely ignored me and grabbed a handful of Darius’s hair.

  I rolled my eyes and looked away. I didn’t want to hear about that. What they do in private should be kept to them but Ruby always had this problem about sharing. The bad kind of sharing that is.

  “Finally someone with hair, right?” Jaylyn laughed.

  “He has the best hair.”

  “Be lucky it’s still there.” Darius said. “But after a while I did have to tie your hands up.”

  Ruby laughed and kissed him. “Also a great part.”

  That got a laugh out of everyone even me but I tried stopping it nevertheless. “Okay, I think that’s enough.”

  Ruby laid back down on him to regain her comfort. “So, start the baby making last night, Adele?”

  I looked at Jaylyn and she pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t say anything or worse, laugh but my brow flattened over my eyes and I shared a look with Zayden so he would answer. “We’re going to skip that conversation.”

  “No way!” Darius laughed. “You totally did! That’s great but Silas is going to flip his lid when he hears about this, Zayden. You know how he gets.”

  “He won’t hear about this, per-say. He’s just never like the idea of us getting attached to someone.”

  “Who’s Silas?” Jaylyn wondered.

  “Ooh, you spoke too soon.” Troy muttered.
<
br />   I looked up to where Troy’s eyes were directed and saw someone walking to us from the long hall.

  It was a man, lean, medium height. He walked swiftly towards us with papers in his hands. “Well, well, well. For once the rumors are true. Your majesty. My lords.” There was a pause and we were just looking at him, waiting for him to say something else but probably not in the manner he did. “Have you completely lost your mind?!” He heightening the level of his voice and it echoed in the open lounge. “Your father is raving around the palace looking for you because of your dishonorable act of selfishness you portrayed last night!”

  “My what?!” Zayden laughed.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s real funny. Go ahead and laugh it up but just remember who’s charged to clean up after you. You know there are protocols that must be taken for this sort of thing, guidelines, precautions against the worst and you did it by bringing them here!”

  “Silas, relax.” Troy said. “You really do take your job too seriously.”

  “What, Troy? You’ve never complained before.”

  “Who said I was complaining?”

  “I’m sorry but who exactly are you?” I asked. Just sitting here without knowing was getting a little annoying.

  “What’s it to you?”

  I looked over at Zayden with eyebrows raised. How dare he talk to me that way? I wanted to say something but kept my comment to myself and left it up to him to answer. “Ah, this is Silas. He’s our social coordinator.”

  “Social coordinator?”

  “Yes.” Silas took a step forward, proud of his job. “I screen and coordinate, if you will, all the young eligible maidens of Seni, specifically in Randal, to make sure they meet the appropriate level of stature specifications for the future leaders of Seni.”

  Jaylyn laughed. “Really? I really didn’t think you’d need help with that subject.” I tried not laughing just thinking that position actually existed.

  “They don’t need help.” Silas cut in before Troy could respond. “Maybe you’re unaware because you weren’t formally invited nor are you on the waiting list but you’re sitting within the presence of Seni’s most desired and admired pleasure specialists. Perhaps they left that part out?”

  “It’s just a theatrical title.” Zayden explained. “We don’t really go by that.”