New Roots (Fate's Intent Book 8) (3 page)

Chapter 7

Adele

I woke in my bed for the first time in days with Zayden by my side. I smiled and kissed his cheek when his eyes slowly opened.

“Morning. You should get ready to go.”

Zayden looked to the window and immediately got up. “Oh, right. I’m glad you’re not taking it badly.”

“Why would I? You have to bring him back. Jaylyn didn’t even say a word to me last night. I don’t know how long she’ll last.”

“She’ll be all right and so will he.” Zayden got ready in a more mission travel outfit that was just a pair of black pants that set perfectly at his hips with a blue shirt with leather trim that laced up the sides under a black leather jacket and his black boots. “Hey, Love?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you put Troy’s sword by the door so I don’t forget it?”

“Ah, sure.” I looked around for it. “Where is it?”

“It’s right there on my night stand. I kept it close.”

“No it isn’t.”

“What?” Zayden poked his head out of the closet. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

He rushed out while slipping on his jacket and went to his night stand. “Oh, no.”

“What?” I watched him slowly pick up a white rose and Zayden immediately dropped the flower, running towards the door. “Zayden?” I turned to chase after him.

He went into Jaylyn’s room and was just standing there, looking at the bed.

“What is it? So, she’s still in bed. I saw that coming.”

“No.”

“No?”

“She’s not.” He reached the bed and pulled back the blankets.

When I saw the pillows, I gasped and went over. “She went after Troy?” I looked in the closet and saw that her weapons were gone too. “Zayden, we have to find her!”

This news was worse than her just being too upset to speak. Was she already gone last night when I tried to talk to her? Now I was worried about how far ahead of us she was.

I went downstairs with Zayden and Izin was in the main hall with Ruby and Darius.

“Finally.” Darius said. “Someone sleep in or what?”

“Jaylyn’s gone!” I blurted out.

“What?”

“She went after Troy.” Zayden said. “She took his sword and her weapons.”

“We have to find her!” Ruby said.

“Oh, no.” Darius replied. “You’re not going anywhere. Not like this.”

“But—”

“Absolutely not. You’ve already confirmed you can’t do anything you used to. You can’t travel.”

“It’s okay, Ruby.” I said. “I’ll go with them.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Love, you really shouldn’t.” Zayden said.

“Don’t treat me like I’m about to break. I’m nowhere near as fragile as her.”

Zayden clearly didn’t like it and looked at his father but thankfully, Izin was on my side. “She’s not going to let you say no. Just think of all the things Ruby was doing at this early stage.”

“Only because we didn’t know.” Darius said.

“It doesn’t matter.” I cut in. “I’m going. Jaylyn is my sister and she needs me. I’m not going to stand idly by and leave it up to you.”

“We’ll keep a good eye on Ruby here.” Izin said.

Ruby accepted this quicker than I thought but it was her reason that gathered mixed reactions. “I guess I can handle that. Think of all the fun we can have.” She put her arm around the King and leaned intimately close to him.

“Please don’t kill my father.” Darius said.

“I won’t!”

“And I can’t believe I’m actually a part of this conversation.” Izin said. “If you’re going, go. You must find her quickly.”

“I’d love for it to be quickly.” Zayden said. “But if we’re going to find her, I can’t use my speed. I only see what’s directly in front of me. We could go right passed her and not even know it.”

“And she may not even be on the road.” Darius added. “Not to mention, we don’t even know when she left or where exactly she’s going. We didn’t tell her where it was so she’ll be strictly looking for his presence.”

“Thank you, Darius. You didn’t just make this seem at all impossible.”

“There’s an easier way.” Kathryn must have overheard us from a distance and just stepped off the stairs towards us.

“Oh, no.” Izin said. “That’s completely out of the question.”

“About finding our children the quickest way? There shouldn’t be any questions when it comes to their safety. Zayden, there’s an easier way and I know you already know what it is.”

“But, mother I don’t know how to—”

“Maybe it would be best if this wasn’t discussed so openly.” Izin snatched, immediately turning towards the conference room.

Others started to follow starting with Kathryn and Zayden. I didn’t know what this was about but if there really was an easier way, we could take a few extra minutes to sort it out.

“I can’t even believe we didn’t think of this, Zayden.” Darius said. “It’s perfect. You know how fast Ryon could get things done that way.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how. I don’t feel any signs of it.”

“Why are you talking about Ryon?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

Darius tried not laughing. “You didn’t tell her?”

“I didn’t know how.” Zayden said.

I was worried now that he was keeping something from me. “What?”

He looked at me and let out a sigh like he still didn’t know how to tell me.

“He’s a wolf too.” Kathryn said.

My eyes shot open. “What?! How?!”

“How could you ask that?” Darius said. “What’s the one thing they share besides you?”

I completely overlooked the besides me comment and looked at Kathryn. “You? You’re a—”

“Yes. The wolf runs in my family, not his father’s like everyone just assumed.”

“Why am I just hearing about this? How long have you known?”

Zayden sighed again. “Since Lecca.”

“That long?” Ruby asked.

“I didn’t know how to tell you and I guess it just didn’t seem that important.”

“But it is now.” I said. “You could find both of them so easily.”

“I guess but I’ve never actually been a wolf before. They’ve been blocking that side of me probably since I was born until we moved away.”

“Can you help him, Kathryn?”

She looked very unsure even though it was her idea. “It’s been so long for me. I don’t know if I’m strong enough but I know who is; who’ll want to.”

“Great.” Izin said with a low displeasure. He seemed to already know that Ryon was the only one to help him.

“How do we get him here?”

“Simple. Zayden just has to need him.”

We all looked at him and he looked really uncomfortable about the whole thing.

“You don’t have to say it out loud, sweetheart. Just think it. He can always hear you.”

“He did say he would be there to help when you wanted to learn.” Darius said.

Zayden sighed and closed his eyes. I guess it was easier for him to think it when he didn’t have to see the rest of us.

“Already?! I’m so excited!” Ryon was in the room instantly and sure seemed happy about Zayden’s choice. “Oh, hey, Adele.”

“Ryon. Hi. You can help him turn, right?”

“If that’s why I was called here.”

“I don’t have much of a choice.” Zayden said. “It’s the easiest way. We have to find them.”

“Find who?”

“Look around and ask who’s missing.” Ruby said.

Ryon took a brief scan of the room. “Did you finally make them run from your controlling natures?”

“No.” Izin sighed.

“Troy was taken.” Darius said. “And Jaylyn snuck out last night to go after him.”

“Taken? Troy? Really?”

“We don’t have to get into what he did.” Zayden said. “I just need you to help me. We have to find them before something happens.”

“Understandable. First things first, take off your clothes.”

“What?!”

“Trust me. It’ll be easy on you for the first time and it doesn’t have to be all of them. Just most.”

Zayden sighed and started to remove the clothes he basically just put on.

“Jaylyn will be sorry she’s missing this.” Ruby said a little too delighted. I just rolled my eyes and waited for Zayden to get out of as much as he could without being naked in a room full of people, two of them being his parents.

“Okay, now this might feel weird at first.”

Ryon took a step towards Zayden and Zayden instinctively became defensive. “What are you going to do?”

“Relax. We just have to induce the wolf. Trever did this to me when he first found me because I was being blocked for so long. I was just like you. I couldn’t feel any of the signs and this helped damn near instantly.”

“Okay.”

Ryon approached him and brought a hand to the back of his neck. We couldn’t quite see what he was doing but Zayden tensed like he was trying to hold in his pain.

“You okay?” Ryon asked.

“I think so. That was weird.”

“I warned you. Now everyone back up.” We all moved onto the other side of the table so we were completely out of the way. “Rift, you too.” He whined. “I know. You’re excited too. Just wait over here.”

He came over to us and Zayden was still standing as normally as ever. “Is something supposed to happen?”

“You don’t feel anything?”

“Should I?”

“I would say yes but maybe it’s because you were blocked for too long. I was for only two years. You have a couple decades on me.”

“Is there anything else you can do?” I asked.

“Well, there is one thing. You should be lucky I’m dead or I would say no.”

“What is it?” Zayden asked.

“You might not be able to turn because of the multiple gifts you have already. The wolf is older so that means the strain is weaker. I’m not even sure if you could pass on the gene now.”

My hand found my stomach. “You mean, Seth won’t have it?”

“Good possibility that he won’t. You’re just adding another gift on top of it by being his mother.”

“I suppose that’s a good thing.” Zayden said. “He’ll have enough to learn about just with our gifts.”

“I agree.”

“So, what can you do to help me?” Zayden asked Ryon. “We need to do this now.”

“Well, I can reach inside you and activate the wolf manually.”

“Do I even want to know what that means?”

Darius laughed, amused in some way by his tone.

“You won’t feel a thing or at least nothing that resembles pain.” Ryon approached him again and his right hand became transparent. “Ready?”

“I don’t really have a choice. We need to leave.”

Ryon nodded and pressed his hand literally into Zayden’s chest. Zayden didn’t much react like he was in pain but he could clearly feel it.

“Don’t fight it.” Ryon said. “I know it’s your instinct to but don’t. Embrace it and break free of your human soul.”

Ryon pulled his hand out and Zayden backed up all the way to the door like he was at war with himself.

“Let it out. Break free. You’re strong enough. I can feel it.”

I was worried Zayden was still fighting it too much. He seemed to be getting angry about it. His eyes turned black but then started to fade even though his mood seemed the same, if not, stronger with anger.

He lunged forward, almost like he was about to land on his face but instead he broke free, his forelegs caught him from falling; he was a wolf. His fur was long and white and he was growling while he was still low to the floor.

“Zayden, look up.” Ryon said. “It worked.”

It got quiet and Zayden lifted his head. He still had his beautiful eyes but they were bigger; he was bigger.

Rift ran from under the table to get to him and was bouncing all around him. Zayden kept turning his head to keep up and it was like they were speaking to each other but we couldn’t understand them.

“Can he talk?” Darius asked.

“Zayden!” Ryon called. He turned his head. “Say something.”

“I have fur and it’s weird. What do you want me to say?”

I smiled, knowing he was really still inside there and could comprehend everything he was doing.

“That was enough. How do you feel?”

“Ready to leave. I have Jaylyn’s scent.”

“Already?” I asked.

“She was here most recently.”

“I’m coming with you.” Ryon said. In an instant he was a wolf too and the similarities between them was close.

“Why are you bigger than me?”

Ryon turned his head and tried looking at himself then at Zayden. “Not by much and I was bulkier than you as a human.”