Rising Sun (Fate's Intent Book 9) (2 page)

Chapter 3

Zayden

We traveled slowly for three days and finally arrived in sight of home just as the sun was going down. The large palace built out of the side of the mountains and surrounded by beautiful waterfalls was a good sight for everyone. We finally got to see its five towers climbing to the high peaks and it was a relief to know we were finally home.

“At last.” Adele muttered. She looked down at Seth in her arm with a gentle smile. “We’re home.”

We crossed over the two bridges where we could get the horses settled in to the stables.

“Let’s get this over with.” Ruby said, getting right down off her horse while Darius took a turn at holding Dirk. “I just want to relax.”

“No kidding.” Troy replied, taking Bryce from Jaylyn. “We should wait awhile before we try traveling like that again.”

“Easy for you to say.” Adele muttered. “I’ll have to go on another in the morning.”

“You could wait an extra day or two.” I said.

I watched Adele’s eyes glance over at Ruby and she casually looked away. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I’d like to get it over with.”

“All right then. Let’s get you inside so you can rest.”

Adele nodded but then stopped me with a quiet hand on my chest. “Can you wait out here for them?”

I looked over and saw that she was looking at Darius and Ruby. “Why?”

“I just don’t want anything to happen when we get inside.”

I nodded and obeyed but Rift didn’t stay with me. He followed after Adele because she was the one holding Seth. I guess that meant he was his now.

I waited longer out here because we knew Meg would have been inside and Adele clearly didn’t want either of them to get close to her.

Ruby seemed to take her time for the same reasons and Darius waited outside her stall with Dirk. “You ready yet?”

Ruby hung up the last thing on the wall slowly and turned to him just as slow. “I guess so. You all right with watching him a little longer? I just want to lay down for a while.”

“It’s no problem. We’ll get him upstairs and show him where we’ll be staying.”

Ruby smiled back as she took his free arm and they turned to leave. “Zayden, what are you still doing out here?”

“Waiting for you.”

“Because of Adele?”

“Maybe.”

“You don’t have to worry. I’m fine.”

I let them pass me and followed but I wasn’t quite sure if that were true. The attitude on her tone said she wasn’t fine and I was ready to get in the way once we were inside.

Meg was sitting in the lounge on the first floor with the others, holding two bundles of blankets, one in each arm and this is where I was getting nervous but I guess Ruby was right; I didn’t have to be.

She made it easy not to look over as they headed for the stairs but Darius looked while holding Dirk up by his shoulder with his free arm. Dirk’s rose red hair was visibly seen just under his chin and he only let the casual gaze with Meg last another second before he turned up the stairs with Ruby.

The short amount of tension was over and I joined them in the lounge, getting a turn at holding Seth.

“Wow.” Meg muttered. “Their son has Ruby’s hair?”

Jaylyn glanced around at us with a quick smile. “Yeah, very unique and he’s so adorable.”

“I would imagine.”

“Well—” Adele said as she stood up to change the subject. “I should see what I can throw together for dinner with the stuff we brought. I’ll make sure it’s quick since it’s already getting late.”

She walked into the kitchen and I followed with Rift now following me. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Of course. People have to eat.”

“Well, you said you needed rest.”

“I do but it can wait.”

“All right. I’m going to show Seth around so he can get used to home.”

“Okay. I’ll have someone find you when it’s ready. I don’t plan on making anything extravagant. Just something to get us through.”

“Okay. I’ll be ready.” I kissed her and left the kitchen with Seth and our loyal follower.

“Going to show him around?” Troy was already on his way to the stairs with Bryce while Jaylyn stayed locked in a conversation with Meg on the couch.

“Yup.” I went with them up the stairs and we took it slow with the babies in our arms. “Adele says dinner will be ready soon. She’s just making something quick.”

“All right. You’re going with her tomorrow, right?”

“Of course I am!” I snatched like the answer should have been obvious. “I’m not letting them walk into that place alone.”

“What do you think will happen? Will they make Meg stay there?”

“I don’t know. I just really want to get her through surviving first then think of that.”

“You want us to come?”

“No. I couldn’t ask you to take another trip like that. It’ll be slow and longer than before. Besides, Adele and I will both be there. With our combination of gifts, it shouldn’t be a problem for us. They’ll regret making it one.”

He laughed. “I believe that. It shouldn’t be that bad for us here except you’re taking the chef away.”

I laughed too. “You’ll be fine. Adele says Jaylyn is capable of making food. You’ll just have to keep her from eating while she does it so monitor her and you’ll be set.”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll have to do that. Maybe you should tell Ruby and Darius about dinner. Something tells me that they won’t be joining us.”

“I think she handled it well though. She didn’t even look over.”

“Meg would have been terrified by the sight if she did. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t have to come to that.”

“Adele told her to stay away from her.”

“That may not stop Ruby if you think about it. She’s not the one that did anything wrong.”

“Well, we’ll make sure it won’t come to that.” We reached the fourth floor where Troy would split off to his room.

“Good luck.”

I laughed as I continued up and reached the fifth floor where Ruby and Darius’s room was. I thought maybe I should tell them about dinner and walked to their door with Seth still in my arms. I knocked on it and waited just a second before Darius came to it. “Zayden, hey.”

“How’s it going?”

“Perfect.” Ruby answered while lying on the bed with baby Dirk sitting up in the middle so he wouldn’t fall off if he decided to crawl around.

“Well, dinner will be soon. Quite soon by now actually. Adele was just going to make it quick so she can get some rest before tomorrow.”

It was quiet for a moment as Ruby and Darius shared a look.

“Ah, all right.” Darius said. “We’ll be taking that up here. Just let us know when it’s ready and one of us will be down to get it.”

“Preferably me.” Ruby muttered.

“Okay. I’ll be sure to.” I slowly turned towards the door, not to drag out the awkwardness. “Just as soon as I find out anyway.”

“Thank you.” Ruby smiled.

I smiled back with a nod and left the room.

Adele made sure dinner was ready quickly like she said and came upstairs to get me.

“We’ve got to tell Ruby and Darius.” I said, walking down the stairs from our room. “One of them will come down and get it.”

“Good. I wasn’t about to serve them. I have better things to do.”

I smiled and put my arm around her while she held Seth and I walked with her to Ruby’s door. We knocked and Darius came to it.

“Hey, it’s ready.” I said.

“Ah—good.” Darius paused for a moment and glanced back in the room. “Be right down.”

Adele and I didn’t carry it on and left with a nod. I’m sure they had some things to talk about this situation and we shouldn’t have been involved. It was their business.

Chapter 4

Darius

I closed the door and turned to Ruby. She was sitting up on the bed, giving Dirk a final feeding before lying him down for the night. She didn’t even seem aware that I opened the door and still had her eyes and thoughts down on Dirk.

“Ruby, dinner’s ready.”

She sighed and looked up. “Perfect timing. I’m starving and busy.”

“It’s all right. I can get it so it’s still hot.”

She paused with her eyes directly on me but not turning red. “Fine but be quick about it. We’ll have to put him to bed soon.”

I nodded and left the room. The sounds of my steps carried me downstairs and I could only hear light chatter coming from the dining room. I didn’t go in. I went into the kitchen where the food would be waiting but Meg was in there too, holding one of her babies. I instantly noticed but tried to act like I didn’t and walked over to the counter where our food was sitting.

“Oh, Darius!” Meg sounded surprised when she turned around. “It’s you!”

I was polite and didn’t ignore her. “Hello, Meg.”

“How are you?”

“I’m good.”

“Good. I’m glad you got to work things out.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“I saw your son. He’s beautiful.”

“Ah, thank you. And you having twins. How’s that going?”

“It’s only been a week but good so far.”

“Which one is this?” I gestured down to the one in her arms but didn’t want to get too close to look.

“My precious little Cadence.”

“Beautiful name.”

“Yeah, it was my grandmother’s. I haven’t named my son yet. I thought, you know, Wyatt would want a say.”

“Smart thinking. He probably would.”

I didn’t know what else to say and we just stood there, looking at each other and probably waiting for the other to say something.

I couldn’t wait any longer and was the first to look away and reached for the two plates in front of me. “Well, I better get these upstairs. It was good seeing you.”

“And you. Goodnight.”

I walked right out and headed back upstairs to Ruby. She had Dirk into a sitting position next to her. “Finally. How long does it take to grab two plates?”

I laughed. “Sorry. There’s a lot more stairs here and—” I didn’t want to lie about it. “I ran into Meg in the kitchen.”

I watched Ruby’s eyes turn red but she kept a happy tone on her voice. “Oh, so I guess that means getting laid tonight is out of the question. You already got yours.”

“Ruby, it wasn’t like that. Just some simple small talk and I left.”

“Okay.” She took her plate from me but I knew she wasn’t fine. “Can we just not talk about it? I don’t want to fight with you.”

“Good. I don’t want to fight with you either. It was nothing.”

I sat on the bed and ate the rest of my dinner with her in silence. Ruby mainly had her focus on Dirk next to her and kept giving him a taste of her food, only sharing smiles and delighted expressions with him, not me.

I was curious as to what was really going through her mind but I didn’t let out a word to find out. I didn’t want anything to lead into a fight like I said and just kept quiet the whole time but we may just have been in a fight, just not saying anything.

After we were finished eating, she put Dirk to bed and left the dirty dishes in the room like she didn’t want to take them down and never asked me to. We even got into bed with a silence still between us and she laid so far away from me that she could have fallen off her side if she twitched.

I couldn’t be silent about this anymore. I had to know if something was bothering her. “Ruby.”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you way over there? Come over here.”

“Why?”

“Because. I like holding you.”

“Is that all you want?”

She didn’t sound mad; she just sounded tired and I smiled, hoping to get away from what I originally wanted to know. “I could go for some quiet contact so we don’t wake Dirk.”

Ruby turned over and had a smile of her own. “I always knew you’d give that up eventually.”

“Well, not wanting you when he’s around turned out to be harder than I thought.”

She laughed and inched closer, gently rubbing her finger tips on my bare chest which only heightened the needs of my request. “And as much as I love hearing that, it’ll have to wait until morning.”

“Too tired even for quiet?”

“I’ll make up for it later. I’m just tired from the trip. My head’s not really in the right place for that right now.”

“Ruby, this isn’t about—”

“No. Of course not. I’d be fine doing it right in front of the bitch. We could show her how it’s supposed to be done if you’d like?”

I laughed. I knew she was joking but it was still a little amusing. “That’s all right. You don’t need to prove anything.”

“Don’t I?”

“Of course not. You know you’re better. I’ve told you that. You should believe it by now.”

“Well, I promise we’ll make up for it, okay? In some high risk place where you can do whatever you want to me, however you want.”

I sighed with a quiet whimper behind it. “But I want that now.”

Ruby laughed and kissed me. “Your eagerness will make it better. I love it when you build off that.”

I leaned into her lips and kissed her, getting our tongues to touch. “If I build off it now, it’ll still be good.”

“It always is but we could both use the sleep. You can talk it up all you want but you’ll get tired after a few minutes of it. So, sleep. For me.”

“All right but you don’t have to be so far away.”

“I’m staying right here.” She kissed me again and started closing her eyes. “Goodnight.”