Blooming Life (Fate's Intent Book 10) (4 page)

Chapter 9

Zayden

My anxiousness to get there brought me into Randal within hours of receiving the news. All of the people remained saddened by the loss of the King and Queen and the walk felt long and quiet. People that were on the streets as I passed, bowed while I kept my head held high but I never responded. My mind was on one thing. The loss of my parents consumed me. I was still lost in devastation by the news but never even showed it. My exterior was completely expressionless.

Mourners greeted me at the palace gates and I was led to the burial chamber where I saw their bodies. They were laying together and just looked so peaceful like the way they were found in their bed. Everyone surrounded them and stood still and quiet while I was the last to approach.

I tried my best to keep in my emotion as I stood at the head of the stone slab and kissed each of their heads. I grazed my mother’s face with my fingertips as I backed away and the fire was brought in. I was handed the torch and slowly skimmed the wood around my parent’s bodies and left it there to finish the job. Everyone hung their heads as the fire consumed them but I did not. I kept my stare right into the fire.

After a while, everyone started to slowly leave until I was the only one left. I was still looking forward. The bodies have become unrecognizable and my eyes turned black. I wanted answers, explanations but there weren’t any. It only made things worse and I locked myself further away from everyone or wanted to.

When I left the burial chamber, there was a gathering in the main hall. I knew what it was for and said nothing as I walked through them to the throne.

“Our condolences in this dark time.” Said my father’s Royal Advisor. “Your father’s will has been reviewed and his entire estate is being transferred to you and yours, along with this.” The King crown was brought to me on a pillow. “You are now our King.”

The crown was placed on my head and I felt the burden of its weight. Everyone around me got down on their knees and bowed. I turned to see it and sat in the throne, keeping my expression blank and that’s where I stayed.

Days were passing and I was only seeming more lost from myself.

Chapter 10

Adele

We had finally made it and I was just eager to get to Zayden.

“Don’t worry about all our stuff. We have to find him.”

We walked out of the stables without taking anything with us and headed to the palace doors.

“Found him.” Darius muttered the moment we stepped inside.

Zayden was in the throne. He was wearing the King crown but his eyes were empty and alone. He looked like stone. His breaths were barely visible from his chest and it didn’t take me a second look to be worried. I felt the pain he ceased from showing and took cautious steps towards him. “Zayden?”

His eyes darted towards us and blackened with the deepness of his displeased voice. “How dare you address your King with such disrespect?!” Hearts began to fluster, feeling the floor beneath our feet rumble with his words and everyone’s instant reaction was to bow.

“I’m sorry.” I said with my head down. “Please forgive us. We’re just—”

“Trying my patience yet again! You are dismissed from my presence until you have learned where to focus your loyalties!”

I lifted my head and looked at the others around me. They were all worried. Darius and Troy tried to get me to continue but I knew it wasn’t a good idea. Something was indeed wrong with Zayden and in order for us to figure out what, we had to do it privately away from him.

“As you wish.” I signaled for everyone to follow me after another bow and we walked through the Great Hall to take the back stairs. “Something’s wrong.”

“You think?” Darius grumbled. “He’s completely not himself.”

“Not another word.” I snatched. “Boys, why don’t you go out the back and get your stuff from the stables.”

“We can’t be in on this?” Seth asked.

“Just do it and don’t come back through the main doors. I don’t want you going near your father until we can find a way to get through to him. He’s taking this loss the complete wrong way.”

“You mean by not feeling anything at all.” Seth muttered. “Surprise.”

“Seth, stay away from him. We’ll be the ones to fix this.”

Seth sighed and turned away to do what he was told.

“We’ll try to at least.” Troy said.

My eyes rolled and I gently pushed him towards the stairs. “Come on.”

We went up them and I slowly stepped inside the familiar corner room.

“It’s okay.” Darius smiled, opening the door a little more. “It is your room.”

“I know. It’s just been awhile.”

They let me have a moment to take in the fact that I was back and staying for an unseen amount of time.

“So, we’re here.” Ruby said. “And Zayden has lost it. What are we going to do?”

I let out a long breath like I’ve already been thinking and turned to them. “He needs to find it, whatever it is. I know it’s not a good time. We haven’t had enough time to deal with this devastating loss ourselves but I don’t think Zayden has at all. It’s like he’s not accepting it.”

“Or accepting it too well.” Jaylyn replied. “He seemed too comfortable in that crown than the Zayden I know.”

“Okay. Come on. Don’t leave this all on me. I could use everyone’s heads here. How are we going to help him before he pushes all of us away?”

The room was quiet while everyone tried coming up with some kind of solution but it seemed no one had one.

This quick rush of a sound outside the door caught my attention. “What was that?”

“It was Seth.” Jaylyn said.

I gasped and headed for the door. “Oh, no! He’s going to Zayden! Seth! Get back here!”

We all rushed out of the room but we could never be as fast as him. I reached the balcony railing and Seth was already in the main hall. His eyes were on his father unafraid and he walked to him, sure and confident.

His steps lifted Zayden’s eyes to him and he became enraged by the style he chose to approach with and it brought him to his feet. “What are you—”

Zayden raise his hand and I screamed. “No!”

I wasn’t quick enough but neither was Zayden. Seth rushed towards him, his arms open and flung around Zayden’s body, halting his very words.

Seth said nothing. All he did was hold his embrace around his father and released the emotions he has yet to show himself. His tears ran down his face and Zayden took immediate reaction. He finally took a breath loud enough for anyone to hear and gripped his arms around his son’s shoulders, only getting tight enough to feel his pain. They lowered to the steps in front of the throne and he finally felt as the King crown fell from his head, hitting the floor with an echoing
clang
. Zayden let his first tears fall for the loss of his parents and they rained upon Seth. Having him feel his son’s love was just what he needed and he let it show.

I stayed back with the others, not to be seen and succumbed to sadness from the sight. My boys were together but this was the first time I’ve seen true pain expressed by Zayden and I knew he needed me too.

I rushed down the stairs while the others stayed back so we could have our time and I joined them crouching on the stairs. “Zayden!”

My tears began to fall and he freed one of his arms from Seth and wrapped it around me, pulling me close. “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I couldn’t do this without you.”

“You won’t have to.”

“I love you both so much.”

We stayed on the steps in a family embrace for what seemed like hours until the sounds of sadness was silenced but no one thought to get up.

I moved first by shifting my eyes to the crown sitting on the steps by my feet and reached a hand to it. “Zayden.”

Zayden moved his heavy eyes and his voice became anxious when he saw. “No. I can’t. I’m—I’m not ready.”

“Of course you are. You’re our King.”

“That doesn’t make me ready. I wasn’t supposed to be yet. Father—” He had to swallow his sadness just from saying it. “He was going to name me on my birthday.”

“I know.”

“We were going to get the chance to be with you at home until then and I was going to prepare myself but now I can’t do that. Now, I don’t have the time.”

“No one thinks you need it but you.” Seth said. “We believe in you. You already are a great King.”

Zayden showed the first sign of a smile in days and looked down at his son. “Thank you but I hope you realize what this means for us. I have to stay here now.”

“Then I will too.”

“Seth.” I cut in.

“Mother. Why not?”

“We’ll talk about it later, okay? This isn’t the time.”

“But—”

“Your mother is right. You can stay for a while. I’m sure Aleksander will want to visit. The company went to tell him next but after that we’ll have to see, okay?”

Seth sighed but obeyed. “Okay.”

“Time to move on from this.” I placed the King’s crown on Zayden’s head. “You’re needed now.”

“I know moving on is right but that might be harder than you think. No one knows what happened. They just—were gone.”

“No one could have predicted it.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“My father? Remember he doesn’t see everything and he doesn’t choose what he gets shown. He may not have seen any signs of it at all.”

“Because there were none! They were in perfect health when we left! Something just doesn’t seem right and until I find out what, I can’t just move on.” He got up first from the steps and began to walk towards the conference room.

“Seth, no.” I said, stopping him from following. “Let him be. This will take time. You’ve gotten him to accept it and now he needs to be the one to continue his own way.”

“If you say so, mother. I just think we should still watch him.”

I smiled and put my arm around him. “I’m glad you want to. Go ahead. Maybe it would be good for him to be distracted for a time. He may need you after all.”

Seth smiled and hurried off with Rift following.

It took a great death for Seth to look passed the faults of his father and finally come together. For something as fragile as life, it should never be taken for granted. He finally realized that every second he got to spend with his father was a gift and they could both now look to their futures as King and the Crown Prince.

Chapter 11

Seth

In the two years since the death of my grandparents, my father spent a lot of his time alone wallowing in his thoughts. He was King, making everything change for all of us. It was time to start doing things his way and mentally preparing me for my future.

I was walking through the halls of the palace looking for our King but found mother instead. “Have you seen father anywhere?”

She smiled gently to my interest. “He’s in the temple again.”

“Oh, maybe I should wait.”

She came to me and gave me a comforting touch on the shoulder. “It may take some more time to recover for him. It was sudden but maybe you should see him. He could use something else to think about. We both know he’s been seeming more distracted lately.”

“Okay, mother. Can you keep an eye on Rift? He’s napping in my room again.”

“Of course I can. He enjoys his naps these days.”

“Faults of getting old, I guess.”

“He’ll still be around. Go see your father.”

I turned from her and used my speed to get to the entrance of the temple but slowly walked in. I passed the statues of my many great grandfathers and found father sitting with his back up against the base of grandfather Izin’s statue.

“Father?”

He was sitting still and maybe even emotionless but turned his head. “Seth. What is it?”

“Just came to see what you were doing. Not talking back?”

He smiled by my expression and turned his head back. “I know he wouldn’t be able to. Like he would say anything that will help anyway.”

“I think I knew him well enough that he wouldn’t have wanted you to be in here all the time.”

“That’s a very wise thing to say for one so young.”

“I’m more grown up than you think I am.”

“Oh, are you? Well, I need a long vacation. You take over.”

My eyes got wide and I took a step closer. “What? I didn’t say I was
completely
grown up.”

Father laughed which only told me that he was actually joking and he started to stand. “Only kidding, Seth. I was about to go back in. I have to go over a few more things before dinner.”

“Oh.” That meant work and I was a bit disappointed.

“Why don’t you come?”

“Really?!”

“I don’t see why not. You’re growing up faster than I’d like to admit. You should be learning these things with me.”

“Okay. Where to?”

“Conference room. That’s where they were supposed to have some papers ready for me.”

“Race you?”

“Oh, not completely grown up, I see. On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”

We both used our speed at the same time and raced back into the palace. A few people were startled as we passed but there wasn’t time to stop and apologize. I wanted to win and we headed straight for the conference room.

Darius was carrying a stack of papers through the door and it would have almost been impossible to stop so suddenly so we maneuvered around him, making him drop some of the papers. “What the fuck are you doing?”

We stopped by the table and were both laughing.

“Well, good to see both of you in a different mood.” Troy said, already standing by the table and probably glad we didn’t run into him too.

“Sorry, Darius.” I said. “I’ll clean it up.”

I used my other gift and picked up all the papers we made Darius drop, putting them all on the table.

“Thank you. What was that about?”

“My fault.” Father said. “I agreed to the race.”

“Well, I hope you’re done playing.”

He cleared his throat and tried to become more serious. “Yes, of course. Totally done.”

Darius just looked at him strangely and moved the papers across the table to where my father would be sitting. “Well, these are going to need the King’s signature. They’re just the basic transfer papers for reassigning ownership of a few properties in the south.”

His mood changed with a sigh. “Oh, all right. Seth, take note. These are the kinds of things you’ll be responsible for in the future.”

I smiled and sat in a chair at the table. “Really?”

“Not until you’re sixteen though.” Troy smiled. “Your father will be dealing with it until then.”

“Yes.” He sighed. “Just something else added to the list. Thank you. I can take it from here.”

“Okay.” Darius nodded. “That should be it for today. We’ll see you at dinner.”

He nodded and they walked out, leaving us alone.

“So, son, how was your day?” My father sat in his chair, signing papers without looking up at me.  

“Boring as usual. It’s been too hot to want to train.”

“I see. It has indeed. Well, let me just get through this and we’ll head off to dinner, shall we?”

I nodded and we sat here while my father was going through and signing every page.

I leaned on the table in front of me, tapping my fingers on its surface from boredom after only minutes.

“I hope you don’t expect this to be a glamorous life.” My father must have noticed my mood without even looking.

“I
clearly
know it’s not completely but there are perks.”

“Oh, you think so? Like what?”

“You know, just the attention. Mostly from girls.”

His smile got bigger and he finally looked across the table. “Oh, I see! The girls! You’re worried about that already? Well, you’re absolutely right until you find the one you’re going to stick with.”

I laughed like it was some kind of cruel joke. “I don’t think I should have to think about that for a long time.”

“You’re probably right. Anyone I should know about?”

“No.” Now I was getting an attitude. “I hardly get to go beyond the walls.”

“Well, we’ll try and change that, huh? This is about time you should get the people more acquainted with you. You are twelve years old after all. It’s the starting age for taking up study at the Royal Academy. I was going to have a talk with your mother about having you attend.”

I huffed. “Good luck. Not that I disapprove. I would love to go but mother has her
reasons
.”

“Yes, but I also have mine. She will see to them. I promise.”

I smiled, hoping he was actually right this time and he finished up with the papers.

“Let’s get to dinner.” He stood up and I stood up after him. “How about we do something tomorrow? Just us.”

“What?”

“I think I’ll keep it a surprise but don’t tell your mother.”

“Something I can’t tell mother about? I’m in!”

“Come on. Meet me in the stables tomorrow morning after breakfast.”

“I will.”

“For now, let’s just focus on dinner. I’m starving. I haven’t eaten all day.”

“Race you?”

He laughed. “Oh, no. Too many breakable things in the dining hall. Your mother would not like that.”

“Okay.” I was a little disappointed. I liked it when we raced but then my father took off out of sight and I smiled, following with my speed.

The dining hall doors burst open as we passed. My father proceeded to his chair, saving a glass from falling while he waited for me.

“What took you so long?”

“You didn’t win. You cheated.”

He laughed. “Next time be prepared.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”