Blooming Life (Fate's Intent Book 10) (16 page)

Chapter 28

Seth

Our first year at the Royal Academy was coming to an end and summer was almost finally here.

I got twelve letters from Cadence since I sent my first and we were both getting excited about seeing each other. I liked the girls at the Academy that I hung out with, Becca, Mari and Janie but none of them held my interest like Cadence could in the short amount of time that I spent with her. I paced a lot of my days away, trying to get them to pass. Rift seemed like he was worrying. He was a lot more attentive since Jaylyn helped him a few months ago. He was at a healthier age and didn’t sleep so much anymore so he had more time to lookout for me.

“Afternoon, son. Still pacing?” My father entered my room and I tried to keep myself still.

“Hello, father.”

“A letter from Kalu came for you. I snuck it passed your mother.”

“A letter?”

“Were you not expecting one?”

“No. She was just supposed to come here.”

I took the letter from him with worry trembling through me and opened it.

Seth,

I’m sorry for the completely rude short notice but I cannot come to Seni this year. My mother is making me spend the summer with my father in Hintus. She just told me and believe me, I’m not happy about it either.

I’ll be leaving a couple weeks later than when I would normally leave for Randal so I was hoping that maybe you could convince your father to bring you here. We’d only have a couple of days but I thought it was better than not at all. I was hoping we’d have all summer; I wanted it to be all summer but apparently I’m not old enough to make my own decisions.

Please. Forgive me for this but if you could hurry, we could still see each other.

Miss you already,

Cadence

“Oh, no.”

“What?” My father was still in the room and was waiting by.

“She’s not coming.”

“Why?”

“She has to spend the summer with her father.”

“That’s too bad. I know how excited you were to see her again.”

“I still can see her, father.”

“You can?”

“She asked if you could bring me to Dorlin before she leaves.”

“And tell your mother what? That we’re going to visit her father without her?”

“I don’t know but please, father. I have to see her.”

He examined my face carefully and I was sure to express all the right levels of depression.

“All right. Let me think of something first. Maybe we won’t tell her we’re going all the way to Dorlin but just that we want a father-son outing for a few days. Our speed can get us there timely.”

“Really?! Thank you! Thank you!”

“Just let me test the waters to see what she says first, all right? We can’t have her get suspicious.”

“Okay. I’ll pack.”

I allowed him to leave and went right for my closet, packing whatever I touched first. I didn’t care what it was. I just wanted to get out of here and see her.

I began my pacing routine again while waiting for him to get back. I was completely ready. I just needed him to say that mother approved of us spending almost a week completely alone with each other and that meant without the other male members of the family either. I don’t remember the last time we’ve done that so hopefully she’ll encourage it.

It was getting dark, almost dinner and I was getting worried for his success.

“Seth?”

My speed carried me around to my father finally entering. “Yes?!”

“She thinks it’s a great idea that we go but—” I tried to calm from being too excited. “There’s only one slight conundrum with our plan.”

“What?”

“She asked if we could take them and the boys to the mountain palace for the summer.”

“But that would take us out another day because I doubt that she wants to leave tonight.”

“No. In the morning. Troy and Darius will be here to manage my affairs and I will drop you off with her when we’re finished.”

“I don’t mind spending the summer there if Cadence won’t be coming here but I want to have a few days with her. I’ve only had minutes before and it was never enough.”

“I know but I couldn’t explain that. You still get to see her. You just have to—”

“Wait. Yeah. I’ve heard that before.”

“It’s just another day. I think it’s worth it. You will see her.”

I kicked off my shoes with the longest sigh I’ve ever made in my entire life. “Still not soon enough.”

“It’s almost dinner then you can go to bed early. Tomorrow will come faster and you’ll need the rest. I’ll take all of you for the first stretch and we’ll see how you do when we head to Dorlin. This will be your longest run you know.”

“Worth it.”

He smiled and put his arm around my shoulder to turn me towards the door. “Come on. Tell your mother all about how excited you are to spend an undetermined amount of time with me.”

“You didn’t say how long?”

“I left room for change.”

“Smart thinking.”

I put my happy face back on and headed to the dining hall to meet mother.

She didn’t seem at all suspicious about why we were really doing it but I think Troy knew. He was trying to stay out of conversation about it a lot since he knew about my father introducing me to Cadence almost a year ago. He was good about not giving anything away and stayed true to his promise not to tell.

The night had finally passed and we were saying goodbye to leave.

“Seth, don’t have too much fun, okay?” Troy winked at me, saying something entirely different.

“I’ll try not to.”

He patted my shoulder and father was ready to take us out of the city. I held Rift for now but I knew he wouldn’t be able to come with us when we were going to make the fast trip. He could never keep up and was too big to carry.

The ride was relaxing for me and I guess I was going to need it. I didn’t want to stay long but father made sure we didn’t make unwanted questions arise and made sure they were settled in.

“I’ll be back with him in maybe a week. I’m not sure how far out this will take us but then I’ve got to get back.”

“I know.” My mother said. “And we’ll be back at the end of summer before the boys start another year.”

“Goodbye, mother.” I hugged her like she would expect.

“Have fun with your father, okay? We’ll make sure Rift is taken care of until you get back.”

“Thank you. Bye Dirk. Bye Bryce.”

“Bye.” The chorused.

My father kissed my mother and had less intimate goodbyes with Ruby and Jaylyn before we finally got to leave.

“We’ll leave our horses.” He said. “It will be much easier for you on foot and I can bring mine back to Randal when I have to get back.”

“Okay, father.”

“You ready? Keep up with me and don’t hasten your breaths. It will only make you tire sooner.”

“Okay.” I took one deep breath, making sure my bag was strapped tight to my back and we headed off.

At first it was like racing as we had done before until it lasted longer than a minute. It was fun. I managed my breaths well and only started to become a bit tired after a few hours.

My father took my wrist next to me and we stopped.

“You all right? Need a break?”

I didn’t want to take a break but I wasn’t going to be stupid about this. I needed to pace myself.

“Maybe a short one. Are we in Kalu now?”

I looked around at all of the thick forests in the distance and my father nodded. “Yes but we’re still a few more hours away from Dorlin.”

“Oh. I need a drink.”

I sat down on a rock exposed from the earth and took my bag off my shoulders, rummaging through it for the pouch of water.

“How’s the run for you?” My father sat next to me and drank some of his own water.

“It’s different. Almost like I don’t feel like I’m moving at all after a while but I get tired.”

“It looks to be midday. You ready to run some more? We can get there by dinner.”

“What are you doing to do when I’m with Cadence? Surely we won’t need supervision.”

“Need it or want it?”

“You know what I mean. You don’t have to be there.”

“I know but that just means you’re accepting my trust and I expect you to remember it even when your mind may be on other things.”

“Father.” I groaned the word to what he was insinuating. “We didn’t arrange this to have sex. We just wanted to see each other.”

“Well, you never know. I couldn’t just assume you didn’t. I was young like you once. I haven’t forgotten how I was.”

“How were you?”

“A lot like you.”

“Well, just so you don’t assume, I haven’t yet and don’t intend to until it’s the right person.”

“Which leads us back to me bringing you across the world so you can see Cadence.”

I stood up anxiously. “I don’t think it’s going to be like that. I mean, we haven’t spent much physical time with each other. It’d be too soon.”

“All right.” My father laughed. “You’re taking it slow with her. I get it and I’m proud of you.”

“Can we go?”

I put my water back and reattached my bag to me.

“Yes.”

He was gone first and I followed for our second leg of this trip.

I was much more used to it now and could start to notice when it got dark around us.

“Adjust your eyes.” My father said, almost yelling so I could hear through the wind we were making. “You’ll be able to see in the dark when they’re black.”

I tried it. My eyes grew black and the scenery around us became more visible like it once had. Then a brightness began to grow in the distance. It was the city. We had finally made it to Dorlin.

My father took my wrist again and stopped us. “All right. Let’s try to do this a bit more normally. We don’t want to scare anyone.”

“Do they know about us?”

“I would guess that rumor has reached here if your mother heard about it. We just don’t want to scare them further.”

We walked the rest of the way to the city and were let in at the gate.

“Where do we go? I don’t know exactly where she lives.”

“Please don’t hate me, son but it’s late. Perhaps we rest at the palace and see your grandfather than you can have all day with her tomorrow.”

“More waiting?”

“It would be better, wouldn’t it? If you saw her now, it would only be for maybe an hour and I know you’re not going to think that’s nearly long enough.”

I didn’t argue it because I knew there was going to be no point. “All right. Let us see Grandfather then.”

“It will be a surprise. He’s not expecting us.”

We walked to the palace, getting plenty of stares along the way but made it without being disturbed to a surprise.

“Uncle?” I saw my uncle Ryon walking with Trever through the main hall and they both turned.

“Seth!” He came right towards me and we hugged. “Wow, look at you. Someone is trying desperately to leave childhood behind him.”

“I’m thirteen, you know?”

“I do know that, yes.”

“How are you, Zayden?” Trever said. “Where’s the rest of the pack?”

“Oh, it’s just us.”

“Is it?” He looked suspiciously next to him at my uncle. “Well, I wonder why that could be. Perhaps it has something to do with this?”

They both moved to the side and I saw the most precious thing walking this way. I wasn’t the only one trying to leave childhood behind me as uncle said. Cadence had grown in the year we spent a part. Her hair was longer, she had gotten taller and I don’t want to sound too excited but she had breasts that were noticeably present.

“Cadence!”

She got the most beautiful smile when she saw me and started running. “Seth!”

When she reached me, I tried not to fall from the momentum of her throwing her arms around my neck and pressing her body against mine.

“You came!”

“Of course I came.”

“You knew.” My father had his rather surprised smile on Trever.

“It was foreseen you could say.”

“We wanted to surprise him.” Uncle said.

“Thank you.”

“And you’re just in time for dinner but even you knew you’d be.” Trever said.

“That was the plan.”

“Of course you’re welcome to join us. We’ve heard some interesting things coming out of Seni.”

“They’re true, I’m afraid but I assure you, they only know about us. Your secrets are still safe.”