Raining Light (Fate's Intent Book 5) (10 page)

I could only sit back and wonder what was going through his mind until he finally spoke again. “I guess I shouldn’t be able to disapprove of that so greatly when I’ve seen how attached she’s already become to you. I suppose I would allow it but getting her away from my mother will be the challenge.”

“We can do it.”

“You better not make me regret this decision.”

“I won’t. Having Jaylyn happy will be enough, well, after she can accept you leaving.”

Kole laughed and started to stand up. “Yeah but it’ll be worse than before and I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I got too involved. I was never supposed to.”

“Troy?” I was shaken and turned to see Jaylyn step off the last step. Her arms folded and she had a look of pure wonderment to see us being the only two in the room. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes glanced over at Kole while walking to me and I did the same but started to smile. “Of course. Can’t you feel that?”

“I just wanted to make sure.”

“Relax, Jay.” Kole said. “It was just a meaningless conversation.”

“With you, nothing’s meaningless.”

“Awe. That’s so sweet of you.”

Jaylyn sighed to his sarcastic tone and shifted her weight. “It wasn’t a compliment. Troy, come on.”

“He’ll be right up.”

She turned back around while we looked at each other. “And what exactly is this meaningless conversation about?”

“It’s all right, Jaylyn.” I said. “Go on. I’ll be right there.”

She looked in my eyes and I knew she wondered why I wanted this but she trusted me enough to agree. It was Kole she didn’t trust and turned her eyes to him. “You even hurt him just a tiny bit and I’ll kill you myself.”

Kole smiled to the irony in her words. “Understood.”

Jaylyn looked at me one last time before she turned back towards the stairs.

“You better take care of her.” Kole said.

“I will.”

“Good. Because you don’t want to mess that up but on the off chance that something happens and you make her angry or worse, cry, I’ll give you some advice from my many experiences of that happening.”

“Okay.” I slightly laughed to the thought of Kole finding his mistakes with Jaylyn to be amusing while he sat himself down next to me.

“If she’s angry, don’t walk away no matter how much she thinks she wants to be away from you because she doesn’t. Jay’s not the type to stay mad and she never wants to. Sometimes things just happen and she can’t help it but she doesn’t really want it to stay that way. If she cries—” He paused for a moment and looked down at the floor, his tone getting lower. “It complicates things because you would have had to hurt her somewhere on an emotional level and she takes those things very seriously. More work is involved. The usual things like flowers. Her favorites are calla lilies but they aren’t always used to make her feel better. They’re the perfect gift but if that doesn’t work because you’ve done something so horribly unspeakable that a gift would just be completely pointless, you just basically have to beg her for forgiveness and hope she does. She usually does.”

“Well—thank you. Even if this advice is coming from you. I think I better get upstairs before she worries.”

“You do that. I don’t really know when I’m getting to bed.” We got up and Kole walked over to the window and sat himself down on the sill, looking west.

I couldn’t just leave him down here like this. Something changed. I didn’t feel the usual hate for him anymore. Kole seemed different, likable when he wasn’t provoking a fight and I found myself walking back over. “Kole?”

“Hmm?” His reply was low and completely emotionless.

“I’m sorry about all of this. I know you care about her even if you say you weren’t allowed to.”

“Don’t be sorry. None of it is your fault. We were long over before you came along. You’re better for her anyway. You can give her what I can’t—a life.”

“Ah, yeah. I guess. Well, goodnight.”

Kole nodded without even looking back and I turned up the stairs for the night.

It took me a few moments to use my sight to look into the rooms to find Jaylyn but when I did, I didn’t hesitate.

She was still awake, waiting for me. “There you are. Almost had me go check on you again.”

I laughed and laid with her. “It’s okay. Nothing’s wrong.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. We just had to get a few things out of the way.”

“What?”

“Oh, he just wanted to give me some advice.”

She laughed quietly. “Kole? Advice? For you?”

“It was harmless. No need to worry. We should get to bed. We’ll probably be going early.”

Thankfully, Jaylyn didn’t go on about why I was gone or what exactly I talked about with Kole and I wouldn’t have wanted her to. That would have just meant that I had to lie to her and I didn’t want that. What I wanted was already right here with me. She laid her head down on my shoulder and I held her like I already felt the remorse. In a few days it would have been worse and I would try to do what I could to make it pleasant till then for all of us.

The following morning came all too quickly. I woke first and looked next to me at Jaylyn still peacefully asleep with her head resting up against my arm. I smiled to it but slowly started to pull away, trying not to wake her while I got up. She didn’t move at all or show any signs of waking and I carefully tiptoed backwards to the door. The door made a quiet pop when I turned the knob and I tried being even quieter as I went out it and closed it behind me.

The sun was coming up and shining through the windows when I stepped down the stairs, making everything seem bright that I had to shade my eyes from it.

“Too early for you?”

I refocused and saw Kole right on the couch where he was last night during our talk. “No. Just suddenly bright. It’s not that bright upstairs.”

Kole laughed and inhaled on a small pipe. “Yeah. It is early though.”

“Did you sleep at all?” I retook my seat across from him and noticed his mood. He seemed pretty tired or just worn out.

“Some but it was quite restless. A lot on my mind, you know?”

“Yeah. Jaylyn was awfully curious about our conversation after I went upstairs.”

“You didn’t tell her anything, right?”

“Of course not. I said I wouldn’t. I keep my promises.”

Kole smiled and got up, sitting himself down next to me, holding out the pipe in front of me.

“Ah, that’s okay. I don’t—”

“Come on! You know you want to! You only live once!” He was waving it around in front of me, only tempting me to take it.

I couldn’t help but return the laugh and finally took the pipe from him under pressure. “All right.”

“See! Take it from me, life’s too short to deny yourself of every experience possible.”

I took a puff off it and tried holding in my cough. “Oh, fuck.”

“Good stuff, right?”

“Strong, I think you mean but yeah.”

“Jay’s going to be so pissed that I got you into this.”

“Why?”

“She never liked me doing it. It’s necessary these days though.” He took it back from me and took a hit off it. “It keeps my mood up so I seem normal and no one gets suspicious. I don’t want to make my last days depressing.”

“Hey, can you stop saying stuff like that?” Kole passed the pipe back to me. “That’s how it becomes depressing.”

“Well, it’s the truth.”

“I know but you don’t want to slip out a comment like that around the others or they will get suspicious. Just continue to be you. I’ll help in whatever way I can to make sure the rest of this trip remains fun for you.”

“Really?”

“Sure thing. It’s the least I could do since we made our deal I don’t even want to say in hearing range of anyone.”

Kole smiled with a slight laugh and joking tone. “Gee, Troy! That’s so sweet of you! My new best friend!”

I laughed.

“No, really.” He calmed his voice after another hit. “I’m going to be serious for a second.”

“Just a second?” I took the pipe from Kole and another hit from it. “Good because I think that’s all I have left.”

Kole laughed then cleared his throat. “Okay. Here it goes. Seriously now. I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“For hating you. I honestly don’t know why I really did. Because of Jay? Shouldn’t have been. It’s not like you took her from me. Maybe because you’re Senian? I don’t even know if that’s completely true. I’ve been there dozens of times without contemplating a massacre so I don’t really know why I did but I’m sorry. Whatever the reason, I was wrong about you.”

“Well, thank you. It must have been hard for you to say that to me.”

He smiled and retook the pipe. “Well, this helped I think.”

“Yeah, probably and hey, I’m sorry too. I think I was hating you for the wrong reasons.”

“You mean Jay’s reasons. It was like she wanted you to hate me so she’d feel better.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what she’s going to think about this.”

“I think deep down she’ll like it. She won’t have to be so damn frustrated all the time. She’ll actually be able to relax some.”

“I see your point but I’m sure everyone is going to have something to say.”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“Oh, hey!” Kole smiled. “Wolfe! Join us! We’re ah, recon—recon—”

“Reconciling.” I whispered.

“Yeah, that word with our differences. Did you know he’s actually kind of fun?”

Ryon laughed. “Jay’s going to be pissed that you’re stealing her boyfriend.”

“Nah. She won’t either. She’ll just finally rejoin us and be the fun girlie-girl everyone loves.”

“Well, maybe not at first.” I said. “But possibly eventually.”

“This is weird.” Ryon said, looking between us. “Troy must just be the weakest one.”

I laughed; my head filling with my own echo and I knew this was starting to affect me. “What?”

“Meaning you fell first. First Trever then Aleks and now him. What’s next? Me?”

“You hate me?” I said it as if I was just hearing about it for the first time. “What did I ever do to you to deserve that?”

“Awe. Be nice.” Kole laughed while putting his hand around my shoulders and giving me a comforting rattle. “You’re going to make the kid cry.”

Kole and I broke down even harder with laughter and Ryon just sat across from us, looking at us like he still couldn’t believe we were actually getting along. I couldn’t either but I admit that I liked it. “I think I’m going to need some of that.”

Kole started to calm down just enough to hand the pipe off to him and Ryon took it greedily like he was hoping he could change his mood too.

“Where have you been all night?” Kole asked.

“Out. You the only two up?”

“Suppose so.” I answered. “Haven’t seen anyone else.”

“Good.” Ryon smiled, handing the pipe back to Kole. “Then we have time.”

Most definitely. We smiled back and sat there together until others of the house started to wake up.

“Oh, hey! Darius!” I was first to see him come off the stairs but never questioned why he was alone. I was in too good of a mood. “Good, you’re up! You have to try this!”

I held the pipe out over the back of the couch, ready to hand it off to him. “Put that shit away. You know Ruby’s here. I don’t want her anywhere near it.”

“Well, she’s not up yet, right?” I glanced back at the stairs to prove that he wasn’t followed. “She’s usually out for a while after you put it to her.”

“Wow, really?!” Kole laughed.

Darius sighed and walked around the couch to Ryon to sit down. “We’re not going to talk about that.”

“Well, here.” I said, holding the pipe out across the table. “We don’t have to.”

Darius took it from me and sat back, taking a breath off it. “This is pointless.”

“Yeah. I know what you mean.” Ryon said, getting handed it next. “I’d have to sit here for hours before it would affect me like them.”

It got a smile out of Darius. “Yeah, I’m sort of immune to it. Troy’s the one that never cared to do it at home.”

“You can thank me for that.” Kole smiled. “He was pressured to and fell hard.”

“I can tell. He seems pretty weak to it but I can tell you Jaylyn’s going to be pissed.”

“Why does everyone always think that?” I wondered it more to myself but it apparently came out for everyone to hear because someone replied.

“Probably because he’s right!”

It was Jaylyn’s voice like she was yelling at Kole but she said it to me.

“See?” Darius laughed.

“So, you have a nice talk with him last night and suddenly you’re friends?”

“What’s your problem, Jay?” Kole said. “It’s no big deal.”

“I’ll be the one to decide that and it is a big deal! You’re turning him into you and if there’s one thing that I hate most of all it’s you!”

She stormed off angrily back into another room and I immediately got up to fix this. “Ah, well, looks like this is over for me.”