Testament (14 page)

Griff’s eyes widened. “You called him out?”

“Yes,” I sighed with exasperation.

“Are you insane?”

Crossing my arms across my chest, I narrowed my eyes and huffed, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am!”

Griff began pacing around the room, frantically running his hands through his hair. “I can’t believe this. I honestly can’t believe this. You, out of all the girls, get chosen to be the next empress, and this is what you do?” He grabbed me by the shoulders. In a low voice he said, “And what about our plans to help the Abir?”

I shoved him away. “Yeah, and what if you and your precious Abir don’t succeed? What happens to me then? I’m stuck in this palace, married off to Kellan who wants to control me and bend me to his will! Mom and Dad would roll over in their graves if that became my life. I’d rather be dead than to live my life in a prison behind the palace walls—a shriveled up husk of my former self.”

“With the way you behaved tonight, you just might get your wish,” Griff replied, coldly.

His words had the same effect as if he had slapped me. I reeled back and brought my hand to my mouth. Instantly, his face softened. “I’m sorry, Cady. I shouldn’t have said that.” He reached out for me, but I pulled away.

“Just go,” I whispered, not wanting Griff to see my tears.

His shoulders sagged and nodded. He started for the door. “I really am sorry,” he said, before he slipped into the living room.

I couldn’t hold my emotions in any longer. I collapsed on the bed and started sobbing. I rubbed my fingers together, wishing for the comfort of my buried rosary. Rolling over, I buried my face in my pillow to drown out my screams.

The day’s rollercoaster ride exhausted me, and I quickly cried myself to sleep. Sometime after the ancient mantle clock struck midnight, I shot up in my bed. Panting, I searched the shadowy darkness.

Nothing.

Just as I eased back down, I heard the noise again. It was someone at the door.

Fear paralyzed me. Images flickered in my mind of the day they’d come for my parents, just before they’d been executed. Was someone coming for me because I’d left Kellan?

Swinging my feet over the bed, I raced from the bed and threw open the door.

Kellan stood in the middle of the living area.

“You?” I demanded.

He nodded.

“But w-what are y-you doing here,” I stammered.

When his eyes met mine, he inhaled sharply. “I need your help, Cadence.”

My eyebrows shot into my hairline. “Me? What could you possibly need me for? Aren’t I the one who simply needs breaking like an unruly horse?”

He ducked his head at the mention of the words he had said to me earlier. “No, that is not it.”

“Then what is it?”

“I-I had a very frightening dream tonight. Actually, I’ve had it several times. I need—I want you to interpret for me.”

For a moment, I couldn’t speak. I just stared at him. He seemed so vulnerable, so frightened. It was so much different than how he had appeared with the press. Finally, I nodded and eased down on the couch beside him. “Give me your hands,” I instructed.

Kellan placed his palms over mine. I was surprised to find them so sweaty. “Now tell me about the dream.

“It seems kinda ridiculous when I think about.”

I shook my head. “No matter how ridiculous it seems, there is meaning in a dream you’ve had several times.”

He sighed. “Fine, my father was in a garden planting some vegetables…vines came up from the ground and choked out the life of the vegetables. Then the vines started in on my father, wrapping around his legs. When I tried to stop them, my hands got torn by the thorns on the roses.

“Your father is in danger.”

Kellan’s eyebrows shot up. “What? Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Someone close to him wants to take his power.”

“But who?”

Closing my eyes, I squeezed tighter on Kellan’s hands. Even though the Abir were a threat to Richard, I knew they weren’t the vines from the dream. A body intertwined in roses appeared before me. Thorns dug into his clothing, and streaks of blood ran from the scratches on his arms. At first, the face appeared blurry, but it started to clear.

My eyes flew open, and I gasped. “Roarke.”

Kellan jumped up from the couch. “No, it can’t be! He’s my father’s most trusted advisor, not to mention one of his best friends.”

“I know it might be hard to believe, but it’s what I saw.”

“So I’m supposed to go tell my father that I’ve been having a weird dream the past few weeks, and oh yeah, his best friend wants to dispose of him and take power of the province?”

“You don’t have to tell him anything,” I said. He cocked his head skeptically, and I shrugged. “It’s the truth. But if you value your father’s power, then it wouldn’t hurt to mention it to him. He does seem to put faith in numerology, so he should in dreams as well.”

Kellan appeared to be weighing in options. Suddenly, he stared intently at me and said, “You know, you were in the last dream, too.”

The comment took me totally off guard, and I fought to find my voice. “I-I was?”

He nodded. “You were on a beach in the middle of a storm.”

My heart sped up in my chest. “W-what color was I wearing?”

“Blue. You were wearing blue.”

Kellan looked expectantly at me for my response. I struggled to find my voice. “Oh, then it just meant I would stand beside you in the raging storm.”

He nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Will you do something for me, Cadence?” Kellan asked. In my hesitation, he laughed. “I’m not going to ask you to compromise yourself or anything like that.”

“That’s not what I was thinking, thank you,” I snapped. But that wasn’t entirely true. After he had forcibly picked me and said the things he’d said in front of the reporters, I didn’t want to imagine what he could really ask of me.

“Will you come with me to tell my father?”

“Uh, well, I.”

He took my hand in his. “Listen, if you come with me, it’s of your own volition. It doesn’t mean you’re consenting to being controlled and manipulated, Cadence. I won’t do that do you.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. “And I never thought you would to start with, but you did,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.

Kellan grimaced. “I know. I was a huge ass, and I’m sorry. The only explanation I have is my pride and ego were bruised because you hadn’t worn red like I asked you to. There’s really nothing else I can say for my behavior. I’m a selfish, egotistical ass, Cadence. Maybe you can help me work n that.”

“You promise it will be different? No breaking me like a spirited horse and all?” I asked.

He nodded.

“All right then. I’ll go with you.”

A smile spread across Kellan’s face. “All right. I’ll wait for you outside to get dressed.”

We took an elevator I’d never had access to. It was reserved for family and advisors only, and I noticed if could only be accessed by Kellan’s handprint on the keypad. It felt surreal, if not completely overwhelming, to have an elevated position now. To access Richard’s penthouse suite, we took another elevator to which Kellan accessed with a special key. I assumed this was to protect Richard as much as possible.

As the elevator lurched forward, I asked, “Where is your room?”

A wicked grin appeared on Kellan’s lips. “I thought you’d never ask, Red.”

I rolled my eyes. “Do you ever stop with the innuendo?”

“Sometimes.” The elevator door opened. “Actually, Red, my room is on the next floor down. There are several of my aunts and uncles as well as advisors who live on that floor.”

“I see.” I was momentarily distracted by the opulence of the penthouse entryway. Gold chandeliers lit up the foyer, sending light gleaming off the checkered marble floors. Even the walls had gold encrusted paneling, and I was surprised there weren’t lamps with diamonds hanging off of them.

A pinched face butler appeared before us. “Good evening, sir. Your father is in the study.”

“Thank you, James.”

I trailed behind Kellan through the maze of rooms. Finally, we stopped at a mahogany doorway with intricate carvings. Kellan knocked once, and Richard’s voice bellowed, “Yes.”

Kellan opened the door and stepped inside. “Father, I need to speak to you,” he said. While he crossed the room to stand in front of his father, I hung back, pressing myself against the doorframe.

Richard took off his glasses and pinched his nose. “What is it?”

“It’s about a dream I had.”

Richard’s response was to growl in exasperation. Smirking at Kellan, he said, “In case you haven’t noticed, dear son, it’s been a very tiring week with Venessa’s departure and the pageant. Not to mention, I have a lot of serious matters of state to contend with. I don’t have time for some dream.”

“But it’s something very serious. I had a dream someone was trying to overthrow you.”

At the mention of being overthrown, Richard wiped the smirk from his face, and his tone immediately changed. “A dream, you say?”

Kellan nodded. “It’s the third time I’ve had it—”

“You mean you’ve dreamt of me being disposed three times, and this is the first time I’m hearing it?” Richard shouted.

“Yes, well, I didn’t want to bother you,” Kellan answered, shrinking a little in his seat.

Richard snorted in exasperation. “Sometimes with your complete lack of focus and disregard for the charts I wonder how you can be my son.”

“That’s not fair!” I exclaimed, before I could stop myself.

Kellan and Richard both stared at me in disbelief. Heat burned through my cheeks. “Excuse me?” Richard demanded.

“I-I,” I stammered, desperately trying to figure out how to dig myself out of the hole my big mouth had made. “I just meant, sir, that it’s unfair to make the assumption Kellan doesn’t respect numerology and dream study since he hasn’t been afforded the same opportunities you have.”

Richard’s blue eyes pierced into me as he weighed my words. Before he could respond, Kellan said, “Cadence is a dream interpreter, Father.”

“Yes, I know that.”

“You do?” Kellan and I both asked in unison.

Richard sneered at us. “Do you think there’s one thing that happens at this palace that I don’t know about?”

“No sir,” we both echoed.

“I’ve had wind of Cadence’s abilities for awhile, not to mention a very satisfied client was raving incessantly to me about her.” He toyed with the stem of his glasses. “I, of course, was not so sure about believing him. Besides the fact she has not been schooled, the very fact she is a woman also makes it difficult for me to digest.”

I literally bit my tongue to keep from saying anything. A rush of metallic blood filled my mouth. Kellan noted the effort it took me because he rushed on, “I assure you, Father, she is the real thing.”

Richard rose up from the couch and came over to me. His stare bore into me. “How long have you been interpreting dreams?”

“Since I was five, sir,” I quickly replied.

“And how do you interpret Kellan’s?”

My gaze flickered to Kellan, and he nodded. “Someone very close to you covets your power and will stop at nothing to see you disposed.”

“And just who would that be?”

“It is, Roarke, sir.”

Richard’s eyes widened. “How can that be? He’s my most trusted advisor. He’s been with me for years.”

“It is what I’ve seen.”

Richard exhaled sharply and went back to the couch. “And what am I supposed to do with news? Imprison him?”

I once again clamped down on my tongue so as not to remind him he hadn’t batted an eye when he’d imprisoned Maureen, his own wife.

Kellan stepped forward. “Maybe you don’t have to imprison him right away. Maybe you can have him watched.”

Rubbing his chin, Richard nodded. “Yes, that would probably be best. If he is trying to overthrow me, I would need solid information to hold him.” A cruel smiled curled at his lips. “After all, even in our restyled court systems, a dream isn’t enough evidence to convict.”

I gritted my teeth. Richard rose from the couch to come stand by me. “It looks as if you’ve made a good choice. I have a feeling Cadence is going to be very useful in more than just breeding good looks into the family.”

Kellan’s face paled a little at Richard’s remark. “Thank you, sir,” I replied, in a strangled voice. I quickly ducked my head, so Richard wouldn’t see my seething anger. But it was almost too much when the things he said were so infuriating. With his practically Neanderthal ideas, I couldn’t help but wonder which glacier he had crawled out of. How he possessed the ideas he did when he had spent most of his life working alongside women—seeing firsthand they were more than just breeding machines—was beyond me.

His fingers gripped my chin, and he jerked my head up to meet his eyes. “And she has all that wonderful fire in her, which will serve you well in certain areas.”

Kellan anticipated my reaction and swept over to me. “Yes, yes, she does. I suppose we better be going. We’ve taken enough of your time, and you’ll need to start planning what to do with Roarke.”

Richard turned to Kellan with an amused expression. “I’ll be waiting to see how long it takes you to fulfill what you said in the interview. You know, about breaking Cadence.” I sucked in a breath. Richard shook his head. “She’s in your head too much now, or maybe I should say your heart.” He poked Kellan’s chest.