Blakeshire (Insight #9)(37)

I swallowed nervously. “Take me to your father.”

He leaned away from me as he nearly turned white as a ghost. “No.”

“Why not?” I asked, reaching for him, but he swayed back, avoiding my touch.

“Why do you want to see him so badly?” he asked before he took a deep, exasperated breath.

I didn’t have an answer to that. “I just…I just want to know your roots. What is in your blood.”

“You don’t want to know that,” he said as the room grew colder and his expression turned to stone.

“Fine,” I said as I looked away from him. I had been around my cousin Draven long enough to know when to stop pushing a furious man. Drake’s emotion right now was more of grief than anger, but I knew he was only a breath away from drastically changing his mood.

He stepped forward and gently turned my chin so I would have to look him in the eye once more. “Not yet, Madison Marie. I can’t go to him like this.”

“Like what?” I asked as my eyes rushed over his addictive visage.

I could tell he wanted to answer me, but words had abandoned him. When I focused, tried to see him, I could see flashes of Donalt, the past king that was now trying to take over Drake.

“You don’t have to say it.”

“It’s hard,” he said as he leaned his forehead against mine and reached to trace my bottom lip. “You allow me to talk about him, and when you do I feel myself healing…thank you for that.”

For the first time ever, I kissed him first. Instantly, that grief in his emotion was gone and devotion and what I was currently calling love filled his soul.

Just as we started to lose ourselves, one of us—I’m not sure which one—managed to find control and end our embrace.

He grinned boyishly. “It’s cold where we are going. Olivia said there were several coats in her closet for you to choose from.”

“I have no say in this?” I pushed.

“I promise tonight when you lay your head down, it will be in Esterious, under the roof of my palace.”

“I’m kinda caught up on sleep,” I teased as I playfully tilted my head and raised one of my eyebrows. I would go on this adventure with him today, but I was going to find my saltwater one way or another.

“We don’t have to sleep,” he said under as his breath as he pushed away from me and a sinful grin spread over his lips, lips that I was craving to feel against mine again.

All I could do in response was smile slyly. I climbed down from my stool and made my way upstairs to steal one of Olivia’s coats.

With each step I climbed, I saw that dream, heard those words Drake said I spoke, and knew without a doubt the answers I was seeking were going to take me down a road that I would have painfully feared before this day.

One thing about me: when I have my mind set on something, I can’t move past it. It was going to drive me mad that I was off somewhere with Drake while a deep mystery was waiting for me to discover it.

I peeked into Aden’s room. He was still asleep, but I had no choice but to wake him.

I felt the air tighten with jealousy as I moved closer to him. I glanced around the room, looking for any sign of where that was coming from. One thing was for sure, Aden needed to figure out this violin thing soon. I was starting to question how innocent that anomaly was.

When I sat down on the edge of the bed, he flinched. When he slightly opened his eyes, he drew in a gasping breath and pushed away from me.

“Why, thank you. I know I’m a gorgeous sight to wake up to,” I teased.

Apparently, something didn’t find it funny because I felt the air sting my skin. Aden must have felt it, too; he glanced around the room, then back to me. “I was just dreaming of someone else,” he muttered, pulling himself up and rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand.

I reached for his shirt and handed it to him. “Was a jealous violin involved?” I quipped.

“You feel that, too?” he asked as he pulled his shirt on.

“Like needles.”

“Misunderstood,” he said under his breath. “At least you’re awake now. I was getting worried.”

“Don’t let me sleep for days on end, not with everything that is going on around us.”

“You of all people needed your rest. Are you feeling better? Insights back on track?”

“No…I feel blind.”

“Not in pain?” he said as if he were trying to convince himself not to be worried about me.

“Where are Charlie and Draven?”

“Not sure. I saw them for a few minutes yesterday.”

“You don’t look happy,” I said as I tried to feel his emotion. It was pensive as usual.

“They’re fighting again.”

“What did he do?”

Aden playfully glared at me. We were the ambassadors for Charlie and Draven. I defended Charlie; he, of course, defended his twin. Most of the time, we found a way to see a common ground.

“I think it’s her this time. She keeps going into the veil, and he doesn’t want her there.”

“Veil...like the veil of death?”

“Apparently.”

“Maybe that is why she has ghosts lingering near her,” I mused.

He shrugged. “I’m not getting in the middle of it this time.”