Chapter 102
Xaden looked over the body as Erik returned.
“I just called in Damian. He is coming in,” Erik said, and then he looked Xaden over. “You’re still butt naked.”
“My bare ass is barely the thing to be noticed. I have a dessert assassin lying dead in my bath.” Xaden said.
“It can’t be that bad.” Erik said. “You could have died. But I didn’t.”
“Yeah, I didn’t, and you coming in to save me was a waste of time,” Xaden said. You barely did anything to her—if you did at all.”
“But at least I interrupted your murder.” Erik said.
“A blade won’t kill me.” Xaden said. Then, it occurred to Xaden.
He turned to face Erik, but he had already left the bath.
Xaden followed him.
“How did you just come at the nick of time?” Xaden asked suspiciously. “You burst in like you knew something bad was going to happen to me.”
“Of course I did. I’m your gamma, and we have telepathy,” Erik joked as he picked up a robe and handed it to Xaden.
Xaden snatched it and rolled his eyes. “Be serious.”
And then he put it on.
The truth was Erik had been going down the hallway to keep everything in order ahead of the last and final halo festival when Jasmine had come running to him.
“Where are you going to? Are you in a hurry?” He asked her with a brow raised.
Even though she had helped them times without a number, he still resented her.
She was, after all, her father’s daughter, and that came first before her.
He wasn’t to blame for how he felt towards her.
“I’ve been looking for you.” She rushed. “I had a bad feeling.”
But she was talking too fast and even sweating.
“Wait.” He said. “Take in deep breaths.”
“There is no time!” She said.
He had never seen her act this way.
She is usually obedient and rarely ever counters anyone.
But now she was facing him, even challenging him.
“Take in deep breaths”. He further urged.
She stopped and did as he asked.
When she was done, and he was sure she was calm, he looked at her and said. “Now tell me why you’re looking for me.”
“Sir Erik.” She started. “I just have this feeling. A horrible feeling in here.”
She touched her heart.
“That something bad is about to happen to Alpha Xaden.” She said. “I can’t explain why or understand it myself. But something is about to happen. I can feel it. In my bones.”
He looked at her like she was crazy.
“I know you think I’m crazy. I know this sounds ridiculous. But you have to believe me, please.” She begged. “And I know there isn’t a reason why you should trust. But you’ve vouched for me and saved my life times without count.”
He kept on staring at her.
“Please.” She said. “I don’t know how to explain it, but something is about to happen to Xaden. Very bad. And if you don’t go, he might not make it.”
“Go.” Erik said.
She shook her head. “Not unless you go right now. Not unless you tell me that you will go and meet him.”
“If Xaden truly is about to be in peril, won’t you be happy? Won’t it be right?” Erik asked, folding his arms. “I mean, you will be free to do whatever you want. You could just go on. You won’t be tied to him anymore. Isn’t that what you want?”
She was quiet at first, and then she said. “Yes, I’d like to be free. But not at the expense of someone’s death.”
Erik eventually gave in and told her that he would check on Xaden.
So he turned around and went to Xaden’s room.
He went into the room and found no one. Then he saw the robe lying at the edge of the bed, and he knew that Xaden was having his bath.
He went to the bath, and then, when he opened the door, someone was holding a blade over Xaden, who was still fast asleep.
That was how he had been able to stop it.
“So, how did you know?” Xaden interrupted his thoughts.
Erik turned back to him, crashing into reality. “I just came by to inform you of the incidents going on in preparations for the last ritual.”
Xaden looked him over and pouted as he tied up the robe.
Erik didn’t want to tell Xaden because he knew he would be suspicious and have misgivings about it.
But Erik himself was baffled.
How had Jasmine known that something terrible was going to happen to him?
It was she involved in it and had grown a soft side and decided to save him?
If he could think Jasmine maybe he had a hand in it, definitely Xaden would.
And Erik and Xaden were not the same.
Xaden tended to act out on his suspicions.
On the other hand, Erik preferred to watch and see how things went.
Then Damian came into the room with Elena.
“What is this that I hear of an assasin.” She asked him.
“You told him to call her?” Xaden asked Erik.
Erik shrugged. “This is beyond us, and Elena has the power to find out what it is.”
“Keeping secrets from me doesn’t work, Xaden.” She said. “You, of all people, should know that. How could you have been in danger and not inform me?”
“I’m fine.” He said.
“You’re not,” she said, pulling his cheeks and reprimanding him as she had when he was a child.
He muttered to himself.
“How did he get in?” Damian asked.
Erik saw the expansive open balcony, and he walked to it.
He looked down, and even though Xaden’s room was the highest in the castle, he was sure she had climbed up.
“Through the balcony,” Erik said. “This was the Work of a skilled assassin. They knew what they were doing.”