Chapter 601
XADEN’S POV.
I woke up that morning ahead of time.
It must have still been dusk because everywhere was extremely quiet and dark.
I looked down and saw Jasmine was cuddled in my arms.
I sat up a bit with the assistance of my elbow to watch her sleep.
She looked like an angel.
I gently touched her curls and admired the freckles at the bridge of her nose.
I remembered last night, and flashes of the things we had done came flooding to me in a matter of seconds.
I tucked a loose curl behind her ear before very gently kissing her forehead.
Reluctantly, I eased her grip on me and covered the duvet well over her body.
When I was sure she was sound asleep, I finally got up from the bed.
I put on my pants from the floor and wore my boots.
I quietly picked up a shirt and headed out of the bedroom.
I made sure to close the bedroom door as quietly as possible.
The moment I got into the hallway, it wasn’t dark anymore.
They had been lit with candles once again.
Whatever reason they had gone off and the glasses had shattered was yet to be explained.
I heard the raindrops pouring as I walked by.
I went straight to the Queen’s private study, where I knew I would find her.
She was inside reading a book and marking out a map with a compass.
“Xaden.” She said a smile spread across her beautiful, wrinkled face. “You’re up already.”
“Good morning, your majesty.” I bowed.
She set aside her compass.
“Good morning, Xaden.” She said and then took off her reading glasses. “I’m sure you’re wondering what happened last night. We believe it was the weight of Auburn’s transformation. She has so much power and proof of being the next heir to this pack.”
“I see.” I nodded uninterested.
Are you ready to go?” She asked.
I sighed heavily. “The earlier we leave here, the better.”
The Queen said nothing at first.
She stared at me as she tapped her fingers on the desk.
“Thank you for coming to my home, Xaden. I had to see you.” She expressed. “It’s good that I did. I know that you hate us here. And for that, I don’t blame you. After all, if we had been more active, your parents would still be alive.”
I said nothing, and she smiled at me. “I’m sorry about what happened to your child, too.”
I winced at her words.
“Jasmine lost the baby, yes. A mother’s pain can never be understood. But you aren’t heartless. I know you feel pain for the loss, too.” She said to me.
She was wrong about it.
I was heartless.
I didn’t have a heart.
But she was right too.
I felt pain for the loss.
Regret.
Shame.
“You know, Xaden, when you told me you wished to speak to me the very first day you came here.” She cleared her throat. “I would never have expected it to be on Jasmine’s behalf. Are you sure you’re making the right decision?”
“Is her royal majesty uncomfortable with Jasmine’s stay here?” I asked directly.
“The Goddess Selene! No! Of course not! I adore that girl as if she were my own. Sometimes I wish she were mine.” Rose explained. “But I want to be sure.”
“She has suffered enough. I found out everything. My own sister Anna. She was the one who was raised right. Never Jasmine. Jasmine was raised like a beggar. She was raised with hate. And I hated her. The same hate she didn’t deserve, I gave it to her.” I said in choked words. “Now I don’t know for sure if Anna lied about the assassination attempt on my life. But I’m still investigating and I won’t be surprised to. This entire time she has lied to me, and I stupidly believed her!”
It burned me to know that my own sister.
My own flesh and blood had deceived me from day one.
She had never suffered a day in her life until the day I had ransacked the pack.
And yet she had painted it as though she had been raised to suffer for being our parents’ daughter.
The news had come to me the day before we left the pack, and I had managed to hold back my anger.
The betrayal of it all!
Having to pretend this entire time that I didn’t know what she had done!
All this time, it had been Jasmine, Bale’s own flesh and blood, who had seen hell.
“Who else knows what other lies she has said to me?” I said. “No. Anna is coming with me, where I will deal with her. She is going to be given her rightful punishment, and the Goddess help her, I find out she lied about Jasmine’s affair. I’ll banish her.”
I sighed heavily before setting my hands on my waist and pacing the room.
I rubbed my chin, restless.
“I don’t want Jasmine to remember what she went through. The trauma of it all. She needs to start afresh. She needs to choose her own path. She won’t if she keeps remembering what happened there.” I said.
I had almost lost my mind making this decision.
I didn’t want to let her go.
I wanted to keep her with me, especially when I had discovered she had been innocent all along.
She had been genuine, and yet I had punished her for her kindness.
Holding her back was still going to be me being selfish
She deserved peace.
“I know she is looking for her Uncle and her mother’s people,” I said. “She will find that here. And I trust you will protect her.”
“I will, Xaden. I’ve paid my debt to you.” Queen Rose said, rising to her feet. “You’ve given her free will. She might not understand it now, but she would later.”
I nodded.
“Why can’t I stay with her?” Nanny Nia demanded. “Leave Jasmine?! Never!”
Under the heavy rain as it slowly began to be the crack of dawn, Nanny Nia marched back towards the hall.
I caught her back.
“Because you can’t,” I said. “The King agreed for Jasmine to stay. He insisted that only she would stay. That was his condition. The Queen tried everything, but it was that or nothing.”
“I’ll pay to stay.” Nanny Nia pleaded. “I’ll work for them again.”
I held her arms as the rain beat us heavily. “I’m sorry. You can’t.”
“But I have to say goodbye. I can’t leave her alone.” She said.
And then the older woman burst into tears, and I hugged her in my arms.
She wept over and over.
“She is in safe hands. I assure you.” I said to her, and I managed to keep my composure.
As the rain poured down heavily on us, I began to feel warmth on my face.
Were these tears?
Was I crying too?
The first and last time I had cried was when we had been attacked and I had watched my parents being killed.
Never again.
Yet here I was.
I led Nanny Nia to her carriage and shut the door.
I could still hear her crying.
I looked at the bedroom we had spent the night in and forced myself to climb on my horse and lead the procession out of the royal pack.