Chapter 27

Once the door shut behind Gabriel he sank to the ground and listened to his mate start to slowly break apart on the other side. Deep down, he knew that she wanted to be alone to cry and morn her uncle. He knew and he hated it. He wanted to go in there, hold her in his lap, and sooth away all of the rough edges that she had, but he also knew that, in this moment, it wasn't what she wanted. All she wanted was to go back to her old life in the human world with her uncle and the fact that she couldn't was tearing her apart from the inside.

"Gabriel," He turned to see Shanell slide off the bed and sit on the floor close to him. Janti standing off to the side his face looked slightly grim as he just looked at the ground. The rest of his scouts were sitting on his bed looking at him. "That bad?" He ran his hand through his hair.

"She's hurting so much, and I don't know what to do to help."

"Why don't you go back over there and be with her while she crys?" Shanell asked sounding confused. Gabriel shook his head.

"She doesn't want me there, not right now." He whispered. His scouts fell silent.

"Well, I think you should go over there." Adrenell spoke softly. "Lady Nyline is used to constantly being alone so she doesn't know what it means to have someone there for her." Her purple eyes glowed as they looked at him.

"Yeah," Sigma spoke in her soft voice as she walked over and pulled Gabriel up onto his feet. "You said that her skin is always cold until you touch her right? Well, it might be the same for her heart." Gabriel looked over at her and felt his face soften.

"You don't think some alone time might be good for her to process everything?"

"With all due respect, I think she needs someone more than anything right now." Janti spoke as he gripped his clipboard. Gabriel turned, his hand on the door when he stopped. Voices rumbled from the other side. He took his hand off the handle and took a step back.

"Pallsana and Omega," Delta spoke softly, her face pulling up on one side. "That's my sister and her mate for you."

"Not going in?" Adrenell spoke sounding slightly annoyed and Gabriel looked over at her.

"She's not alone," His voice was off, "That's why I gave her maids." He took a breath in and let it out slowly.

"Thinking you lost your chance boss?" Dashiner asked.

"I think this time I did, but it's not bad."

"Why is that?" Delta asked sounding confused.

"She's afraid of me." Silence followed his words as he turned and looked at them.

"Wait why?" Shanell stood her voice rising just slightly.

"Nyline," He started but then stopped. Collecting his thoughts before he continued. "From what I've seen in the small amount of memories that I've had the chance to look at, she really didn't have anyone other than Jonathan. She was on good terms with the Guardians of the fairy gate but that's about it. She was harshly bullied by a group of girls during her primary schooling, then when she went on, she had more bullies. All bullies and no friends." He pressed his hands together, spreading the fingers out. "She's afraid of how easily she's letting me in, which is understandable. After years of hiding behind that calm mask she has, to have someone simply be able to see underneath that without any effort or even a choice, scares her a lot. I can see into her mind, understand her emotions, speak with her," He looked down at his hand, "She even lets me touch her but whereas her soul is accepting me, her mind is fighting it." He paused his mind focusing on Nyline as the three of them started talking about mate sickness and he winced. Telling her the knowledge without her asking, only keeping the more detailed part out of it. His heart hurt when she ignored him when he asked if she was okay.

"But," Sigma spoke softly, "She's here now, and you can heal those scars that she has." His face fell further.

"She says she might not stay."

"Where would she go?" Dashiner asked exasperated, his arms flying up as he spoke. "She attracts lesser daemons. Her life in the human world was a meld skill, and her uncle is dead." Gabriel looked at him and pressed his lips together, then sighed as he licked the lower one.

"Her entire life wasn't a meld skill, Jonathan lied to her so that she would stay." He paused choosing his words wisely. Everyone looked at him. "Or at least that's how he made it seem to me. Then, Nyline doesn't think Johnathan is dead either." More silence.

"But there is no way that he'd survive that," Sigma spoke very softly, her eyes darting back and forth as she replayed the memory in her mind. "He took that blow directly to his body, his head, then was thrown off a cliff. I heard the trees that broke when he fell. There was no way that he could have landed it."

"She won't believe it," He muttered, "She keeps saying that a general class daemon wouldn't have taken him out, but that doesn't mean that she isn't mourning him. She knows he isn't coming back. I think that's what's really hurting her. Knowing that he's out there and that he just won't come back to her."

"But she can't go back." Adrenell spoke sounding annoyed. "She just can't." She made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat.

"We talked about this in Thaul," Gabriel muttered, "If she decides to go home, then we'll take her home ourselves."

"Or die trying," Janti spoke from his right softly and Gabriel's heart clenched.

"Would she even be safe in the human world? Won't the daemon's just go find her there?" Adrenell continued her rant, not really listening to them. "Can daemon's cross into the human world? Do they use the gate or another way?" She turned and looked at Gabriel. "I just don't understand why she doesn't want to be with you." Gabriel cracked a small smile as Dashiner walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. She crossed her arms making a hump noise.

"No, she wouldn't be safe in the human world, she's already told me that. That might be a part of the problem. We can give her all the new things in the aether world, but all of her belongings, her things are back in the human one." Adrenell's face fell slightly. "She landed in Thaul with nothing. Now with the daemon's chasing after her she can't even go back and get her things. She's being forced to completely start over, and I understand her want to just go home…" Gabriel trailed off. "She just wants her life to go back to what she had three days ago." Adrenell's face fell as she looked down at the carpet.

"That just means that we have to convivence her to stay, right?" Shanell spoke looking around at everyone, who turned their eyes onto her. Sigma brightened as she started talking.

"Dinner is a great start! We'll feed her all of our food and talk with her, get to know her, and have her get to know us. She just feels like we're strangers, so we need to not be that anymore." Gabriel smiled over at Sigma, knowing full well what Nyline had originally thought of the idea.

"Ya know boss," Dashiner said with that mischievous under tone. "We never celebrated your birthday," Gabriel looked at him to see that his half smile was pulling up one side of his face. "Which is also Lady Nyline's birthday." Gabriel crossed his arms looking at him.

"Your point?"

"You said she has nothing, right boss? Well we can't replace the things because let's be honest, even if we made it to the fairy gate, were able to cross over, and magically find her house, we still wouldn't know what to grab. But what we can do, is give her new keep sakes."

"Birthday gifts?" Delta asked crossing her legs, her face going pensive.

"Exactly." Dashiner looked slightly excited.

"But what do you get someone like Nyline?" Sigma asked her eyes on the ground.

"Not clothing." Janti said in a stern voice and everyone looked at him, Gabriel couldn't help but crack a small smile.

"Yeah I think that she has enough for now." Gabriel agreed.

"We need cake." Shanell said in a dead serious tone, her eyes going to Delta. "Put your sister up to finding out what type she likes, and we'll have the baker make her something special."

"Done," Delta muttered her spindly fingers gripping her chin as she tried to think.

"Do we want to each get her an individual present?" Janti spoke up, one finger tapping away on his clipboard.

"Why don't we each think on it, either alone or with our mate. Then we'll each get her something so that she can have more than just one thing." Adrenell spoke her eyes still on the carpet.

"I think that sounds like a marvelous idea," Gabriel smiled at his scouts, feeling his heart rise just a little. He knew that they were always in things together, this just made it better. "Delta please let Pallsana and Omega know the plan." He paused. "Are we going to try and surprise her?" Everyone looked at him.

"Is that even possible?" Sigma asked her head tilting to one side.

"It is," Delta spoke suddenly, "Just make sure that you are not directly thinking about what you are getting her or the party while around her, or in locations that she might be."

"Agreed," Janti spoke sounding pensive, "She might know something is going on, but we should be able to keep the actual secret from her since we know that she can hear us."

"Well that sounds like a massive pain," Dashiner groaned, but then winked at Adrenell. Gabriel couldn't help but chuckle.

"Alright, I'm going to go shower, then talk to my parents." Everyone grinned at him and he smiled back. His mind going to what he could get her or what she would even want.

"I will lay your clothing out on the bed for you." Janti turned his orange eyes onto Gabriel, before he turned and rejoined the conversation as he closed the door.

While inside, standing under the spray, he listened to the conversation that the girls were having. He explained how different Vaccoon was than the human world. Hoping that maybe it would make her feel like less of an odd ball and he could tell that the information was helping. He also realized that she wasn't ignoring him, just trying to focus on one conversation at a time.

When he got out of the shower he paused at the emotions in their bond and couldn't help but grin at what she thought of herself. The silly girl was so happy to just look like her parents now. No matter what she looked like, she was everything to him.

It was about the time he was pulling his socks on that she started telling him what his parents had said when they'd arrived. He'd been just as shocked as her to hear about any of this. Had their parents been best friends and he just never knew it? He guessed it was a good thing that he was on his way to talk to them in that moment. After promising her that he'd ask to them, he walked into the common room to find that all of his scouts were gone, except for Janti who was sitting on one of the couches with a book in his hand.

"The maids returned with the ingredients, so everyone headed to the kitchen." He reported as he placed his book on the couch and walked over to him. "Is everything alright?"

"Apparently, my parents knew Nyline's rather well. They were talking when we arrived." He let out a breath. "I guess I should have had you warn them before we got here. I just didn't think about it." Janti scrunched up his face at that.

"I did tell them though, I thought that it was vital information, so I made sure to mention it to them." He paused, "Maybe they just didn't understand what I meant?" Gabriel lifted a brow at him.

"Well I guess it's time to go ask them." Janti nodded. Together they walked from the room and out into the hallway before they started the rather treck walk to his parents' rooms.

"I will leave you now," Janti spoke as they arrived before he bowed and walked back down the hallway. Reaching up, he knocked twice, the door opening before his knuckles were even able to meet the wood for the second time.

Zenith, one of his mother���s scouts, opened the door, grinned at him, then just like a cat, leaned up against the door frame. His dark blue eyes crinkled as he grinned at him. Then without warning he reached out and rustled his hair.

"Hey little Gab, have a fun trip finding your mate?" He asked as he flipped his sand colored hair off his shoulder.

"It was a trip to say the least." He said smiling softly. "Mom and dad wanted to chat with me about it actually." Zenith grinned showing teeth and reminding him of Dashiner every time he did. Whereas Zenith was Dashiner's uncle, it still surprised him to see the mirrored face on anyone other than his scout.

"Well get in here then," He stepped aside before turning and shouting into the room. "Oi! Alice, Nic, Gabriel's here!" Walking in he saw his mom, dad, and the rest of their scouts sitting around the massive common room that, like his and Nyline's room, was the center of all of the bed chambers. His mom and dad specifically were sitting on the couch, cards in hand, playing against Adelaide, his moms scout and Kaden, his fathers. Which was either good or bad, seeing as his parents could get rather competitive when it came to cardd.

"Little Gab!" Beck, his father's largest most burly scout with deep orange eyes, leaned over the back of one of the couches, grinning at him from ear to ear. "How did it go?" There was a pause before everyone stopped what they were doing and focused on him. He let out a deep sigh and scratched the back of his head. Hardest thing about being royalty? You didn't just have two parents, but also every one of their scouts, so that's fourteen parents. Which was good and bad in their own way, he loved his parents and all of their scouts, but it was difficult telling them bad news.

"Not so great?" Adelaide, the vanilla blond haired, forest green eyed scout with a peach complexion, asked as she set her cards down onto the table and looked at him. Her eyes were slightly downcast as if she could feel his emotions and knew that he was upset.

"Well…" He muttered, sighed then and walked over to the coffee table, sat on the carpet and started to explain the situation from him chasing her down in Thaul all the way up to the things that she'd heard while on the landing strip, and ending with the birthday party. "So, there going to get her gifts, and we're going to try and surprise her." He looked around at everyone, who was just looking at him and he knew that they were all talking like crazy mentally.

"Okay so back up just a little bit," His mom spoke after a little, "She heard everything that we said on the landing strip?" Gabriel nodded and mom looked at dad before dad let out a long breath.

"Frist off," Dad began as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nyline cannot go back to the human world."

"What why? Like not even to get some of her things?"

"No, not at all. At least not right now. She needs to stay here in the aether world for a few months." Gabriel raised his brow at him.

"When the spell that Stephaney cast on her was broken her aether was returned to its normal level, or at least it tried to. Her body is currently exchanging aether with the world to figure out how much is supposed to be contained within her in order to sustain her being. With that, she is currently unstable. She needs to be in the aether world so that her body can process the aether and balance out correctly. If she goes back to the human world, her body won't be able to find equilibrium and it will either backlash on herself, or her environment. Either way she'll be injured and would most likely not recover." Gabriel was silent as his mother finished speaking before, he let out a breath.

"I don't think I can tell her that right now." He said blankly, his face falling.

"Well, where is she?" Nicholas asked, "We can talk to her about it."

"Ug…" Gabriel groaned as he did a mental check to find that Nyline was in a deep sleep. He paused, not sure if she would be waking up for dinner or not, her subconscious seemed to be pretty deep in slumber at that point. He sighed. "Looks like she passed out pretty hard after her shower." They looked at each other and he could practically see the words going between the two of them before they returned their attention to him.

"We can talk to her tomorrow about going home?" Mom offered sounding slightly off.

"I can ask her, but honestly I can't promise anything." Gabriel sighed. "Could you at least tell me why you knew that Jonathan wasn't going to be coming with us?" Another silence and Gabriel looked around the room as everyone seemed to be holding their breath. His eyes returned to his parents. His mom had a painful expression on her face and his dad just looked down cast.

"Here's the thing," Nylah, one of his mother's scouts that had satin sand colored skin, honey eyes, and coffee hair that she always had in a ponytail started. "If I didn't think Jonathan would kill me for trying to beat his ass for ditching out on Nyline the way he did, I would." Her eyes went to her mate Dijana. The coco skinned beauty with butterscotch eyes and honey blond hair.

"Jonathan can't come into Vaccoon." Dijana spoke softly.

"And if he'd wanted you to know why, he would have just told you and not had a daemon knock his ass off of a cliff." Zenith's voice was harsh as he spoke, his eyes full of annoyance. Gabriel analyzed their words before he looked at his parents.

"All of you guys think that he's still alive?" Every single person in the room deadpanned.

"Well, we can't know for sure because you guys didn't find his body…" Ezra, his father's scout with brown hair styled short on the sides and long on top with aqua blue eyes said looking sheepish. "."

"But it's very unlikely," Elisabet, Ezra's mate with emerald green eyes, dark copper hair, and buttercream skin.

"The thing is that, Jonathan is very strong and if you guys didn't physically see his body. Then counting him completely dead wouldn't be right." Mabelle, Elisabeth's twin, spoke in an off tone.

"Everything you guys are saying is just mirroring what Nyline has already told me." Gabriel shook his head as he crossed his arms. "It's just, that daemon got a really good hit on him. Sigma showed me the memory."

"No body, no conclusion." Mabelle and Elizabet spoke at the same time.

"Alright fine…" Gabriel sighed running his hands up and down his face. "What was the prize you guys were talking about?" When he looked up and saw his parents face, he paused. "What?"

"We, none of us here, can talk about that." Dad spoke his voice sounding hard.

"Then why did you talk about it on the airship landing, with Nyline close, after being told that she could hear you?"

"Because she shouldn't have been able to hear that." Alice spoke softly. "Stephaney taught us how to shield our thoughts from her. So, we could have things that she could hear as well as things that she couldn��t. Nyline was only supposed to hear about the bear because I wanted her to know that Stephaney made it, and the fact that I was worried she didn't have scouts." Gabriel deadpanned.

"Why didn't your shielding work then?"

"In theory?" Reena, his father's scout with black pixy cut hair and sky-blue eyes, asked sounding sheepish. Gabriel nodded.

"It's not the same skill," Mabelle finished her mate's sentence. "It is somehow different than the one her mother used and so it's on a different frequency. That makes it something completely different to shield against."

"In a way, her parents were both strong mentally, so there's a chance that a similar skill from her father's side merged with Stephaney's and either made a completely new skill or it isn't Stephaney's at all and is something from Nori's side of the family." Kaden spoke quickly looking at the ceiling as if trying to figure out all the of options.

"But it wouldn't make since to be one of Nore's skills," Beck shot his mate, Kaden, the shut your face look.

"Either way, she has a different skill and we'll have to be careful what we say to each other when we're around her." Sargis sighed. He had deep ruby eyes, with a rich walnut skin and dark black hair that he wore in a long braid.

"I wonder if we'd be able to tweak the shielding to work on her?" Elewin spoke sounding pensive, his electric blue eyes went to his mate, Sargis who nodded. "we could try and figure out a new way to shield? We'd just have to randomly say things to her when she is around and see if she reacts." Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Can we get her to stay before you all start whispering things from the shadows at her?" Gabriel groaned and everyone grinned. He sighed. "How did you know Nyline was going to be back?" He looked to his mother who was pressing her lips together tightly.

"Stephaney told me." His mom finally whispered. "She didn't tell me how she would be back, or even when. She just said that Nyline would be back. Then she vanished and I never saw her again." His mom's sad ice blue eyes looked over at him and he felt his heart clench at the sadness in his moms' eyes.

"Did you know she was in the human world?"

"No son we didn't. We knew that Jonathan had taken her, to where we weren't told. She also told us that it was important that you didn't go looking for her. She needed… time in hiding before she could come out, and everyone knew that you'd be able to find her if you'd tried. That's why we always told you that you weren't allowed to look for her." His dad said on a sigh.

"What is she hiding from though? She said that before, but she didn't know what. She'd seen something in Jonathan's memories and just knew that she was hiding from something that wasn't Damien or me." His mom's lips went into that thin line again as she took a long deep breath in and let it out slowly.

"We can't tell you that." She said softly after a few seconds. "We made a blood oath to Stephaney and Nori years ago about a situation that we all took part in. We cannot speak of it." Gabriel's brow rose so high that he thought it might jump off his face.

"You guys did something so serious that everyone made a blood oath not to talk about it to anyone, ever?"

"Yup!" Adelaide said turning her forest green eyes onto him as they started to glow. "And all of us, hands down, would do it again in a heartbeat. All of it, every single hardship, was worth it… to everyone involved." She whispered the last part. Gabriel's head was spinning, what had they done?

"Gabriel," His mother spoke in a serious tone, "Now I need you to listen to your father and I right now." Gabriel turned his eyes to his mothers, who was looking at him with a stern expression. He swallowed. "Your bond with Nyline will be a challenge, but you can't give up. Things might end up being difficult, but you can't forget that she is your mate and that you'll have to fight for her."

"Even after things level out, things will always be a little crazy around Nyline, but you are her perfect balance. The calm to her storm. You must be that calm for her," His father's yellow eyes were glowing with intent. "You have to promise us that you won't ever just give up on her." Gabriel swallowed and looked down at his hands. He wouldn't have given up on Nyline even if the whole world burned down around them. He cared for her so much. He understood that she was really stressed right now, but maybe after she got used to her new life, then maybe she would be more accepting.

"Ya know, I don't think that I could ever just let her go." Gabriel spoke softly, "Not just because she's my mate but because of who she is. I've seen so many faces on her in the short time that I've known her, and she is just everything to me. She completely tricked my entire scout team," He said sounding exasperated, "Jumped out of a window from the nursery tower and ran for the hills. My scout team hasn't been out strategized in years; you all know that. She outran my scout team and almost me, in a human form." He put emphasis on the last part before he shook his head, "I couldn't have asked for a better mate, but I just don't know what to do. How do you comfort someone who doesn't like being touched? Hold someone when their crying when they want to be left alone? Connect with someone who is trying so hard not to get attached? Or even try to help someone who just wants to do everything by themselves?" He let out a whoosh of air. "Like what do you do? Seriously?"

"Stop listening to her." Zenith grunted as he crossed his arms, his body leaning against the nearest wall.

"I can't help but agree with him," Elewin sighed. "We know Jonathan, so we generally know how Nyline was raised. I can almost promise you that it wasn't in a home where physical contact was normal, and I severely doubt that Nyline and Jonathan ever sat down like we're doing now to have discussions. She grew up learning how to do everything on her own and, I bet, she never really asked for it to begin with."

"She also doesn't understand what it means to someone's mate," Reena agreed. "You just have to show her."

"You said that she at least allows you to touch her, right?" Elisabet spoke sounding as if she had an idea and when he nodded, she continued. "Does she allow anyone else to touch her?" Gabriel shook his head. "Well that's just it, you have to be the one to show her what it feels like to have a mate, to be cared for." Gabriel grinned softly.

"You sound like Sigma."

"Good girl!" Beck cheered and Gabriel couldn't help but roll his eyes knowing that Sigma was Beck's favorite.

"But do you understand what we're saying?" Adelaide asked her eyes on him.

"Somewhat." He confessed. "I don't even understand what it means to be a mate honestly. We're both new to this."

"He's not wrong," Ezra muttered his eyes un-focusing as he thought.

"How about this?" Nylah turned her attention towards him as she spoke. "Do what you feel is right. If you want to hold her, then do it. If you want to physically comfort her, then follow your gut."

"Exactly," Sargis followed up, "I think that's what Zenith was trying to say. Listen to what your heart is telling you to do and stop listening to what Nyline thinks she wants." Gabriel looked around and nodded.

"I'll try…" There was a soft knock at the door.

"Prince Gabriel, we should head to the kitchen's soon." Janti's voice spoke softly through the wood and he stood.

"Ask Nyline if she'll come talk to us tomorrow and we'll explain about her aether, alright son?" His father clapped him on the shoulder, and he nodded.

"Thanks everyone."

"Have fun with your new friends little Gab," Zenith gave him Dashiner's grin again as he headed towards the door. Janti was standing to the side and looked at him when he walked out. After shutting the door, they started back towards their wing of the castle.

"Was your conversation fruitful?"

"Yes on some subjects, and no on others." Janti made a humming noise. "Apparently my parents, their scouts, and I'm assuming Nyline's parents and their scouts, made a blood oath that they couldn't talk about something that happened years ago." Janti completely stopped as if he was trying to process what exactly Gabriel had just said.

"Excuse me, what?" He spoke quickly, catching up to him and Gabriel nodded. "What in all of the worlds could they have done?" He shrugged.

"Let's stop by Nyline's rooms before we head to the kitchen. I have to see if I can wake her up for dinner." He laughed.

"Maybe it would be for the best if you just let her sleep?"

"Nope," Gabriel muttered, "Gut tells me to at least try." Janti raised his brow at him and Gabriel only ran his hand through his hair. "I have a feeling that she'll be sad if she misses this."