Chapter 33

Chapter 33

[x] indicates inner dialogue

Gabriel closed the door behind him as he left the drawing room, Delta stood to the side looking at him with her brows drawn together. All he could do was pinch the bridge of his nose and turn towards his wing of the castle. All he wanted was maybe an hour or two of sleep before he had to face his parents with the decision that he'd just made without talking to them first. Which, he knew, wasn't going to go well at all.

On his way down the hallway he stopped and cracked the door to Nyline's rooms, already knowing that she should be inside.

"Lady Nyline I insist, your arm looks as though it might need stitches. Please let me look at it." Omega was saying.

"I'm fine," Nyline said on a sigh, he could feel her annoyance through the bond. "It doesn't need stitches."

"At least let me clean the wound and put some bandages on it." Gabriel cracked the door just a little more to see Nyline looking down at her arm as she pulled some of the scabs off, and flicked them away.

"Oh, it'll be fine." Nyline scoffed putting her arm down and looking at Omega who was standing a few feet away with a medic's kit in her hands; her brows drawn together. Pallsana was sitting on one of the couches, looking over the back at the two as they argued.

"Lady Nyline, I insist." Omega tried again and Nyline rolled her eyes right as Gabriel closed the door softly. At least something was working out with Nyline being here. He mused on it as he walked towards his room. He was planning on taking a nap for an hour, maybe two before finding his parents and talking to them about Damien.

Opening his door his face fell as he saw his father sitting on one of the couches, his long legs extended, head resting back as he examined the ceiling. The rest of his scouts were all missing, which meant they were all hiding in their rooms. He closed the door and looked at his father, suddenly feeling as though he needed to sleep for a week.

"Gabriel," His father spoke without looking at him. "What did the prince of Dunhule want." Gabriel sighed.

"Can I get some sleep and we can all talk about this in a couple of hours." he grumbled.

"I think it would be best to talk about this now. What did he want?" Gabriel eyed his father for a few seconds before he nodded to Delta, who walked over to her and Janti's room, closing the door behind her. Then, he walked over to one of the large poofs and flopped onto it, his eyes up at the ceiling and not on his father. "What did he want?" His father growled again as Gabriel tried to come up with the best way to answer his question that would end in the least amount of arguing.

"Um, well," He swallowed before he sighed. "He saw the guard in the garden change from a darkling to a human."

"You took his memory, right?" Gabriel didn't answer. "Gabriel." His father growled and when he continued to not answer he heard his father stand and come to loom over him. "Gabriel." His father's voice was harsh, and Gabriel sighed sitting up so that he could look his father in the eyes.

"No, I didn't." His father's face scrunched up and Gabriel watched as his face contorted up even more, before he could see his father forcing his face back into a calm expression, pushing his shift back.

"Gabriel, we've spoken about this several times."

"I'm aware, but I still don't see eye to eye with you on it." He stood so that they were roughly the same height. "We need more allies outside of Vaccoon--"

"That is not your decision to make." His father spoke in a tight controlled voice that told Gabriel that he was beyond pissed.

"Dad, don't you want our people to be able to experience the world? To travel? To trade with other countries. Don't our people deserve more than what we're giving them?" His father blew out a long breath.

"We don't mix with humans."

"We're half human, why can't you see that this could be a good thing?"

"Or we could have yet another war on our hands."

"You don't know that. It's been hundreds of years since our walls went up and we removed ourselves from history. Humans have changed since then; the world is different."

"You don't know that." His father raised his voice, "You've traveled a little but none of the people that you interacted with knew that you were a Darkling. It's completely different when people know. If we opened our boarders and allowed people in, our secret would get out, there will always be a slip up, problems, accidents. The world would find out, again, and we would be in the exact same position we were in before."

"You don't know that." Gabriel raised his voice as well, getting annoyed with the never-ending argument that he and his father had on this subject

"We've tried in the past; it never ends up working out. You know this."

"That was when you were still a child," Gabriel shot back, "Grandma and grandpa didn't do it on purpose, it was an accident because we let someone into our walls. This time will be different. I'm not saying to let the entire world know what we are. Just one, single, prince, and doing trade with his kingdom."

"It will never work as smoothly as you want, I wish you'd see that already. Why did you even bring outsiders into our home?" His father growled and Gabriel watched as his eyes started glowing even more than they normally did.

"That wasn't my decision to bring them here. I wanted to throw Nyline on my back and run back home, but Jonathan told us we were taking the air ship, and you know as well as I do that Nyline wasn't going to go against what he said. What exactly do you expect me to do in a situation like that?"

"Alright, that's enough, the both of you." His mother spoke as she closed the door with a slam and walked into the room. Her brows drawn together as she looked between the two. "I can hear you down the hallway, what is Nyline going to think of the two of you screaming at each other this early in the damned morning?" They both looked over at her. His father went to open his mouth, but his mom held up a hand, her eyes going to Gabriel.

"What all did you tell him?" Gabriel sighed and quickly gave an overview of the conversation they'd had.

"I made him swear not to tell anyone other than his mate." Gabriel stressed. "I want to form a friendship with him. Damien loves foreign foods and shopping; he is the perfect person to look at opening up our trade routes." His mother regarded him for a few seconds before her eyes went to his father. They spoke for several minutes within their bond and as they spoke Gabriel flopped down onto one of the large poofs. His mind going to Nyline, who, to his surprise, wasn't actually in her room but the library. Pallsana and Omega sitting in chairs near her, books in hand. He couldn't help but smile to see the bandages on one of her arms showing that Omega had finally won.

���Gabriel," He snapped his attention out of his mate's mind and looked at his mother. She looked just about as tired as he felt. "What will you do if he ends up telling his entire kingdom and we have a war on our hands."

"I trust him," He said shortly, "I have my doubts that he will end up saying anything to anyone."

"As Damien is now, he is unable to make any major changes in his kingdom. That will change once he has a mate; however, it will be some time before he will be able to do any of the things that you are hoping."

"I'm not expecting anything to happen overnight." He said simply, "I'm just saying that maybe he could visit us and vis versa, we could become good friends. Then, later down the road when the both of us are more active in our kingdom we could see what we could do."

"I don't know why you're even thinking of allowing him to do this Alice," His father spoke his arms crossed so tightly across his chest that it looked slightly painful, his yellow eyes drawn into slits as he glared at Gabriel. His mom shot him a look and he was pretty sure some angry words as well.

"If this blows up, my scouts and I will fix everything." Gabriel promised and his mom turned her eyes onto him with a sympathetic look.

"Son, it's not that simple." His mom spoke sounding sad. "As powerful as you and your scouts are, if an entire kingdom found out about us it would take a lot more to fix the situation and that's resources that we don't have. We can't send an army as far south as Dunhule. Then, the issue might just come to us, again. Only this time we won't have Thaul here to help us." Gabriel's face fell.

"I want to try this," Gabriel stressed, "Damien even went as far to offer two of his scouts to take mine to the human world to get some things for Nyline." Both of their eyes widened slightly. "There not bad people, plus his scouts don't know, it's just him."

"What if his mate decides to break his promise after their minds connect?" His father's voice was ice as he spoke.

"I've only known Damien for a short time, but I doubt his mate could be anything less than a loyal person. If Damien made a promise, I don't see his mate breaking it." His parents shared a look.

"You know who his mate is, don't you?" Gabriel shook his head.

"I have no idea. Nyline might, but you'd have to ask her yourself. Look, you both knew that when Nyline finally surfaced that she would be strong willed, caring, and sharp witted. Why?" His father sighed.

"Because she would have to be to be your mate." His mother answered her eyes going to her hands. "Now, I agree with you. There are certain traits that mates just share, even if they express them differently, but how can you be so sure with him?"

"His scouts." Gabriel said shortly, "I've seen other royalty, and you can judge a royal by how their scouts act. You taught me that," He side glanced his father who huffed, "His scouts are loyal to a fault, and in some cases, willing to speak their minds so freely that its shocked me more than once. If Damien wasn't someone to care for so deeply, then Rebecca wouldn't have openly called Nyline a bitch at dinner for being mean to Damien when they first met." His moms mouths fell open.

"Excuse me, what?" His mother spluttered, as his dad laughed but tried to cover it with a cough.

"It was actually kind of amusing," Gabriel grinned before his face went serious. "But that's the point. He has the loyalty of all of his scouts, and not just in the mind-numbing way of 'I'll follow you to the grave,' Damien is a true, honest, person." His parents exchanged another look and he leaned back in the poof as they talked.

"Alright," His father spoke aloud making him turn his attention to him. "If Damien says anything to anyone before he leaves to return to his kingdom, including his scouts, then we will remove the memories ourselves before he leaves. If he manages not to mention anything to anyone, then we can try this out." His father sounded annoyed by this information.

"You just have to get Nyline to agree that she will listen out for any mention of Darkling's from Damien to his scouts." His face scrunched up.

"Why are you dragging her into it?"

"Those are our terms." His father said sounding as if this was everything he didn't want to agree on.

"What if she doesn't want to help out?" Gabriel mused.

"Then we'll remove the memory, and we'll be forced to check his scouts ourselves." Gabriel sighed, not wanting to not only remove the memory of what he'd told Damien, but also his parents and their scouts searching everyone's minds by force. Gabriel let out a long breath.

"Fine. I'll talk to her." His parents sat looking at him expectantly and he shook his head.

"Nyline went to the library." He said shortly standing.

"Library?" His father looked confused.

"Why?" His mother's tone was dry.

"Currently?" He focused on the bond, before he flexed his aether allowing him to look through her eyes. He looked at the book in her hands and felt his face scrunch up. "She's looking at information about birthing pods?" Gabriel wondered why the sudden interest in children. He really hoped that she didn't want children right away. Back in the old days they had children as young as they both were, but he had so many more things that he wanted to do with her before he brought more to the table.

"Don't worry," His mother's hand landed softly on his arm made him snap out of not only his thoughts but also his mates mind. "I showed her the birthing center." He scrunched up his face.

"What, why?" His mother sighed.

"Because Nyline didn't actually believe that mates were real, she thought that they were a tradition." Gabriel's eyes went wide. "Nyline is a really bright kid. When she doesn't understand something, she searches until she does. She put a lot of hours in trying to prove that mates could exist only to prove herself wrong because mates are not born physically but are made of aether. She didn't understand that." Gabriel gave a soft sigh of relief before he paused.

"How different is the aether world from the human one?" His dad gave a single bark of a laugh as mom pinched the bridge of her nose.

"We are originally from the human world son, so there are many things that are similar however, we have been separated for such an extended time and the aether has physically changed our beings, we are different. It might be hard for Nyline to really understand what we do here, just because she has spent so much time studying the human world." Gabriel felt his face fall, he didn't realize that it would be so hard to switch worlds. He should have, but he never thought about it. He hadn't originally known that Nyline was in the human world, so it had never been something that he needed to think about. Gabriel cleared his throat, turning his attention away from his parents and onto his mate.

["Hey."] He muttered down the bond and he could feel her energy spike as she jumped slightly.

["God, I wish you had a bell."] She muttered.

["Why do I need a bell?"]

["So, I know when your there."] He chuckled.

["I'm always here."] He paused but when she didn't say anything he continued. "Would you be willing to help out with a situation involving Damien?" He felt her attention snap to him.

["Explain."] So, he did, explaining why no one outside the kingdom should know about darkling's, the friendship that he wanted with him and what his plans for the future were, then finally what his parents wanted. ["What happens if I say no?"]

["My parents and their scouts will jump Damien and his scouts and force search their mind."] He felt Nyline sigh.

["Fine."] Was all she said before she returned to her book.

["Thank you."] He muttered back before he refocused on his parents. "She said yes."

"Good, that solves that problem." His mom spoke smiling sweetly at his father. Gabriel suddenly felt like he'd missed something between them as his father gave out a long sigh before he turned his attention to him, looking slightly like he'd been sucking on a lemon.

"You said that Damien is going to send some scouts with yours to go into the human world?" Gabriel nodded to his father as he spoke. "Were sending one of each of our scouts with them."

"What? Why?"

"We have our reasons," His mother spoke as she stifled a yawn. They went to stand but his mom stopped and sat back down.

"Janti," She knew full well that all of his scouts were sitting on the other side of the doors listening to the conversation. When you had scouts' 'private' conversations were only an illusion really. The door opened and Janti stepped out in just his pj shorts, what his blond hair looked as though he'd been running his fingers through it.

"What can I do for you your majesty?" His voice went professional, as he bowed, and Gabriel sighed inwardly. Finishing one fight with his dad, just to have Janti start one with his mom wasn't what he had in mind for the next hour.

"Janti." His mom's voice was hard as steel. "We are family. Drop the formalities. Now."

"Sorry, habit." Janti sighed as he tried to shake off his professional demeanor. "What's up?" Her face softened as she looked over at him with an expression that Gabriel didn't entirely understand. His mom wore it often when she looked at Janti, and he always figured that when he had children of his own, or even adopted someone else's, like his parents had done with Janti, that he'd understand. Her face cleared as she blinked a couple of times and the emotion passed.

"I want you to find Nyline scouts." His eyes went wide as did Gabriel's. What had he missed while he was talking to Damien? He cursed to himself, he should have paid more attention to what they'd been talking about, but scouts?

"Did she agree to that?" Gabriel blurted, pretty sure that there was no way in hell that she would simply accept this.

"No, she didn't. She actually out right refused, then went as far as to try and tell me that people wouldn't want to be around her." His moms face was stone as she looked between the two, her queen face falling into place as she crossed her arms. "I told her that the two of you would be looking into potential scouts for her." Gabriel's face fell.

"Are you sure right now is the time for that?" Gabriel could only imagine what Nyline would say if they just started to bring people around for her to meet.

"It might not be what she wants right now, however, this is going to be what is best for her. I want her to have scouts and soon."

"Mom," Gabriel spoke sounding cautious, when she was in a mood like this it was hard to reason with her, even if you had good, logical, points. "We can't choose them for her. You know she won't accept them."

"I'm not saying choose them for her, I'm simply saying introduce her to some mates from the correct families and see if she clicks with any of them. She can have the final say, but I want her to start getting used to having people around." Her face clouded over with what Gabriel thought might be anger, or maybe sadness, or maybe even both. "She needs to start understanding that things are different here than they are in the human world. She needs to understand that people will want to be around her for her. She thinks that any scout would only want to be around for her title, which also isn't true. Which is the exact reason why she needs scouts." Gabriel raised a brow.

"Mom. Nyline doesn't hate people, she fears them. How is this going to help?" He asked his face completely deadpanned, and he heard Janti take a sharp breath in, as his mother turned her face towards him with her brows raised.

"Janti can find the perfect person for any situation, it��s his specialty." She turned her ice blues onto his gold ones, and Gabriel knew that Janti was stuck between pride and fear of messing this one up. "So, Janti, you will find the perfect people for Nyline's mates. Keep trying until she likes them. I don't care. Just get her some of her own friends."

"Mom," Janti spoke very softly and glanced sideways at him, then to his mom. Mom's face had softened. "Shouldn't we get her used to being around us first? I'm not disagreeing with you about her needing them. I would love to have more eyes on her after tonight, but shouldn't we ease her into this situation? From what I've gathered everything here is much different than the human world. Is jumping headfirst into throwing people into her life, at this exact moment, the right choice?" Mother went to open her mouth when father placed a hand on her shoulder and her mouth went into a thin line.

"I agree that Nyline needs scouts, and that she needs to be around people more." He said shortly, "But I also agree with you boys, throwing all of this on her after everything might just make everything worse. However, her solidary lifestyle is not fitting for someone with not only her rank but also her abilities. She needs people, even if she won't admit it herself." He paused his yellow eyes going to the ceiling for just a second. "How about this? We let her know that we are interviewing people to be her scouts, explain to her that she will get the final say, and that no one will be forced onto her." Gabriel exchanged a glance with Janti.

"I think that's agreeable," Janti said sounding pensive. "I will start working on it." Gabriel looked sideways Janti as he paused, his brows going together. "I will also figure out a way to introduce them to Nyline without her knowing that they are basically interviewing for a scout position. I think it would be best if she, herself, showed interest in the people that she wanted to keep around her. We could just, put them in her path and see how it goes?" Mom smiled over at Janti.

"I knew you were the perfect person for the job. You always are." Janti blushed softly and lowered his head.

"I'll get started right away." He mumbled.

"Good night kids." His father spoke before they left the room.

"We'll that was an interesting conversation." Dashiner muttered as he opened the door to his room and looked towards the main door to make sure it was already closed.

"Do you think they'll ever just let you try?" Shanell asked as she and Sigma walked out and sat on the couch across from him. Sigma flashing him a small smile.

"After I take over the throne, they won't have a choice. Yes, they will sit on the higher council and advise us, however the decisions will end up being our own.

"Personally," Janti spoke as Delta joined him, "I think that if you were going to give anyone a chance, Prince Damien is a good choice. I agree that he won't simply tell anyone our secret."

"Your right, he's just a tad too much of a stick in the mud." Sigma agreed.

"Plus, I'm sure Gabriel scared him into silence." Adrenell laughed, he turned a small grin onto her.

"Just a little." He laughed.

"How exactly do you expect this to work?" Delta asked, her eyes looking outside.

"It's simple, I make friends with Damien. Later, we could see what we could do to open a trade route. Plus, if we're friends its less likely that Damien will turn a blind eye to other kingdoms attacking. Dunhule is one of the larger kingdom's in the south, so having a large ally on our side would be nice."

"Then there's the face that Lady Nyline is up here." Shanell laughed. "Even if she turned him down in the most brutal way possible, he isn't going to let anything happen to her."

"How in all the worlds can you tell that?" Dashiner scoffed in her direction.

"Because," Gabriel spoke as he stretched, "When you spent your entire life searching for a single person, even if they aren't what you expect, they still hold a special place in not only their heart, but also their mind. They are not easy to make vanish from memories."

"Do you honestly believe that?" Adrenell asked sounding shocked.

"There is logic in that statement," Janti countered raising a brow at her.

"Damien still wants to be around Nyline," Delta spoke softly as she thought on the facts.

"You're not wrong, but why would he risk his life for her?" Adrenell asked looking confused.

"Well, I don't know if he'll ever be able to not think about Nyline." Shanell confessed.

"Yeah that's true." Sigma agreed, the room lulled into a silence and Gabriel turned towards his room, hoping that he could sneak off without them noticing and finally get to bed.

"How do you think finding Nyline scouts will go?" Sigma asked and he turned back around, wishing that he could just close his eyes and sleep.

"How well do you think that'll go?" He raised his brow.

"I think it's a horrible idea," Dashiner said on a laugh.

"And I think it's an amazing idea," Adrenell said making a face at him.

"There both right," Gabriel said pinching the bridge of his nose. When they tried to continue the conversation, he just held up a hand. "Guys, I need some sleep, I'm sorry. We can talk about this more after I wake back up." He turned towards his door.

"I volunteer to go to the human world with Damien's scouts," Dashiner spoke firmly from behind him and he stopped.

"So, do we," Shanell and Sigma spoke together.

"Ah, no fair, I wanna go!" Adrenell whined.

"I wouldn't mind doing this favor for Lady Nyline," Delta spoke softly. There was a pause of a beat.

"I will be working on finding Lady Nyline her scouts, so I will sit this one out." Janti spoke in a very soft voice and Gabriel held in his sigh turning to look at his scouts.

"Rock, paper, scissors it. Tell me who wins." He crossed his arms, not looking at Janti. This would have been a situation where he would have sent Janti if he'd wanted to go. It was just a trip down to the fairy gate and back. There would be no fighting, no blood, no problems. Part of him wished that Janti would allow himself to do things outside Vaccoon sometimes but knew that he wouldn't. Then, the fact that mom had given him a task. No, he'd stay in Vaccoon until it was finished. So, he turned his attention towards Janti. "Go ahead and start on the list that I already know you're working on for the scouts. We'll go over it after I get up and can go from there."

"Yes sir." He said shortly, turning his eyes downcast so that they did not meet Gabriel's. His eyes lingered on him for a second before he turned his attention back to the scouts.

"Now goodnight."

There were several 'nights' from behind him as he went into his room, closing the door behind him. He took the couple of steps towards his bed before he just fell into the disheveled sheets. His mind went back to earlier, when he'd originally woken up, Nyline's panic causing him to panic as well. Everything had happened so quickly, and it felt like it'd happened a few days ago at this point when it was really just hours.

["I'm taking a nap."] He said softly down the bond, his attention turning towards Nyline as he saw that she was still in the library. Only now instead of reading Pallsana was walking towards her with another book, while Omega took a pile and headed back into the shelves.

["Sleep well."] She mumbled back and he focused on her book to see that she was now reading a book on mates. It was one of the more detailed ones telling mainly the history of how mates came to be in the aether world, then later it focused on how mates as Darkling's worked, and how they differed from human mates.

["Aren't you tired?"] He asked softly as his body became heavier in the sheets.

["Kind of?"] Her reply was distracted as she focused on the paragraph that she was reading that covered the mating bond in more depth. How the bond was able to be formed, how it gets stronger, and why it was so important. The part she was reading now, spoke about how each parts of the soul needed to talk to each other, so it wasn't like it was actually in two pieces.

["You don't want any more sleep?"] He asked as he lost his focus on the book and just tried to stay awake.

["No."] Her voice was firm, as she stopped reading and turned more attention onto him. ["I don't honestly sleep very much normally but trying to sleep now would be impossible with all of the things your mom said. All of this is just so confusing and new. It's like I studied for a calculus test and it ended up being environmental studies…"] Gabriel felt his brow scrunch up at that, not understanding the terms but understanding what she meant.

["I'm here if you have any questions, or if you want company, or anything really."] His inner voice rambled as he started to fall asleep.

["I'll let you know if I need anything."] Her inner voice was warm, like a blanket that was wrapping him up.

["Later today,"] Gabriel jumped back to consciousness as he remembered the plans. ["Damien and his scouts wanted to go shopping; you should come with us."] There was a long pause and Gabriel forced his mind to focus on her. She felt not only sad, but there was this deep cold to her soul that seemed to radiate down their bond, making the corners of his lips turn down.

["I'm not really a big shopper."] She said finally. ["It would be better if I didn't go."] It was then that he realized his mistake and hated that he hadn't thought about it before making the plans with Damien.

["To many people?"] He asked making his inner voice sound softer, more understanding.

["In a nutshell, yes. There will be many mates talking to each other in a confined space, then I'm sure it will be crowded.��]

["Do you want to go shopping, truthfully? If this is something that you want to do. I'll make it happen."] Nyline paused again and when Gabriel focused his aether he could tell that she was thinking on it. It was something that she wanted, yes, however she was torn.

["That's not something that you have to do."] She admitted after a little. ["I've always avoided going shopping in the past, it will be no different here."] Gabriel made a noise in the back of his throat, feeling annoyed and suddenly agreeing with his parents that her lifestyle of simply isolating herself didn't work.

["You get to be a normal person here."] He whispered and he could hear the chime of her laugh in his mind.

["This is normal for me."] Her voice was somber as if it was something that she'd just come to accept.

["It doesn't have to be."] His voice was softer than a whisper. ["You can be whoever you want to be here."] There was another short pause from the other side of the bond, and he felt a jumble of emotions before she shut them down, shoving them behind a wall and making them vanish.

["Good night."]

["Don't shut me out."] He pleaded.

["I'm not."] She paused, ["I don't want to go shopping. My mp3 playery's batter will only last so long and I don't want to waste it. Yes, it would be fun to see the shops, but it's not worth it."]

["You'd rather stay in the library and read?"]

["I know next to nothing of the Aether World."] Her voice was soft.

["You can learn about a world by living in it as well."]

["Learning about it this way is better."]

["Is it really better?"] His mind started to drift off again. "[Or is it just what your comfortable with?"] Nyline didn't respond on the other side as he fell further back into sleep. ["You can learn the most by stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new."] He waited for her to respond, to say something, anything, but she didn't, and his mind fell further into slumber, when she finally whispered the words so soft, he wasn't sure if she'd actually said them or not.

["It's better if I keep my distance from normal people."]