Chapter 39

[x] indicates inner dialogue

King Nicholas

Nic sighed as he walked across the garden towards the training grounds in search of Nyline. In truth, out of everything that he'd expected when Gabriel had finished their conversations, was not for him to walk into his common room with a bunch of jars for them to hold their memories and a horrifying story about her past. Such a story, that he wouldn't even tell them exactly what had happened to her. Only hinted some key factors and then left everyone hanging. He respected his son in that regard, even if it ticked him off just a little. He respected his mate enough to even tell his parents no if that was what was needed at the time. Nyline had been correct when they'd spoken earlier, Gabriel did make good decisions, he just wasn't sure why he'd never wanted to accept it. Sometimes it was so hard being a parent, and watching your little baby turn into a person that thinks, feels, and can make their own choices.

He shook those thoughts from his mind as he stopped a few feet away from the gate. Seeing that Reena was standing with her shoulder against the door frame her face turned towards inwards looking down onto the grounds below.

"What's going on?" Nic spoke as he came up behind her and jabbed her in the ribs, making her jump only slightly. He grinned as she turned her dark purple gaze onto his face and glared, before returning the gesture and jabbing him in the side as well.

"Ug Nic, I'd break your fingers if you weren't the damned king some days." She groaned and that only made Nic smile more.

"You love me." He said in a joking tone as he turned his gaze to see what she'd been watching. Nyline was on the main training grounds. She was obviously practicing a scout skill but to which one he wasn't sure. He watched as she used her movement right, left, then ducked as if she were dodging a blow before she bent her knees and kicked herself high into the air with the aid of her movement skill. There was just a second as she fell back towards the ground, but when she landed, nothing happened. He felt his ears prick as he cocked his head to the side.

"What skill is she practicing?" He asked crossing his arms and watching her as she walked back to the other end of the training grounds, shaking her arms out a little, as she reset.

"I'm not sure. She hasn't actually done a skill yet." Reena muttered. "She's done that same routine at least thirty times now and she just stops at the end and resets. I'm almost positive that it isn't the end, knowing Jonathan there would be more. There is something missing from the overall exercise, but I can't place my finger on it." Reena paused for a long moment as Nyline started up again. Nic watched as she used her movement several times, jumping backwards and forwards with ease.

Nic placed a finger on his lips as he watched as she launched herself up in the air once more, before landing with a heavy thump. He heard Nyline give one loud frustrated groan before she started back to the edge to start again. After watching the routine twice more he hummed causing Reena to look at him, the blue in her pixie cut shining in the moon light. Alice focused on him, and he knew that she was also watching Nyline.

"She has no weapon for starters," Nic's finger fell from his lips as he crossed his arms. "Her movements are fluid, but the routine isn't. There should be more moves, a high kick here, a punch there, an elbow here or there. She's doing the movements but, she isn't doing everything."

"Why doesn't she have a blade?" Reena asked sounding confused.

["Because Jonathan refused to teach her how to fight."] Nic hummed again, before relaying Alice's words to Reena, who nodded.

"But she can fight," Reena insisted watching Nyline with an intent gaze.

["No,"] Beck spoke from within their bond. ["Her body moves as if it knows how to fight but she doesn't. She's fluid but there is no force in her movements that would give weight to a punch or kick."]

["Your wrong,"] Reena said in a solid annoyed voice.

["Reena's right."] Mabelle butted in, backing up her mate. ["The girl's body knows how to fight; she knows how to move and how to hold herself. Just add a weapon."]

["That's not how it works, and you know it."] Ezra spoke and Nic could hear him rolling his eyes in just the tone he used.

["Someone has to actually be taught how to use a blade. It's not something you can just learn the moves to without ever picking up the steel."] Kaden laughed. ["If it were that easy more people would know how to use one and they'd spend less time training."] Reena gave an irritated huff.

["How long have any of you watched her?"] She said finally and Nic snorted. The rest of the scouts falling silent at that question.

"How long have you been watching her?" He asked and her purple glare turned onto him.

["I've been out here since she started almost two hours ago."] She protested shaking her head.

["That's hardly enough time to be able to determine someone's skill.]" Beck scoffed. Ezra had said something but Nic's attention was pulled to Nyline as she landed hard, dust billowed up around her. His eyes went wide as he realized that she'd just used her movement directly into the ground. As he went to move towards her, but Reena stopped him. Holding him in place as the dust just started to settle, showing the dark outline of Nyline within.

"She does that sometimes," She said softly, her hand still on his arm, not giving him an inch. "She gets really annoyed and just slams herself right into the dirt. She's done it at least twice since I've been here." Nic crossed his arms back over his chest and watched as she stood, took a breath, and started walking back over towards the starting point again. He took a breath and even his kitsune nose could tell that she was bleeding slightly. Had he been an okami, he was sure he would have been able to smell it much better. She wasn't severely hurt, just a few scrapes.

["Wait did you just say she slammed herself into the ground?"] Elisabet spoke very softly as she finally turned her attention from the airship deck and onto their conversation.

["Yeah, she shoots herself super high with her movement, then just bam, right into the ground."] Reena responded. Nic could hear the worry that laced those words.

["She has to be rolling or something."] Ezra scoffed. ["No one can just slam themselves into the ground and not hurt themselves."]

["I don't know,"] Nic spoke sounding unsure. ["That's very much what it looks like she just did."]

["No way,"] Beck breathed. ["I'm coming to watch. Maybe I can help her with whatever skill she's trying to learn."] Nic rolled his eyes.

Nyline was all types of knotted up worrying over how much she thought that all of them hated her, which in truth, they were falling over each other to try and do anything for her at this point. None of them knew how to help, and that was where the true problem came into play. She didn't want any. As Gabriel had said before 'how do you help someone who doesn't want it?' Which literally encompassed Nyline in a nutshell. Something he didn't completely understand when Gabriel had first gotten home.

["I'm here." Nic said quickly. "If I can't figure it out then it's all yours." ]

["Deal."] Beck said shortly and Nic sighed as he turned his attention back to the girl in question. She was standing at her starting line, looking down at her hand as if it were offending her. Opening and closing her hand several times before she slammed her hand down into the ground. Nic watched as a barrier shot up, quickly followed by shadows, swallowing her whole. His brows raised as he realized what she was doing.

["Shadow barrier."] Nic and Reena said at the same time, the question in their voice as if they couldn't believe what she'd just done.

["That's a combined skill."] Kaden said harshly. ["There's no way a sixteen-year-old child is working on those skills. That's a skill set for someone who is in their late twenties."] Nic felt his mouth go slightly dry as Nyline released the skill and reappeared as the barrier dissolved. She glared down at her hand for several more seconds before she started her routine once more.

["Well, she is."] Nic said in an unamused tone. ["And she can do it, just not while falling out of the sky apparently."]

["Okay, I'm coming just to watch."] Beck spoke softly. Nic pinched the bridge of his nose knowing that Beck was going to do what Beck wanted. There were grunts of agreement then pressure as almost every one of his scouts forced themselves into his head so that they could look out of his eyes.

["Nic,"] Alice's sharp tone entered his mind and he focused on his mate, pushing his scouts back. ["Go talk to her before I do."] Nic uncrossed and recrossed his arms, watching as she started the routine once more. To his surprise when the barrier failed to make an appearance this time, she simply just sat where she'd landed and looked up at the sky. Her face was somber as she studied the stars beyond. He took a moment to compose himself before he used his movement and landed a few steps away, walking up slowly.

"Know what you're doing wrong?" He asked and she just shook her head without looking at him. Threading her fingers through her hair and scratching at her scalp. "What are you trying to do?" She let out a breath before she pulled the piece of sand from her mouth and just offered it to him as if it were the most common way to share information that ever existed. Which, it wasn't. It was rare for people to share memories, to simply offer them as if they were nothing, and could be viewed by anyone. However, he knew that she didn't know that. So, without saying anything he took the grain of sand and looked into it.

He watched Jonathan flit around a space similar in size to the training grounds in the same fashion as Nyline had been doing. Only when he dropped from the sky, the barrier solidified before it vanished with the shadows. There were a few moments where Jonathan was missing before he appeared mid jump, dispelling his shadow skill and landing several feet away. He paused before he ducked and weaved twice, used his movement to shoot forward then he skidded sideways and shot off at a ninety-degree angle with his movement. When he stopped, he had vanished again. Before reappearing on the other side of the field once more and shot two flairs up into the sky, before he grabbed them back out of the sky and throw them onto the ground. Creating a light bomb that illuminated the space.

Nic pulled his mind from the memory and looked at it for a few seconds. He hadn't even watched half of it, was the entire thing just movement and mixed skills? He glanced at Nyline who wasn't watching him but had actually fallen back onto the ground and was looking at the sky.

"Is this how Jonathan usually trained you?" She turned and looked at him holding her hand out, he dropped it and she stood and popped the grain of sand back into her mouth,

"Yes and no, he gave me these to work on in my spare time when we weren't training together." She said shortly, her shoulders sagging. "This is the last set he gave me before…" Her voice trailed off and he knew that she didn't know how to finish that sentence.

"Gabriel mentioned that you don't sleep much?" She only nodded her head. "What do you do when you can't sleep?" She looked up at him with a passive expression before she realized that it wasn't a rhetorical question and answered.

"I practice my scout skills or read. Sometimes I go running." He crossed his arms and looked her up and down. He couldn't really get a read on what her body type was because of the three sizes to large clothing that she had a habit of drowning herself in, but he was sure even without seeing her frame that she was too thin. She had muscles yes, however with how much she was moving earlier, he could tell that she should be slightly bulkier. Not by much but it was obvious to him. He continued to look her up and down one of his hands going to his lip as he tapped it softly.

"How much protein do you eat a day?" He asked his eyes intent and she looked confused and slightly annoyed at the question.

"I don't count that type of thing." He changed tactic.

"Okay, how much meat did you eat today?"

"Gabriel brought me some soup earlier, I think it had chunks of some type of meat inside." She shrugged, which made his brows raise even further.

"What else did you eat today?" She shrugged one of her shoulders yet again, her arms crossing across her chest as she angled her body away from him.

"Pallsana and Omega brought back some food from the kitchen that I snacked on."

"What exactly?" She looked at him with a glare.

"I don't understand why this matters." Her voice was short and clipped as she spoke, her arms tightening across her chest. It was then he realized that this was an old argument, one that she was used to having with Jonathan. The way that she popped her hip out and avoided his gaze almost assured him of that. So far, she hadn't been this casual with him or Alice, but the attitude that she was emitting spoke volumes about the problems that her and Jonathan had regarding how much food she ate on a daily basis.

"It matters because I can tell just by looking at you that you don't have enough mass for the amount that you exercise." She sighed, still not meeting his gaze. She was acting like there was something really interesting in the forest. He wasn't sure if there was something or not and honestly, he didn't care, her avoidance tactics weren't going to work on him.

"I'm fine."

"I don't think you are." Nic spoke, his tone turning into the scolding one that he used with Gabriel and all of his scouts. She looked at him then, her arms crossing tighter against her chest before she looked away.

"I'm fine." Her voice was tight as she turned to leave but Nic reached out and grabbed her hand. She jolted back so fiercely that she used her movement, shooting from his grasp and several feet away from him. Her stormy bright green eyes turned onto him as her face scrunched in anger. "Are you insane? Are you trying to get yourself and Alice killed?" She shouted as she pulled a memory from her mouth and looked at it as though it would just randomly combust on the spot. Then she chucked the grain of sand at him, which he caught out of the air with ease, and looked down at it. He took the moment to look inside to see that it was a memory of Nori and him when they were kids and were playing a prank on his parents.

"You should have kept this one, it's pretty funny." He said off handedly, holding the grain out for her. She stared at it and he knew deep down that she wanted that it back. Like most kitsune, when a memory was collected, it was theirs and there was no arguing with that. He'd always laughed that kitsune were like dragons in that regard, always keeping their horde away from other's because, gold was to dragons as memories were to kitsune.

Nyline didn't move but just watched him, her bright green eyes on his yellow ones as she continued to glare. He could tell that she was fighting against her instincts as she gripped her fists tighter, allowing her nails to bite into the pad of her palm. Using the pain that it caused to control her emotions, wants, and needs. Watching her, he thought that it was odd that a sixteen-year-old would have so much control over themselves that they could easily bypass basic instincts and refuse to move. Then he reasoned that it could just be that she was stubborn.

After a while he realized then that she wouldn't simply ever just come to him. Walk that short distance and accept what he was offering. That the distance of just a few feet were too large of a gap for her to put the first foot forward. Therefore, it was up to him to bridge that gap with her, to be the one that took that first step in the right direction. So, keeping their eyes locked, he walked slowly over towards her.

"Gabriel came into our rooms tonight and gave each of us a jar," He explained, and watched as shock blanketed her features, followed by anger, before her face fell back into the passive one that she wore most of the time. "He told us that if we simply kept the memories somewhere else, then we'd be able to touch you without having any problems."

"Is that all he said?" She asked and he could hear the fear and nervousness lacing that question, despite the tight control she had over it. It was just a tad too controlled for someone who wasn't worried about the answer.

"For the most part. He didn't tell us anything of real value if that's what your worried about. Simply told us to think deeper on what the things that you could have picked up along the way." She visibly relaxed and that's when his heart clenched. He knew right then and there that the fears that Alice and him hadn't wanted to speak aloud; had happened. He just wasn't sure exactly which ones, there had been so many speculations, but some of them had happened.

Once he reached her, he kept his face neutral as he reached down, picked up her hand, and placed the grain back into her palm before he curled her fingers around it. He left his hands wrapped around hers, acknowledging how it felt to feel her cold skin warm under his touch.

Nyline seemed frozen in placed as she just stared down at where his hands were touching hers. He let go and took a small step back, hoping that he hadn't just done the stupidest thing and made Nori and Stephany's daughter more afraid of him. She only paused for a few more thumps of his heart before she swallowed it and looked at him.

"You still shouldn't touch my skin," She said softly looking down at her hand with disdain.

"Nyline, people do not die from touching other's skin. Now that the biggest worries are out of the way with the blood bond memories, nothing is holding us back from caring for you in the same way that we care for the other kids." She only shook her head, her hand falling to her side, and hanging her head; that mass of red falling in front of her face and blocking it from view.

"I'm not like them." She whispered and he almost didn't catch it. He had to pause and double check with himself that he'd heard the words at all.

"No, but none of them are the same either. Each of them is different and that's okay." The look in her eyes when she their eyes connected and into his made his heart deflate slightly. Fear laced every inch of her face, her face had paled, her lips turned into a thin line, and her eyes holding all the emotions that he knew she was trying to shove down. In this moment, he was aware that the only reason why her emotions were play on her face clear as day was because of Nori, and her conversation with Gabriel, not to mention Jonathan had just vanished on her a couple days ago. It had been emotional, taxing even, making it hard for her to shove those emotions down deep like she normally did.

Nic took a long breath before he continued. He knew that look in her eyes was because she was afraid of letting more people in and having them fail her. Trying to do this the day after Nori had just suddenly appeared probably wasn't the best idea, but here they were, so game on.

"Do you know that Janti is legally Alice and mine son?" Her eyes widened.

"No." Nic nodded.

"We adopted him." When Nyline only stared at him, he continued. "There was an incident when he was still really small. It killed most of his family and the remaining parts started to get violent over him. Some of them wanted to take care of him. Others were mad at him for reasons that didn't even make since. After one particularly bad night Adelaide found him hiding in some bushes crying, he was four or five then. So, after some investigations, it was decided by my parents that he should be removed from the household and we stood up to adopt him." Nyline didn't move a muscle as she just continued to listen to the story and focused solely on him.

"We have a really big family here, from Alice' and mine scouts, to our scout's families and their children, even Gabriel, his scouts, and their families. We all help and support each other." She looked slightly unsure as to how she felt about the next words. "There will always be more room for one more. You may not know or really understand this but your already part of our family. Nori, Stephaney, and their scouts are our best friends. They will always be considered part of the family. No matter where they go, what happens, or what they're doing, they will always have a seat at our table, and a bed to lie their head should they ever want it. We would never turn any of them away, and we would never discard them either. You fall into that as well. Not only because you are Nori and Stephaney's daughter, or because you are Gabriel's mate, but because of who you are to us. You matter to all of us here a great deal and you will always have a place to lie your head, there will always be food on the table, and no matter how far you travel, when you come back, you'll always be welcome."

Nyline looked at him, the disbelieve coating the air so thick he could taste it and it hurt his and Alice's heart to see that expression on the perfect mixture of Nori and Stephaney's face. She took a moment before she looked away, not speaking.

Love and warmth. The two things that this child desperately needed but didn't even know how to accept when it was being offered to her on a silver platter. He felt an echoing pain and knew that Alice was feeling the same way. Alice just wanted to wrap Nyline up in her arms and never let go, but she was afraid that Nyline would reject her and she'd never get another chance. They had to start slow, Alice had said that earlier, just an olive branch. A small offering that she could latch onto. Nic let out a soft breath, start slow, he repeated to himself. Start somewhere that they both understood each other. Something that would connect them, just so they could get a foot in the door.

"Why don't we start with training?" He offered as it was the first thing that came to his mind. Nyline perked up ever so slightly, before her shoulders slumped just slightly. "I can help you with your abilities and teach you how to use a blade or any weapon that you want." Nyline's jaw ticked as she looked back to where she'd been practicing, followed by a sideways glance at him.

Nic was positive in that moment that she was judging him more than he'd ever been judged before in his life. The scrutiny in her gaze made him feel like she didn't think that he was good enough, skilled enough, to train with her like Jonathan had. Well, compared to him, he was sure that outwardly he looked like less. Jonathan had always exuded power, from the way that he held himself to how he spoke. Everything was meaningful and whereas Nic could be that, he wasn't that constantly. The face that he'd been wearing for most of the time he'd been around Nyline was the face of the king, not a father or scout. He wanted her to know that there were more sides to him other than the stern-faced ruler who only thought of his kingdom. That there was a soft-hearted man under that mask that would do all the little things that he could just to make her smile; just like a dad's supposed to. He felt almost determined to be that for her because she deserved it. Now, he just had to bridge that gap just a little bit every day and then maybe, one day, they could have a relationship.

Nic watched as Nyline's eyes unfocused and he knew that she was listening to someone somewhere. After a long moment, he couldn't help but hope that she was talking to Gabriel and that he was pitching for his side. Telling Nyline to give him a chance. To trust him. Seeing as when Nyline decided to listen to someone, that someone was usually Gabriel, he was really, really hoping that she was talking to Gabriel.

After several more moments, her eyes refocused on him and she blinked. Then, she bit down on her lip before she just let out a breath, shoulders sagging. Nic could physically see her agreeing to something that she knew, deep down, was against her better interest. That she already knew that whatever would happen, she would regret it later.

"Fine." She said shortly with a scowl. "I'll train with you."

"Excellent." He grinned and without waiting for another word edgewise he continued through his scout bond, ["Reena, grab me two of the training daggers. We're starting this scout style."]