Free Despairing Tides (Fate's Intent Book 12) by April Bowles Page B

silence while Darius and I remained awake. I wrapped Dirk’s coat around me a little tighter as I sat there and watched him sleep.
    “You did the right thing.”
    I took my eyes of Dirk and looked over at Darius when he spoke. “What do you mean?”
    “You were right in believing my remark about Dirk was misrepresented and I thank you for persuading him to prove it.”
    “I had to. When he found out what you said, his reaction was heartbreaking and I knew there had to be some explanation for it.”
    “The explanation was my own. I was too distracted to what could have happened that I didn’t see what actually did.”
    “I’m just glad it’s settled. He would have never been the same, you know? He may not admit it but he’s always looked up to you, you’re like his hero.”
    Darius smiled, taking a look down at his sleeping son to think that it was true and that’s when Ellie and Ryon appeared standing by the fire.
    “Ellie! Ryon!” I said excitedly. “What are you doing here?”
    “Just letting you know that the others are riding this way.” Ellie answered.
    “Through this?” Darius wondered as he glanced outside.
    Ryon laughed to himself. “Don’t worry about it. They’re fully capable of getting through this. We just had to make them want to.”
    “You told them we’re in danger, didn’t you?” Darius asked in an angry tone.
    “We might have but you need to be together. Red was on the brink of a heart attack. I could feel it. She needs to know that you’re okay and the only way was to get them to come here.”
    “She came with them?”
    “Of course she came and hey, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”
    “It’s not your concern.”
    “Maybe not but I have a lot of free time to think about other people besides myself these days. I’ve seen how all of this happened and I’ve got to tell you, you’re hating him for all the wrong reasons.”
    “It doesn’t matter why I hate him. I just do.”
    Ryon laughed to himself. “You probably know that I don’t like to but I’m going to be serious here. You don’t even understand all the things Trever has done. Everything you have, the reason you’re here is because of him.”
    “Are you referring to him bringing me back to life because I know why he did that? It wasn’t for me at all.”
    “No, that was for Red but I’m not just talking about you. I’m talking about all of you. The prophecy, the one that got you together, he planned everything. He was the brain of the entire thing making sure that you would end up together. Trever is the one that did that. He knows more about you than you think. He’s very smart so that also makes it easy for him to hide it all. He spent most of his life keeping Red safe until she met you because she’s the one that was more prone to disaster as I’m sure you could agree.”
    Darius lightly nodded as Ryon continued to try and get him to think things a different way. It would have been nice to see it work but Ruby has explained this whole messed up thing to me. He wasn’t going to change; he couldn’t.
    “He didn’t even have time to focus on his own life because he was more dedicated to yours, making sure it happened. Do you think he always wanted it to be this way between you? Well, he hasn’t. Yes, over the course of time he spent with Red, keeping her alive, he did share a deep connection with her but he gave it all up because he knew that’s not how it was supposed to happen and he had Bianca. He even held off from taking the throne so all of this would happen. If he was really the selfish, conceded person that you see, do you really think he would have done any of those things? I highly doubt it. He would have taken the throne the second he was old enough and he would have kept Red for himself because he never would have cared to travel and he never would have met Bianca.”
    He stopped, just staring at Darius like he was waiting for him to say something but he never