Chapter 62: CHAPTER 39.0: Questions and Answers

Cade’s POV Dad stared at Lexus. “You’re what? Is this a joke? No one have been true mates in centuries.”

Lexus looked at me. “Tell him.”

There wasn’t much I could say because there was no way for me to confirm it. “Aqua thinks they are too, she said it feels obvious. They were planning on rejecting each other under the full moon during the ball but… yeah.”

Dad sighed. “No one can know you’re helping us and when we find her you can’t stick around.”

“I know.” Lexus shrugged. I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to, but he was able to stay away from her for this long.

After what he did I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to trust him. “She’s not with Mae and she’s not with her mother’s family.” I looked down at my phone and Sadia was calling me. She had been calling me all day, but I haven’t got the chance to answer. I sent her to voicemail again and I got a text from her: It’s an emergency, I have to tell you something. Meet me at the pack house as soon as possible.

“I tried looking in the human world, but the problem is it’s hard for me to cover a lot of ground quickly while having to keep hidden.” He explained.

Dad reached into his pocket. “We have a fix for that. The castle mage gave us these rings to make us appear invisible when we shift.”

“I can go with you guys for a look in the outside world now, but I can’t be gone for long.” I texted Sadia back: Does tonight sound okay?

Sadia responded: Yeah that’s fine.

We shifted into our dragon forms and went without the rest of the guards. We couldn’t let them see that we were with Lexus. When we got their Dad gave Lexus a ring and we flew low.

After a while Lexus landed in the woods close to Mae’s family’s home. We all shifted back. “She’s here.”

“This was the first place we looked when we came to this world a week ago. How’d we miss her? Are you sure?” Dad asked. We followed Lexus to the cottage we checked at before. “Mae’s old mentor Betty lives here, she said she hadn’t seen Aqua and that she’d let me know if she does.”

Lexus shrugged. “Do you believe her?”

Dad didn’t look sure. “Not completely, no.”

“You guys head back because I think it’ll be worse if we’re all here. She knows you two probably want to take her back.” Lexus was trying to get us to leave, and I didn’t trust him.

I walked to the door. “No, were not leaving.” I knocked on the door and an elderly woman answered.

“Who…” She stopped when she saw my father behind us. “Konn I told you she’s not here.” She tried to close the door, but Lexus stopped it. “Her scent is strong inside.”

“Oh great, you must be Lexus.” She opened the door. “Aqua is gone.” She admitted. “She left a few days ago.” We walked in to make sure. “Sure, come in,” She said sarcastically.

We looked around. Now I could tell Aqua’s scent was lingering. Lexus must really be her mate from smelling it from so far away. Why him of all people? My sister deserved better. “Where’d she go?”

Betty looked at me. “I didn’t ask.” Neither her nor Mae cared enough to ask. “She’s a capable young woman who none of you need to worry about. It’s beyond my knowledge why you’d even want to take her back to that place. It was killing her.”

“You’re being dramatic.” Dad said while staring some enchanted jewelry.

“She was sick, blood running down her eyes when she tried to use her abilities, migraines, low energy, and a broken heart. She was depressed and physically weak. She was healthy when she left because I cared for her. She tried telling your king and queen, but they didn’t care. They just wanted to exploit her.” Mae said a similar thing about being overworked. Aqua looked terrible but I assumed it was because she missed Lexus and wasn’t taking care of herself. In reality it was because of her workload.

“I don’t want her being worked to death and neither does her mother.” She looked at Dad and Lexus.

“You both shouldn’t either, none of you should.”

Dad shook his head. “It’s not that simple. If she would have told me I could have done something.”

Maybe she shouldn’t have had to tell us. I shouldn’t have tried to force anything out of her. “Maybe she tried to tell me…” He had come to the realization.

Lexus left but we didn’t. “You can take one of those.” Betty said to Dad. “I noticed the enchanted jewelry were catching your eye. They belonged to Mae and she enchanted them.” She gestured to the display box next to them. “And Aqua enchanted those.”

Dad walked away from the display cases. “I’m fine. Thanks for your help, we’re going to go.”

I followed Dad out of the house. “You would have taken one if it weren’t for me being there right?”

“Let’s focus on finding your sister Cade.” Dad was avoiding the question. “I thought you forgave me.”

I thought I did too but seeing Lexus took me a few steps back. Surprisingly, Lexus was still around, just waiting for us. “Let me know when you’re ready to search somewhere else. I’m obviously helping.” He was right, we wouldn’t have even known Aqua was here if not for him.

Dad nodded. “Lexus… if we find Aqua. If you really are mates I don’t expect you to stay away. Leave with her and don’t come back.”

“What?” I questioned.

Dad looked at me. “I don’t want her to be worked to death Cade. I’m not sure if I really could get them to lighten up on her workload. I’m not as close to the king as I used to be. I care about her.” I cared about her to. “If the moon goddess chose for them to be together I trust her. I trust what Betty said about Aqua even if she lied to me before. I especially trust Mae because she’s Aqua’s mother.” I couldn’t argue against that.