Chapter 48 — Future Visions

Aqua’s POV:

Lexus shook me awake. “Babe, you told me to wake you up whenever you overslept.” 

I opened my eyes. “It’s hard not to sleep in sometimes.” I sat up. “You were really rough last night.” I blushed. “It makes me want to sleep longer.” I yawned. “And I hate going anywhere with visible hickeys.” 

I got out of bed naked, but he pulled me back and kissed my mark. Marks are really sensitive if someone else touches our marks the other will feel pain. When we touch each other's marks, we feel… pleasure. “I wish I could go with you today.” 

I rolled my eyes. “You have to start work, don’t you?” I moaned when he kissed my mark again then pulled away and got up. 

“Yeah, I do but I still wish I could go with you.” He got up. “If you get back before me you should start packing.” 

“Packing?” I frowned. “It’s been two months, so I assume we’d just stay here. Bee told me about some houses for sell, we can afford it.”

Lexus grabbed some clothes. “I never wanted to stay here, and you knew that. I don’t want to settle down somewhere so soon. There’s a lot I want you to see.” 

I walked to the closet. “Okay we can try a few different places, but I want to come back here every now and then. You’ll probably get back before me because I’m having dinner with Sadia and Cade. Sadia is finally ready to try with me. I think it’s only because I’m going to be her son's aunt.” I grabbed the clothes I was going to wear today.

“Son? They know the sex that soon?” 

I shook my head. “No but I saw it in a vision, a few actually. It worries me how many dreams I’ve been having about our future. I don’t like to know that stuff. I prefer visions about events I can prevent. Like when I saw that there was a rogue werewolf heading to the village for revenge.” I walked into the bathroom.

Lexus followed me into the bathroom. “Do you ever see our kids?” 

I turned the shower on. “Yeah, but do you really want to know about that?” 

“Sort of.” He started taking his clothes off.

“I’m taking a shower first.” 

Lexus laughed. “We’ve been together for a little while now.” He got into the shower. I didn’t feel as flustered as I thought. I took a breath then got into the shower. I was fine sleeping naked and for him to see me naked for a little while, even while I walked around the room. This was different, he was just staring at me, and we were so close and exposed. I turned around so he was behind me. He leaned down and whispered, “Tell me about our kids.” 

I closed my eyes and let the water hit me. “Well first we have a daughter, she’s cute and full of energy. Then we have a boy, he’s reckless and loves messing around with magic.” 

Lexus started to wash my body. “Am I a good father?”

My back was against him now and he washed the front of my body. “I think so, I only see so much but we seem like a close family.”

When we got out of the shower Lexus left to work and so did I. I was used to doing jobs like these now. I walked to the address and knocked on the door. I was surprised to see Vella answer. “Aqua, you’re here early.” She looked a lot better than the last time I saw her. “I was the one who put out the listing for a job to your coven. I knew they’d send you. I really do need your help. Come in.” 

I followed her in. “When did you move?”

“Last month, I got kicked out because I didn’t have any money since I was fired. Towns are cheaper to live in and I was able to get a job as a gardener here. I thought it was better for me to move to a new kingdom entirely because I still thought Lexus was going to eventually be king.” We were in the southern dragon kingdom. It’s a bit far so I had to portal here with a splicer my mother helped me enchant. “I didn’t want to live under his rule and now I don’t feel like moving back.” They officially announced Hannah would be taking over two weeks ago.

“What do you need my help with?” I asked.

“This town has a gang problem, mages to be more specific. We don’t need you to fight them, we have that covered but we need to know their next moves and what to watch out for. This is serious. Someone died because of them last week. I told the town that I could get this information for them. Is the reward I offered enough?” I felt weird accepting money for this at all. At first, I refused it, but they never let me.

“Of course.”

We sat down at her dinner table, and she started explaining any information I’d need. I sat down and pulled out two gemstones. One I used to have specific visions to see when they’d next attack. The only thing I didn’t like about this job was how many visions I had involved seeing murders. Seeing them was worth preventing them, and this was something I couldn't do at the castle. The king and queen had me using my abilities for politics and protecting the castle, sometimes the big cities. “How’s Cade doing?” 

I wasn’t sure what to say so I put off answering the question until after I was done writing down the dates of the attacks and a few details. “He’s good.”

“Good how? Like is he with someone? Is he still at the castle? I know you, Lexus, and Konn aren’t but the news doesn’t really care about the adviser's son.”

I put the vision gem away and pulled out the one that increased my intuition. “Do you really want to know any of this?” I closed my eyes and focused on the gem and what I wanted to know. I started writing down exactly what my intuition told me they could do to stop the gang.

Vella took a deep breath. “Yeah Aqua, I do want to know and I’m sorry about how I reacted the last time I saw you.” She looked like she actually felt bad about what she did. “I was jealous and wanted everyone to suffer the way I was.” 

I put the intuition gem away and pulled out the gem to see auras. I closed my eyes, focused, then opened them. Her aura wasn’t perfect, but I could tell it was improving. “Cades with Sadia now, they’re having a baby. He moved out of the castle and joined Sadia’s pack. He lives at the pack house.” 

“…they’re having a baby.” She closed her eyes tightly then opened them. “I’m happy for Cade.” She sighed. “He deserves someone like Sadia.”

I pushed the notes towards her. “You can send payment straight to the coven, the same way you sent the down payment.” I got up.

“Aqua wait.” She stood up. “I’m really sorry if you see Cade and Sadia can you tell them that? Can you tell Lexus too?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Aqua.” She looked away. “I don’t remember much about the end of the ball, but I know you were nice to me despite how I was acting. I don’t know if I would have got home safely without the guard. You’re the only person I know who would have sent one to make sure I got home safety. I didn’t remember that stuff until after I told everyone you were sleeping with Lexus. I’m sorry and thank you.”

I frowned. “You’re welcome Vella.” I sighed and left. I didn’t hate Vella, nor did I think she was a bad person. I just hoped she learned something from what happened. I know I did.

I did a few more jobs, some required the gems, but most didn’t. At first, I was doing jobs that asked for a magic user but now that people knew the current holder was taking jobs, they asked for me specifically. My coven went through a lot of the jobs and sorted them for me from least difficult to most difficult. Other covens and sorceress agencies tried to recruit me, but I liked staying with the one who delivered me as a baby and that my mom was a part of.

Once I was done, I met Cade and Sadia at a small restaurant. “Hey.” I sat down and put my bag under the chair. 

Cade smiled. “I assumed you’d be late since you’ve been so busy with working.” 

I shrugged, “I do as much as I can since Gram warned me about how long I should be working a day. I don’t want to overwork myself again. I usually work when Lexus is working.”

Sadia was staring at the menu, and she wasn’t saying anything. Cade spoke instead, “How’s he doing working with Viv?”

I picked up the menu. “He doesn’t really talk about it, he doesn’t really like talking about it. He seems like he’s enjoying it though, sometimes he works overtime.” 

Sadia looked up from the menu. “You trust him?” 

I didn’t want to have the conversation again. “I do but I don’t really want to talk about this.”

“Just one thing.” Cade said. “Is he hiding his emotions and thoughts from you?”

I sighed. “Yes, he still does it when we’re apart. It’s not a big deal. How’s the pregnancy going?”

Sadia smiled and put her hand on her stomach. “It’s good and I’m showing now so that’s… fun. Cade told me you had more visions about him.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been seeing further into the future lately. I don’t know why everyone wants spoilers about their children so bad. I feel weird about already knowing about my children and I’m not even pregnant. I didn’t even think about being a mother, not much.”

“It’s fun to know, I want to know everything. Can you get the gem out so you can show me again?” Sadia asked.

I frowned when I realized that before she was probably using our making up as an excuse to see her son. She probably always knew she was going to forgive me, but she took the opportunity to see a vision. “No.”

Sadia frowned. “I thought you said you’d do anything for me to forgive you?”

Cade chuckled. “You’re taking advantage of her babe.”

Sadia’s frown looked genuine now. “Fine, I’m sorry Aqua.” She rubbed her stomach. “I just love him so much and I want to know him already.”

 “His dragon is silver, and his wings are huge in his adulthood. He babysits my son a lot from what I’ve seen. Our daughters are really close, mine is a little older than yours but they’re inseparable, even in their adult life. Is that enough?” 

Sadia’s eyes lit up. “Enough? You know more? Okay, okay that’s enough.” She smiled. “Are we going to use the gem after dinner?”

Cade laughed and I rolled my eyes. “Sorry Aqua, Sadia is just excited,” he apologized for her.

I was reluctant to tell them what had been on my mind, but I decided to anyway. “It’s fine… I saw Vella today, she told me to tell you guys she’s sorry.” They looked at each other then away. I don’t think either of them were able to forgive Vella and honestly, they didn’t have to.

We talked about other things until our food came then when were done, we hung out in a park on a bench for a while. “So, you take jobs with your mom a lot?” Sadia asked.

I nodded. “She helps a lot, and I love spending so much time with her.”

Sadia chuckled. “I want to meet her, I’m sure she’s not as bad as Cade says.”

I raised my eyebrows then scrunched them up. “Wait what? Bad?”

Cade glared at Sadia then looked at me. “She didn’t mean that.”

“Oh. Sorry, yeah I didn’t mean that.” Sadia cleared her throat.

My intuition was telling me that they were lying. “You don’t like my mom?” 

Cade sighed. “Let’s not make it a thing Aqua, I don’t like your mom, you don’t like mine.”

I scoffed. “I don’t even know your mom, when I was around, she would act like I wasn’t even there. She didn’t want me to spend time with you guys and even got mad when I watched a movie with our little brother. She always gave me dirty looks and I still wouldn’t say I dislike her.”

“It sounds like you dislike her.” Sadia mumbled. 

“Even if I did which I don’t, I’d have actual reasons to. What has my mom done to make you dislike her?”

“Konain.” Sadia laughed. I think she was implying that he disliked that my mom called our dad by his full name.

Cade glared at Sadia again until she stopped laughing then looked at me. “She slept with a married man who had a baby, is that not enough of a reason?”

I glared at him. “She didn’t know until after the first time they slept together.”

“What?” Cade frowned. “I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t matter because she knew all the other times for twenty years after that.”

I scoffed. “Their affair didn’t last twenty years. They took like a seven-year break then only saw each other a few times a year after that. She didn’t even go to him after those seven years, he went to her.”

“Of course, you’d defend them.” He spat and Sadia looked away sadly.

I got up. “If you feel that way then don’t come around me or my mother anymore.” I opened a portal into the castle which I knew wasn’t the best decision. The only place portals could open was the room my dad would use to keep the portal splicer in. The rest of the castle was protected. Dad made sure this room wasn’t. I called Arma and Stewart to meet them in this room since they were working.

I hugged them then we sat and talked for a few hours. Luckily Stewart had the day off and Arma had someone cover for her. We didn’t just talk about me and Cade. I caught them up on my life and they caught me up on theirs. “I’ve been leaving the castle lately.” Stewart said. “I didn’t want to, but Konn asked me to watch Polly and Kaya. He refused to come back here, and I couldn’t resist but help look after them. I stay in Konn’s hotel room with them a lot now when he’s with your mom, I’ve even taken them out.”

“Have you been seeing your girlfriend?” I asked.

Stewart nodded. “She helps me watch them a lot. We’re thinking about asking Konn if we could actually adopt them.” That sounded great because I was afraid Stewart wouldn’t ever get out of his comfort zone. He didn’t seem as lonely anymore.

“This might be the last time you see me for a while.” Arma said proudly. “I took baby steps like we said, and I’ve convinced my family to let me travel. I’ve saved up so much money working here.” Arma deserved to reach her goals of new experiences. These were good friends of mine and I was happy to see I wasn’t the only one who’d come so far.