“You’re safe,” he whispered.
“So are you,” she breathed. “It’s so good to see you.”
“You also.”
“Braith?” she choked out through the lump in her throat.
His arms tightened around her. “He was still unresponsive when we left the cave.”
“And dead.”
“Yes.”
Aria slumped against him, somehow managing to stem the flow of tears burning her eyes and clogging her throat. If she started crying now, she’d never stop, and they had to get out of here before one of Sabine’s followers returned.
CHAPTER 16
Daniel
“Amazing,” Daniel murmured as he watched the door hidden perfectly in the floor of the old barn swing open to reveal a set of stairs leading into the darkness below. Aria had filled them in on everything they’d gone through this past week and all they’d achieved with the rebels. He still couldn’t help but be impressed with what the rebels had accomplished here.
“You should have seen the one in the tree,” Aria said to him over her shoulder; her ruby-colored eyes briefly met his before flitting away. “You would have really appreciated it.”
“I do just hearing about it,” he assured her as she stepped onto the first stair.
The set of her shoulders and the color of her eyes belied the aura of calm she tried to project. His heart ached as he watched his little sister. He would do anything to take away her suffering, to protect her from what was to come, but he was helpless to do either of those things. All he could do was protect her as much as possible.
No matter what unfolded, he would keep her safe if it was the last thing he did.
“I will go first,” Xavier said and rested his hand on her arm to pull her back.
She gave him an exasperated look and blew a loose strand of hair out of her face. “It’s safe, Xavier. I’ve been here before.”
“I will still go first.”
Aria hesitated before moving aside to let him lead the way below. The door at the bottom of the stairs opened before they reached it to reveal William. Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. Aria had told him they’d split up and that William and Tempest would be here, but he’d been afraid to believe her, until now. William gawked at them all for a minute before breaking into a grin.
“You always did like to rescue the strays, Aria,” he said as he slapped Xavier on the back. He hugged Aria before turning to embrace Daniel. “You have no idea how good it is to see you,” he whispered in Daniel’s ear.
“I can imagine it’s been a fun-filled week,” Daniel replied as Timber closed the door behind them.
“Oh yes, death, mayhem, and trying to keep that one from getting herself killed.”
“I can hear you,” Aria grated and flashed them both a fulminating glare as William stepped away from him to shake hands with Max and Timber. “My glasses?”
Tempest walked forward to hand them to her. “How did you find them?” she asked.
“They had themselves cornered in a cave,” Aria replied.
“Not cornered,” Max replied defensively.
“Were you going to dig your way through the solid rock at your back if you were spotted?” Aria demanded.
Max grinned at her as he folded his arms over his chest. “But we weren’t spotted, and if I recall, you’re the one who almost gave away your position by nearly dropping bark on their heads.”
Aria scowled at him but refrained from commenting.
“Really?” William asked, unable to keep the disbelief from his voice.
“Sabine was there,” Aria muttered. “I should have better anticipated my reaction to being so near her. I won’t underestimate it again.”
Daniel stepped away from them to examine the small room they’d entered. Beams ran across the ceiling, not more than three inches separating them as they kept the earth above them from caving in. The beams were at least a foot wide and thick; the wood they’d used to create the ceiling looked to be a good six inches thick. He spotted a small vent in the side of the wall and itched to trace its pathway to the earth above, to see how they had created the ventilation system.
He’d designed a concept extremely similar to this one when they’d still been rebels hiding from vampires. At the time, the caves were being raided, and though they were taking out vampires in those raids, they were also losing fighters. No one would think to look for them under the earth.
With the war and the events that had transpired after Aria and Braith had gotten together, he’d never had a chance to start the underground buildings, but these rebels had. He would have loved to watch the building process take place. He enjoyed being on The Council, keeping the peace and working with the vampires for that peace, but he missed building and his designs. He still sketched often, but it wasn’t the same as seeing his sketches come to life before him as they once had. When all of this was over, if he survived, he would make time to design and build more often, to enjoy doing something he loved so dearly once again.
“Who came up with the plans for this?” he inquired.
“You did,” Aria replied, drawing his attention away from the thick walls.
“They found your designs within one of the caves and used them,” William expounded when Daniel frowned questioningly at his sister. “Your plans are the foundation for all of the safe houses.”
“They used my designs?” he said in awe as his gaze ran over the beams again and the pipes he now saw running in between them. “Do they have functioning plumbing and a water supply?”
“They do. The water is piped in from the nearby lake,” William replied.
Daniel’s chest swelled with pride. “They did a great job here.”
“You’re a talented man,” Aria said.
He didn’t deny it; there was no reason to. He felt Xavier’s eyes on him and turned to meet the man’s steady, inquisitive gaze.
“Did you learn anything about Sabine?” Tempest asked.
“She’s arrogant,” Aria said as she exited the entry room and started to make her way down the hall. The walls brushed against her arms as she walked. “It will be her downfall.”
Daniel continued to study the structure around him, taking more note of the detail and care the rebels had taken to fortify it. There was no sign of bending or bowing in the wood used in the construction. Great effort had gone into making sure this underground fortress stayed sturdy and strong. He knew the calculations and supplies he’d made and listed in his design in order to keep the walls and ceiling this solid, and they had followed them perfectly.
Aria came to an abrupt halt at the end of the hall, causing him to crash into her back as his attention was still on the ceiling. Her shoulders became rigid, as if she were preparing for a blow, before she opened the door and stepped into the room. He followed behind her to discover nearly fifty humans gathered within.
“They weren’t here before?” he whispered to her when he guessed at what had caused her to tense. She was trying to cover it up, but he had read Atticus’s journals too and suspected she was battling her vampire instincts to kill with every passing second. Having so many humans in one place wouldn’t help her.
“No,” she replied crisply.
Xavier muscled his way forward to stand beside her. “I will ask them to leave.”
“No, they are safe here. We need as many of them safe as we can get. Otherwise they could become like the humans we saw earlier.”
“What humans?” William inquired.
“We will fill everyone in at once,” Aria told him and gestured toward a table in the center of the main room.
Someone thrust a drink into Daniel’s hand when he passed and slapped him on the back as they greeted him. He took a sip of the hard liquor. It made his eyes water and his throat burn, but it hit the spot. He watched his sister settle onto a chair and hold herself as if it pained her to move even a centimeter.
He’d almost hoped there would be some way to save her if Braith rema
ined dead, but as he watched her now, he realized it was more than the humans around her that had her so on edge. She was in pain, and it was a pain so deep it had become physical as well as emotional.
***
Aria
Aria held herself stiffly in the chair to face the person who had said her name. Won’t break. Won’t break. She kept telling herself this, but her body felt as if it would fracture and fall apart at any second. Seeing Sabine, or whoever the hell she was, earlier in the forest had rattled the walls she’d worked so carefully to craft this past week.
It didn’t help that she hadn’t expected all of these humans to arrive while she was gone. Their hearts thumped and their pulses raced as drinks were passed around the room and Daniel explained to the group what they’d seen in the forest with Sabine and her followers.
“How can we ever expect to withstand so many?” a man inquired. “We will surprise them, yes, but that surprise won’t last long.”
“They’ll be focused on the palace,” Aria forced herself to say. She had to respond, had to be normal and in control. They were wavering; they needed a leader. Rising to her feet, she kept her head held high and her glasses in place, as she turned to face the room. “They’ll have their backs to us when we attack them. When they turn to come at us, they’ll make themselves vulnerable to the palace guards and they will panic. The surprise won’t last long, but we can drastically cull their numbers before they get over their panic, and by then, it will be too late.”
Aria paced over to stand in the doorway leading out and turned to face them with her hands clasped behind her back. She couldn’t allow them to see that her clenched fingers wouldn’t open.
“She is arrogant,” Aria said. “So arrogant she has her followers dressed in brown cloaks now, to blend in, while she strolls about in a vivid red one. It marks her for all to see because she believes there are none who can beat her. The mad king, Atticus, believed the same thing, yet he is no more. This threat will be met the same way as we met him, and she will be taken down with the same ruthlessness, because she has underestimated her enemies.”
“And the king, when will he be joining us?” a woman asked, and Aria somehow managed to keep herself from flinching as if she’d been slapped. A fresh knife drove through her heart and twisted there at the reminder of Braith.
“When he is able to,” Aria managed to get out.
“Will it be before we approach the palace?” another asked.
Daniel stepped forward. “We will be leaving soon to carry word back to the king about the advancements we have made in gathering troops. We will have a better idea of what will happen then.”
Aria cast him a grateful look; she’d had no other answer for them. Technically, Jack was the king now, so Daniel hadn’t lied to them. If Braith wasn’t awake by the time they returned to tell Jack about what was going on, Jack would have to leave him in the cave. She may be the queen, but a member of the royal family had to be there when this fight started. One who could assume the rightful role of king if they defeated their enemy and Braith didn’t rise, because she wouldn’t be here to do it.
She fought the urge to rub at her temples in frustration. It could be construed as a sign of weakness or stress. Right now, she couldn’t afford the smallest chink in her armor to show through. Not when they were asking these humans to follow her into battle, to lay down their lives. Everything they’d worked for would vanish like dust in the wind if she did.
Murmurs ran through the crowded room. “We can defeat her,” Aria said loud enough for her voice to carry over theirs. “We will defeat her. I will not let my father’s death be in vain—” or Braith’s “—and I will not allow us to be returned to a time when humans lived in fear and violence was an everyday way of life. William and I may be vampires now, but we have never forgotten our roots, nor will we ever forget them, and we will fight for every one of your lives. I will die to give your children the better lives they deserve.”
The crowd nodded excitedly as they talked eagerly with one another. They were going to touch her again; she knew it before the first woman stepped forward to approach her. Xavier made a move to block the woman from coming closer. Aria subtly waved him away before she forced her hands out from behind her back to take hold of the woman’s hands.
Won’t break. Won’t break. Then why did she feel as if she would shatter into a million pieces right now?
Person after person came forward to clutch her hands and thank her for standing by them, for protecting them. Aria almost laughed out loud. If they knew what she was truly thinking, how she was battling back the impulse to tear every one of their throats out and drown all of her misery in their blood, they would run screaming.
Instead, they saw her as a savior.
She’d never felt like more of a fraud in her life.
CHAPTER 17
William
“It’s bad, isn’t it, with Aria?”
William adjusted his hold on Tempest, settling her deeper into his lap as Daniel leaned across the table toward them. Tempest’s lashes tickled his neck when her eyes fluttered open.
“I don’t know how she’s still going,” William admitted honestly. “I’m not sure I could, but revenge is a powerful motivator.”
“You would know,” Tempest murmured.
“No, not like this. I sought revenge on Kane, yes. I would have died to get it, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to what is driving her.” Tempest leaned back to stare up at him. “I understand that only because I have you now. If it had been you who had been taken from me…” The concept of such a thing caused his fangs to lengthen. “I would have destroyed everything in my path.”
Tempest’s fingers played with the hair at his nape as she leaned forward to kiss him. “It’s not me,” she murmured.
“But it is Aria.” His gaze went to the room Aria had disappeared into hours ago. “I shared a womb with her. We hid together and listened while our mother was killed. She’s always been stubborn and strong, but I can feel her slipping further away from us. She didn’t go in there to sleep. She doesn’t sleep more than a few minutes at a time anymore. She went in there to get away from the humans.”
“I’m sure it’s overwhelming for her,” Max said as he leaned across the table toward them.
William glanced around the room before moving closer to them. They were the only ones still within the main room. The rest of those staying here had retreated into the rooms lining the hall, but he still didn’t like saying this out loud. “She’s fighting not to kill the humans.”
“Don’t think that,” Tempest said.
“I don’t think it,” he replied and clutched her to his chest. “I know it. I feel the insanity creeping closer around her, feel the emptiness engulfing her, and there’s nothing she can do to get away from it. I’m not sure how long she can keep going before she cracks just like Atticus did.”
Tempest shuddered against him. Max and Daniel leaned away from him while Timber and Xavier remained staring at the wall across from them. “Atticus kept it together long enough to complete his goal,” Xavier finally said.
“How many did he slaughter before that happened?” William asked. “How many did he slaughter because that was his goal?”
“Too many,” Daniel said.
“She’ll keep it together until Sabine is defeated, or at least I think she will, but as soon as this is done…” William’s voice trailed off, and his gaze returned to the closed door Aria was behind once more. “She’s my twin. I feel her anguish here”—he rested his hand over his heart—“and anguish is such a completely inadequate word for what she is experiencing. It’s deeper than that. It’s a complete twisting and destruction of the soul. She’ll die when this is done, or she’ll lose her mind.”
Tempest pressed closer against him as his own raw sorrow slipped through. He kissed her forehead, taking in her scent as he tried to ease his growing distress. With every day that passed, Aria slipped further away and he felt thei
r chances of Braith rising growing slimmer. It had taken time for Atticus to return, he tried to remind himself of this, but he couldn’t help but feel as if their time was rapidly running out.
Xavier rose from the table, the chair skidding out behind him as he paced away from them. He stalked toward Aria’s closed door and stood there. Finally, the vampire came back to the table and rested his fingers on it.
“As she always has, Aria will accomplish what she must,” Xavier said. “Have faith Braith will return to us soon, because if we have to destroy her, we will have to destroy him too if he rises. If you think Aria is falling apart, imagine what he’ll be like when he realizes he rose from the dead only to learn that those he trusted the most destroyed his wife. If we must, we will find a way to restrain or imprison her—”
“We can’t do that to my sister!” William snapped.
“You think I like the idea?” Xavier snarled. “She is my friend, one of the few I have in this world. I would have taken every one of those arrows Braith received for her, but I failed in my duty.”
So that was the source of all of Xavier’s pent-up frustration, William realized. The vampire believed he’d failed Aria.
“We were all supposed to protect them. We all failed,” Daniel said.
Xavier’s gaze shot to Daniel, but he didn’t acknowledge his words as he started to speak again. “What Atticus did to this world will look like child’s play compared to what Braith would unleash on all of us if Aria is dead when he awakens. He stayed alive for hours after having his heart pierced with an arrow. Not even Atticus managed that feat, and I’m betting Sabine didn’t either. Braith did that for Aria. He knew what his loss would do to her, but even sheer strength of will and the bloodlink could not deny the course nature has set for all of us.”
“And what will he do if he wakes to find we’ve imprisoned her?” Timber asked.
“He might still kill us all, but at least he won’t burn what remains of the world down too,” Xavier replied and paced away once more.