“No, it doesn’t. I’m not going to leave him Jack.” The words were blunter than she’d intended, but they had to have it out. There couldn’t be any more subterfuge and plans between them.

“I know.”

“I can’t. I mean I could, if I actually thought it would do any good, but…”

“It won’t,” he finished for her when her voice trailed off. “I know that now, so does Gideon. You’re the ying to his yang.”

“The what to his what?” she asked in confusion not sure if she should be insulted by the strange words.

Jack smiled, but it did little to ease the sad resolve in his eyes. “It’s an old saying; you’re the light to his darkness, the good to his bad. You temper each other, and though I believe you can be separated, it won’t make either of you stronger to do so. After what happened they may very well decide to accept you as a human. It will be your choice if you stay or not, even Braith knows that now. This isn’t exactly the life you’ve prepared for Aria, or even one that you ever wanted. For all of its opulence, in some ways it’s more arduous than the one you will be leaving behind if you choose to stay.”

That was for sure. “What will become of us?” she pondered.

“I don’t know.”

“I’m going to tell him you know; what I was going to do.”

Jack glanced at her sideways from under lowered lashes. His resemblance to Braith was more subtle than the king’s had been, but far more appealing. There was a carefree air to Jack that seldom showed in Braith, but on those infrequent occasions when Braith let his guard down, he resembled Jack the most.

“If you feel you must.”

“I don’t know what will become of us, but no matter what, it has to be a fresh, open start. There can’t be any secrets between us.”

“I understand. You may be better off downplaying the part where you and Gideon had a secret agreement about your possible death.”

Aria winced at the harsh tone of Jack’s voice. “He told you?”

“Yes. He also told your brother’s, Max, and your father.”

She couldn’t stop the small tremors that raced through her. “My father, he didn’t think I wanted to die did he?” she managed to croak.

“He understood Aria, believe me, he understood.”

She couldn’t stop the flood of tears that poured from her eyes. “I hope so.”

Jack wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to his side. “I know so. He was unbelievably proud of you and your brothers. He didn’t like the course you had chosen but he understood it, just as you must understand that his death wasn’t in vain. He also knew that I wasn’t going to let what you and Gideon agreed to do, happen. I would have taken you away in order to separate the two of you, but there is no way I would have agreed to your death.”

“That’s why I went to Gideon.”

Exasperation flashed over his features, his steel gray eyes narrowed; that was a very Braith look. “It wouldn’t have happened Arianna, it was foolish of you to think it would. It was foolish of Gideon. It was bad enough that I was going to take you away from him again, but ending your life never would have happened.”

She bowed her head and pressed her face to Jack’s chest as she strived to regain some control of her tears. After awhile she was finally able to take a steadying breath and pull away from him. “The trophies,” she choked on the word. “Where are they?”

His eyes hardened. “There are times when death is more merciful.” She blinked in surprise. “There is no saving some souls no matter how much we would like to. They would have been strong allies, it was why they were tormented so, but they were too far gone. These poor souls had been trapped and starved for far more years than those creatures you encountered in The Barrens. Even a vampire cannot recover from that.”

“Oh,” she breathed. Her thoughts turned to the pitiful creature the king had tormented with her blood. “How awful, what he did to them…” She shuddered as she broke off. “Why wasn’t Ashby kept here?”

Jack gestured around the room. “It’s beautiful in here, its rich and fancy and elegant in a way that Ashby appreciates and craves. Ashby was kept in a separate, stronger dungeon for vampires for a few months after the war, but the king thought it was a far worse fate to place him somewhere away from all of the things he loved so much, and Melinda encouraged it. He could have left Ashby in the dungeons, but that wasn’t as much fun for my father.”

She was grateful for that. “Lucky for Ashby. Did Braith send you after me?”

“He’s worried about you.”

“I know, but I’m good.”

Jack smiled wanly. “You always are kid.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ugh.”

He grinned at her as he turned her away from the empty trophy room and led her toward the doors. They slipped back into the hall as Max reappeared. “I personally think we should have taken her into The Barrens and left her there.” Max candidly informed her as he stopped before them.

“That would have been fitting,” Jack agreed.

“This might not be any better,” she told them.

“It is for her,” Max muttered. “Are you going back to your rooms?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll take you.”

Jack hesitated for a moment, but released her shoulders when she gave him a subtle pinch in the back. Max held his arm out to her, a gallant smile on his face as for the first time she saw actual joy in his eyes again. Aria slipped her arm through his and smiled back at him. These past few days she’d welcomed his presence in the stable with her, and the fact that he knew when she felt like talking, and when she didn’t. She enjoyed the friendship that had become easy between them again.

She hesitated outside the rooms she had once shared with Braith. Max tried to hold her back but she pushed the door open. She gasped as she took in the destruction of the room. Releasing Max’s arm, she stepped carefully over broken bits of furniture, paintings, books, and clothing as she made her way to the room that had once been hers.

“The king must have been in a foul mood after Braith left,” Max said from the doorway.

“That’s not necessary Max; I know it was Braith that did this.”

The room was a mess but there, in the center of the bed, was a nightgown she had worn. It was laid neatly out, set upon the mattress, untouched by the violence that surrounded it. Tears burned her eyes, her throat hurt; she ached over the suffering she sensed here, the anguish he’d felt from her loss. She turned back to Max, needing to escape, needing to flee from the reminder of the things that had transpired here, the events that had led Braith to a breaking point that terrified her. Leaving him again, without telling him, would have been the biggest mistake she ever could have made.

Max held his arm out to her again; she gratefully slid hers through, grasping hold of the lean, corded muscles that stood out against the fabric of his shirt. “Do you feel better now that she is going to die?” Aria inquired.

He didn’t pretend not to know who the she was. “I’d thought I would, but I don’t. I feel better now that this is over, that we are safe Aria, that we now live in a world that none of us ever dreamed possible. I thought revenge was the answer to it all, and I know she has to die, but no, it doesn’t make me feel better. Her death is just a necessary means to the end of a brutal regime that nearly destroyed us all.

“It’s going to be better now Aria, for all of us.”

She smiled at him as she leaned against his side. “It is,” she agreed. And it would be good for all of them. She found that for now that idea was more than enough. Her future had always been uncertain; she supposed it didn’t make a difference that it still was.

“I’m sorry Aria.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for Max.”

“There is. I didn’t believe you, I didn’t believe in him, and it nearly cost me everything. I was angry, I was foolish, and I was stubbornly holding onto boyish dreams.” She stared at him in surprise as color heated her cheeks. “I should have known to trust your instincts. You were right.”

“I always am,” she teased.

“Yeah well, I wouldn’t go that far.”

Aria laughed as she bumped his hip playfully. “You went through a lot more than I did Max; you had every right to be angry and disbelieving. I probably would have been too if I’d been treated as poorly as you. I didn’t experience what you did, either time,” she assured him.

“Are you still having nightmares?”

Aria couldn’t meet his gaze as she focused on the rug beneath her. She hated the images that plagued her at night, hated the lingering fear of the dark that enshrouded her, but she couldn’t shake them. She supposed it would get better with time, but she was still ashamed of the enduring impact she’d allowed the king and Caleb to have on her.

“Yes.” She didn’t like to admit her weakness, but she wasn’t going to lie to Max about it. Out of everyone, he was the person that understood the most.

“It will get better.”

She nodded as she squeezed his arm and stopped before the apartment that Braith had claimed for them. “I know it will.”

His gaze focused on the door behind her as he released her arm. “Braith is a good man Aria, a better man than I thought he was, but even good men can be driven to do horrific things when they are pushed to it. I know you’re aware of this, but please don’t forget it.”

She hesitated, her hand on the door handle as she turned toward him. “I don’t plan to leave anymore Max.”

“Good. You deserve a happy ending too.”

“There are times when a happy ending just isn’t possible.”

“Be optimistic Aria; look at everything else that has happened.”

He squeezed her arm briefly before she turned and slipped into the rooms. The tray of food was still there, heaped with fruits and breads. She wasn’t sure how safe the cheese and meats were anymore, but as her stomach rumbled she was surprised to realize that her appetite had returned a little.

Chapter 17

Over the next three weeks, mourning weighed her down like a wet blanket that threatened to suffocate her within its cloying folds. She spent most of her time within the stables. All of the animals that could have been saved had already been tended to, but she still sought out the simple comfort that the building and animals had to offer her.

Some moments were tougher than others. At times she could barely breathe through the sorrow that would constrict her chest and drive her to her knees. In those moments it took all she had to gather the strength to stand again, to breathe again, and to not lose herself to the tears and the misery. Gradually, over the days, though the grief didn’t lessen, she became more accustomed to it. She was better able to deal with it as she began to accept the fact that she would never see her father again. Never hear his laugh, or bask in his smile, or receive his crushing hugs that always made her feel like the cherished child that she was to him.

Slowly she began to accept the fact that her life would have a constant hole in it, but it was a hole that one day wouldn’t cripple her as it did in those first couple of weeks.

In the stables she found peace and solace with the animals and her friends. She fed the horses, cleaned them, and sat with them. Xavier remained her constant shadow, but she was surprised to realize that she didn’t mind. In fact, she actually grew to enjoy his company. For the first few days they didn’t speak at all, and then Max grew tired of the quiet and began to strike up conversations with him.

There was so much that Xavier knew, so much history that he was eager to share with them. In those moments, when he was regaling them with stories of pyramids, vast seas, boats, sweeping buildings, flying airplanes and distant green lands filled with people, she found an escape from her sadness.

Aria found herself enraptured by his stories, and the stunning tribal tattoos that marked his dark skin. Sometimes she and Max would sit in the middle of the aisle as Xavier told them everything he knew. It all sounded so fantastic, a little frightening and overwhelming, but amazing. She was glad Braith had chosen Xavier to be her guard, and she suspected that a big part of that reason was because of Xavier’s tales.

“What was it like here before the war?” Max didn’t look up from the saddle he was polishing but Aria paused in the middle of brushing a large bay stud. They’d never asked what it had been like around here. She hadn’t wanted to know, and she’d assumed the same of Max, but apparently she’d been wrong.

Xavier was thoughtful as his hands folded into the sleeves of his robe. “Peaceful. Braith’s father had chosen this area because it was serene and secluded. He was able to build the palace away from the prying eyes of the higher populated human areas, and the location offered us great security. There were some outlying vampire establishments throughout the world, but some of them came here when it became clear that there would be a war, and the ones that didn’t…”