It was the smell of fear that hung the heaviest in the cramped dungeons beneath the palace. She shoved herself into a sitting position as she strained to see the source of the voice through the darkness. “Aria?”
Aria’s legs shook as she climbed to her feet; her muscles were cramped from blood loss and being curled in on herself. Her hands were raised cautiously before her as she moved toward the bars trapping her within the small four by four prison. “Who’s there?” she asked softly.
There was a small exhalation, almost of relief. “It is you.”
Yes, it was her, or what was left of her anyway. She could feel blood trickling from Caleb’s vicious bite marks, but she didn’t even attempt to wipe the blood from her body. What had been such an intimate and bonding experience with Braith, had been twisted into something repugnant and cruel, something dirty and wrong and she couldn’t bring herself to touch the reminders of that. The taste of the king’s foul blood seemed to have been burned into her throat and seared onto her tongue. She believed Braith would come for her; she just wasn’t sure what he would find when he arrived. They were just getting started, she was certain of it.
She grasped hold of the bars as she fought against the overwhelming urge to simply curl into a ball and let it all go. Her middle finger protested the movement, but the king’s blood was already having a healing effect upon it.
“It’s Mary,” the voice responded.
Aria’s mind spun as she tried to place the woman, and then she recalled her. “Mary,” she breathed. She was amazed the woman was still alive as they’d been captured together; it was Mary’s son that Aria had allowed herself to be captured in place of.
“Yes. Yes, it’s me,” Mary said eagerly. Through the darkness she heard others moving about. She’d had only a brief glimpse of the other cells when she’d been pulled down here. She had no idea how many people were trapped with her, or who they were. “What are you doing here? The prince...”
Her voice trailed off; there was a small muttering amongst the darkness. Whispers floated over her. “We assumed he’d killed you.”
“No Caleb will wait…”
“Not that prince, the other one, the one that bought you.”
She was astounded by the insinuation. “Braith? Braith would never hurt me.”
“He hurt the others,” someone else whispered.
Aria shuddered as she rested her head against the bars. These people had seen Braith at his worst. They had witnessed his plunge into depravity and violence. She rubbed her chest over the place where her heart throbbed. What was he like now?
“Was it true then Aria, did you escape?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
There was a collective inhalation. “How?” A man asked hopefully.
“It’s a long story.”
“We have nothing but time in here.”
Aria released a humorless laugh. It was true, there was nowhere for any of them to go right now. She told them that Jack was the king’s son, and that he had chosen the rebel cause over the king. She told them how Jack had taken her from here the first time, but she didn’t reveal to them that it was her absence that had been the catalyst that sent Braith spiraling out of control.
“Will Jack come for you again?” Mary inquired hopefully.
Aria hesitated for a moment. “Braith will.” There was a collective inhalation as she continued to speak. “He’s not a monster.”
“Maybe he’s not as bad as his brother, but he is a monster.”
“He’s not a monster,” Aria insisted. “I know what he has done in the past, but…”
“You don’t know what he’s done,” Mary interrupted abruptly. “You weren’t here.”
“He told me what he did, and he is a good man.”
“He’s not a man Aria.”
No, he isn’t a man, she thought to herself. He’s a vampire and he’s wild, powerful, lethal, and he would come for her. She just wasn’t sure how much destruction he would wreak in the process. “He’s good Mary.”
“He sure didn’t act like it when he was pulling women from here.”
She didn’t like to think about what her absence had driven him to, but she had to acknowledge it. She’d had good reason to leave him. Her life had been in jeopardy, and he’d never told her about his fiancé, but she hadn’t spoken to him about leaving before actually making the decision to leave. It was her sudden disappearance that had driven him to do things he’d never done before.
“Many didn’t return,” Mary pressed.
Aria wanted to tell her to shut up; she didn’t want to hear anymore. She wasn’t a coward though, she’d never backed down from anything before, and she wasn’t about to start now. Braith had told her these things already, he’d tried to make her understand what he was capable of, but though she had acknowledged it she’d never truly realized what it entailed until now. He couldn’t go there again.
Dread trickled through her, she fought the urge to kick and scream and beg to be let out; she needed to get back to him before something terrible happened. She remained immobile though, her hands clenching around the bars as sweat trickled down her back. Humiliating herself down here wouldn’t do her any good. She’d plotted with Jack and Gideon to leave him, to move on when the war was over in the hopes that he would be able to keep control, but what if he didn’t?
She thought he might let her go if she asked him to, he would do anything he could to make her happy, but if she just up and left again with his brother, or if she died, he would lose it completely. His father had just forced his foul tasting blood into her, and yet she still felt the soul deep bond she had with Braith. He was inside of her, intrinsically engrained into each of her cells, and the very fabric of her being. The king’s blood, though inside her, was not a part of her, she could feel her body rejecting it, feel her cells struggling against the aberration in her system.
Braith was a part of her, he always would be. She was a fool and an idiot. Even if she left him, even if he succeeded in controlling himself, and ruling as he should, she would never be able to sever the bond between them no matter whose blood was forced into her system.
It took everything she had to keep breathing.
He was in her heart, in her soul, and there was no way she was going to just abandon him again. She didn’t know how Gideon and Jack would react to her new decision, and she honestly didn’t care. They would have to find another way. Braith would have to agree to try and change her, or perhaps she could simply live out her life with him, but not be accepted or acknowledged as his queen. It wasn’t a pleasant notion, and she didn’t even think she would be able to accept such a life, but she wasn’t going to be able to carry out the life that she’d plotted with Gideon and Jack.