Braith’s head shot up as she heedlessly charged through the crowd. Braith jumped over the bodies scattered around him, rushing to meet her as she raced at them. His arms encircled her waist and he lifted her high. The cry that she had been unable to release before finally ripped from her throat.
“Daddy!” she screamed as her heart shattered and tears of anguish burst free.
Her arms stretched out as she reached for the body Daniel had fallen beside. Braith’s hand wrapped around her head, he pushed her face into the hollow of his neck as he clutched her. He refused to let her look again as she sobbed against him. It was too late, he was trying to protect her, but she’d already seen enough to know that her father was gone.
Chapter 15
Braith had originally taken Aria to Melinda’s apartments to get her away from the turmoil and her father’s body. However, after the first day of mute silence scattered with intermittent weeping, she made her way out of the palace while he was preoccupied with trying to sort things out. He found her in the stables with Max, tending to the wounded animals with stalwart care. The two of them seemed content away from the confusion of people and vampires, and he didn’t have the heart to protest.
He simply couldn’t dislike Max, not anymore, and had actually come to respect him. The boy had gone through things Braith would never understand, he’d been damaged and tormented by them, but somewhere along the way he’d stopped being a boy and grown into a man. A man that had protected his back, and unflinchingly followed him into the palace while knowing that he would never have the one person he coveted most.
Max noticed him first in the doorway of the stable and nudged Aria to get her attention. “I know,” she murmured as she snipped off the thread she’d used on a wounded lamb. “I’m not going back in there Braith, you can’t make me.”
He couldn’t help but smile as she glanced at him over her shoulder. Dark circles shadowed her haunted, reddened eyes. He was well aware of the fact that she hadn’t slept last night, and that she probably wouldn’t sleep tonight, but her chin jutted in determination and her gaze was defiant as it met his. She was damaged, she was partially broken, but that radiant spirit still flickered beneath the sorrow.
“Have I ever been able to make you do anything?”
Max chuckled as he lifted the lamb, nodded to Braith, and wandered down the aisle of the only stable that had survived the fires. It had taken most of the day to finally extinguish the fires within the palace walls, and there were still a few houses burning in the outer town. There was a crew working on putting them out with water from the river, but hopefully they would have them out by nightfall.
Aria wiped the blood from her hands with a dirty rag. “I suppose not,” she admitted with a tremulous smile.
“How long have you been out here?”
“A couple hours.”
“You should have told me,” he admonished.
“You were busy.”
“I’m never too busy to make sure you’re safe. There are still some out there who were loyal to my father, we haven’t caught them all yet, and it’s no secret what you mean to me anymore.”
Her eyes flickered, for a moment tears sprang forth but she rapidly blinked them back. “Max has been with me, and I have my bow.”
The slender curve of her neck drew his eyes as she glanced toward the barn doors. He winced at the myriad of bite marks and bruises from his brother and father, stark reminders of the brutality she’d endured and had yet to talk about. There was an air of desolation around her that he didn’t know how to ease.
“At least have a vampire with you; I can’t lose you again Aria.” He knew her freedom was essential but she had to stay alive. Something flickered in her eyes as she turned back to him, she looked about to say something more but simply nodded. “Xavier has stepped aside as leader of his people.”
Her eyebrows drew together over her nose. “Why would he do that?”
“Xavier has always preferred his books and histories more so than his role as an aristocrat. He was never afforded the opportunity to step aside before, but now he has a chance to set his own destiny. He has chosen to stay on as an advisor, and to sit in on important issues that involve the people he represented when it’s necessary, but he doesn’t want to be involved in the daily running of the government, not anymore. We have all agreed to accept his decision. He said he would stay with you if that’s ok?”
“Why would he want to stay with me when he has just gained the freedom he desired?”
Now was not the time to give her the real answer to that question, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to her either. “He’s curious about how the rebellion worked. He won’t push you, won’t ask you anything, but if you’re willing to talk with him, he is more than willing to listen.”
“I see,” she murmured. “That’s fine.”
“Aria…”
She held up a hand to forestall his words. “I don’t mind if Xavier stays, really. I would just like to be out here, away from…” Her words trailed off, her gaze darted toward the palace. Her father was one of the few that hadn’t been buried yet. He’d been placed in the second hall on the main floor so that each of his followers would have a chance to say goodbye. Barnaby, whose body had also been recovered, was lying in the room beside David’s. His father, Caleb, and Natasha hadn’t been awarded the same luxury and had already been buried in unmarked graves away from the palace. “I just have to be outside for a bit.”
“I understand.”
Her attention was diverted as Max returned with a small piglet that was squealing in his arms and bleeding from a gash in his leg. “I have to get back to the animals.”
He thought she was simply going to turn away from him, that she was going to shut him out. After a moment’s hesitation though she hurried over, wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. He felt the wetness of her tears, but when she pulled away she had already stopped shedding them. He brushed the hair back from her face as he kissed her softly and released her into the care of Xavier and Max.
Braith hated that he couldn’t be with her when she retreated to the stables for the following two days, but there was so much to repair, and order to be re-established. Barnaby’s followers were confused and scrambling. Calista and Gideon had taken over trying to organize them while Adam, Barnaby’s second, was slowly trying to assume command.