Tears burned her eyes; she hastily wiped them away as she felt the presence of someone else in the room. She knew it wasn’t Braith even before Jack stepped beside her. “I wish I could have done more to save him.”
“I know.” She was unable to stop the tear that slid down her face. “But there was nothing more you could have done Jack. We all entered this battle knowing there would be losses.” The words were true, but they didn’t give her any comfort. She rubbed her chest but it did nothing to ease the knot in her heart.
He rested his hand on her shoulder. “It doesn’t make it better.”
“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.