Aria's head was down, her bow discreetly tucked away on her back and covered by the gray cloak. It billowed around her ankles, blowing back to allow the rain to wet the bottom of her pants. As much as she hated the cloaks she was grateful for the cover it provided from the surprisingly chilly rain. She stood at the top of the hill, staring down at the town that rolled out from the hollows of the knoll.
It was beautiful, deadly, and far too close to the palace for her liking. A palace that she could see the gleaming top of as it rose out from behind another hill. Braith moved closer to her but now that they were amongst his people again, he had returned to trying to keep his distance from her. Saul and Calista came forward to speak with Braith before returning to the small group gathered within the tree line.
William and Daniel stood beside her, the hoods of their cloaks pulled up. Max was also wearing the cloak but the hood was tossed back. Rain trickled down his face and had plastered his fair hair down. He was still handsome, but she was acutely reminded of the fact that the boy she had grown up with was gone. He looked older, wiser than his young years. He was only a couple years older than her, but there were lines around his eyes and the corners of his pinched mouth. Seeming to sense her attention he turned to her and offered a small smile.
Braith stepped in front of her, drawing her attention away from Max. For a moment his hands fisted in impotence as he grappled with his urge to protest her decision. Her father wasn't happy about this either, but at least he was used to them going on such missions and more accustomed to watching his loved ones walk away.
"Make sure your hair stays covered." His frustration was obvious as his hand twitched toward her. Her hair was already tucked beneath the hood, but she adjusted it again to try and ease the tension she felt running high in him. It did little good. "If anything goes wrong..."
"I'll be fine. I'm fast, you know that."
"You're not faster than a vampire, and you have a habit of throwing yourself on the sword to protect others. You need to run if something goes wrong, and I mean it."
She bristled at his commanding tone, but he was frightened and arguing with him about it would get her nowhere. He would force her to stay with him if she pushed him; she was still a little surprised he had relented to begin with. Then, not seeming to care about the others, he pulled her hood tighter, his hands hesitating on the edges as he held it for a moment.
"Don't do anything stupid."
Frustration filled her; she ached to touch him, to reassure him that she would be fine and that she wasn't doing this to be reckless. She wouldn't do anything to damage their cause, but she would be helpful down there. That's why she was going. She wasn't the girl who had nothing to live for anymore. Even if she had to give him up there was still plenty to live for, and even after her deal with Gideon she still hoped she'd be around to see it all.
Her fingers clenched as she restrained herself from grasping his hands. "I promise I won't."
He pulled on the hood again and walked away. Aria watched him for a longing moment, before she turned back to her brothers and Max. "Let's go," Daniel said.
She chanced a glance over her shoulder at Braith. He was watching her intently, his arms folded over his chest as Jack stepped beside him. She didn't look back as they began to pick their way down the hill, moving at a diagonal angle to the town below. Aria struggled to keep her balance as wet leaves slipped and slid beneath her beaten shoes. She was relieved when they made it to the road even though she felt exposed and vulnerable.
They received a few questioning glances as they moved past but the gray cloaks they wore were common place here, as were random people moving through in search of food or employment within the palace.
Not all of the people here worked within the palace and served the royal family, but they were still traitors to her. They didn't fight or go against the grain. They simply lived in this hollowed existence and did whatever they were told or whatever was expected of them.
They passed a bar that had its doors thrown open to let in the fresh air. Bawdy laughter filtered out from within. Aria was surprised to realize that there were people already inside, drinking and laughing loudly. Life in the towns was far different than life in the woods. She couldn't recall a day that had been wasted on such things.
"Keep moving." She hadn't realized she'd stopped until William grated the words at her.
She turned away from the bar as a woman's laughter joined in with the men's. She shook her head, uncertain about this place. Max grasped her arm gently, urging her along when she fell behind. "It's so different here," she muttered.
"Yes. Don't stop."
Aria fell back into step beside him as they wound through the town, taking in as many details as they could. She had been in the town once as a child, but she hadn't paid much attention to it. Now she noticed details that made her sick. The homes were not as opulent or fancy as the ones within the palace walls but they gleamed with the rain beading off of them. Their paint was fresh and their porches were decorated with more furniture than she'd owned in her entire life. Flowers, like she had seen in the palace flowed over people's walkways, their petals shining from the drops of rain.
Though the rain had driven most inside, the few that did brave the weather were wearing the deep blue cloaks that marked them not as servants, but as free people that held higher positions within the palace. It was a coveted position, one that had been earned by the ultimate betrayal against their fellow man. Her fingers itched to put an arrow in the hearts of every one of them.
She hated those blue cloaks more than anything. And judging by the stiffness in Max's shoulders he was fighting the same urge she was. These people were the ultimate traitors, they had no allies here, and as far as Aria was concerned they could all be killed in the upcoming days and she wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
She kept her head down so they wouldn't see her revulsion. She was supposed to be in awe of the people wearing the blue cloaks, not plotting their demise as she shuffled down the dirt road that was slowly turning to muck They reached the end of the main road and began to move through the more narrow side roads. The homes were smaller here, but they were just as nicely maintained.
"Why haven't we seen any soldiers?" Aria wondered.
"It's so close to the palace they don't fear anything. I'm sure there are some posted here but the weather has probably driven them inside," Max answered.
Aria's heart began to hammer; she shrank deeper into her cloak as they moved even closer to the palace that had nearly destroyed her and Max. It was situated on a mountain, tucked behind the hills and valleys that rolled through this area. She knew they weren't going to get much closer, but she couldn't stop the foreboding that pulsed through her.
To her surprise, Max seized hold of her hand. Though they had been trying to repair their fractured friendship things had still been uncomfortably awkward between them more often than not. But now his hand wrapped around hers, squeezing tight as they stopped to stare at the place where they had been imprisoned.
The golden gates gleamed, even in the dim light of the murky day they shined from the hours spent polishing them. Though the top spires of the palace were visible above the homes and hills, the main bulk of the massive building was obscured. She knew it well though, she would never forget it and she would be back within its massive walls again soon if everything went well. In the meantime, she would need to reign in her abhorrence for the place if she was going to be of any use.
Max's hand was sweaty in hers, small tremors rocked through him. She wanted to tell him it was ok, but it wasn't and she wasn't going to lie to him. It would be a long time, if ever, before he got over what was done to him.
As they watched, guards appeared. They marched across the front of the gates before disappearing from view once more. Goosebumps broke out on her arms and it had nothing to do with the chill in the air. After a minute or so the guards moved back across the front of the gates. "We should get moving," Daniel said.
She fell in beside her brothers again as they moved further through the town. She could practically see the gears turning through Daniel's head as he mapped out the roads, and plotted the best ways to move through the buildings and streets with all of their troops. They were all here to take in as much of the details as possible, but Daniel would be the one that remembered the most, the one that would see things the rest of them didn't and recall it far more vividly.
They arrived at the edge of the town, the road continued onward, winding up another hill before dipping from sight and reappearing again near the palace gates. Aria had had enough. She didn't want to see anymore of that place than she had too. "Let's go back."
The road was becoming muddier as they wound their way back through the town. The rain was picking up to a steadier flow that was starting to creep its way through the cloak to wet her clothes and skin. Her hair was beginning to cling to the back of her neck, tickling her skin. She wanted out of here, for the first time she wanted back into the caves and away from this oppressive place that she could practically feel draining the life from her.
They passed more people as they hurried through the town, but no one paid them much attention. She heard the laughter from the bar before she saw it again. She kept her head down as they approached the raucous place.
People emerged from inside. Two of them ran in the opposite direction, squealing happily as their laughter trailed down the street. Don't look, she told herself. Bending her head lower, she kept her attention focused on her feet. She was so intent on getting free of this town that she wasn't expecting it when someone grabbed hold of her arm, halting her abruptly as she was pulled sharply around.
"It is you!" a voice accused.
Aria had only a moment to get her bearings before someone seized hold of her hood and ripped it back. A sharp gasp escaped her, she scrambled to pull it back up, feeling exposed and stunned by the sudden assault. And then she saw her attacker. The girl was still grasping her arm, holding her with a bruising intensity as she glared furiously at Aria. The venom that spit from the girls blue eyes would have seemed out of place if Aria hadn't already figured out who she was.
"Lauren," Aria breathed horrified and staggered by the sight of the servant girl who had taken such cruel pleasure in abusing her while she'd been in the palace. Lauren was far different than Aria recalled; her blond hair had always been neatly coiffed, with every hair in place. She'd been refined and elegant in a way that only the palace servants could be. She was not so poised now. Her dress was dirty, her fingernails were broken, and there was a strange odor wafting from her. Laughter burst from the bar behind Lauren. Aria suddenly understood where the girl had come from, what the smell was, and what Lauren had been doing since Braith had banished her from the palace.
"I knew it was you," Lauren sneered, her pretty face twisting with disgust as her hand squeezed even more on Aria's arm. Her heart was pounding, astonishment held her so riveted that she couldn't react, not even when Lauren thrust her face into Aria's, so close that their noses were almost touching. "I know someone looking for you, bitch."
"What the hell?" Max, seeming to have just noticed Lauren's appearance was coming back at them. Lauren's eyes darted to him; amusement filled them as recognition sprang forth.
"Both of you," she whispered excitedly.
"Who the hell are you?" William demanded.
Aria's surprise was wearing off. She tried to pull her arm free of Lauren's grasp but the girl clung like a burr. Lauren was trying to haul her toward the bar, pulling sharply on her arm. "Let go of me!" Aria snapped, as anger completely replaced any shock she felt.
"Get your hands off of her!" William was beside her, Max had circled behind Lauren, blocking her pathway to the tavern. Daniel seemed confused as if it hadn't quite penetrated his artist induced haze that something wasn't right.
Lauren was brought up short as she bumped into Max, her fingers twisted painfully on Aria's arm as she pinched her skin. Panic flashed briefly across Lauren's pretty face as Max's hands fell onto her shoulders. Seeming to realize she was cornered, she began to yell. "Guards! Guards!"
Terror filled Aria, reacting on instinct alone she fisted her hand and drove it straight into Lauren's nose. It was something she'd itched to do since she'd been a prisoner, but she felt no satisfaction as blood spurted forth and the girl groaned in pain. She finally released Aria as her hands flew to her brutalized nose and she staggered back.
"Run!" Aria shouted as Lauren began to wail loudly for the guards.
She bolted down the road, shedding the cumbersome cloak as she ran. Shouts echoed behind them but she didn't dare look back as they rounded a curve in the road. Her eyes darted over the tops of the houses, the roofs were pitched, steep, and slippery from the rain. She thought she might be able to navigate a few of them, but none of them in succession, and there was a good possibility she would fall from the slippery tops. If she didn't kill herself, she would at the very least break something.
It was a mess, it was all a mess. The muddy road hindered their progress. It tired them out quickly and made it difficult to get any real speed up. There was still too far to go, they would never reach the safety of the woods if they didn't do something. She'd promised Braith she wouldn't do anything stupid, but she'd never expected that they would be discovered.
She broke away from the others, racing toward the porch of a small house that would be easy to scale. "Aria!" Daniel barked.
"Keep going!" she yelled at him.
She ignored him as she leapt onto the banister and seized hold of the porch roof. Her fingers scrambled for purchase on the slippery shingles but she was able to get enough of a hold to lift herself onto the roof. Without the added burden of her cloak she was able to pull her bow and arrows swiftly from her back. The guards were closer than she had realized and there were more of them than she had expected. Her heart sank.
Lifting the bow, she had no time to take aim as she began to rapidly fire arrows at the rushing group. Some of the arrows hit their marks, others missed completely, and still more were dodged. Some of the guards fell back from their injuries, but most kept on coming.
Aria grabbed her bow and quiver and tossed them onto her back as she leapt to her feet and ran. She didn't attempt to jump onto the next porch roof, she would never make it. Instead, she leapt from the roof. Her legs scissored in the air before her feet connected with solid ground again. She leapt back up and took off down the road. She rounded a corner to find that William and Daniel had taken up shooters stances on either side of the road. Max was further down, his bow lifted as he prepared for the guards.
She heard the twang of her brother's strings seconds before Max started to fire. "Run Aria!" he yelled at her. She bolted past him, racing another fifty feet down the road before taking up position behind a water barrel that was over flowing with fresh rain. She grabbed her bow and arrow, steadying herself as she set up to take aim at the creatures hunting them. If they could keep this up, if their arrows held up, they may be able to escape this town intact.
Daniel and William appeared from behind a row of houses. Aria ignored the blood dripping from William's head, she couldn't think about that now. Not if she planned to survive. She was about to release her first arrow when an arm wrapped around her waist and she was lifted against a hard, broad chest. For a disconcerting moment she thought it was Braith that had seized her, the dimensions were about the same size, but there was something cold, unfamiliar, and wrong about the man holding her now. A hand snaked around her throat and clasped over her mouth.
She began to struggle in earnest, kicking and screaming against the hand muffling her. A cold certainty crept through her as lips pressed against her cheek. "Well well well look at what I have here."
Her body turned into a block of ice at Caleb's words. She hadn't spent much time with him, as Braith had gone out of his way to keep her away from his brother, but she would recognize his voice and the cruelty that laced his words anywhere. This was so much worse than she had originally thought.
Every horrible nightmare she'd ever had seemed to be screaming into reality as his arm constricted cruelly around her waist. "We're going to have so much fun you and I."
A scream burned in her throat, it pushed relentlessly against the hand that was currently twisting ever tighter on her face. "So much fun. I'll get to see just what it was that my brother saw in you."
Aria struggled within his grasp, she couldn't breathe; she was wheezing from lack of oxygen. She met her brother's gazes, horrified by the tears of torment that burned her eyes. They had to know that they had to get free; they had to run, now. Aria jerked to the side, throwing her head back, and kicking wildly as she tried to loosen Caleb's grasp on her. She had no hope of getting free, she knew that, but she needed just a brief moment of reprieve from his firm grasp.
His hand slipped on her as she managed to dig an elbow into his ribs. "Bitch!" he snarled his hand entangling in her hair.
"Run!" The scream, born of terror, ripped violently and harshly from her throat moments before Caleb drove his fangs into her neck. Agony exploded through her, tears formed in her eyes and froze there as her whole body went rigid. Even when he had deprived himself, even when he was on the verge of losing all control, Braith had never hurt her like this. Caleb attacked her brutally; he pulled her blood from her in deep waves that caused her heart to stutter and her muscles to lock.
Her fingers curved into claws but she couldn't move, couldn't feel anything other than the torture consuming every cell within her. He meant to draw out her suffering, she was certain of it, but she was fearful that in his fury over her actions, he was going to kill her. He pulled away before biting deep again in another spot, and then another and another. Her skin was raw; blood trickled over her as blackness rose up, threatening to drown her within the dark depths of unconsciousness. She struggled against it, certain that if she succumbed she would never wake again.
Her fingers were going numb; her body was growing colder as she felt her life slipping away from her. She had only a glance of William as he launched at them. Daniel grasped hold of his arm, trying to pull her twin back as he struggled to break free. Max rounded the corner, horror spread over his face as he skidded to a halt in the muddy road.
The last thing she saw was the arrow William shot at Caleb before darkness finally claimed her.
It was dark when she woke. Cold. It took her a long moment to realize that she wasn't in the caves. That she was somewhere far worse. Memories engulfed her in a swift, brutal wave. Her chest constricted, she could barely breathe through the panic trying to consume her. She was in the palace dungeons, she was certain of it, and she was now at the mercy of Caleb and the king.
A chill crept down her spine; she couldn't bring herself to think about the implications of that as she mentally took stock of the damage to her body. She was sore, tired and weak, but she was alive and whole. For now at least.
Slowly, past the terror of her current situation and her pain, she began to realize something else. She would now know what Braith would do, how he would react without her there, if he would keep control of himself, if he would put the greater good ahead of her, or if he would allow the bloodthirsty, vicious, and malevolent side of himself take control again. He would come for her, she knew that, but would it be the vampire that came for her, or the monster that vampire could become.
Another chill slid down her spine but this one had nothing to do with fear for herself, and everything to do with the fact that holy hell may have just been unleashed upon her family, her friends, and her woods. And that hell may very well be Braith.