Refugee (The Captive #3)(30)
“There will be room for them here,” Gideon offered.
Frank nodded. “Thank you.”
“There will be the matter of the king himself,” Saul said. “It will not be easy to remove your father Braith. He’s the strongest one of us; he hasn’t managed to stay alive and retain such an iron tight hold because he is weak. I don’t know anyone who could take him out one on one…”
“Braith can,” Ashby interrupted.
Aria’s breath froze in her lungs; every muscle in her body went rigid. There was no love lost between Braith and his father, but for the son to destroy the father…
It was unthinkable. And she wasn’t sure that Braith could do it, that he could survive the consequences of it. Their probing gazes latched onto Braith. “Braith is powerful, yes, but the king has years on him, experience and cruelty, and a viciousness that none of us possess. Those are all driving motivators that make the king the deadliest one of us,” Saul continued.
“They are,” Braith confirmed. “We’ll just have to make sure that more than one of us goes after him when the time comes.”
“Even then…”
“Braith can take him,” Ashby cut Saul off firmly. Aria shot him a dark look, irritated that he kept pushing the issue. She ground her teeth, clenching her jaw as she bit back a sharp retort.
“It’s his father,” William blurted.
“And he wouldn’t hesitate to strike down his son,” Ashby reminded him.
William looked sickened by the thought. “First we have to worry about getting into the palace, and then we will worry about my father.”
“There is also the matter of The Forsaken Ones,” Calista inserted, her hooded gaze was wicked as she stared at Braith. “They have to be stopped before we can leave our towns. We cannot leave the ones that remain behind susceptible to them.”
“Yes,” Frank agreed emphatically.
“We’ll try and group these creatures together and destroy them. It needs to be done quickly before they cause more damage.” Braith spoke the words flatly, but his muscles flexed briefly beneath his shirt. Anxiety trickled through her; no matter how many went out there after them, those things were unsafe, deadly. “I would like to do this tomorrow, if at all possible. We’ll move out as soon as we can.”
Aria kept her face as emotionless as possible. She was acutely aware of the fact that Xavier’s deep brown had fixated upon her. His dark brows drew sharply together over his broad nose. Something slithered down her spine, something cold and numbing as his eyes slowly swung toward Braith.
“Why now?” Xavier inquired a little too loudly. “Why do you desire to overthrow your father now?”
The coldness spread to her belly, she couldn’t breathe. “I have learned of my father’s plot against my mother.”
“How did you come to learn of this?”
“Melinda, fearing for her life after Jack’s defection to the rebellion, came to me and told me the truth. I was able to find Jack afterwards, and was finally led to David and his children. I may not have known my mother well, but such a deception cannot go un-avenged. I’m sure you all understand how I feel as most of you are here to avenge your own families, though none of you were ever close with them. It is the principle of the matter.”
They all nodded eagerly along to Braith’s very abridged and not entirely true version, Xavier remained unmoving as he stared at her.
***
Aria was beginning to hate The Barrens with its endless sun and sand. The woods were cool even on the hottest of days and shady when the sun was at its brightest. She missed the smell of them, that invigorating blend of earth, fresh air, and wilderness. There was nothing like that here.
Sweat trickled down her back, her forehead, and in between her breasts. The thin, tan shirt she wore adhered to her back and shoulders. She pulled it off her skin, fanning herself with it as she pushed her braid over her shoulder. Shielding her eyes, she stared across the endless brown, searching for any sign of life, all she discovered was a dizzying sense of unreality and a slight headache.
“How will we ever find them out there?” she asked.
“We won’t,” Braith confirmed. He tugged lightly on the end of her braid, smiling for a brief moment as he wrapped it around his finger. “They’ll find us.”
That didn’t sound like a better option. The desolate town was depressing, but she would rather be here than left behind as she had greatly feared Braith intended to do. Instead, he had been uncharacteristically reasonable about taking her with him, a fact that astounded her until she realized that he didn’t feel Gideon’s town was any safer than here.
Aria wiped the sweat from her brow, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the smell that wafted from her. “I miss the woods.”
She hadn’t meant to say the words out loud, hadn’t meant to reveal her melancholy to him, but they popped out before she could stop them. Braith’s hand stilled in her hair, his body was still as stone. “I know. I’ll get you back to them.”
She grabbed hold of his hand and squeezed as she forced a smile. “I know.”
He brushed his finger over her cheek, trailing it down her throat, pausing briefly upon the marks on her neck. She felt his rising thirst, but he swiftly buried it. “You won’t ever have to leave them again when this is over.”