Unbound (The Captive #7)(28)

Splashing out of the stream, a flash of something on her right caught Melinda’s attention and she sat up straighter in the saddle. Joy burst through her chest when she spotted the treehouse Braith had built for Aria nestled within the trees. They were going the right way, and what was more, she knew her way back from here!

“Look!” she slapped her hand against Ashby’s arm and pointed to the treehouse. “We’re almost home.”

Ashby relaxed a little against her before going rigid once more. She didn’t think he would relax again until Sabine was destroyed.

“We are,” he said and kissed her cheek.

He turned their mount to the right and nudged him into another trot. Lots of carrots for these horses when we get back, she decided when the animal grudgingly resumed his pace. Ashby lifted his hand to push aside branches when they plunged back into the thick woods once more.

***

Jack

Jack finished helping to clean the blood from Xavier and sat back on his heels. He could bandage the wounds but saw no point. The blood had ceased flowing and the holes were closing. He’d already taken care of the humans who had fared better than Xavier. He was fairly certain Daniel had a concussion and suffered from blood loss and exhaustion, but their bruised bones and bodies would mend and none of their arrow wounds would be deadly if they were kept clean.

“I should have go… gone with her,” Xavier said. His voice already sounding better, but it was still difficult for him to get words out.

“You would have only slowed them down,” Jack replied.

Xavier gripped his wrist when he went to turn away. “I believe she is right, about Sabine and about Bra…ith.”

“Believe or hope?” Jack inquired.

“Both.”

“I hope you’re right. I’m not ready to lose Braith and Aria, and I’m not meant to be king.”

“No, but you would do well with it if it became necessary for you to assume the throne.” Xavier released his hold on him. “You should ma… make sure Braith has blood.”

Jack glanced at where they’d placed Braith’s body in the shadows of the cave. They’d covered him in some of the furs and blankets from the store room, and Jack had tried to make sure his brother was as comfortable as possible, though he questioned if it mattered and doubted Braith could tell the difference.

“I don’t know about that,” he murmured.

“Your father was decaying when he rose from the earth, starv… ing and frail, most likely from lack of blood. If we can get some blood into Braith, he’ll be strong… er when he rises.”

Jack appreciated that Xavier said when instead of saying if Braith rose; he wished he could have Xavier’s confidence in this matter.

Atticus returned.

He’d also been over a thousand years old at the time. Maybe there was an age someone had to reach for resurrection. At nine hundred fifty-four, Braith was pushing one thousand years old, but still shy of the millennial milestone. He may never get there now. Sabine hadn’t been a thousand when she was killed, but did they really know if she had actually been killed and not faking her death?

Then he recalled Sabine’s words, “Kill them all, but bring me his head.” There had to be a reason for that specific command with Braith, there simply had to be, or was he grasping at straws in the hope Braith could return from the dead?

“How long do you think it will be before he comes back, if he does rise again?” he asked and saw the other’s heads turn in their direction.

“I don’t know,” Xavier replied. “It was about a month before we saw Atticus, but in his weakened condition it could have… taken him a while to dig out of his grave. We ha… have no idea how much time he spent in the woods before he made it back to the palace. For all we know, he could have risen again two weeks after his death, but… I… I doubt it.”

Jack rested his fingers on the cool stone beneath him. A month within these caves, trying to keep Braith protected. It could be done, it would be done, but it would be a month for Sabine to gather more troops and wreak more damage upon those who could, or did, stand in her way.

“When Aria returns—”

“I don’t think she will return,” Daniel interrupted Jack. “She’ll lead Sabine and her followers as far from here as she can, but if she knows he’s gone—”

“She knows,” Hannah murmured and her gaze latched onto Jack. She ran her hands over her arms as she stared at him. “Believe me, Aria knows Braith is dead.”

Daniel’s fingers clenched around the rock he was resting his arm on. Anguish twisted his features as he turned his head briefly away from them. “Then she will go to work,” he said.

“Doing what?” Hannah inquired.

“Raising an army, learning what she can about our newest enemy,” Daniel replied. “She won’t die without making that woman pay first.”

Hannah glanced nervously at Jack and folded her hands before her. “I’d make her pay too.”

Jack rose to his feet and stalked across the cavern to her. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her close against him.

“Won’t she come back for Braith?” Hannah inquired.

“I know what she said about this woman being Sabine, about there being a chance Braith could rise again, but I imagine right now she doesn’t believe in much,” Jack said as he ran a hand over Hannah’s silken. “And if Braith does rise again, instead of coming back here, she’s going to do whatever she can to protect him, which means gathering an army.”