Aria

Aria swung her bow onto her back again and adjusted her quiver. Though she’d recently washed herself off with a cloth, washed her hair in the basin, and wore the clean clothes Mary had given to her, she didn’t feel any fresher. She didn’t think she’d ever feel clean again.

She managed to keep her hands from shaking as she lifted them to pull her wet hair into a braid. She couldn’t bring herself to look in the mirror above the washbasin until she’d finished. Her hands clamped onto the sink when her ruby-colored eyes greeted her in the mirror.

No matter what she did, no matter how badly she willed them to do so, she could not get her eyes to return to their normal blue hue. It was something she wouldn’t care about if she wasn’t going out amongst humans. She’d been a human, the daughter of their leader, they still trusted and liked her, but a vampire’s red eyes signaled a loss of control. The humans would be apprehensive around her.

She couldn’t let them know what a tumultuous mess she was right now. They’d flee from her, and if they fled from her, they could wind up in Sabine’s clutches. All she wanted was to keep them safe, but if she couldn’t keep up appearances, she may end up being the one to drive them to their deaths.

She had to be controlled, confident, and a leader; her eyes signaled she was anything but. Lifting her hand, she almost drove her fist into the mirror, but stopped herself from doing so. Destroying the hateful thing would only confirm to them her instability.

A knock on the door had her lowering her hand and clutching the basin once more. “Come in.”

William opened the door and slipped inside. His eyes met hers in the glass. “I can’t get them to change,” she admitted.

“I know.”

Walking forward, he handed her a pair of dark sunglasses. Her fingers shook when she took them from him and settled them onto her face. It may be nighttime, and they may be underground, but the glasses hid her eyes and she wouldn’t be taking them off until she was able to get her eyes to return to normal, if they ever returned to normal again.

“Where is Tempest?” she inquired.

“Speaking with Mary and John. They’ve taken a liking to her.”

“That’s easy enough to do. This place, it’s so like those drawings and plans Daniel did before the war with Atticus.”

He grinned at her as he rested his hand on her shoulder. “The rebels discovered some of his plans in one of the caves. Either he forgot them there, or he never had the chance to return for them after everything unfolded. They used his designs and calculations to build a few of these, what they call, safe houses.”

Aria glanced at the beams of wood in the ceiling above her head. Daniel would be happy to know his design had come to life in such a way, and the rebels had done an amazing job of it. William turned her away from the mirror and pulled her out of the small bathroom. A single lantern hanging on the wall cast shadows over the dirt floor and wooden walls.

Her gaze fell on the back door, one of the only two exits out of this place. However, she doubted anyone would ever find it. She followed William down the long hallway toward the main room. At least twenty doors lined the hall, most of which were open to reveal the small rooms and straw pallets stacked on the floor within. Another room held at least a month’s worth of supplies for at least fifty people, and another had clothes and a large cache of weapons stashed within.

They entered the large main room where Mary, John, and Tempest sat around a table near the wall across from them. John’s face lit up when he spotted her; he leapt from his seat and gestured for her to take it.

“Thank you,” Aria said to him and slowly sat on the edge of the chair.

“Thank you,” John said. “You saved my life and my mother’s, Your Highness.”

“Please, just call me Aria,” she murmured as she kept her gaze focused on the windowless wall across from her.

Mary hadn’t been kidding about taking them to a safe place. Aria never would have discovered this safe house buried beneath the earth. She had thought the walls of the caves pressed against her, they were nothing compared to the oppressive air encompassing this place.

Judging by the look on William’s face, he felt much the same way as he paced from one wall to the other.

“You can wash up now, Tempest,” Aria said.

Tempest glanced at her before her gaze went to William, who stretched his hand out to her. Aria didn’t turn to watch them walk away, but she hoped they would stay gone for a while. They needed time alone, and she needed time to just be.

John settled into the chair across from her. In the time since she’d last seen him, he’d gone from a child to a young man. His brunet hair hung in waves around his narrow face and his brown eyes were eager. Brown peach fuzz dotted his upper lip, cheeks, and chin.

“I’m glad you are well,” Aria said to him.

“What is life like in the palace?” he inquired.

“Manners, John,” Mary scolded.

“When was this place built?” Aria inquired to distract the conversation from anything having to do with the palace or her life there.

“After the last war,” Mary replied. “I know we were all supposed to be safe, there was a truce and things have actually been going extremely well, but…”

“But it is always better safe than sorry,” Aria finished when Mary’s voice trailed off.

“Yes, and it had become well known by the vampires that many of us resided within the caves, so we knew we had to do something different.”

“So you built shelters beneath the ground,” Aria said and forced herself not to shudder at the reminder that ultimately she was standing in a large coffin. If one of those beams in the ceiling gave out…

Stop it!

“Yes, and until now, we’ve never had a reason to use one. We keep them stocked, make sure the water supply and ventilation system is still operational at least once every two weeks, and we clear away any debris obstructing the peepholes. Your brother is a genius.”

“He is,” Aria agreed. “I wish there was no reason to have to use one of these safe houses now.”

Rising to her feet, she paced over to the wall, feeling uncomfortable in her own skin as it seemed to tighten around her as much as these walls were. Her hand went to her heart, and she placed her palm over the deadened organ as she once again fought the impulse to tear it from her body. It was unnatural for a bloodlink to carry on without their love, and all of her instincts screamed at her to end it, while another sinister part of her hungered for blood and revenge.

“This new threat, is it bad?” Mary asked.

“Yes,” Aria replied as she stared at the wall and tried to ignore the enticing rush of blood in their veins.

“Is it… is it the king?” Mary asked hesitantly and Aria couldn’t help but wince as she kept her gaze locked on the wall. “Has he become like his father?”

“No, he hasn’t,” Aria replied. His wife might though. She took a minute to regain her composure and make sure her fangs weren’t visible before facing Mary. “How many of these safe houses are there?”

“Five.”

“Are there any closer to the palace?”

“One.”

Aria turned to pace over to the other wall. Caged. It’s what she felt right now and she needed free of these bars. Easy, calm. “How far is it from the palace?”

“About five miles.”

“Close enough,” she murmured as Tempest and William reappeared.

The scent of their mingled blood drifted to her, along with the fresh scent of the pine soap. William had his arm around Tempest’s waist as she rested her head on his chest. Turning away, Aria paced over to the other wall and then around to the door they’d entered through. She almost grabbed the handle and fled into the hallway beyond, but she managed to keep herself restrained from doing so. If only there was a window. If only she could feel and smell fresh air instead of the musty air surrounding her.

“Close enough for what?” William inquired.

“I don’t think Sabine will go for the palace, not yet,” Aria replied. “She’ll try to find Braith first, but she’ll be in the area of the palace, getting ready for her next move. We have to be there too, if we’re to learn anything about her and to corner her when she does finally attack.”

“How do you know that is her next move?” Tempest asked.

“Because she left your town and headed toward the palace,” Aria replied. “I don’t think she planned to discover us in the woods earlier. She would have had more of her followers with her if she had. She probably didn’t realize Braith was outside the palace walls. Once she was uncovered in Badwin and knew there was a chance you would get word to us, she decided to make a move to seize the palace before we could gather more troops to defend against her.”

“How do you plan to get past her troops to the safe house closest to the palace?” William asked.

Aria finally turned to face him. “Quietly.”

Despite the fact he looked tempted to throttle her, a smile curved his lips. He had Tempest to worry about now, a family to start, a woman to love, but her brother relished the thrill of a good challenge. They both did. Taking down Sabine may be the ultimate challenge.

His cocky grin widened as he ran a hand through his wet hair. “Quietly usually works.”

“When it’s us, it always works, but first we have to meet with more rebels.” She looked to Mary. “Can you bring more here for us to talk with tomorrow? If they don’t want to come, I understand, but this new vampire trying to take control has no sympathy for humans. She’ll make Atticus look like he was a friend to them.”

“She locked the humans away in Badwin,” Tempest said. “After she arrived, we never saw them again.”

“I don’t think that will change as time goes on,” Aria said.

Mary paled at their words; she took hold of John’s hand. “We will all fight to keep the peace,” she said. “We’ve worked our entire lives to build a future of peace and safety for our children. We won’t let it be taken from us without a fight.”

“We will also gather vampires as we go. I’m sure there are a fair amount of them who won’t want to be enslaved to her, and some who have already escaped her clutches,” Aria said.

“Will it really matter to them if she wins?” John asked.

“Yes. There are many vampires who only want to live in peace with the humans and who aren’t cruel. Also, she killed the vampire children in the other towns she took over. Maybe she’ll stop doing that now, instead of taking the risk of turning some of the vamps against her by continuing to kill them, but I’m not sure she will,” William said.

“Why would she do that to the children?” Mary gasped.

“Because the children can’t fight for her,” William answered. “They are a hindrance, and she couldn’t allow one of them to get free and warn someone of what she was trying to do. She slaughtered or imprisoned any who disagreed with her. The vampires she doesn’t kill outright for standing against her, she imprisons and starves until they become mindless killing machines. She didn’t bother to do that with the children.”

“Monster,” Mary whispered.

Aren’t we all? Aria’s gaze went to the wall once more. She certainly no longer knew of what she was capable. She felt as if she were unraveling, becoming completely unbound from all the rules once governing her, from everything she’d always known and believed. Now she was adrift in a world she could barely make sense of, but she would protect it.

“She is,” Tempest confirmed.

“How will we know which vampires we can trust and which have already been turned to her side?” Mary asked.

“We will have to be cautious,” Aria replied. “But we always have been, and I’m sure the rebels already have some they trust. After we speak with the rebels here, we will move onto the next safe house and talk with the ones there.”

“I will bring as many rebels as I can to you tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” Aria said and settled onto the chair once more.

“You can use one of the rooms to sleep,” Mary offered her.

Aria focused on the wall across from her once more. “I’m fine here, but please, all of you, rest.”

She required sleep in order to be at her best, but the idea of sleeping without Braith beside her wasn’t something she could handle right now. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to sleep again. Mary and John rose from the table; they spoke with William and Tempest before their footsteps retreated down the hall. Two doors opened and closed and she knew only William remained behind with her.

“Go, Tempest needs you,” Aria said without turning to look at her brother.

He didn’t say anything, just walked over to the table and pulled out another chair. He settled into it and folded his arms over his chest as he stared at the wall across from him. “I hate walls. They make me feel trapped,” he murmured.

“I know. Tempest has made it better for you though.”

“She has,” he admitted.

Aria bowed her head and stared at her hands clasped before her. Her beautiful, delicate emerald ring and her simple white gold wedding band mocked her with the broken promise of eternity. She grabbed the bands with the fingers of her right hand, intending to rip them off and heave them across the room, but instead she brought her hands together and clasped them tightly to her chest.

She bit her lip and struggled to regain her composure before she did something she would regret. Lifting her head, she found William’s gaze upon her. There was no sympathy in his eyes. He knew she’d hate to see that from him as much as he would hate to see it from her. Instead, there was only understanding.

“Things were so simple before I was captured,” she said. “They were hard, but they were simple. Father loved us, we hunted, we avoided vampires, when we couldn’t avoid them, we killed them, and we had our woods.”

“Then it all changed.”

“Then it all changed, yet now I feel as if we’ve returned to the beginning. We’re without Dad, but back to avoiding vampires and hiding out within our woods once more. Actually, beneath our woods.”

He glanced at the ceiling. “We survived then.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll survive now.”

“I will make sure of it.”

Her head bowed again, her gaze focusing on her rings. The flickering light of the lantern caused shadows to dance over her hands. The wood creaked and groaned every once in a while, but otherwise silence filled the safe house beneath the earth.