Melinda swallowed heavily, Ashby was becoming edgier. “I hid it from him at first, but when he wanted to bring me back to the palace I refused to go. I was afraid of father, of what he would do to me. I became hysterical when he insisted that I was to return, when he tried to force me back I spilled the story in my panic. I told him why I could not return. He is the only other one that knows.
“He told me to tell father that I had seen nothing the day our mother was killed; that the servants had taken me out shopping that day, and only found mother’s body that night. I was to tell them that I hadn’t returned to the palace because I was uncertain of how to get there, and fearful of wandering too far from the only home I’d ever known. He told me to keep quiet no matter what, but that he had to take me back. The other guards had seen me; there was no way that he could let me go without looking suspicious. Father would continue to hunt me until I was uncovered again, and he would probably kill me when he did find me. But if I went back on my own I would be able to keep my knowledge of events quiet. No matter how angry and resentful I was I had no choice but to return. All I could do was hope to escape one day.”
“Jack knew about this,” Braith grated. “The whole time.”
“Jack?” Ashby asked in surprise.
“Jericho,” Arianna answered when Braith remained silent. He was furious. Furious that his father had done this, furious that his siblings had kept him in the dark for so long, furious that he had stood by his father’s side, and been a pawn in all of their lies and treacheries for so long. He understood their reasons why they hadn’t told him, but he wanted to throttle them all for their duplicity. It would not continue any longer. He may not be his father’s heir anymore, but he was still a prince, he was still the next in line. He would rule. He would set right all of the wrongs that he had so blindly followed. “When Jericho came to live with us in the forest, he changed his name to Jack. It’s what we know him as.”
“It’s who he is,” Braith grated. Arianna glanced up at him in surprise, her eyes wide, her mouth parted slightly. Her hands were firm in his grasp, warm, and oh so very fragile. “It’s who he’s been since he encountered Melinda. It was only six years ago that he was able to break free and officially become Jack, officially allow that other side of him to come out. He left that palace with no intention of ever coming back again.”
The betrayal was knifing, and far deeper than he had ever expected it to be. When Jack had taken Arianna, Braith had known that Jack had changed, that he was not the brother he had known, but Jack had not been that brother for far longer than Braith had ever suspected. Arianna leaned against him; she released his hand to wrap her arm around his waist, holding him closer to her. Her forehead rested against his chest, he could feel her aching hurt and knew that it was for him. He wanted to be resentful of her sympathy, but he couldn’t be, not when she was so wonderfully good at easing his hurt.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.
“Because we were trying to keep you safe. No matter how little you knew our mother, your sense of duty, your sense of responsibility, your sense of honor would have driven you to go after father, and he would have killed you. We wanted to wait, to bide our time until we thought that there might actually be a chance to take father down.”
“And you believe that time is now?”
Melinda’s grey eyes flickered, sadness crept slowly into them. “You are a powerful ally, but no, I didn’t think this was the right time. None of us did. But it’s been thrust upon us at this point, and I don’t think there is any way to change the flow of this tide. Not anymore.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“One day. We weren’t entirely sure when, we were just waiting for the right moment. None of us expected you to fall in love with a human, your blood slave, and to have her be one of the prominent figures of the resistance no less. How could any of us have seen that coming?”
Braith was silent for a long moment. He took strength in Arianna’s presence, and unwavering love and loyalty, but it could not ease the betrayal festering inside of him. He had thought that Caleb and Natasha were the deceitful and manipulative ones, apparently he was wrong. It seemed they were all dark and twisted in their own ways; they had all held and kept their secrets from each other.
“What a wonderful and trusting family we are,” he drawled sarcastically.
“We were only trying to keep everyone as safe as possible,” Melinda said softly. “If father had known anything…” Her voice trailed off, horror filled her gaze as she shook her head. “Awful, it would have been awful.”
Braith silently agreed, but he wasn’t willing to concede anything to her yet. In fact, he didn’t want to speak to her at all right now. “Your father used the war as an excuse to kill your mother, and probably Melinda, but why?” Arianna asked quietly.
“Because he didn’t use the war as an excuse to kill our mother, he used it as an excuse to start the war.” Arianna jumped slightly in surprise, but Braith had sensed Jack’s steady approach a few minutes ago.
Braith turned slowly toward his brother as he pushed Arianna gently toward the wall. He could not stop his instinctual urge to protect her from the people that had entered the room. Even before she uttered the word dad, he knew immediately which one of the hardened, disbelieving, angry men was her father.
And the man was mad enough to kill.
Chapter 16
Aria tried to take a step toward her father, but Braith held her tight. The muscles in his ridged arms clamped against her, the hard muscles of his body rippled beneath his clothes. She had not missed the fact that Braith had turned her, putting her in a more secure position, using his body to defend hers.
But there was no need for him to protect her. This was her father, her family. And as she watched William and Daniel slipped into the room behind Jack and her father. “It’s ok Braith,” she whispered.
“Wait,” he hissed; his voice low and commanding. She frowned at him, but did not fight against his hold. He was thrown off balance right now; he needed her with him in order to keep himself steady. Otherwise he might hurt someone in this room, someone she cared about, someone he cared about.
“You told him everything?” Jack asked softly.
Melinda nodded; she stepped closer to Ashby as she eyed Aria’s family wearily. Melinda didn’t trust her own kind, and it was more than apparent she didn’t trust humans either. Especially rebel humans. “Can I untie him now?” she inquired of Braith, her voice wavering slightly. He remained unmoving, his eyes dark and intense. “We can’t take you down Braith; all of us combined probably couldn’t take you down.”“He knows that, and that’s not what he’s worried about. That’s never what he’s worried about anymore,” Jack said softly.
“Then what!?” Melinda demanded, her composure beginning to unravel. She was frustrated, angry that Ashby was still being restrained. “What Braith, what do you want!?”
Jack’s gaze came slowly to Aria, she frowned fiercely back at him. “He can protect himself, but if one of us, just one gets by him…”
“You don’t have to fear my family Braith, they won’t hurt me,” Aria said softly, reassuringly. She ran her hands up and down his arms, looking to soothe him. “And you don’t have to fear yours.”
“Don’t I?”
She shook her head, standing on tiptoe she pulled him down to her to make sure that he could hear her, but no one else could. “If they wanted to hurt you they would have done so by now. They may have kept things from you, but even you admit you were in the wrong place at the wrong time when you were blinded. None of them meant for you to be hurt, in fact they’ve been trying to protect you for a long time. Anyone of them could have killed you in that palace if they had really wanted to. Jack could have hurt me in the forest, rather than giving me back to you.”
“I’m not risking your life,” he growled.
“You won’t be,” she promised. “Just let her untie Ashby, Braith. I couldn’t stand to see you like that either. They haven’t earned your trust Braith, not yet, but you haven’t earned theirs either.”
His jaw clenched, a muscle jumped in his cheek. For a brief moment his arms tightened on her, and then, ever so slowly, his grip relaxed. “Untie him,” he ordered briskly. “But I will kill you both if you come anywhere near her.”
Melinda stared at Aria for a long moment, her eyes wide with surprise and thanks. Then she turned swiftly to Ashby, her fingers flew deftly over the knots. Aria refused to look at her family; she could feel their shocked, horrified gazes; she didn’t have to see them. Ashby’s hands came forward; he rubbed his wrists together as Melinda untied his ankles.
As the last of the ropes fell away, they embraced tightly, clinging to one another. Aria’s heart went out to them, her hands clenched tighter on Braith. She needed him so much, needed his embrace and touch and security. She wanted to run from here with him, and her family, but she had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen for a very long time, if ever. There was something changing inside of Braith, something evolving and growing within him that frightened her. She wanted to cling to him, to never let him go. She wanted to stay grounded with him forever, but it wasn’t going to happen. Not if whatever was going on inside of him was any indication.
She’d been well aware of the fact that he’d had no solid plan for them when they’d fled those caves. He had a plan now, or at least he had some idea of what he intended to do. The only problem was that his plan was going to terrify her, and it was going to leave her out, of that much she was certain.
“Aria?”
She turned slowly toward her family, trying hard to keep her tears, and fear, at bay. Her father was watching them intently, his head turned slightly to the side as he inspected her. He was normally clean shaven, but he had a couple days worth of growth shadowing his strong jaw. His hair was dark auburn like hers, and William’s, but recently it had started to become streaked with strands of white that also shadowed his beard. His eyes were a bright, piercing green that had never failed to pin her to the spot and make her squirm. Time had etched lines around his eyes and mouth, but he was still a handsome man. Especially when he smiled, which wasn’t very often, and certainly wasn’t now.
She wanted to go to him, to all of them, but Braith’s tension was too high. “I’m ok dad, really.”
She offered him a tremulous smile that did nothing to soothe the tension humming through him. His gaze traveled slowly to Braith. Hatred simmered in his gaze, but there was also confusion and disbelief. “This is the prince?” he inquired.
Aria rested her hand on Braith’s chest, trying to soothe the anger she felt rapidly building in him. She knew it was not going to be easy, but her family would have to learn to trust him as they had learned to trust Jack. And Braith was going to have to learn to trust someone besides her.
“One of them,” Braith replied in a low growl. “The youngest one is standing in front of you.”
Her father’s eyes darted briefly to Jack, but he didn’t acknowledge Braith’s words. “You’re the one that claimed my daughter as a blood slave; you’re the one that took her this time also.”
“Yes.”
Fury flashed across her father’s face. William and Daniel’s eyes widened, but they did not radiate the hatred her father did. “You held her, you tortured her…”
“I have told you many times that I was not tortured in there!” Aria interrupted sharply.
“I saw the bite marks!” her father snapped.
Aria blinked in surprise. Her hands tightened on Braith’s arms, not to comfort him this time, but because she needed his strength. “Everything I gave, I gave willingly,” she said softly, truthfully.
“Like hell!”
It was not her father that exploded with those two words, but Max. Aria hadn’t realized he was just outside the doorway behind her father, Daniel, and William. He shoved his way forward now, pushing roughly past them as he shouldered his way into the room. Aria’s eyes widened in surprise, she had never seen him look so wild, so crazed, and so completely out of control. His blue eyes were wild in his head, his hair in disarray. Braith stiffened, pushing her back as Max charged at them.
Jack leapt forward, snagging hold of Max’s arm as Braith released a snarl that caused even her heart to leap in terror. Max swung on Jack, catching him hard beneath his chin and knocking him back a small step. Jack was far stronger than Max, but he had not expected the punch as he was knocked off balance by it. Not only had he not expected the first punch, but he sure as hell hadn’t expected the one two combination that Max laid on him next.