Lifting his head, Braith looked through the underbrush to the walls of the palace and Sabine’s troops still fighting to breach them, but no alarm had been raised. The humans and vampires around him had successfully dispatched Sabine’s early warning system.
Some vamps loaded a large stone into a catapult positioned before the palace gate. The wooden drawbridge he’d ordered built was splintering and falling apart, he had no idea how many hits it had already taken, but it wouldn’t take many more. Guards lined the palace walls, firing arrows onto their enemies below, but Sabine’s followers still managed to fire the catapult sending the rock soaring through the air.
It smashed into the drawbridge with a resounding crash that echoed through the forest. Wood splintered and a piece of the bridge flew into the air to hit a house fifty feet away. However, the drawbridge remained intact, for now. If the palace walls or gates were breached, there would be a slaughter as Sabine’s followers outnumbered those within. They had to take her down early, cut the head off the snake before dismantling every last one of her troops.
Aria crept forward to kneel beside him with her hand resting in the dirt. Streaks of black coal had been painted down both of her cheeks from temple to chin, another streak went straight down the middle of her nose. He had the same streaks on his face. The markings had been used so they could differentiate those who were on their side, from those who weren’t. They had also forgone wearing any cloaks.
She leaned against his side, needing to feel his body against hers as much as he needed to feel hers against his. He wiped the blood off of his hand in the dirt before taking hold of hers and pressing it to his chest. Her fingers entwined with his as Keegan padded forward to sit at her side.
Shifting her stance, Aria released his hand to take another step forward. He placed his hand on her shoulder, drawing her back when she craned her head to look up and down the street. She leaned closer to him and rested her mouth against his ear. “She’s down there,” she said and pointed toward the brick house at the end of the road.
Braith nodded as around him more humans and vampires fanned out through the woods, creeping toward the town. Sabine’s fighters outnumbered them, but with the element of surprise on their side and the guards on the palace walls, they could take her followers down, and they would. His gaze fell on Aria as she stared at him with apprehension in her crystalline blue eyes.
He would not lose her again, and he wouldn’t allow her to go through what she’d endured when she thought he was dead again. No matter what happened, he would keep her safe and keep her from any more hurt.
He turned to Jack who knelt by his other side. “We’ll move now. Make sure everyone waits until Sabine’s house is on fire before they make a move.”
“We will,” Jack replied and took hold of Hannah’s hand. Jack rested his other hand on Braith’s arm, stopping him when he turned away. “Be careful.”
“You also,” Braith replied.
Braith took hold of Aria’s hand again as they made their way through the woods toward the back of the house Sabine had taken up residence in. Keegan, William, Tempest, Max, Maeve, Daniel, and Xavier stayed close behind them along with half a dozen other humans. He glanced back to find Jack, Hannah, and Timber watching them as they moved away.
Fifty feet away from the house, Aria pulled on his hand, drawing him to a stop. He peered through the underbrush and trees to the fifty or so vampires spread around the house, keeping guard. Braith’s fangs throbbed with the compulsion to destroy. They were so close to ending the woman who had tried to end him.
He would make her pay.
Aria released him to remove two arrows from her quiver. She wrapped the ends with a cloth as around her the others did the same thing. Her face was composed as she worked, her eyes steady and focused, but the small tremor in her fingers was something only he would notice. No matter how resolute she acted, she was still rattled by the events that had transpired over these past couple of weeks.
Braith rested his hand over hers, drawing her eyes to him. “I’m never leaving you again, Aria.”
Her hand went completely still beneath his. “I know.”
He couldn’t help but smile at her as she thrust her shoulders back and pulled her hand away from his. Her hand remained steady as she finished wrapping the cloth around the arrow. The others finished tying off their arrows as matches and fuel were passed around to douse the rags.
Aria held one of her arrows out to him. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you too.”