Hannah hesitated before taking a step away from her.
“I don’t know if it will kill him or not,” Jack said and looked to Aria again. “But it has to come out.”
“I know it does,” she whispered. Jack gripped the arrowhead. Aria seized his wrist before he could tear it free. “No.”
“Aria—”
“It has to be me who removes it. If it’s you, or anyone else, and he dies, I will kill you.”
Jack didn’t laugh off her words, didn’t point out that he was over nine hundred years older than she was. A vampire severed from their bloodlink could be capable of almost anything afterward. His father had managed to destroy most of the world; she might be able to take down one of the most powerful vampires in existence.
Jack hesitated for a minute before his hand fell away. “Are you sure about this?”
“It has to be me. If he dies, I will follow him after she is made to pay. I can live with the guilt of this until then.”
And if she couldn’t, it would only fuel her desire for revenge until the day she destroyed that woman and could then die too. Jack stepped back and pushed Hannah protectively behind him before bracing his legs apart.
Wrapping her hand around the arrowhead, Aria leaned forward to kiss Braith’s forehead and then his lips. Her mouth lingered against his as the scent of his blood filled her nostrils. How many times had she experienced the searing heat of his kiss before? Now there was only coldness.
She kissed him again before sitting back and tearing the arrow free with an anguished cry. The arrow fell from her numbed fingertips as she threw her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck.
“Don’t die. Don’t die,” she pleaded.
She’d said she could handle the guilt if he died, decided she would get her revenge no matter what, but she wasn’t sure she could go on without him. Her fingers dug into his neck as she waited for the connection between them to waver and shatter apart. Waited for the beautiful link she’d never expected to have with him to disintegrate like snowflakes on the tongue, but though it was weak, the bond continued to shimmer between them.
Blood from the hole in his heart ran down to cover her thin shirt, but she didn’t stop it. She would need his blood on her when she left here. Her fingers slid through his thick hair as she kissed his neck, then his cheek and temple. She had to pry herself away from him before she crawled into his lap and stayed there until he moved again.
She couldn’t do that though; there were far too many lives counting on her, including Braith’s. She knew her brothers would have been careful about entering the cave, and she had been too, but despite the traps and no matter how cautious they’d been, there was a chance they could be discovered.
Sitting back, Aria turned her wrist over and bit into it. Placing it against Braith’s mouth, she tipped his head back so her blood flowed into his system. When she felt her bite healing, she bit her wrist again and again until she was sure she’d managed to get a fair amount of her blood into him.
Afterward, she kissed his lips and rose to her feet. Her legs wobbled, but she believed it was more from exhaustion than lack of blood. However, there was no time for rest right now. She gathered her bow and quiver and slid them onto her back.
When she was done, she knelt before Braith again and used the bottom of her undershirt to wipe the rest of the blood on him away. Most of his injuries had already closed, but she still managed to get a good coating of his blood on her clothing.
“What are you doing?” Jack inquired.
“Preparing to leave,” she replied.
“What?” he demanded, grabbing her arms and spinning her toward him. “You cannot go back out there.”
“I have to.”
“You do not!”
Aria swallowed and couldn’t resist looking to Braith again. So vulnerable, so unlike the powerful warrior she knew and loved. If their roles had been reversed, he would do what he had to in order to defend their people.
She would do the same.
“I was careful coming here,” she said, unable to take her eyes away from Braith. “I know you were too, but they’re going to search this area over and over again until they find us. The traps in this cave system will take out some of them and keep the rest busy for a couple of days, but they won’t stop them.”
“We’ll be able to leave here before then,” Jack replied.
“And go where? To another cave system only to be hunted again? You’re barely walking. Are you up for another run right now? And if they corner us in here? What then?” she inquired.
“If they believe Braith is dead, they may not pursue us.”
“Yes, they will. You heard her, she wants his head. She won’t stop until she has it.”
“You can’t know that,” Ashby reasoned.
Aria finally tore her gaze away from Braith to look between Ashby and Jack. “I do know that. She won’t be satisfied with less.”
“Aria—”