William finally set her down in another cave about ten miles from where she’d lost her mind. Aria still wasn’t sure she had it back, but at least the desire to rip her own heart from her chest with her bare hands had passed. Her legs shook as she walked over to a boulder and sank down to sit on it.
William grabbed her hands when she lifted them to her chest again. She jerked them away from him. “I won’t.” Those two words were all she could manage to get out right now. Her hands fell into her lap as she bent forward. Tears burned her throat but refused to fall; there was no way to soothe the aching rawness of her emotions.
She would never be able to escape the emptiness coursing through her. The stark realization made her fingers curve with the urge to tear out her heart once more. Her fingers dug into her thighs as she resisted the impulse. The only thing that would ease this barren, hollow sensation was Braith’s arms around her. Right now, all she felt was the absolute certainty that would never happen again.
“What do we do now?” Tempest asked.
“We wait here until we can return to the others,” William replied. “We lost Sabine’s followers about five miles back, but they’ll still be in the area, fanning out and searching for us.”
“We’re not going back to the others,” Aria grated.
“Why not?” William demanded.
Her body felt as if it were made of glass and would shatter apart at any second when she lifted her head to look at him. “Because we need to know more about that woman. We need to know her every weakness, and trust me when I say, she won’t have many. We have to be prepared for her and we have to destroy her.”
Her hand fluttered to her chest, and her fingers dug into her flesh once more as her heart clenched. She didn’t understand how an organ that had ceased beating on the day Braith had changed her from human to vampire and granted her eternal life could hurt so badly.
Eternal life, without him.
Madness loomed before her, spiraling around like a whirlpool looking to suck her in and never let her go again. She gritted her teeth against it, tore her hand away from her chest, and gripped her thigh.
“I will not become Atticus,” she grated.
William knelt before her and grabbed her hands. “We should go back, Aria.”
“She has to die, William. We need to learn more about her. We need troops who will fight her and her followers, and we have to gather them now. She has to be squashed, completely.”
“What if the troops we try to gather decide to follow her instead?” Tempest asked.
“There are many vampires and humans who want to keep the peace too. Things have been good between the species since Atticus was defeated,” William said. “Humans don’t have much of a chance against vampires if the vamps decide to turn them into slaves again. There are many cruel vampires out there, but there are more of them who aren’t cruel. Many of Sabine’s followers are scared, and that is why they’ve joined her. If they think she can be defeated, they’ll turn on her or run.”
“I saw what they did in Badwin, William. They destroyed my town and there were a lot of them who enjoyed doing it,” Tempest replied.
“Yes, but I’m sure some of them didn’t.”
“I have to get close to her,” Aria said. “Somehow.”
“That’s impossible,” William said. “Believe me, I know. The only way I got close to her was to be captured by Kane and taken to her. If she captures you, she’ll kill you.”
“Not if Braith is still out there,” Aria murmured. “She would keep me alive until she had his body. If she believes there’s any chance he will rise again, she would use me to control him, but I can’t let her capture me.”
William gripped her chin and pulled her head toward him. “I won’t let you sacrifice yourself.”
She took hold of his hand, a hand she had known since their creation. Distress etched his features. She couldn’t imagine the sorrow she would feel if their roles were reversed. She would have done everything she could to keep him safe, to stop him from destroying himself, but there were few other options for her anymore.
“If Braith doesn’t wake, I have already been sacrificed. You must know that.” Her brother winced at her words as his blue eyes glinted like steel. “Dying for this cause would be the way I’d want to go, but I won’t willingly let her capture me. No, we have to learn more about her, but we also have to be able to relay whatever we discover about her to the others. Rotting in a prison cell would make that impossible. We also have to start quietly gathering recruits.”
“How will we ever get close enough to learn anything about her?” Tempest asked.
Aria gazed out the cave and to the night beyond. “We’ve always been good at going unnoticed within these woods. She’s in our territory now.”