She doubted any of them would think to look into the trees, but she didn’t dare move as she watched more and more emerge below. They moved quietly, but they were still louder than any rebel would ever be. They broke branches as they walked, stepped on the smaller pines, and crushed the saplings fighting for survival on the forest floor. Leaves and pine needles were kicked up by their passing, making it entirely possible to track their every movement by scent as well as sight.
Watching them made her cringe. No rebel would have done such a thing. The world would look as untouched after their passing as it had beforehand.
She steadily counted each vampire as they moved past. She was up to over two hundred when the woman she believed to be Sabine rode into view on the back of a large bay.
For a second, Aria thought the branch she stood on had broken as the world lurched out from under her. Then she realized that she remained standing against the tree, but she’d wrapped her arms around it in an attempt to keep herself anchored. Her fingers dug into the bark as she imagined tearing into the woman’s throat, feasting on her blood, and pummeling her body until she was nothing more than broken bones and battered flesh.
Red flooded her vision, and her body quaked with the need to maim and kill. Bloodlust like she’d never experienced before filled every fiber of her being. She could dive from the trees right now, land on top of that woman…
Be on her in an instant! Then Sabine’s followers would take her. They would capture her before she could succeed in killing Sabine and it would all be over.
Right then, she didn’t much care about that.
Her hands dug deeper into the bark. A large piece of it broke off beneath her fingers and fell into the air. No! She bent and caught the piece before it could fall past her and hit the ground, or one of the passing vamps. Kneeling on the branch, she remained tensed to spring, to flee into the trees if someone had witnessed her stupidity.
Get it together or end up dead before you can be of any use to anyone.
Closing her eyes, she took a moment to steady herself. She felt a little more stable when she opened her eyes again. Movement to her right drew her attention; her eyes widened when she spotted Xavier, Daniel, Max, and Timber crouching in the entrance of a small cave fifty yards away from her. A cave she knew dead-ended twenty feet behind them. They would be trapped if they were spotted.
Daniel had his hand on Xavier’s forearm to hold him back; she realized it had been Xavier who had drawn her eye to them. She was certain he’d moved when he’d witnessed her foolish, beginner mistake with the bark. Xavier relaxed slightly and knelt between her brother and Max once more.
She was not worried that the vampires walking beneath her would see her in the tree as the four of them had. They knew her preferred way to travel through the woods and would have looked for her where no one else would have.
Aria turned her attention back to the woman with her black hair trailing over the horse’s rump behind her. Now that she wasn’t consumed with the urge to bathe in the woman’s putrid blood, she was able to take note of more details about her. The potency of her power electrified Aria’s skin.
She was beautiful and as sickly twisted as her son had been. Unlike Atticus, Aria had a feeling this woman’s maliciousness was something she’d been born with, like Caleb, who was the sickest individual she’d ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
The strange, almost albino-looking man was the only other one on a horse as he rode beside Sabine. All of those around them were dressed in brown cloaks, yet the two of them arrogantly wore deep red cloaks that stood out like beacons. The ruby rings on the man’s right hand caught and reflected the sun, causing waves of red to dance over the trees around them.
That arrogance was the first chink in Sabine’s armor, and one of the things that would lead to her downfall. No matter how many more vamps continued to emerge from the woods, Aria knew this to be true.
Aria’s eyes lifted to where the palace lay beyond the woods.
They’re steadily moving closer.
Should she step up their plan with those they’d already recruited? Aria’s hand clenched around the bark in her palm as she debated this. Sabine would most likely try to go through the villages near the palace—if they hadn’t already been evacuated—to gather as many troops as she could and slaughter those who might stand against her.
If the towns had already been evacuated, Sabine would probably find a village to settle in for a bit as she worked out the final stages of her plan. The woman was ruthless, but she wasn’t stupid; she wouldn’t rush through this, and she was arrogant enough to believe she’d be able to take the palace with ease. Sabine would never expect rebels and vampires to close in on her from behind when she did go for the palace.
Aria couldn’t rush things either. They needed time to gather more of their own troops and weapons first. They needed more time for the rebels and vamps to spread the word to be prepared for something lethal coming their way. Time to get as many children as they could to safety before they entered into war, again. It would be best if they stuck to their original plan, no matter what Sabine tried now.