Person after person came forward to clutch her hands and thank her for standing by them, for protecting them. Aria almost laughed out loud. If they knew what she was truly thinking, how she was battling back the impulse to tear every one of their throats out and drown all of her misery in their blood, they would run screaming.
Instead, they saw her as a savior.
She’d never felt like more of a fraud in her life.
CHAPTER 17
William
“It’s bad, isn’t it, with Aria?”
William adjusted his hold on Tempest, settling her deeper into his lap as Daniel leaned across the table toward them. Tempest’s lashes tickled his neck when her eyes fluttered open.
“I don’t know how she’s still going,” William admitted honestly. “I’m not sure I could, but revenge is a powerful motivator.”
“You would know,” Tempest murmured.
“No, not like this. I sought revenge on Kane, yes. I would have died to get it, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to what is driving her.” Tempest leaned back to stare up at him. “I understand that only because I have you now. If it had been you who had been taken from me…” The concept of such a thing caused his fangs to lengthen. “I would have destroyed everything in my path.”
Tempest’s fingers played with the hair at his nape as she leaned forward to kiss him. “It’s not me,” she murmured.
“But it is Aria.” His gaze went to the room Aria had disappeared into hours ago. “I shared a womb with her. We hid together and listened while our mother was killed. She’s always been stubborn and strong, but I can feel her slipping further away from us. She didn’t go in there to sleep. She doesn’t sleep more than a few minutes at a time anymore. She went in there to get away from the humans.”
“I’m sure it’s overwhelming for her,” Max said as he leaned across the table toward them.
William glanced around the room before moving closer to them. They were the only ones still within the main room. The rest of those staying here had retreated into the rooms lining the hall, but he still didn’t like saying this out loud. “She’s fighting not to kill the humans.”
“Don’t think that,” Tempest said.
“I don’t think it,” he replied and clutched her to his chest. “I know it. I feel the insanity creeping closer around her, feel the emptiness engulfing her, and there’s nothing she can do to get away from it. I’m not sure how long she can keep going before she cracks just like Atticus did.”
Tempest shuddered against him. Max and Daniel leaned away from him while Timber and Xavier remained staring at the wall across from them. “Atticus kept it together long enough to complete his goal,” Xavier finally said.
“How many did he slaughter before that happened?” William asked. “How many did he slaughter because that was his goal?”
“Too many,” Daniel said.
“She’ll keep it together until Sabine is defeated, or at least I think she will, but as soon as this is done…” William’s voice trailed off, and his gaze returned to the closed door Aria was behind once more. “She’s my twin. I feel her anguish here”—he rested his hand over his heart—“and anguish is such a completely inadequate word for what she is experiencing. It’s deeper than that. It’s a complete twisting and destruction of the soul. She’ll die when this is done, or she’ll lose her mind.”
Tempest pressed closer against him as his own raw sorrow slipped through. He kissed her forehead, taking in her scent as he tried to ease his growing distress. With every day that passed, Aria slipped further away and he felt their chances of Braith rising growing slimmer. It had taken time for Atticus to return, he tried to remind himself of this, but he couldn’t help but feel as if their time was rapidly running out.
Xavier rose from the table, the chair skidding out behind him as he paced away from them. He stalked toward Aria’s closed door and stood there. Finally, the vampire came back to the table and rested his fingers on it.
“As she always has, Aria will accomplish what she must,” Xavier said. “Have faith Braith will return to us soon, because if we have to destroy her, we will have to destroy him too if he rises. If you think Aria is falling apart, imagine what he’ll be like when he realizes he rose from the dead only to learn that those he trusted the most destroyed his wife. If we must, we will find a way to restrain or imprison her—”
“We can’t do that to my sister!” William snapped.
“You think I like the idea?” Xavier snarled. “She is my friend, one of the few I have in this world. I would have taken every one of those arrows Braith received for her, but I failed in my duty.”
So that was the source of all of Xavier’s pent-up frustration, William realized. The vampire believed he’d failed Aria.