“They’re getting ready to go back for Jack,” he replied.
A small shudder went through her and he knew she was thinking the same as him. What would happen with Braith? They couldn’t bring him here, others couldn’t know he was dead, but to leave him alone in the caves would be to leave him vulnerable. No matter how much Jack loved his brother, he wouldn’t agree to leave Hannah behind so she could watch over him, and Daniel, Timber, and Max may not be enough to keep Braith protected. He highly doubted Xavier would agree to remain in the caves with Aria here.
“Are you ready?” Daniel asked Max.
“I have to gather some things,” Max replied and smoothed down his spiky hair. “But I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”
“Are you sure you don’t want some of us to go with you?” one of the humans asked.
“We’ll only be a couple of days,” Daniel replied. “And we need as many people here as possible.”
All of the humans and vampires they’d encountered had been told Braith and Jack were out on a mission of their own, and in a way, they were. Jack was on a mission to protect his brother, and William really hoped Braith was working on a way to make it back to them. Somehow.
The knowledge it was Sabine trying to destroy them all had helped to bolster his hopes that Braith would come back, but it could still be impossible. Had Sabine died like originally believed, or had she faked her death? He felt there would have been a body for her family to have believed her dead, but what did he know about something that occurred over a thousand years ago?
He vaguely recalled something in Atticus’s journals about her being buried in the family plot in a place called Traslania? Trasylvia? Transylvania, he finally remembered. If there was a burial plot, there had to have been a body, or at least he really hoped there was.
Sabine had come back, so had Atticus, and so would Braith, but would it be in time?
It may not be, and there was nothing they could do about that, except carry on with their plan. If they didn’t stop Sabine, they would lose everything and Braith would awaken to find his world burned to the ground by a member of his family, again. He may wake to find all of his loved ones gone, lost to the war, including Aria.
William shut the thought off and drew Tempest closer against his chest. He would do everything he could to get them both through this. He’d vowed to give her a better life than the one she’d known in Badwin. Now he wasn’t sure any of them would still be here next week.
Resting his hands flat against her belly, he drew her back so she fit snug against his chest. He planned to ask her to marry him when all of this was settled, but it may never be settled, and he didn’t want her to have any doubt about his feelings for her, or the integral part she played in his life. If something were to happen to them, she needed to know exactly how he felt about her.
This place wouldn’t be romantic, and he didn’t have a ring, but he would figure something out that would make it special for her.
“Gather what you need,” Daniel said to Max.
Max retreated back into the safe house. Aria opened her mouth to say something then closed it again. They waited until Max returned with a full quiver of arrows and a bow slung over his shoulder before heading outside, leaving the humans from the safe house behind.
“Braith,” Aria said and winced as if the name had torn her open anew.
Max steadied her when she briefly swayed on her feet. William resisted knocking her hand away when it rested over her heart again. For as long as he lived, he would never forget the image of his sister trying to tear her heart from her chest.
“Someone must stay with him,” she managed to croak out.
“I will,” Max offered.
William’s eyebrows shot up at this statement. They definitely got along better than they had in the beginning, but Max and Braith had never been close.
“You will need help,” Aria said. “Just in case.”
“You know how much I love a good fight, but I will stay with him too,” Timber offered. “Daniel and his brain will be needed here, to help guide and lead the humans.”
Daniel planted his staff into the ground and leaned against it. “Everyone wants me for my brains. What about my beauty?”
“Get better looking,” William said to him, and Daniel’s smile grew.