“That’s none of your concern.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but Daniel and Timber rose across the way and Maeve hastily climbed to her feet. She didn’t look back at him as she strode into the middle of the hollow to meet the others. Reluctantly, Max rose to his feet and stretched his back. The sooner they left here, the sooner he would leave her, and that was the last thing he wanted to do right now.
It couldn’t be helped though. He walked over to stand beside her; she was so small her head barely reached his chest. She moved her arm away from him when he rested his hand on her elbow. “If the vampires are still out there—”
“I can take care of myself,” she interrupted.
With that, she leapt up and grabbed one of the thick roots hanging over her head. She shimmied up so fast that Max barely had time to grab another root before she arrived at the top. He’d half expected her to shove her way out of one of the holes, but she waited for them to make it to the top before she rested her hands on a couple of roots and pulled them back.
“Good luck to you,” she said.
He didn’t have a chance to respond before she slipped through the hole. He followed behind her. The second he broke free of the hollow and set his hands on the ground, he pulled his bow from his back and nocked an arrow against it. His gaze ran over the shadowed forest surrounding them.
Tree branches clicked and swayed in the wind blowing through the woods. The scent of rain hanging heavily on the air and the clouds filling the sky alerted him there was a storm coming as Daniel came to stand beside him.
Maeve had already vanished, not even a whisper of movement revealed where she’d gone. Disappointment filled him at her departure.
***
Aria
Aria stood in the barn, listening to the rain pelting the roof. Wind howled through the rafters, slicing through the holes and cracks in the boards and blowing across her chilled skin. She sensed William’s presence before he draped the cloak around her shoulders.
She almost threw it off. Her skin may be numb, but nothing could melt the ice encasing her heart and soul right now. However, after her breakdown earlier, she knew she couldn’t do anything to cause him more unease so she left it on.
Act normally, or as normally as you can. Give them this much of you before it’s gone.
“Thank you,” she murmured and pulled it snuggly around her shoulders.
William walked around her and pinned the cloak together with her silver horse broach. Her fingers brushed over the weight of it against her throat. What would her father have done if he were in her shoes?
The answer to that came quickly to her; he would have continued on, he would have done what had to be done, even after Sabine was defeated. The death of her mother had devastated him. They may not have shared the same bond she had with Braith, but their love had been deep and true. He’d continued to fight on after she’d been murdered by vampires, and he would expect her to do the same.
She’d just completely fallen apart, had felt insanity looming within her in a way she never had before, yet she’d never seen anything clearer than the pathway she saw opening before her now. This whole time she’d expected Braith to come back to her, or for her life to end, but neither of those options would be for her, not anymore.
“You should come inside,” William said.
“They should be back by now, or soon,” she replied. They had to come back. She couldn’t have sent her brother and friends to their death. She did all of this for them, so they could lead happy and full lives, and she may have been the one who had taken that away from them.
“They could have gotten delayed by something, and this weather will certainly slow them down,” William replied.
“Yes.”
She hated the worry in his gaze when he surveyed her from head to toe, but she was acting as normally as she could right now. She didn’t know what else to do. Didn’t know how to make the emptiness in her heart stop. Didn’t know how to get that image of Sabine lifting Braith’s head into the air…
Her fingers clenched on the cloak as she broke the thought off. No more! No more could she think of that and not expect to fall apart again. Shame filled her as she recalled her incoherent babbling earlier because her mind had been firing in a million different directions at once. Death, insanity, murder, blood, desolation, agony, sorrow; the emotions had battered her so fiercely she hadn’t been able to process any of them.
At least she hadn’t tried to tear her heart out again. No, her heart would remain where it was. Seeing Braith’s head like that had broken her again. He never should have been put on display and treated that way, and she would make Sabine pay for it, but she felt stronger now, resolved. There was much that still had to be done in this world, and she would do it.