Renegade (The Captive Series Book 2) (11 page)

“I didn’t. I knew Braith might be
here.”

Arianna glanced up at him, frowning in
consternation. “I didn’t expect him to look for me,” Braith said
softly. “I didn’t think he would expect the two of us to be
together, and come here.”

“I see,” she said softly.

“I only hoped that you had just brought
her here, and not returned her to the palace. I only hoped that it
was not someone else that had taken her,” Jack explained
further.

“Now you trust me with her?” Braith
growled.

Jack quirked an eyebrow at him as he
tilted his head. “I just wanted to believe that father had not
destroyed all of your humanity, as he has with Caleb. I knew you
would be infuriated that I took her from you, I half expected you
might try to find her again just to soothe your pride, but I had to
believe that you would not punish her for something that I had
done.”

Braith continued to glare at his
brother, infuriated with him. It was the soft rumbling of her
stomach that finally pulled his attention away from his sibling.
“You should get something to eat Arianna.”

“Braith…”

He cradled her face gently in his hand.
“I can hear your stomach rumbling.” Her face flared red as she
ducked her head. “Come on.”

He led her forward, pulling out the
chair for her to sit. He watched his brother wearily as he pushed
her slowly in. Jack was frowning, his eyebrows drawn sharply
together as he studied them. Arianna stared silently back at him,
her gaze weary and resigned. Braith made her a plate of food and
slipped it in front of her.

She hesitated for a moment, but
eventually her hunger won out. She dug eagerly into the eggs. “You
can see!” Jack blurted in shock.

Arianna froze with the fork halfway to
her mouth, her gaze darted swiftly to Braith. She didn’t even
breathe as she watched him, her eyes wide with worry for him.
Braith rested his hand reassuringly on her shoulder. “I can,” he
confirmed.

Jack’s eyes widened. “What? When?
How?”

Braith shrugged, he settled into the
seat beside Arianna. “Eat,” he encouraged gently. She took a few
more bites, but he could tell that her appetite had vanished
beneath her apprehension.

“How Braith?” Jack pressed.

He turned back to his brother, keeping
his hand on Arianna. Jack may have taken her from him, but he was
one of the few people in the world that Braith trusted with
Arianna. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly.

“But your sight is back? You can see
again?” he asked excitedly. For a moment his anger and disbelief
was gone as pure joy for Braith blazed forth. Braith had never
complained about being blinded, had taken it in relatively easy
stride, but he had hated it. Jack had known this, and sympathized
with him because of it.

“Sometimes I can, yes.” Jack frowned in
confusion. Arianna was unmoving, he could hear the fierce beat of
her heart, sense the fear that ran through her. He had told her not
to tell anyone about his ability to see around her for fear that
someone would hurt her because of it, that they would want to keep
him weak and blind. Jack would not hurt her though, of that Braith
was certain. He ran his hand over her thick hair, savoring in its
silken feel as he tried to ease her tension.

“And other times?”

“I am still blind.”

Jack was completely confused, but
Braith felt no need to elaborate more. He felt he could trust his
brother with her safety, but Jack had taken her from him, he had
betrayed him, and in all honesty Braith liked keeping him in the
dark and confused. Arianna remained silent, her mouth compressed in
a hard line as she watched them. Ever so slowly, she picked her
fork back up and began to eat again.

“Well that’s strange,” Jack said
slowly.

“I suppose it is,” Braith
agreed.

“When did this start?”

“A little while ago.”

Arianna continued to pick slowly at her
meal until she finally pushed the plate away. “I should get back
soon. I’ve already caused my family enough worry.”

She didn’t look at either of them as
she uttered the words. He could hear the pain in her voice, the
strain it had caused her to say those words. He leaned closer to
her, inhaling her sweet scent as he briefly nuzzled her hair. She
finally turned toward him, her eyes morose, but there was an air of
resignation and steel resolve to her.

“Arianna…”

“It’s ok Braith.” She smiled thinly at
him, lightly stroking his cheek. “Thank you for bringing me here.
Thank you for giving me last night.”

He grasped hold of her hand, hating to
see her like this, hating the distance he felt her putting between
them. “Arianna, not yet.”

She smiled sadly at him as she turned
her cheek into his hand. “Yes, it’s easier to just do it now. Jack
will take me back. It will be ok.”

She squeezed his hand, clinging tight
to him for a long moment before she rose. His chest constricted,
panic tore through him. He couldn’t lose her again, he simply
couldn’t. He leapt to his feet, the chair skittering back with the
force of his weight. “Arianna…”

“
Its fine Braith, we will
both be fine.” Though she said the words, he could feel the agony
that radiated from her. Her heart was pumping loudly, tears burned
her eyes, but they didn’t spill over. “We will be fine,” she said
again.

He reached out for her, pulling her
tight against his chest as he cradled her gently. He could stay
here; he could become like Jack and hide in these woods. He could
stay with her, help with the rebel cause. Make sure that she was
safe. They could both be happy. But even as the thought crossed his
mind, he knew that he couldn’t. His father had not destroyed the
forest in search of Jack, but if Braith were to leave, and his
father was to discover why, he would destroy everyone, and
everything, in order to find him and punish him. If he ever found
Arianna…

Braith could not finish the thought, it
was too awful. What his father would do to her in order to punish
Braith would be horrendous, atrocious. He could not put her in such
a position, could not risk her life in such a way. She hugged him
tightly, burying her head against his chest as she clung to him for
a long moment.

She pulled slowly away, her head bowed.
He grasped hold of her chin, tilting her head up to kiss her
softly. She melded against him, a soft sigh escaping her. He barely
registered the sound of the door opening and closing as he lost
himself to the wonderful feel of her. It was a long while before he
roused himself from her again, a long while before he pulled
himself away from the sweet taste of her mouth.

She stared unblinkingly up at him, a
small smile curving her mouth. “I am going to miss
that.”

He ran his finger over her swollen
lips. “I can come back,” he said impulsively. He had never intended
to come back, it was too much of a risk to her, but now faced with
the prospect of never seeing her again, the words popped out of his
mouth. “I will come back.”

Tears slipped down her cheeks. “Braith,
you’re getting married.”

He shook his head, his thoughts turning
dark. The last thing he wanted to think about was his upcoming
wedding, and the bitch he was marrying. Especially not when he was
holding the woman he wanted to spend forever with. “I’ll come back
Arianna, as soon as I can. I will be back. I will find
you.”

She bit on her bottom lip, tears
spilled down her cheeks. “Won’t it be dangerous for
you?”

“I’ll find a way,” he vowed, stroking
her face ever so gently.

She smiled tremulously. He could tell
that she wanted to argue with him, wanted to tell him no, but
neither of them were strong enough to walk away. Not right now
anyway. She enfolded his hands in hers, clinging to him for a
moment longer. He kissed her again, before taking hold of her hand
and leading her over to the door.

Jack was standing near the forest, his
back to the house. He turned at the sound of the door opening.
Arianna’s hand clutched tighter around his, a tremor worked its way
through her. She didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to end their
wonderful time together on a bad note, but she had to. “The blood
slaves Braith, do you…”

“There will be no more Aria.” She
stared at him for a long moment, wanting to believe him, needing to
believe him. She could forgive him for these past months, she hated
what he had done, but she understood what had driven him to it. She
could not forgive him, or understand if he continued on such a
path. There could be nothing between them then; he would not be the
man that she loved if he continued to hurt her people. Seeming to
sense her hesitance, he bent over her, his hand stroking over her
cheek. “I swear Aria there will be no more blood
slaves.”

She smiled wanly as she managed a small
nod. He kissed her gently, his attention turning away as Jack came
toward them, his eyes weary and sad. “Make sure that she stays safe
until I can come back,” Braith grated.

“You’re coming back?” Jack asked in
surprise, his mouth dropping as he stared at the two of
them.

Braith glared at him. “Yes.”

CHAPTER
7

Aria glanced up at Max as he stepped
closer to the map laid out in the middle of the cavern. His eyes
were dark and intense as he stared down at it, his eyebrows drawn
tightly together. William stood beside him, his arms crossed over
his chest as he bit thoughtfully on his bottom lip. Aria’s father
was talking softly, his dark head bent over the map as Daniel
traced a line through it with a stick.

Daniel was the only one of them that
had inherited their mother’s fair coloring. His hair was wheat
colored; his fair skin speckled with freckles that made him appear
far younger than his twenty one years. His eyes were the same
bright blue as Aria and William’s. Aria sat back on her heels, her
legs were cramping up, but she couldn’t move away from the map. She
was far too fascinated, and horrified, by it.

Her gaze drifted slowly to Jack. He was
standing off to the side, his arms folded over his chest as he
stared at the back wall. Ever so slowly, his gaze came down to
hers. It took all she had not to leap to her feet, grab hold of his
arm, and drag him from the cavern and demand to know what the hell
he was thinking.

Aria glanced back down at the map,
swallowing heavily as Daniel poked the spot where the palace was.
She had always had the rudimentary knowledge to read a map, but
Braith had taught her how to read so much more. She did not share
this revelation with the people surrounding her; she didn’t think
they would appreciate it much, and no matter what she said or did
they wanted to continue to believe that she had been manipulated by
Braith. That one day she would realize that her feelings for him
were not real. She was tired of trying to convince them they were
wrong, it was wearing on her, beating her down, making her everyday
struggle to just survive even more tiresome.

“Is this how you remember
it?”

Aria didn’t realize her father was
talking to her at first, until she noticed that they were all
staring questioningly at her. She swallowed heavily, trying to wet
her suddenly parched throat. “I guess; I didn’t really pay much
attention. I didn’t get out much either,” she finished on a
whisper.

Though it wasn’t memories of being kept
as a blood slave that made her voice tremble, her father seemed to
think it was. He gave her a sympathetic look before resting his
hand lightly on her shoulder. He had been treating her like she was
breakable and fragile ever since she’d returned and she was
becoming frustrated with it.

“Max?”

Max was standing off to the side, his
arms folded over his chest as he stared at the far wall. His jaw
was locked tight, his forehead furrowed slightly. She hadn’t been
abused, but he had, and now her father was talking about going back
in there as if it were the simplest, easiest thing in the world.
About all of them going back in there. “From what I recall,
yes.”

Aria’s heart hammered and flipped, she
could barely breathe through the terror constricting her chest.
“You can’t do this,” she whispered. “It’s slaughter to go in there,
we can’t.”

Her father patted her shoulder again
before rising to his feet. He knew that this was reckless; he knew
that it was crazy, but he seemed hell bent on doing it anyway. And
she knew that it was because of her, because he believed that she
been hurt and mistreated during her time with Braith. It didn’t
matter how often she told him that she hadn’t been; he was
convinced she was lying in order to protect him.

He moved away from the map as William
and Daniel leaned closer to it. “We’ll send a small scouting team
in first, have them canvas the area. They will be able to discover
the weakest areas and the best places to establish our soldiers in.
We will need to take the palace swiftly.”

“Dad,” she whispered, clutching her
hands tightly before her. Her legs were shaking, her head was
spinning. “The last time someone tried to take the palace it was a
massacre.”