Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence (39 page)

“Me either.” I cringed. “Imagine how awful it would be for him to know he… if she made him…”

“Don’t say it.” He put his finger to my lip. “It’s enough to make a man gouge his own eyes out and cut off his own dick.”

“Gross!”

“
I
would,” he stated, looking right at me with those heartbreaker eyes. “If someone made me do that with my own niece, I’d cut off my dick to stop it happening.”

“And so would Jason,” I said knowingly; David nodded.

“Then let’s go home.” I bent my knees slightly and grabbed his hand. “And we’ll talk strategies with Lord Eden and Drake, and find a way to end this war, once and for all.”

David squeezed my hand, stopping me as I went to walk away. “Ara?”

“Mm?”

He pulled me back to his arms and buried his nose in my hair, breathing me in deep. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Not keeping secrets from me.”

I kissed his chest through the thin black shirt. “I made a promise, remember?”

“Yes,” he said in that deep, milky voice. “But more importantly, you kept it.”

Chapter Eight

The vague, carefree version of David stayed behind on the porch, leaning against the post with his arms folded, while I ran toward the approaching car like an excitable little girl. It stopped a few meters out from the house and Jase jumped out, half-tripping on the doorframe and tangling in the seatbelt.

I leaped forward and threw my arms around his neck, his steady vampire frame catching me without so much as a step backward to counterbalance, and his arms came down around my ribs in a strong embrace.

“I thought I’d forget that,” he whispered into the top of my head. “I thought I’d forget how you smell, but I didn’t.”

I pulled back a bit and smiled up at him. “Don’t let David hear you say that.”

“David
did
hear him say it,” David said flatly, walking toward us.

“Bro.” Jason reached one arm out to David, keeping the other around me. “Believe it or not, I actually missed ya.”

David laughed once as he wrapped both arms around his brother’s neck, and Jase pulled me in again, my nose ending up right in David’s armpit. But he smelled good. They both did.

We all looked up then as another car came down the bumpy trail, and my eyes widened at David’s, a huge smile spreading across my face. It felt like Christmas, getting all these people I loved back in one day.

I jogged over to the car and stood back as Mike hopped out, closing the door softly in the silence of the forest. I felt David and Jason watching on, probably analysing my every move, as I walked slowly and calmly into Mike’s arms and lay my ear to his chest, linking my hands behind his back. His arms went around me in the same way, as if it hurt the both of us to hug this way after we never thought we’d see each other again.

“You shouldn’t have come back,” I said into his big, warm chest. He felt so solid and so real and so like home that I had to blink to hold back the tears.

“I was compelled to, Ar,” he said, angling his head down to look at me.

“I’m sorry.” I touched his arm where the promise of his Blood Oath Marked him. “I wish you’d never taken that stupid oath.”

“I don’t.” He hugged me tight again with one arm. “You will always matter to me, Ara. If I hadn’t believed that back then, I would never have made the Oath.”

“But the boys—you left them behind—”

“And they’re safe,” he assured me, a smile warming his caramel eyes. “Mum and Dad are taking them to Queensland for a week or two—to Sea World.”

“Really?” My face lit up.

Mike nodded, his face lit in much the same way.

“Oh, Mike, they’ll have so much fun!”

“I know. My only disappointment is that I won’t get to see them enjoy it, but my olds’ll send some pics.”

I grinned. In just a few short weeks being back in Oz, Mike sounded so much more Australian than I ever remembered he did. “Did you tell Mum and Dad what you are now—why you needed to come back here?”

“Not yet. I just told ’em I hadda come back here and sort Em out.”

“Em? Why Em?”

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“We’ll talk later.” His eyes drifted down my body then and he cupped his giant hand around the base of my bump, way too close to my personal zone for comfort. “Look at this belly.”

I moved his hand up a little. “I know, right? She’s grown.”

“Yeah, if I actually
look
, and squint my eyes, you kind of even look pregnant now.”

I smiled. “Two minutes back and you’re already teasing me.”

“What are friends for? Now.” He looked up, scanning the grounds, until he spotted what he was looking for. “You two! Get over here and give me a man-hug.”

“I thought I told you to stay away,” David said with a huge smile, his arms crossed.

“Then you shouldn’a told me the truth, mate.”

David just laughed.

While they took a moment catching up and man-hugging, which involved a series of very painful sounding back pats, I stood with my arms folded and waited as another two cars drove up. Lord Eden was in the first, but I couldn’t make out who was in the second.

I walked forward a few steps, trying to see through the tinted windshield, and as a tree shadowed the glare of the sun I caught a single flash of blonde hair.

“Em!” I yelled. “You didn’t tell me Em was coming!”

“Didn’t know,” David called across the cars.

Jason came to stand beside me as Em’s car took a slight turn and parked behind Jason’s and Mike’s cars, blocking them from leaving. But it wasn’t Emily that hopped out first. His dark hair had grown and was tied into a ponytail that actually looked kind of hot, and his bright white teeth caught the sun and beamed it back at us like he was some superstar on a catwalk.

“Miss me?”

“Quaid!” I walked over and gave him a big hug; he rocked us from side to side, growling like a monster.

“I never realised how much I’d actually grown to like you until you were no longer around,” he said. “I kinda missed you, Queeny.”

He moved back as Em stepped in to hug me.

“Things just weren’t the same without you.” She slid her skinny arms around my neck and her soft blonde hair tickled my face as we hugged.

“Where’s Blade?” I looked at the car, but he wasn’t in it.

“He stayed back with Falcon—to make sure things didn’t get out of hand,” Quaid said, cutting Emily off.

“Uh, they kind of already have gotten out of hand,” I said, letting go of Em. “Do they know we’re planning an attack?”

“No one’s spoken to them in two weeks,” Quaid said. “Em and I left before it all went to hell—came looking for you.”

“We’ve been staying at your house.”

“Really?” I brushed my hair off my face as the lemony wind tickled my nose with it. “I didn’t even know anyone was there.”

“Blade was supposed to come,” she said. “But at the last minute he stayed to help Falcon.”

“Is Falcon okay?” I asked, trying to hide my concern. “I mean, when you left, was he—”

“He was fine.” She touched the top of my arm reassuringly.

“He’s dead worried about you, though,” Quaid added. “Sorta drove us all nuts by the end.”

I pressed my hand to my chest. “God, I miss him so much.”

“You’ll see him again,” Em said, touching my arm again. “We just have a battle to win first.”

“Well, we won’t win much without a plan,” Lord Eden said, moving in beside me.

Emily smiled and then flung herself into his arms. I wanted to watch—to analyse the way she hugged him—but the other guys came over and hugs were exchanged, followed by repeated hugs, everyone laughing and way too jolly for the reason we were meeting. But I felt jolly, too. So we might have had a battle to plan, and death might be imminent, but at least we were all reunited.

The mood darkened as another car came up the drive, though, and every one of us, with our keen senses, knew who it was. I saw Em’s skin change on her arm—little bumps pushing the hairs to stand—but Lord Eden and I smiled warmly as the car pulled in beside Emily’s.

I felt an odd kind of peace as I thought about the fact that, while Lord Eden greeted his son, I would be greeting my real father, and a part of that peace came from knowing that I didn’t carry this secret alone.

As I grinned knowingly back at David, Jason’s eyes suddenly went a little wider, moving from David to me, then on to Drake as he climbed out of his car.

I didn’t need confirmation. Jason had clearly just entered our circle of secrets.

David shook his head once at his brother—a warning—and Jase nodded, his wide eyes landing on his feet, the shock clearly still trickling through his limbs.

“Come on,” David said. “We’ll go inside. Ara can greet Drake on her own.” He made it sound spiteful and bitter, but I knew he just wanted to give me a moment of privacy. Except, he forgot: I was better at keeping up appearances than him.

“Father.” Drake bowed, one hand tucking his shirt closer to his chest. He stood tall then and smiled down at me. “Amara.”

“Drake.” I bowed my head in greeting, but as my eyes studied his face, marking the similarities between us, they shrunk with a smile that I knew warmed my entire face. And Drake’s warmed in response.

He looked at Lord Eden then. “Safia is watching,” he said quietly.

Lord Eden glanced over his shoulder at the house. “It is no matter. She can hear this. We are simply planning an attack on the manor. It has nothing to do with her or her desires.”

Drake moved his head in a singular nod.

“Come then.” Lord Eden broke away from the circle of conversation. “We’ve much to discuss.”

I held back and walked beside Drake, rolling my eyes at my grandfather’s melodramatic tone of grave warning.

Drake laughed gently.

***

The dining table became a battle planning zone, with a map of Loslilian—courtesy of Lord Eden—several green army men—courtesy of the local dollar store—and eight eager battle strategists moving pieces around.

When this began a few hours ago, my eyes had been sharp and my ears keen, but as time wore on and no one agreed wholeheartedly, I started seeing the need for an overlord—a decision maker. I was about to pull rank when I saw an emerging pattern of theories.

“Okay, so we enter through the secret passageway in my bedchambers, connected to the tunnel from the village,” I said, converging all the arguments. “But how do we get to the village? The second we cross the bridge onto the island, they’ll have us. We—”

“We have one thing on our side that they don’t,” Drake said with an impish grin.

Everyone looked at him, waiting eagerly.

“How many times have I ever been caught sneaking into Loslilian?” He held his arms out wide. “None.” He clamped his hands together. “Because I have a weapon.”

“What weapon?” Quaid said impatiently.

“Magic.” He separated his hands again and slight blue glow tinted his chin and the tip of his nose. Then, he vanished.

“The cloaking spell,” I chirped, my eyes wide. “The same one you used to rescue me.”

“The very one,” he said, appearing again, the light dying with his spell. “I can guide a small team into the manor to attack from the inside. Once we’ve turned their attention to the building, my Warriors can slip in over the cliff walls and attack from the outside.”

“Once we cut off the head of the dragon, the body will fall,” Lord Eden said. “Our objective is quite simply to kill Walter, and take out the rest of the Upper House.”

“Right. And while we take care of that, Jason and Ara need to get to the forest,” David said.

“Is it really that important?” Em asked. “I mean, if we’re going to win the manor back, can’t they stay here and Ara can talk to Lilith later?”

“And what if we don’t win, Em?” Mike said, looking away from her quickly when their eyes met. “This could be her only chance.”

“I’m not taking any unnecessary risks, Emily,” I said. “If we don’t win this battle, and I don’t speak with Lilith—” I had to stop and remind myself that Emily knew nothing about the child being soulless, nor did Quaid. And it had to stay that way. At least while we were in a room where Safia could hear.

“What?” Emily said, her eyes shrinking on the inner corners. “Why is it so important?”

“It’s no secret that I carry the child Anandene,” I lied. “And it’s no secret that Drake intends to resurrect his sister once I give birth.”

“Which means Amara will die,” Drake added.

“Yes,” I said. “But there may be a chance Lilith can give me another soul—”

“No way,” Quaid said, his brows high. “Would that actually work?”

“It might,” Drake said, knowing it was all another big lie that we’d have to correct later. “It’s Ara’s only hope, unfortunately, because I made a promise to my sister and I
will
keep it.”

I had to look away from him; he was awfully convincing when he wanted to be—enough that I wondered for a moment if he was telling the truth. I think even Lord Eden wasn’t sure, but he didn’t know even half of what I knew.

“I’ll protect her, Em,” Jason said softly. “She’s safe with me, you know that.”

“And what about you?” she said, her voice trembling a little. “Walt wants you dead for fornicating with the Queen. And he has the means to kill you.”

“Emily, you needn’t worry,” Lord Eden cut in. “I know you care a great deal for Jason, and for Ara, but they are both more than capable of taking care of themselves.”

“And what about when we do win the manor back?” she asked, her teary eyes flicking from Lord Eden to David. “She has to face punishment for her crimes—”

“There will be no punishment,” David said sharply.

“But it’s the law—”

“Screw the damn law.” David slammed his fist down on the table. “No one, I repeat,
no one
, will brutalise my wife. And that is final!”