“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.
“Because we were trying to keep you safe. No matter how little you knew our mother, your sense of duty, your sense of responsibility, your sense of honor would have driven you to go after father, and he would have killed you. We wanted to wait, to bide our time until we thought that there might actually be a chance to take father down.”
“And you believe that time is now?”
Melinda’s grey eyes flickered, sadness crept slowly into them. “You are a powerful ally, but no, I didn’t think this was the right time. None of us did. But it’s been thrust upon us at this point, and I don’t think there is any way to change the flow of this tide. Not anymore.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“One day. We weren’t entirely sure when, we were just waiting for the right moment. None of us expected you to fall in love with a human, your blood slave, and to have her be one of the prominent figures of the resistance no less. How could any of us have seen that coming?”
Braith was silent for a long moment. He took strength in Arianna’s presence, and unwavering love and loyalty, but it could not ease the betrayal festering inside of him. He had thought that Caleb and Natasha were the deceitful and manipulative ones, apparently he was wrong. It seemed they were all dark and twisted in their own ways; they had all held and kept their secrets from each other.
“What a wonderful and trusting family we are,” he drawled sarcastically.
“We were only trying to keep everyone as safe as possible,” Melinda said softly. “If father had known anything…” Her voice trailed off, horror filled her gaze as she shook her head. “Awful, it would have been awful.”
Braith silently agreed, but he wasn’t willing to concede anything to her yet. In fact, he didn’t want to speak to her at all right now. “Your father used the war as an excuse to kill your mother, and probably Melinda, but why?” Arianna asked quietly.
“Because he didn’t use the war as an excuse to kill our mother, he used it as an excuse to start the war.” Arianna jumped slightly in surprise, but Braith had sensed Jack’s steady approach a few minutes ago.
Braith turned slowly toward his brother as he pushed Arianna gently toward the wall. He could not stop his instinctual urge to protect her from the people that had entered the room. Even before she uttered the word dad, he knew immediately which one of the hardened, disbelieving, angry men was her father.
And the man was mad enough to kill.
Chapter 16
Aria tried to take a step toward her father, but Braith held her tight. The muscles in his ridged arms clamped against her, the hard muscles of his body rippled beneath his clothes. She had not missed the fact that Braith had turned her, putting her in a more secure position, using his body to defend hers.
But there was no need for him to protect her. This was her father, her family. And as she watched William and Daniel slipped into the room behind Jack and her father. “It’s ok Braith,” she whispered.
“Wait,” he hissed; his voice low and commanding. She frowned at him, but did not fight against his hold. He was thrown off balance right now; he needed her with him in order to keep himself steady. Otherwise he might hurt someone in this room, someone she cared about, someone he cared about.
“You told him everything?” Jack asked softly.
Melinda nodded; she stepped closer to Ashby as she eyed Aria’s family wearily. Melinda didn’t trust her own kind, and it was more than apparent she didn’t trust humans either. Especially rebel humans. “Can I untie him now?” she inquired of Braith, her voice wavering slightly. He remained unmoving, his eyes dark and intense. “We can’t take you down Braith; all of us combined probably couldn’t take you down.”
“He knows that, and that’s not what he’s worried about. That’s never what he’s worried about anymore,” Jack said softly.
“Then what!?” Melinda demanded, her composure beginning to unravel. She was frustrated, angry that Ashby was still being restrained. “What Braith, what do you want!?”
Jack’s gaze came slowly to Aria, she frowned fiercely back at him. “He can protect himself, but if one of us, just one gets by him…”
“You don’t have to fear my family Braith, they won’t hurt me,” Aria said softly, reassuringly. She ran her hands up and down his arms, looking to soothe him. “And you don’t have to fear yours.”
“Don’t I?”
She shook her head, standing on tiptoe she pulled him down to her to make sure that he could hear her, but no one else could. “If they wanted to hurt you they would have done so by now. They may have kept things from you, but even you admit you were in the wrong place at the wrong time when you were blinded. None of them meant for you to be hurt, in fact they’ve been trying to protect you for a long time. Anyone of them could have killed you in that palace if they had really wanted to. Jack could have hurt me in the forest, rather than giving me back to you.”
“I’m not risking your life,” he growled.
“You won’t be,” she promised. “Just let her untie Ashby, Braith. I couldn’t stand to see you like that either. They haven’t earned your trust Braith, not yet, but you haven’t earned theirs either.”
His jaw clenched, a muscle jumped in his cheek. For a brief moment his arms tightened on her, and then, ever so slowly, his grip relaxed. “Untie him,” he ordered briskly. “But I will kill you both if you come anywhere near her.”
Melinda stared at Aria for a long moment, her eyes wide with surprise and thanks. Then she turned swiftly to Ashby, her fingers flew deftly over the knots. Aria refused to look at her family; she could feel their shocked, horrified gazes; she didn’t have to see them. Ashby’s hands came forward; he rubbed his wrists together as Melinda untied his ankles.
As the last of the ropes fell away, they embraced tightly, clinging to one another. Aria’s heart went out to them, her hands clenched tighter on Braith. She needed him so much, needed his embrace and touch and security. She wanted to run from here with him, and her family, but she had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen for a very long time, if ever. There was something changing inside of Braith, something evolving and growing within him that frightened her. She wanted to cling to him, to never let him go. She wanted to stay grounded with him forever, but it wasn’t going to happen. Not if whatever was going on inside of him was any indication.