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That was the worst part of it all He had come to care for them Ashby pissed him off, but Melinda loved the idiot and he wasn’t entirely obnoxious Jack infuriated him to no end, but he was still his brother and Braith had always been fond of him He’d even come to like and admire Aria’s fa himself to destroy the only chance at happiness and peace that they’d ever hoped to attain, that Aria had ever hoped to attain She would forgive hi for her iive hi

Aria was alive; he could feel it in his bones By now his father had realized that she was important to him, he’d probably detected his blood inside of her, seen the ainst Braith; he would torture her until she was broken beyond repair, but Braith knew his father would hold out on the worst of that torture until Braith was present He would intend to make sure that Braith witnessed the worst of as done to her At least that was the hope that Braith clung to, otherwise he kneould leave these woods and go to the palace now Otherwise, he would ruin everything and Aria would be lost

He wouldn’t allow that to happen to Aria, even if ithimself over to the darkness that lurked within hi him now He just had to keep it at bay until they were ready to ive into the darkness when he found his father and brother; he could let it rule him in order to destroy them Maybe, if he and Aria both survived, he would be able to salvage whatever was left of hi his father and brother They wouldn’t feel any about torturing hi he cared about suffer The only difference was he would make their deaths quick, they wouldn’t return the favor with him

"What do you know?" Braith demanded

"What do you mean?"

"Don’t play stupid with me Xavier You know more of our history, and of the human’s history than any of us I see the way you watch Aria, the way you study her If I thought it was because you had any interest in her as a woo, but we both knoo her because it’s me you’re interested in"

"How do you know that?"

"Xavier," Braith’s patience was reaching its end Whatever crush Xavier o when Xavier had accepted the fact that Braith wasn’t interested in men

There was a"You are a good lookingXavier to take an abrupt step back into the tree behind hi, I will not go through to get her back I aames or your manipulations" Xavier didn’t cower before him but Braith sensed the vampire’s trepidation "What do you know?"

"I don’t know anything"

Braith’s hand slammed into the tree Xavier’s folloould be irate if he killed hietting to the point where he would willingly take that in order to assuage soer like this He was going to snap; like a bow string wound to tight he was going to break He just didn’t knoas going to happen when he did, or how s I suspect though," Xavier continued calmly

"Xavier, not now"

It took all of his patience to deal with Xavier’s roundabout way of explaining things Xavier seerasped hold of his arether Braith, there are far more lives at stake here than hers"

"Why do you think I’one after her, yet? But you have to tell me what you suspect"

Xavier bowed his head "Keep infor sure I would like to speak with her father"

"Fine, but what is it…"

Braith broke off as soht his attention He released the tree he’d been so desperately grasping as he e of the hill Below him the forest spread out in a blur of dark shapes and st the solid objects, shadows h the trees He heard the approach of the others, but he didn’t have to turn to know that Gideon was in the lead His step was sohter frame and Jack’s more experienced movements William, Daniel, and David barely made any noise as they approached; it was their scents he picked up instead of their sounds<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>