“I’ve tried, and so have Ashby, and Gideon. He needs to lead Aria.”
Her heart hammered, coldness was seeping into her bones, stealing into her soul. “He does,” she agreed.
Jack shifted nervously. “You know I love you Aria, I think of you like a sister.”
“Just say it Jack.”
“You have to let him go.” She felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. She had braced herself for those words, had even suspected they were coming, but they still knocked the air from her. She was unable to stay upright as she rested her hand on a tree and leaned against it. “Aria…”
She held up a hand to stall him. She needed a moment, just one moment to gather her thoughts and hold back her tears. She’d suspected all along, no she’d known, that this was a distinct possibility. That in the end, she would have to give him up, that she would have to leave him, again. She just wasn’t ready to hear it confirmed by someone else.
Ashby, looking to soothe her reached for her shoulder. She pushed his hand away, unable to take his pity at the moment. “Braith feels that when this is over he can simply walk away. That he can take you, disappear, and never look back. He thinks that he can leave Gideon, Ashby, or even I in charge. We know that he can’t, and I think you know it too.”
Aria lifted her head. She had to blink away the tears burning her eyes to focus upon him. “Our family line is the strongest, it always has been. Our bloodline has been traced back to the first vampire, it is the only line that can claim such a feat, and actually prove that it’s true. It wasn’t often that our line wasn’t ruling, and as you’ve witnessed, even the most powerful vampires on our side have turned to Braith as a leader.”
She stared silently at the lake, felt the rough bark of the tree beneath her hand. She needed these things to connect her, to join her to the earth. She felt completely disconnected right now, disjointed and broken. “Since the moment he was born it was expected that Braith would rise to power if our father died. He’s been groomed for such an endeavor, trained for it; he is the one that can control the chaos that will follow the dethroning of our father. Even those within the palace, the non-aristocrats will follow him, because that’s what they expected to do for the past nine hundred years. Nine hundred years Aria, that is how long it has been accepted that Braith would eventually rule.
“They won’t follow me in the same way, and to be honest I can’t control them the way that Braith will be able to. It’s not in me, it never has been. They will look to destroy me in a way that they will not look to destroy Braith. Nor will they follow Ashby. He’s not a part of our line and even if he marries Melinda, they will not accept him, and Melinda isn’t strong enough to rule. Gideon is Braith’s other option. But Gideon has been gone for a hundred years, and he has no tie to our line. He’s not even a part of the second most powerful family, he is simply older than the rest of us, only a mere fifty years younger than Braith.”
They spoke of fifty years as if it were nothing; to her it was a lifetime. “Xavier? Saul?” she managed to choke out. “Calista or Barnaby?”
“Xavier is a record keeper; he prefers to loiter in the shadows. Most see Saul as weak due to his defect, and the others are mere children. The oldest is Barnaby and he’s barely three hundred. They can’t take control.”
“The second most powerful…”
“My mother’s line,” Jack said flatly. “My father had all of them destroyed in order to ensure they would no longer be a threat. He also decimated the third, fourth, and sixth in line. He eradicated any one he deemed a possible threat.”
“The fifth?”
“Gideon.” The lump in her throat was threatening to choke her. “Ashby is part of the seventh, as is his cousin who has remained in the palace. He has stepped into what should have been Ashby’s role, assuming power as my father’s second in command.”
Ashby scowled, showing some emotion other than pity for the first time. “Coward,” he muttered.
“I’m sure Braith understands this,” she whispered.
“He does understand it,” Jack confirmed. “But to him, you are the only thing that matters. He’s stubborn Aria, he thinks that the vampire lines will accept one of us in place of him, as will the people, but he’s wrong.”
She didn’t realize she was crying until a drop landed upon her hand. She wiped the tears hastily away, hating herself for crying in front of them. “We can’t convince him to let you go, and we can’t convince him to try and change you. Our people might accept you then; it’s a rare feat for a human to survive the change. They may not embrace you with open arms after, but they won’t deny you either, and the ones that did would be few.
“He is unwilling to realize these facts, but you need to.” A sob escaped her. She shoved her fist into her mouth, trying to stifle her cries as something inside of her began to break. “It’s for the greater good Aria. Think of the people, your people that will be freed. The future generations that will never know the fear and oppression that you have known. Think of the fact that they will not know starvation, filth, and enslavement as you have known it; as Max has known it.”
Max, oh Max. His time as a blood slave had destroyed him. It had taken a proud, vibrant man and turned him into someone filled with hate and bitterness. It had broken him, as it had broken so many others before they were mercifully destroyed. Then there were the ones that never made it to blood slave status. She recalled the boy she’d been captured with, so young and vulnerable. He’d been selected for death.