The Ballad of Aramei by J. A. Redmerski Read Free Book Online

understanding the world around her, but has been trapped in a world of her own, some strange world inside her mind that I’ve never been able to comprehend. It seems so real to me, Adria.” He looks over at me and his face reveals even more of that hope I saw before, which has now also become determination. And it shocks me a little that he used my name, speaking to me as if I were a friend and he is taking advantage of my ability to listen. But the determination suddenly dissolves from his face and there’s a sort of sadness left in its wake.
    He sighs and I glance down to notice his fingers moving along the contours of his rings.
    “In two hundred years Aramei has never spoken my name and it felt like she never even knew who I was anymore. She calls out to me, yet my heart tells me she doesn’t really know me, that she has not the slightest inclination of my presence. It is as though my name resonates inside her head as an echo from long ago before the blood took her mind and when she loved me.” His face has hardened, but this powerful being I know is incapable of tears. His sadness and despair can only come out as anger and rage. And I feel it laying there dormant in his heart, a storm of emotion that he has let build up inside of him for two centuries.
    I try to swallow that knot in my throat again, but another one just forms in its place.
    Trajan turns to me again and I raise my eyes to his without hesitation.
    “She spoke your name two days ago,” he says and my heart locks up in my chest because I already know what he’s about to say next. “And when she did, there was absolute life in her eyes. She knew you, Adria…she knew you.”
    I shift uncomfortably on the seat and look toward the window next to me rather than at Trajan anymore. I can’t bear to look at him because I feel so guilty. How can she know me, but not him? This can’t be happening….
    Isaac’s mind is swimming with realization and panic. I can see through his eyes as he stands in the den in the center of the floor, pacing back and forth across the carpet as everyone watches all around him. I see Nathan standing near the den entrance leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and there’s an equally concerned look on his face that I know, just by feeling Isaac’s emotions, is pretty much how Isaac looks right now, too.
    “I need you to communicate with Aramei,” Trajan says and my heart falls into my stomach, “and I will not take no for an answer.”
     

Chapter 4
     
     
     
     
    SO MUCH FOR THINKING Trajan might have a kind bone in his body. I should never have let myself believe that were remotely possible. I think about putting my hand on the door handle and helping myself out, but decide against it. Where would I go and how would I get there? I’m trapped inside this Escalade with nowhere to run.
    But just as Isaac promised, he’s running down the front steps of the house and towards us.
    I’m positive Trajan knows that he’s coming, but he never takes his eyes off me. Seconds before Isaac makes it to the window, three of Trajan’s men step in front of him and stop him in his angry rush.
    My whole body stiffens when one of the guards is sent flying over the hood of the Escalade and crashing into a tree about fifty feet on the other side of me. And then the Escalade shakes and jolts as Isaac and another guard crash against the rear. I hear the covering over the brake lights shatter and then a loud bang as the guard’s body is forcefully pressed against the back window, the sound of glass snapping and cracking as he’s pushed further and further into it and it’s barely withstanding the weight. The vehicle jerks side to side and I find myself gripping the back of the seat in front of me, my fingers digging abrasively into the leather.
    Trajan is absolutely calm and motionless.
    “My guards cannot defeat my son,” Trajan says looking directly at me, “but once he gets past them, the only one left is me.”
    My