The temple in the village we came across was smaller than the one where I’d spent my days on my knees in Mistfell. The building
was still crafted from stone, but there was no tower jutting up toward the sky to reach for the afterlife, only a single story that crouched low to the ground. The windows were plain, not the four-paned windows that had let light filter in through glass, which was far too expensive unless it had been gifted.
We skirted around the edge of the village, hugging the tree line as we kept an eye out for any stragglers who hadn’t yet gone to Temple or who risked the wrath of their High Priest for a few moments’ delay.
The village was silent, the presence of everyone required inside the weekly Temple, making it the perfect time for us to gather supplies without detection. I knew from experience that even the Mist Guard was severely limited in terms of who took shifts that brought them away from the sacred weekly worship.
Caelum peeked toward the Temple and through the window, his gaze snagging on the worshipers kneeling before the Priestess where she walked with her switch at her side, ready to discipline any who didn’t bow to her satisfaction.
“Fucking zealots,” Caelum muttered, turning away from the scene in front of us. We made our way further around the village, getting as far away from the temple as we could manage.
“You seem rather interested in the Old Gods,” I said, squinting up at him as he moved through the shadows at the edge of the woods. He carved his body through them with well-practiced ease, claiming them as his own and molding himself into them so well that I suspected I wouldn’t have been able to see him if I’d been a passing villager. “Some would say that makes you the zealot.”
“At least the Old Gods didn’t advocate a life of boredom. They lived for the sake of pleasure, not some potential doom that came after thirteen life cycles. I will never understand why people would choose to spend their life on their knees when they could do anything and be anything they wanted,” he said, grasping my hand in his and dragging me alongside him to keep up when I wasn’t as talented at keeping to the shadows as he was.
“That’s a pretty notion, but is it ever really a choice when the alternative to obedience is death?” I asked, stepping out into the yard of one of the houses on the outskirts of the village with Caelum. He grabbed a heavy wool cloak off the clothesline, tossing it over the top of his where it rested on my shoulders, to hold as he pulled me toward the door to the house itself.
“I would rather die on my feet than live in service to something I don’t believe in,” he said, shrugging his shoulders as he pressed his ear to the door. When there was no sound, he pressed the latch down and pushed it open slowly.
Empty.
He moved inside quickly, tugging me to follow and closing the door behind him. “Boots,” he ordered me, gesturing to the few pairs of shoes at the side of the door. I slipped mine off, wincing at the stains of blood that soaked the heel on my socks and leaked down to cover the soles of my feet. Caelum froze in place where he’d started to move to one of the bedrooms, his gaze snagging on the blood. “The next time you try to downplay your injuries, I’ll toss you over my shoulder and carry you whether you like it or not. Is that understood, Little One?” he snapped, retreating into the bedroom as I peeled the ruined socks off my feet, as well. Caelum emerged, clutching a pair of women’s trousers and a pair of socks. “Put these on,” he ordered, and I took the pants from him. The fabric
was heavy, warmer than I’d ever felt.
“What are these?” I asked, having never seen a woman in pants in my life.
I turned my stare to the sky and studied the position of the sun, readying myself for Temple to end. By the time he returned to my side, there was a pack slung across his shoulders, filled with supplies he’d gathered from the fringes of the village while I observed him from the corner of my eye. He’d snuck in and out of barns and houses, shoving in rope and blankets, more flint, and an extra canteen.
The axe he’d found was strapped to the sheath that crossed his back beneath his cloak. Between his two swords, the axe, and the dagger strapped to his thigh, he cut a formidable figure.
I held out a hand for the pack he’d loaded with the supplies, knowing that all the weapons he carried must have been heavy; not to mention, the pack would only hinder his ability to get to them if we needed them.
It seemed safe to say that day would come eventually.
“Hey! Thief!” a woman’s voice yelled as she stepped out of the temple and glanced toward her empty clothesline where her cloak had hung. She turned to the woods, finding us and seeing her forest green cloak wrapped snugly around my shoulders.
Guilt consumed me, knowing that there was every chance she couldn’t afford another one for the season, but she had a roof over her head. A fire in her home.
I had the promise of a cold cave and walking through blizzards.
“Run,” Caelum instructed, as people started to emerge from the temple to join with her shouts. I turned, running back toward the mountain range hidden behind the trees. I had to hope I was going in the right direction, with Caelum’s reminder of my useless navigating skills hanging over my head.
“They went that way!” the woman yelled behind us as I tore through the leaf-covered underbrush. Caelum didn’t speak as he followed me, his hand coming down on my spine every now and then to coax me to run faster. To hurry. I knew without a doubt he’d slowed his pace to stay with me, though his long legs were able to eat up the distance far faster than mine could ever hope to do.
“Faster,” he urged, taking my hand briefly to shift my path of direction. More southward, I suspected.
“Return the cloak and you won’t be punished!” a man said somewhere behind us. He was close, too close for comfort. I spun to look back, risking
the consequence of them closing in. If they caught us, punishment for stealing would be the least of our concerns.
We all knew what the Mist Guard would do to anyone who failed to turn in Marked who crossed their path. They wouldn’t hesitate to surrender us. Not with their lives hanging in the balance as well.
“Estrella!” Caelum warned from behind me, his voice erupting through the woods. I heard it over the sound of my heavy breathing, snapping my attention back to him just as my foot caught on a tree root and I went sprawling forward.
He’d somehow seen what I hadn’t. There was no ground beneath me, not for what seemed like an eternity as Caelum tried to grasp me by the new cloak wrapped around my shoulders. His fingers slipped through the fabric, grappling for purchase as I fell.
My hands hit the ground first, scraping raw along the harsh brambles covering the ravine. My cheek slid across it next as I squeezed my eyes closed in a desperate attempt to protect them, and then the rest of my body struck. Landing sideways, I rolled down a bank into a ditch until I came to a stop at the very bottom. My hand dropped into a narrow stream, the icy water burning my skin with cold so quickly that I yanked it back and rolled back toward the hillside.
Caelum barreled down the hill, running through the brambles as they tore at his clothes and skin until he reached me. The villagers stood at the top of the hillside, staring down after him while I watched.
None of them braved the drop into the ravine, talking amongst themselves and buying us some time. I planted a hand in the rocks next to the stream, the blood and scratches covering my skin making me grateful that the gloves Caelum had found for me were tucked safely in his pack and not torn to shreds.
I pushed to my feet, my cheek burning and body throbbing as Caelum reached me, wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me off the ground. “Are you alright?” he asked, studying the wounds on my face intently for a moment as he clenched his jaw. He turned that molten stare up to the villagers, who slowly started to brave the brambles to make their way down.
“I’ll be fine. Let’s go,” I said, nodding toward the path of the stream. I took the first step away from the villagers, my ankle caving beneath me the moment I put weight on it.
Caelum caught me as I fell, growling as his hand twitched toward a sword. He seemed to shake off the moment of fury, the unrealistic belief that he could fight the villagers off on his own. “Put this on,” he said, handing me the pack. I did as he told me, wondering why he would give me the extra weight when I couldn’t even support my own.
Clarity came the moment he pulled the axe free and lowered himself to one knee in front of me. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, my throat burning with the possibility of being caught. “Even you can’t outrun them with my weight. Just leave me.”
He spun, pinning me to the spot with a glare so fierce I thought I might shrivel up on the spot. It was worse than any humiliation I’d felt when he’d teased me about the inevitability of being intimate with him.
It was worse than everything.
“Do not ever let me hear you say those words again. Do you understand me, Estrella?” he asked, taking my hand and pulling me closer. He wrapped it around the front of his neck, leaving me to follow with the other one. As soon as I had my hands placed on his shoulders, he reached back and grasped me around the back of each thigh. Hoisting me onto his back, he stood smoothly and without any of the difficulty I’d have expected from something as bulky as an entire person and supply pack. And weapons.
His swords were sheathed in the cross-back scabbards, poking into the spaces between my arms and where he hiked my legs up high on his hips. He bent forward slightly, grabbing the discarded axe off the ground and hurrying forward.
He walked faster than I could typically walk on my own, hurrying as quickly as he could without dislodging me or risking me further injury. The sounds of the villagers trying to make their way over the brambles and down the ravine faded into the distance as he stepped over the stream and walked up into the woods on the other side.
His breathing came harder by the time he reached the top, but still he kept walking, treading along until there was no doubt that we’d left the villagers behind us. Only then did he angle back down toward the stream, keeping a watchful eye for any stragglers that might have continued on in search of us. Finally, when we must have been miles from the place where I’d fallen, Caelum bent forward to lower me to my feet in front of a log that I could sit on.
He stripped the pack off my back, pulling out a bedsheet he’d grabbed. It had seemed foolish at the time, but as he cut through it with his dagger and dipped it into the stream, I understood why extra cloth would probably never be a bad idea.
He touched the cold fabric to my face, cleaning the cuts that I could feel on my cheek. “How bad is it?” I asked, flinching as I thought of the fact that only a few hours prior, he’d said I was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen.
“Worse than I want it to be,” he said, cleaning the worst of the scrapes. When he was satisfied that my face was tended to, he rinsed the rag in the stream once more and took my hands in his. My palms were covered in dried blood, having taken the brunt of that first impact. A glance at the front of his cloak and shirt showed the stain from my injuries covered his clothing.
I winced as he touched the cloth to my hand and cleaned the blood off to inspect the cuts beneath. He glared at the injuries on the first palm as he set it on my lap, moving to the other and starting the process of cleaning that hand. The scrapes weren’t horrible enough that I’d die or needed serious attention from a healer, but it didn’t take much to cause an infection or make functioning painful.
The worst of the cuts was on the tip of my finger, a deep poke hole that throbbed when Caelum ran the cloth over it. He squinted, setting the cloth to the side and using his fingernails to pry out the thorn that had wedged itself into my skin. I squeaked as he pulled it free and blood welled up in my fingertip.
He leaned forward, drawing my finger into his mouth and licking the blood from the wound as I watched in shock. Warmth spread through my hand, saturating my chilled flesh as his dark gaze landed on mine. Heat flowed through my veins, burning me from the inside in a way that made me want all the things I shouldn’t and reminding me of the way he’d rubbed his shaft against me when he pinned me to the tree.
Something simmered in his gaze, thickening the air between us as he slowly pulled the finger free from his mouth and used his teeth to tear off a dry strip of fabric that he pressed to my finger to help the bleeding stop. “Hold that there,” he instructed, as if he had no clue that I was aroused by the sight of him licking the blood from my finger.
There was something wrong with me.
He knelt at my feet and grabbed my new boot. He unknotted the laces, pulled it off, and yanking down the sock. Even I saw the purple swelling wrapped around my ankle and the way it seemed to bulge between my leg and my foot.
“Fucking Gods,” Caelum muttered, hanging his head forward. He tore off more of the sheet, making strips as he wrapped my ankle in them carefully before replacing the sock.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered, knowing that I’d effectively slowed down our pace dramatically. There was no way Caelum could carry me for the days it would take my ankle to heal entirely, and I would be fortunate if I could walk at all the next day.
“Stop apologizing for things that aren’t your fault. You didn’t intend to fall down a fucking ravine. You were running for your life. I should have just killed them. At least then you wouldn’t be injured.”
“You can’t kill an entire group of people over a cloak, Caelum,” I said, shaking my head.
Something lurked in the shadows of his eyes as he turned his attention to my face. “Maybe not, but I would kill an entire group of people for putting you in danger.”
I swallowed, sucking back a breath of cool air as he carefully put my boot back on my foot.
“Does that frighten you, Little One? Knowing how far I would go to keep you safe?” He stood and held out a hand, in a way that felt like more than an offer to help me stand. It felt like by accepting his hand, I would be accepting his violence and willingness to kill those who got in his way.
“Yes,” I admitted, unable to fathom the reality. I would kill to protect Caelum from those who meant to harm him, but innocent people who just wanted to survive?
That wasn’t something I thought myself capable of doing.
“Good. Perhaps you’ll be mindful of putting yourself at risk unnecessarily in the future. It’s best for everyone that you stay safe. You do not want to consider what I’ll do if someone tries to take you from me.”
He strapped the pack to his back, placing an arm behind my knees and one behind my back and lifting me into the cradle of his arms as he hiked up the bramble side of the ravine. It wasn’t as steep as the place where I’d fallen, and soon the mountains loomed ahead at the top of the ridge. He traversed it, picking his way toward them and the possibility of more caves
and, hopefully, a place to hide while I healed enough to travel. Right now, we were losing time with every hour that passed that I was unable to move on my own.
I was a liability to him, and yet, I couldn’t bring myself to sneak off in the night.
The thought of what he would do when he hunted me down once again was enough to keep me by his side, wondering how my savior had somehow become a morally gray man with no boundaries and a distinct lack of understanding how an actual courtship worked.
You didn’t just decide a woman was yours to protect after a few days spent together.
Right?
