My weight shifted suddenly, my body thrown to the cave floor so hard that I drew in a shuddering breath after the wind was
knocked free from my lungs. “Don’t fucking touch her,” Caelum warned, his voice filled with malice as I flung my alarmed gaze toward him. The haze of sleep vanished in an instant, my mind suddenly alert as I tried to take in what was happening.
The tip of a sword hovered just in front of my nose; the man holding it stood with his legs spread ever so slightly around mine. I swallowed as I met his cold blue stare, glancing over toward where Caelum struggled against the four men fighting to pin him to the ground.
He pulled the dagger from the sheath at his thigh, pressing it to the throat of one of the men so deeply that they all froze. The man standing over me watched with interest, cocking his head to the side as he shifted his attention back down to me and touched the tip of the blade to my chest.
To the space just above my heart; the spot that could take me to a true death if he pierced it.
“You could kill him,” the man spoke to Caelum, shrugging his shoulders. “But do you think you’ll get to her before I run her through?”
Caelum froze, his jaw clenched tightly as one of the other men wrapped their hands around his where it clutched the hilt of his dagger. He let them take it from him, his eyes never leaving mine or that blade pressed to my chest in warning. “When I’m through with you, there will be nothing left to reincarnate,” Caelum growled.
The man above me chuckled, his face twisting into mockery. “You’ve got him properly wrapped around your little finger, don’t you, pretty?” he asked, using the tip of his blade to flick the hair away from my neck. My Mark pulsed, drawing a blue glow from his own Fae Mark. He was the only one to wear the Mark, the other four men entirely human as they watched Caelum warily.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I murmured, peeling my lips back from my teeth as something vicious overcame me. I was so fucking tired of being a victim. Of being treated like I was less than the men around me, because they had a piece of meat swinging between their legs. I touched a finger to his sword, trailing it up the flat edge in a teasing motion. “He has his uses.”
“I’m sure he does,” the man laughed, his eyes narrowing in on that innocent finger. I pressed a palm against each flat side of the blade, jerking it to the side as I hooked my feet around his ankles and used them to slide myself down between his legs, causing him to stumble forward.
His sword plunged into the dirt above my head, Caelum’s shout echoing through the small alcove as I twisted out of the way and jumped to my feet. My ankle gave a tiny twinge of pain but held beneath me; the hours that had passed in the night had given it time to heal with my new abilities.
My boot came down on the man’s ass where he bent over in front of me, knocking him further forward. “There are far kinder ways to wake a woman in the morning,” I snapped, flinching when another set of hands grabbed me by the hair. The second man yanked my head back, twisting my neck from side to side as he looked at my ears.
Looking for the legendary pointed ears of the Fae, I realized.
I reached up above my head, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him toward me at the same moment I bent myself in half and pushed with my legs. He hit the ground in front of me with a thud, his arm landing at his side for a moment before he reached for his sword. I stepped on his wrist, squatting beside him to snatch the weapon away from his fingertips.
Caelum watched with a smirk on his face, distractedly fighting off the three remaining men who struggled to contain him, even when he didn’t give them all his attention. I had no doubt that he could have escaped them all if it hadn’t been for the risk to me.
It was a good fucking thing I could take care of myself in this way, at least.
“You will unhand my friend if you like yours breathing,” I said, putting my assailant’s own sword to his throat.
The man who’d first held a sword to my face slowly got to his feet, his hands held out in a peaceful gesture, as if they hadn’t actually intended to harm us. I believed he meant it, knowing we weren’t the Fae hunting him. “You got anything to add?” he asked Caelum, rubbing a hand over his face.
“I think she covered it, really,” Caelum returned with a smirk. He moved with a fluid grace that took our attackers off guard, proving my suspicion that he had only not fought them off for my safety.
That shouldn’t have made my stomach clench or butterflies rise up to my throat. Knowing that my safety came before his should have appalled me. Instead, I wanted to kiss him, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to be the initiator in our intimate moments.
Not yet, anyway.
He disarmed his attackers smoothly, until every sword was either held within his grasp or flung against the dirt, leaving the men gaping at him awkwardly.
“Perhaps you would like to explain to me what exactly you were planning to do before my love emasculated you?” he asked, weighing the hilt of one of the swords in his hand as he watched the men carefully.
“We’re looking for survivors. We had to be sure you aren’t one of those Fae bastards. Evan over there knows how to see through glamour,” he said, gesturing to the man who laid sprawled out in the dirt beneath me where I’d left him. His attention shifted over me and then to Caelum, studying us in a way that felt somehow invasive.
“The Fae Marks didn’t give it away?” I asked, glaring at the man who’d spoken.
“You’ve never seen a Fae, have you pretty? Those bastards are born with the Mark,” he grumbled.
He stared at the friend he’d said could see through Fae glamour, who nodded his head finally, and the men heaved a sigh of relief. The one who’d put a sword to my face came forward, holding out a hand for Caelum. “Name’s Jensen,” he said, holding Caelum’s stern gaze as he looked down at the offered hand with a sneer.
“I am not interested in shaking the hand of a man who chooses mine before the hand of the woman who bested him,” Caelum said, nodding his head toward me in acknowledgement of the slight. Jensen had passed me
over when he wouldn’t have, had I had a cock. Even after I’d proven I was worthy of being treated as an equal, he’d still chosen Caelum. I couldn’t blame him entirely, not when Caelum had proven to be the greatest threat in the room.
But still, Caelum advocated for me when no one else would have.
“You know better than to underestimate a woman, Jensen,” a feminine voice scolded as the owner stepped around the corner of the tunnel. Her cloak was clutched around her, her hood pulled up to cover her head and hair. She moved through the tunnel with a sort of lethal grace, her steps more masculine than I was used to seeing with the women of Mistfell, who only had value in their femininity.
She drew the hood of her cape back slowly, revealing a beautiful face marred by a scar on one side that slashed through her eyebrow and across her cheekbone. Her blond hair was tied tightly into a braid that extended down over the shoulder of her cloak and toward her belly. A Fae Mark swirled on the skin of her neck, curling up to her face.
She stepped in front of me, glancing toward the two men I’d defended myself against as a wry smirk graced her lips. Her attention shifted toward Caelum, pausing on him as she studied him intently for a moment and then shrugged. “I suppose I don’t need to ask if the two of you can fight.”
“Unless you like to waste time stating the obvious, it would appear not,” I said, glancing down at the hand she held outstretched. I placed mine in it, watching as the Mark on her neck glowed a soft red.
“A tongue as sharp as your blade,” she said with a chuckle. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Estrella. That’s Caelum,” I said.
“Welcome to the Resistance, Estrella. We oppose all parties who wish to dictate our way of life. As such, we offer refuge to any who seek refuge from the Fae, the monarchy, or the Mist Guard. My name is Melian, and I highly suggest that you come with me. My scouts spotted the Fae in the area last night. It’s fortunate that we found you first,” she said, tilting her head to look back to the tunnels she’d emerged from deeper inside the mountain.
“Why would we go with you? How can we trust that we won’t wake to another sword in our face tomorrow?” Caelum asked, earning a glare from me. He’d said we had to hope that the Resistance would find us, and they had.
Why would we not want to go with them to survive the coming winter? “If you would like to hide out in these caves like animals, be my guest.
But I can offer you something you’ll never find on your own,” Melian said. “What’s that?” Caelum asked, glaring at the woman who dared to show
no concern for the fact that he could probably gut her before she so much as blinked.
“A safe place to rest your head. A place to live without fear,” she answered. “A bed with blankets and food to fill your belly. We’ll give you a few minutes to discuss it between yourselves. If you decide you’d like to come with us, we’ll be around the corner.” She nodded to her companions, supervising as they picked their weapons up off the ground.
The man I’d disarmed stood when I removed my foot from his wrist, accepting the sword I handed back to him with a tentative smile. They followed Melian as she walked around the corner, leaving Caelum and I to stare at one another from across the distance between us.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his chest rising and falling as if it took everything he had to control himself and push back the anger he’d felt when we were ambushed.
“I’m fine,” I said. Even if there had been a brief moment where I wondered if we’d find a way out of our predicament, they hadn’t successfully hurt me.
The thought of them hurting Caelum was almost laughable.
“Good,” he said, bending down to pick up the blanket that had been left on the floor when they’d pulled him away from me in our sleep. He shoved it into our pack, forcing the rest of his belongings into it and slinging it across his back. “Let’s go.”
He made his way toward the entrance to the cave, going in the opposite direction of Melian and the others. “Wait, what?” I asked, hurrying after him and grabbing his hand. “You said you were hoping they would find us. If they can give us a safe place, we have to take it.”
“That was before they put a sword to your heart, Estrella. We can’t trust them.” He sighed, glancing back toward the rebels. I knew without a doubt he was curious about them.
It seemed unfathomable to consider that they’d existed before the Veil had shattered, but there hadn’t been time to organize anything in the days since.
“You can’t blame them for being cautious. If they weren’t, they’d probably be dead by now. They didn’t hurt us,” I said, tugging him back toward where they’d headed. He nodded, but his expression remained guarded and torn. As if he couldn’t come up with a genuine excuse why we should keep our distance, he looked back in their direction.
“If they give me a bad feeling, we leave. No questions; you do what you’re told, Little One,” he said, earning a glare from me.
“I’ve had enough of men telling me what to do. I thought you were better than that,” I said, tugging on my hand to try to get him to release it. If he thought I’d go back to being nothing more than a plaything and the property of a man, I’d leave and take my chances without him.
Freedom was more important than love, even if my heart did stall with the realization that I suspected love was exactly what I felt for Caelum.
“When I tell you to do something, it is because I want to keep you safe. Not because I want to tell you what to do. There’s a difference, Estrella. You can be whoever you want to be, as long as you are safe when you do it,” he said, the timbre of his voice dropping low enough that I knew he meant it.
“I suppose being at your side is a requirement too?” I asked, glaring at him as he took my hand in his and adjusted his grip.
“Not a requirement so much as very strongly encouraged,” he said, guiding me toward where the Resistance had disappeared. They waited around the corner as Melian had said they would, lifting torches off the ground and lighting them with the flint they pulled from their pockets.
Rumbling came up from the depths of the tunnels as Melian turned and led the way with one of the men on either side of her. At the insistence of the remaining three men, Caelum and I followed after her with the others taking up the rear. Caelum’s discomfort was palpable, hanging between us as he squeezed my hand tighter in his.
“What’s that noise?” I asked, turning to face him as the rumble seemed to grow louder with every moment that passed.
“Cave beasts,” Melian said from the front. She held a sword clutched in her hand, the others armed as well. Caelum’s had never left his hand, and I felt strangely naked without one of my own. I pulled the dagger free from Caelum’s sheathe strapped to his thigh, holding it tightly in my grasp.
“What happens if they find us?” I asked, glancing back to the men behind me.
Jensen met my gaze, a sly smile transforming his face. “We fight. You aren’t scared, are you, pretty? I’m happy to protect you, but you should know there are much scarier things in the woods now with the Veil down. Cave beasts are the least of your concerns.” His hand came down on my shoulder, making me glance down at the intrusion in disdain.
“If you value that hand, you will remove it immediately,” Caelum growled, his voice echoing through the narrow tunnel as Melian stopped in her tracks and stared back at the altercation behind her.
“Or what, pretty boy?” Jensen asked, raising an eyebrow at Caelum in challenge.
“Or I will sever it from your wrist and give it to her as a token of my affection,” Caelum responded, his lips peeling back from his teeth ever so slightly even as the tunnel seemed to cool with the rising tension between the two men.
“That’s enough, Jensen,” Melian said. “You know the rules. You can only touch her if she gives you permission.” She resumed her trek down the tunnel that narrowed as we continued forward, so we could only walk two by two. The reason for the torches quickly became obvious as the tunnel grew darker, until all traces of natural light disappeared and only the light of the fire enabled us to see at all.
Melian stopped suddenly, the man next to her dropping to his knees at her feet and lifting a slab of rock away from the ground. He shoved it to the side, revealing a hole carved into the ground beneath it. A manmade tunnel ran perpendicular to the natural cave tunnel, disappearing into the darkness below as the first of the men jumped down.
“Tunnels?” Caelum asked, turning his attention to Melian. “How could you have had time to do all of this?”
“My ancestors were the first members of the Resistance. They were the Fae Marked saved by the Veil all those centuries ago. They knew it was only a matter of time before the Fae returned to this land and came for them again in their future lives, or in their children’s lives. We’ve been here since the Veil was erected hundreds of years ago, preparing for the day that those chosen by the Fae would need a safe place to land,” she explained, watching as another of her men dropped into the tunnel below.
“I thought the Fae could track their Marked somehow. Was that not true?” I asked as she stepped toward the hole as if to jump in.
“They can,” she agreed. “Which is why it is even more important to have a safe haven that has been warded by a witch. So long as we keep our safe havens a secret, no one ever needs to find us.” A small smile graced her face as she plunged into the darkness, calling up for me to follow next.
“Go,” Caelum ordered, glancing sideways at Jensen and the other men who remained on the top level. He clearly trusted Melian with my safety more than them. I nodded, shoving my dagger into his sheathe once again, not trusting my coordination enough not to stab myself with it.
I jumped into the hole, falling through air for only a moment before I landed and bent my knees to absorb the shock. My ankle gave a little twinge on impact, but it was nothing compared to the pain of the day before and almost forgotten by the time I straightened. The tunnels were carved into the rock of the mountain itself, making for a much harder landing than it might have been.
Caelum landed at my back, his hand immediately coming down on my spine as he reassured himself I was okay. He took my hand, pulling me out of the way so the others could jump down.
Melian’s eyes landed on our hands clasped together, something like disdain filling her eyes for a moment before she turned her attention fully to Caelum when he spoke. “How far do these tunnels go?” he asked.
“They cover most of the Center Channel,” she said, referring to the mainland that extended from Mistfell to the Mountains of Rochpar on the other side of the Kingdom. “Each of the Four Auxiliary Lands has its own network of tunnels, as well.”
“That’s incredible,” I said, my voice conveying the awe I felt over something of this magnitude existing right beneath the noses of the Royal and Mist Guards for all this time. These people probably had an entire way of life, an entire history, that the Kings and Lords knew nothing about and had absolutely no control over.
Who would I have chosen to be, if my life hadn’t been dictated by societal expectations?
Melian guided us through the passage, our group walking in silence as I stared with fascination at the walls around me, imagining how long it took to dig and carve just one tunnel out of solid stone. Caelum held my hand clutched tightly in his, clinging to me as if the tunnels would sweep me away and force us to separate.
Nothing could have prepared me for the number of people that waited in the main cavern when we finally arrived. There were dozens of them. Some of them were well-equipped and armed, though their faces appeared relaxed as if they were completely at home.
Others were rougher in appearance, looking beaten and downtrodden as if they’d only just escaped the fate waiting for them above the surface. Not everyone was Fae Marked, I assumed the product of generations of living in those tunnels.
“I’ll take you to the women’s quarters so you can get settled in,” Melian said. “Introduce you to some of the younger girls.”
“I go with her,” Caelum interjected, refusing to release my hand when I nodded to follow her. As much as I hated to separate from him in someplace new, I understood that we were newcomers. We were guests in their way of life.
“The men and women bunk separately. You’re more than welcome to see her whenever you like,” Melian explained, gesturing around the main cavern that I understood must have been the common area of sorts.
“Then we’re leaving. Either we stay together, or we do not stay at all,” Caelum said, ignoring my look of exasperation.
“I think you’ve forgotten who needs who in this scenario,” Melian said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I have the safe haven you need. What do you have to offer?”
“A fighter who can help you stand against the Fae to protect these people, if it comes to it,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her in challenge. “We both know I am the best fighter you have now. You wouldn’t have gone up to the tunnels yourself without the best of your men at your disposal.”
Melian sighed, hanging her head. “Getting romantically attached now that you’ve been Marked is foolish,” she said, turning her attention to me as she issued the warning.
Too late, sister. I already knew it and my heart throbbed in response. “But fine. We have a few private alcoves that are usually reserved for
our higher-ranking officers. The two of you will make yourselves useful, or I will give it to the next person in line. If I need you with me for a retrieval? You’re with me,” she said, glaring at Caelum for a moment before she turned down one of the corridors. It was lined with doorways carved out of
the stone, blankets draped to cover the ones where people apparently wanted their privacy.
The blanket was drawn open on the second to last doorway, the room empty except for a bedroll laid out on a low wood platform. “I’ll have a second bedroll brought in for you,” Melian said, shaking her head. “Take the rest of the day to get acclimated and introduce yourselves. Tomorrow I’ll put you both to work.”
She disappeared out the open doorway, leaving me to the fight I felt brewing with Caelum.
One of these days, I was going to stab him in his pretty face.
“You don’t think I’m capable of taking care of myself,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest as I glared at him. He removed the cloak from his shoulders for what seemed like the first time in days. The stained fabric of his tunic hugged his chest and broad shoulders, showcasing the breadth of the body that was too often concealed. He hung the cloak on a peg sticking out of the stone wall, stepping toward me to unclasp my own from under my chin. While his fingers brushed against the hollow of my throat, I shoved down the tingle of awareness that always came when he touched me.
My body was a traitorous bitch, but she needed to know when I meant business.
“Of course I think you can take care of yourself. I just watched you knock two men on their asses,” he said with a chuckle, turning away to hang my cloak on top of his. The tunnels were warmer, protected from the cold weather aboveground. I wondered briefly if there was some kind of heating system through them, because I hadn’t seen a single fire in the common area or any of the open alcoves.
“Then why is it that I am not allowed to sleep with the rest of the women?” I asked, glaring as he made his way around the small alcove that would be ours. The sleeping platform in the back corner of the room was tucked against the wall. It made me immensely grateful that Melian had said she would grab us a second bedroll.
Sleeping with Caelum had proven dangerous enough as it was; having a space of our own in any way seemed even more dangerous.
“We look after one another, Estrella. You promised me we would stay together no matter what. Are you already trying to renege on that promise?
I’d hoped you were more loyal than that,” he said, a bitter grimace on his face, as shock claimed me.
“How is sleeping in a different room reneging on a promise to stick together? I’m not speaking of going our separate ways and never seeing one another again, Caelum,” I protested, shaking my head in disbelief. “There is a difference between loyalty and dependence.”
“Do not speak to me as if I know nothing of loyalty, my star. You cannot imagine how deep mine runs,” he warned, taking a few steps toward me until he closed the distance between us and stopped so close that his stomach brushed against my chest. His eyes gleamed as he stared down at me, something cold sharpening his features.
“If you put me in a cage at your side, then you’re no better than the man who tried to make spreading my legs for him my life’s purpose. I need to be more than that. I need to do more than that, Caelum,” I sighed, hoping I could break through to the rational, understanding version of him that I knew existed somewhere beneath this…brutal possessiveness.
“You already are more than that, Estrella,” he said, his voice softening as he reached up to cup my cheek with his hand. “There has never been a moment in the time I’ve known you when you’ve been anything less than extraordinary.”
I cocked my head to the side, the corner of my mouth tipping up in amusement. “Even when I fell down the ravine?”
“Okay, maybe you were less than extraordinary then,” he chuckled, releasing some of the tension between us.
“I need you to be okay with me going my own way during the day. There’s no chance that we can have a life here and not ever separate. We’ll have different purposes and duties; I want to contribute to their cause. To our cause,” I said, correcting myself. I may not really be a part of the Resistance yet, but I was one of the Marked that they stood to protect.
I wanted to help the people like me who stood no chance of escaping the Fae on their own. The ones who’d lost everything they’d known and loved when their entire villages turned on them.
Caelum clenched his jaw, leaning forward to touch his lips to my forehead before he spun and stripped the weapons from his body. He laid them down next to the bedroll, even though there were still hours left before night fell. “Alright, Little One, but I have some conditions of my own.” He
patted the space next to him as he dropped onto the bunk, giving me precious little choice but to hear him out.
Relationships were about compromise; the least I could do was listen to his version of it. The thought was jarring, as I realized that, at some point in our traveling together, I had started to think of this as a relationship.
Fucking damn the Gods.
I strode forward, taking the seat next to him even as my heart throbbed in my chest. I shouldn’t have had feelings for this testy man who seemed to piss me off as much as he made my heart flutter. “No matter what tasks the day takes us to, we spend our nights together. If one of us is needed on a trip outside the safety of these tunnels, we both go together. If we die, we die together,” he said, the words echoing through the room with something that felt significant. The air seemed to still momentarily in acknowledgement of his vow, as if the ancient witches themselves had heard him and lent their power.
“Together,” I said, agreeing to those terms with only a moment’s hesitation. I couldn’t recall when it had happened, couldn’t identify the moment he’d taken my heart, but I no longer wanted to think of my life without him in it. As long as I had the freedom to be who I wanted, I could sleep by his side at night.
It was scarcely a hardship.
