Caelum guided us through the tunnels, emerging into the caves above the lower levels as we walked quickly. “I don’t think we should be up
here again so soon,” I said, thinking of the warding that wouldn’t protect us outside the tunnels.
“Just for a little while,” Caelum said, heading for the light shining in through the cave entrance carved into the side of the mountain. We emerged into the sun, facing the ocean that surrounded the Kingdom. The water crashed onto the shore far below, the rocks and sand heaving with the force of the turbulent waters on this side of the Kingdom.
The ocean in Mistfell was hidden beyond the Veil itself, obscured from view. I’d never actually seen the waves strike against the shore, the force of them battering into the Kingdom.
The water all around the Kingdom faded into the mist, the wall of haze blocking everything else from view, but the sight of the water itself was enough to make melancholy flash through me, the loss of my brother feeling closer than ever.
The last time I’d seen sand had been when I’d stumbled through it trying to find him on the beach.
Sometimes, it was easy to forget the life I’d left behind. Easy to pretend it wasn’t my past at all, because the urgency of my new life was so different from that simple world, where my greatest concern was a man who wanted things he shouldn’t from me.
I turned away from the water, my brother’s words flashing in my mind. I would have to die before I ever allowed the Fae to take me; my brother’s instructions for me had been clear. There’d been something else in his warning, something more menacing than I dared to even consider.
Caelum had convinced me that there was a reason to live, but he’d have to understand that I was better off dead than in Alfheimr, if the time ever came.
Pressing my face into his chest, I couldn’t bear to look at the water any longer. Couldn’t bear to stare at it and wonder if the tide had swept Brann out to sea and left him somewhere nearby.
The part of me that would always search for him wanted to scour the rocks below for any signs of a body, but I knew well enough to know that I wouldn’t find him.
I’d never see him again.
“I miss my family,” I murmured, feeling tears sting my eyes. I missed my mother and wondered if she was alright and being treated well in our absence. I missed the brother who had died trying to save me from a life of misery.
I missed the father they’d killed while I was a girl.
Caelum gripped the back of my neck gently, squeezing his fingers ever- so-slightly until he was able to pull my face out of his chest and stare down at my tear-streaked cheeks, as if he wanted to eradicate the very things that had hurt me.
He brushed a thumb over the falling tear, wiping it away as he pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’m your family now,” he said gently, the words soothing a small part of me that felt like a lone ship lost in the mist and floating without a destination.
I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t the same, that we would never truly be family to one another; not when we could be taken at any moment, and the thought of leaving a child behind was unfathomable. I couldn’t make myself say the words, though, wanting to sink into his assertion and believe in the distantly happy, if delusional, picture.
Even if just for a little while.
“I love you, my star. I think I’ve loved you since you put a knife to my throat. Nothing will ever change that,” he murmured, the words lighting something inside me aflame with a cold fire. They were impossible, but I couldn’t deny the way I felt in return.
“Melian says it isn’t possible for us to love anyone but our mates, because being Marked changed us,” I said, staring back at him. Giving him the opportunity to take back the words, even while I prayed he meant them.
I couldn’t imagine my life without him after only a few short weeks with him at my side, our bond ingrained in me so fully that I didn’t know who I would be without him anymore.
Caelum lowered his body down the wall outside the cave, taking me with him as he sat and leaned against it. Staring out at the water and pulling my head into his shoulder, he seemed to revel in the feeling of the sun on his skin and the freedom that came from being outside the tunnels.
“I have no doubt that Melian believes what she says,” Caelum said, taking my hand in his and lifting it to touch where his heart beat in his chest. “But I promise you, my heart beats for you.”
My resolve crumbled, falling around us as I stared into those obsidian eyes until the moment his lips touched mine. He kissed me softly, gently, as if I was the only thing precious in his world.
But I couldn’t say the words back yet, even though they resonated within me. To admit my love was to give him power over me, the power to hurt me, and I wasn’t ready for that last step just yet; not after enduring so much pain the last few weeks and so much I still didn’t know about him.
He pulled back, smiling down at me knowingly, not waiting for me to say the words back to him. “We have all the time in the world, Little One,” he said, settling in to feel the sun on his face.
“Will you tell me more about your life before the Veil dropped?” I asked, feeling like the question might give him the opportunity to open up to me more. If he could do that, then maybe I would be able to let go of the unrelenting fear that he would hurt me.
If I could know him, maybe I could let myself love him.
“What do you want to know?” he asked, his body stiffening for a moment before he forced it to relax. He shifted his legs, getting more comfortable, and I knew without a doubt that talking about his life wasn’t something he would do readily.
Everything I wanted to know about him, I would have to pry out of him with probing questions. “Anything. Did you have any siblings?” I asked, watching as he flinched.
“No. My birth mother never had any other children, and neither did my father. My step-mother did bear a child from another man out of wedlock,
but she disappeared when she was only a few weeks old,” he said, shrugging his shoulders as if it was inconsequential to him.
“That’s terrible. Did they ever figure out what happened to her?” I asked, swallowing back the sickness I felt over the thought of a child being stolen.
A baby, at that.
“No, but I have to think she was better off. My stepmother was a vile woman, and that poor girl would have suffered having her for a mother. I would know,” Caelum said, shuffling his legs once again.
“What about your birth mother? Did you ever meet her?” I asked, and he sighed, his eyes drifting closed.
“In passing. My family was involved in politics, as was my mother. Our paths crossed because of that frequently, but she always kept her distance because of my stepmother.”
“Nothing could keep me from my child,” I murmured, not pausing to consider that it sounded like his mother didn’t love him enough. It hadn’t been my intention.
“There are some evils in this world that use love against you. Keeping your distance is far safer in those circumstances. I hope you’re never put in that situation, my star,” Caelum said, not seeming to take offense to the words. “We should head back,” he added, sighing and getting to his feet. He left me with the distinct feeling that we would have stayed in the sun far longer had it not been for my difficult questions, but I couldn’t apologize for wanting to get to know the man who supposedly loved me.
He took my hand, guiding me into the tunnels once again and leaving the light of day at our backs. The descent into darkness seemed more jarring the second time, returning to shelter but leaving something else important behind. I wondered if it was the pulse of awareness coming from my mate, through his ability to feel me from somewhere out there. Hunting me. Searching for me throughout the Kingdom.
I swallowed, suddenly very happy to be returning to the warded tunnels that would protect us, as Caelum grabbed the torch off the wall. We headed toward the closest hatch to go to the lower levels, the silence of the caverns feeling like nothing out of the ordinary as we rounded the corner, me leaning my weight into Caelum’s side as we walked.
He froze solid at the intersection between two of the pathways, his grip tightening on my waist, and I followed his gaze, staring into the tunnel
straight ahead of us. I saw nothing, felt nothing, until the cavern shook with a force as a taloned foot appeared from the shadows further ahead.
A thick leg emerged next, the hulking form of a cave beast appearing from the darkness as it stepped into the circle of light from Caelum’s torch. He put it in my hand, wrapping my fingers around it as he reached for one of the swords strapped to his back at all times.
I stared on in horror as the creature’s face came into view, its glossy black eyes too large in its face. It had no lips, only two rows of enormous pointed teeth that protruded from its snout. It stretched out a hand covered in mottled gray skin, jagged and sharp nails at the end of almost human-like fingers. It stood on two legs, thighs as big as my torso, and its ears pointed like horns toward the sky through the hair that sprouted out of the top of its head. When it took another step, the tunnels shook, knocking me sideways with the force of that step as it opened its mouth and roared.
“Run!” Caelum ordered, pushing me toward the other tunnel that would lead to the hatch to get into the safety of the Resistance tunnels below.
“No!” I protested in spite of the fear surging through my body. Our vow stuck in my head.
We lived together. We died together.
“Estrella! Go NOW!” Caelum roared, something Other flashing briefly in his eyes as he leveled a glare at me. The creature charged at Caelum as my feet carried me away from the fight. I hadn’t even realized I’d made the decision to run, meaning to stay with him, but my legs moved against my will, terror thrumming through me as I raced down the corridor.
He was the best fighter I’d ever seen. If anyone could survive long enough for help to get to him, it was Caelum. I sped around one of the corners, dropping the torch as I fumbled with the hatch and tried desperately to heave it back. The stone was heavy, threatening to crush my fingers as I shoved it to the side and lowered myself in. The compulsion to flee left me the moment I was tucked within the tunnel hatch, leaving me gasping for breath as I turned to watch for Caelum.
I reached back up to grab the hatch, ready to seal it behind me at a moment’s notice. The roar of the cave beast echoed down the cavern toward me as I watched for any sign of life from Caelum.
Listening.
An animalistic roar answered the beast’s bray, thunderous and murderous, making the tunnel walls around me shake.
I stayed with my head poking out of the tunnel entrance, rooted to the spot and unable to move and get help as I watched the shadows dance in the distance. In terror, I watched the dark blood splash against the cave walls and heard heavy footfalls land on the ground with every step they took.
The fight continued on, giving me just a moment of hope that Caelum was still alive, but even if my body seemed unable to return to his side, I couldn’t leave him, either. When silence fell in the tunnel, I slid aside hatch the rest of the way and pulled myself up, staying close to the entrance in case what came around that corner was the beast that would haunt my nightmares.
The sounds of what had been fighting faded into the distinct squelching of tearing flesh, and my heart leapt into my throat with a strangled sob. I couldn’t make myself walk away, not even when blood ran down the tunnel toward me, staining the ground with the macabre scene.
I stepped forward, needing to see for myself that he was gone, disbelieving that my new reason for living had been taken, too. I didn’t know who I would be, what I would do without him, and I immediately regretted not giving him the words he’d said to me, not letting him know how I felt before I lost him.
Steady, soft footfalls came from around the corner of the tunnel. Caelum’s fingers gripped the cave wall as he pulled himself along around the bend and toward me. He was drenched in blood, his clothing stained and his hair turned red with the blood of the creature that seemed larger than life.
I raced forward, touching trembling fingers to the sides of his face. “What happened?” I asked, trying to glance around him to see what
remained of the cave beast.
“Dead,” he groaned, drawing my attention back to him. I dropped my eyes to his blood-stained tunic, peeling apart the fabric of his shirt where it gaped at the front. Three enormous slashes cut through his clothing from where the beast must have swiped at him, the skin torn and bleeding.
“You’re hurt,” I said, wrapping his arm over my shoulder. “You need a healer.”
“Not that bad,” Caelum said, shaking his head. “We aren’t human anymore, remember? It will heal.”
“What do you need?” I asked, helping him down the hatch and into the tunnels, pulling the stone closed over my head. We turned back toward the
main caverns, making our way toward the sure punishment, for his beating of Jensen, that would wait for us.
“To clean it before it heals,” he said. I nodded, trying not to think of what would wait for us as I guided him toward the bathing cavern. The risk of infection was far more important than the risk of other women seeing him naked.
I’d find a way to deal with the jealousy festering inside of me if it meant Caelum himself wouldn’t fester and die. “How are you alive? I don’t understand,” I murmured as we walked.
“Viniculum,” Caelum said, the explanation somehow making sense. I’d seen what mine could do, turning a man into a pile of snow, but where mine seemed to be connected to the winter, something in Caelum’s appeared delighted in the butchering of life.
In dismantling it bit by bit.
His hands were drenched in blood, as if his body had been as involved in the fight as the Faerie magic coursing through him. Or maybe it was his own blood staining his skin, his own blood and bits of flesh embedded under the edges of his nails.
We stepped into the bathing cavern, all attention turning to the man covered in gore as I guided him to the side of the pool. People scurried all around us as I tore his ruined tunic down the front, shoving the scraps of fabric off his shoulders and kneeling at his feet to tug off his boots and socks. He stumbled slightly as he untied the laces of his pants, shucking them down his thighs and stepping down the steps into the water.
Even bathed in blood, he cut an impressive figure that the women nearby couldn’t keep their eyes off of. “Estrella,” one of them said, stepping up beside me as I watched Caelum lower himself into the water. “Are you hurt?” she asked me, glancing down at my bloody clothing and my hands that were covered in Caelum’s blood.
Or the beasts. I didn’t even know.
“He protected me,” I said, shaking my head as he emerged from the surface of the water and turned to look at me. He pinned me with an intense stare, rubbing his hands over his skin to wipe away the worst of the blood.
“What happened?” the woman asked.
“We had an encounter with a cave beast above the tunnels,” I said, shaking my head. If I had it my way, we would never go on another excursion outside the protection the mountain offered. We’d live our lives
in peace without the violence above the surface. I couldn’t risk losing him again.
The woman nodded, her attention snagging on one of the men waiting at the mouth of the bathing cavern. He darted off, probably to alert the guards so they could make sure the tunnel entrances were secure.
“He’ll need help getting clean. He’s made it clear that no one but you is permitted to touch him,” she said, holding out a bar of soap for me to take.
I glanced around the cavern, at the men gathered in the room. Several of them were within the waters of the hot spring itself, others bathing in the mouth of the stream that led down into the cavern from the top of the mountain. The water cycled out the side of the bathing cavern, trailing slowly over the notch carved into the edge of the pool.
With a sigh, I held Caelum’s gaze as I kicked off my boots and socks while I untied the laces of my dress. I shoved the sleeves down off my shoulders, letting the fabric drop while I took the soap from her outstretched hand and tried to ignore the feeling of eyes on me.
Caelum’s eyes burned, glittering with menace as he challenged the men watching me with a glare. I stepped into the water slowly, letting the bath warm my overly chilled skin as I approached Caelum. I touched a hand to the gashes, gathering water to rinse it off with my hand, then lathering the soap so that I could wash it into his wound.
He caught my wrist in a gentle vice, stopping me from touching his skin. “I’m not in control right now, Little One. I won’t be gentle with you.”
I glanced around the cavern and the collection of people going about their business. Some still watched us, undoubtedly drawn by the red-stained enigma of a man at the center of the bathing pool. “There are people here,” I murmured, swallowing past my unease.
“Then I suggest you let me wash myself, unless you’re comfortable with having an audience,” Caelum rumbled. “And that you stay in this water. Because if I see your body one more time, if I watch them look at you again, I will not be held responsible for what I do to you. Is that clear, my star?”
I swallowed again, looking around once more and trying to decide if I could tolerate the feeling of eyes on me while Caelum fucked me. If I could allow men to see me in the throes of passion with him.
The idea of women staring at him bothered me, but it was somehow okay when it was tempered with the knowledge that they’d only see him
before he plunged into me. Then they’d see me own him, claim him, as mine.
I drew a ragged breath, lifting my eyes to meet Caelum’s intense stare where he searched my face for any sign of what would be my answer.
I touched my hand to his chest.
