What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(113)

“But how did he survive if they stabbed him with iron?” I asked, jumping to the first stone as she moved forward. I focused on my balance, trying to deny my interest in her words as Caelum hovered behind me, making sure I didn’t fall and get lost to the deadly drop of the falls.

“The knowledge that iron could be used against them was new, and it wasn’t clearly known that he needed to be stabbed in the heart. they weakened him with the blades they left in his body, so that he lost consciousness for hours while they mutilated what they believed to be his corpse. But he awoke again that night and managed to get free, crawling to a dark corner to heal the worst of his injuries and knit his flesh back together. They discovered him missing the next morning, and he sought his revenge for what they’d done by laying waste to the entire city and everyone in it.”

I ignored the sympathy that thrummed through my chest, shoving down the moment of wondering what I would have done in that situation. It was impossible to know if he was a cruel God before they’d turned their backs on him, but to wake to a mutilated body…

I shuddered as I jumped to the next stone. “But why did they turn on him in the first place? Was he cruel to them?”

“He allowed them to worship him, even knowing that he was not worthy of such a thing. The Fae allowing us to lay sacrifices at their feet? To prostate ourselves before them; it was a deception. They may be the children of the Primordials, but we were created by a Primordial just the same. Why should they be above us?” Melian said.

I ignored the clear imbalance of power that must have led to centuries of building tension. “What did they do to him?” I asked, swallowing past the nausea swirling in my gut.

“Perhaps some things are better left in the past, my star,” Caelum said gently, jumping onto the stone behind me as I navigated the dozen that created the path across the river.

“Aside from hanging him up like a piece of meat?” Melian asked with a bitter chuckle as she gladly continued on with the story she clearly believed all of humanity should take pride in.

The time they’d bested the God of the Dead, but at what cost?

“They pulled his legs from his body and sawed through the cock he loved so much and fed it to the pigs. They disemboweled him, letting his guts hang down to the ground from where he hung, and tore his piercing blue eyes from his skull before they let the birds peck at his eye sockets.”

“That’s horrible,” I said, holding steady against the glare that she aimed at me.

“How could you think that a man capable of this deserved anything less?” she asked, jumping from the last stone to the shore on the other side of the river. I followed after her, wondering if Melian and I had as much in common as I’d initially hoped. No matter that the Fae were my enemy, no matter what they had in store for me, I was not and would never be capable of cruelty like that. “He is the reason we now burn our dead. He raised them from their graves and ordered them to attack the living. His army only grew more and more with every death, and when there was no one living left, he had them destroy entire buildings. They buried themselves in rubble, one by one, and made the city a tomb.”

“If we were capable of doing something like that to a male we thought was dead, were we ever really any better?” I asked, sighing when Caelum lent me the warmth of his hand on top of my shoulder in silent support.

I wanted to wither when Melian pierced me with one of the fiercest glares she usually saved for Caelum, but she rolled her eyes and turned on her heel. “I would think someone like you would understand what it is to be beaten down by someone more powerful than you,” she said, in reference to my scars she’d seen in confidence. “What would you do to get retribution against the man who wronged you?”

I paused, considering all that I’d suffered at Lord Byron’s hand, and his command as an extension, mulling over the need for revenge I’d felt once. There’d been a time when I wanted nothing more than to watch him suffer for everything he’d done to me.

Now the idea of it just made me tired.

“Nothing,” I answered, shocked at the revelation. “I’m free. That’s all the revenge I need.” The words hung between us as she and Beck angled toward the pathway at the edge of the cliff, where the waterfall disappeared to pour into the plunge pool below. The pathway zigzagged down the rocky cliff face, the steepness of it taking my breath away.

The trail was narrow, forcing us to walk in single file as we descended from the top and picked our way down into the valley of the city. I trailed my hand over the rocks at my side, hugging them as tightly as I dared and staying away from the sheer drop on the other side. Melian walked in front of me as she followed Beck with quick, assured steps. Her body was a testament to the training she’d endured through her life, fine-tuned muscle that gave her the confident stance I wished I had.

“If you so much as twitch toward that edge, I swear to Gods I will tie you up and drag you behind me, Estrella,” Caelum ordered, following closely behind me.

“I don’t have a death wish today,” I said, glancing over my shoulder to smile at his unamused face.

“Tell that to every cliff or hill you’ve ever met,” he grumbled, his hand remaining only a few inches away from mine, as if he could catch me and save me from falling if I really did decide to try to fly.

“Being around you two is absolutely maddening,” Melian groaned. “Not every word you speak to one another needs to be flirtatious.”