What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(90)

“When did you see the Wild Hunt?” she asked, going still.

“After the Veil fell. They almost found my brother and me, and then again a few nights later,” I explained. Her eyes drifted closed as she undoubtedly put together the pieces.

I’d had a brother with me. I didn’t anymore.

“Caelum saved me,” I said, giving her a soft smile and knowing it would partially explain my attachment to him. I’d have been taken by the Fae if he hadn’t intervened; already in the arms of the mate I didn’t want.

She nodded, turning to regard Caelum less severely than she usually did. “No. The Wild Hunt comes from the Shadow Court and is tasked with collecting the Fae Marked to bring back to Alfheimr. The Old Gods are humanoid, the children and sometimes grandchildren of the Primordials. The children of the Old Gods are known as the Sidhe. The Sidhe and the Old Gods look just like us, except more,” she said, her voice dropping lower.

“More what?” I asked, allowing her to guide my arm through the proper motions of swinging my practice sword.

“More everything.”





Sweat soaked my skin as Caelum led me through the tunnels. We went higher, climbing toward the surface but on a different path than the one we’d taken when we first joined the Resistance.

“Where are we going?” I asked, glancing over at him. His body was positioned slightly in front of mine as he approached one of the hatches that led from the hidden tunnels up into the caves themselves. This one had steps carved into the rock wall, enabling him to release my hand and climb up so he could shift the stone cover off the hole.

“Somewhere we can get cleaned up without an audience to watch,” he answered, hauling himself up and out of the tunnel. “Come on.”

I slipped my hands into the holes in the wall, lifting myself up and letting my feet follow. Caelum’s hand waited for me when I reached the top, taking hold of me and lifting me free from the tunnel. He replaced the hatch, taking my wrist in one hand to entwine our fingers together.

With his other hand, he unsheathed a sword, gripping it tightly as the distant rumble of cave beasts came from the caves to the left. Caelum led me to the right, seeming sure in his steps.

As if he knew exactly where to go.

“Is it safe? What about the warding?” I asked, my worry overwhelming me. The last thing I wanted was to lead the Fae right to us just because I was a little shy with my own nudity.

“We can’t come up here every day by any means, but it’s safe to do every now and then as a special treat,” he answered, guiding me up a set of steps carved into the stone, which curved around a central beam.

When we finally emerged into the light of the moon, it was to a small, private hot spring hidden on a ledge next to the mountain. The air that met me when we stepped out onto the ground was harsh and cold compared to the insulated tunnels, a single gust of wind instantly making my cheeks burn.

Resting just inside the doorway to the caves was a basket filled with tiny bars of soap, and Caelum grabbed one of them on the way out. He set it at the edge of the pool, unknotting the laces at the top of his tunic as he faced me.

I swallowed, fearing I wouldn’t like the answer. “How did you know about this place?”

His fingers paused for a moment, his head tilting to the side as a smirk graced his lips. “Jealous, Little One?”

Nausea churned in my gut. I’d left shortly after Melian worked with me until the muscles in my arms felt so tired I couldn’t lift my practice sword any longer, my increased muscle mass since becoming Fae Marked only going so far with hours of repetition.

It appeared he’d been busy in the time since I’d left him earlier in the day. I’d spent the rest of it translating pages and pages of texts until my hand cramped and my fingers swelled from how I gripped the quill.

“I think I’ll take my chances in the bathing cavern,” I said, swallowing back the urge to be sick. All of Melian’s words came rushing back; all of my reminders to myself that I couldn’t satisfy him.

I’d known exactly what would happen and still let him convince me otherwise.

Caelum chuckled, stepping toward me as he tugged the tunic over his head and deposited it on the ground next to him. “You get this twitch underneath your left eye when you think I’d let someone else play with me,” he said, moving forward until he reached out and touched his thumb to the spot in question. “I think it might be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Fuck you,” I snarled, jerking my head away from his hand. If he thought I’d sit around and allow him to be with other women without ever allowing another man to touch me, he had another think coming.

We could be faithful, or we could not be. But whatever standards he set would go both ways, even if that meant I had to swallow my nausea and go find Jensen to take him up on his offer to be my first romp within the Resistance.

Caelum grinned, grasping my chin between two fingers and tipping my head up so that he could stare down at me intently. “No one but you has touched me since we first met.”

“Then how did you know about this place? I can just imagine what it’s used for,” I said, trying not to allow all his bare, golden skin to distract me. I wouldn’t be dumbstruck by a handsome face and sculpted muscle.

I was more than a body without a brain.

“There were offers,” he said, making me swallow down my rising rage once more.