What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(59)

They’d continue to do so now that I was here.

A familiar smirk claimed Caldris’s face, his eyes softening in the way that I’d come to recognize he reserved for me and only me. His mother hadn’t received the same affection, that same indication of the love that thrummed along the thread between us.

Only me.

I sighed, my shoulders slumping with relief. I hadn’t even paused to consider the tension in them, the way my body coiled tighter and tighter with every moment that passed in which I was kept away from him. It wasn’t natural to have that distance now that I’d accepted what he was to me. I wanted to live the rest of my life held within the safe haven of his arms. He was the only being in this world who had ever managed to make me feel protected without suffocating me. The only one who encouraged me to accept the parts of me that terrified others.

The only one who loved me, monster and all.

The jagged pieces of my heart found a home in his, our souls interlocking.

A male I didn’t recognize stopped at his side, but I didn’t pause before I stepped into the arms that Caldris spread in perfect time, our bodies moving like two halves of one whole. Those muscular arms closed around me immediately, clamping me against his chest so tightly that I felt like I may never breathe again.

But his scent filled my lungs, the smell of home settling inside my soul. When he finally spoke, the gruff words torn from a hoarse throat, it was only to murmur a quiet, “my star.” They weren’t the purposeful declarations of love he’d given to convince me of his love for me, but the weight of those words settled in me all the same.

The thread between us pulled taut when Malachi grasped my shoulder, tugging me back out of Caldris’s grip. Then his other hand went to the collar at my throat. He gripped it, wrapping his hand around the iron as if the burning of his flesh mattered little to him.

The male I didn’t know stepped between Caldris and me, his silver eyes holding mine as I snarled. He only grinned, something deep and dark lingering in that stare as he studied me. It wasn’t the same as the malicious smile I’d come to recognize in Mab and her loyal children; rather, genuine amusement at the feral agitation that existed within me when being forcibly separated from the mate I wanted to take to bed.

“It has been a long time since I was able to observe the nature of a mate bond,” he said, a chuckle leaving his throat.

Caldris’s gaze remained pinned on Malachi, on the male who held my collar in his grip, instead of the one who approached me slowly.

“So this is the mate of our mighty Caldris.”

Reaching up with a single hand, he grasped my chin between two fingers. His hold was firm enough to tip my face up to meet his stare where he towered over me. His height was so similar to that of my mate that I had to look up, and up, and up to meet his eyes. The green of his eyes glittered like emeralds as he studied me, the smirk fading off his face as he seemed to try to peer inside my soul.

The beast stirred under my skin, pacing as her coldness swept behind my eyes. The male blinked as if he could see it, then that smirk returned. He finally took a step back and slapped Caldris on the shoulder. My mate shifted with the touch, shooting an eye roll toward the male who stood beside him. The casualness in that gesture settled the nervous part of me in our interaction.

“Estrella, this is my cousin Soren,” Caldris said, introducing the male.

“The God of Twilight at your service, Princess,” Soren said, waving his hand in the flourish of a bow. His eyes held mine as he dipped low, that smirk that was so like my mate’s playing at his mouth.

“Cousin?” I asked. I hadn’t stopped to consider that Caldris might have had family beyond his mother—a foolish and ignorant thought, considering the centuries of life separating our births.

“My father’s nephew,” Caldris admitted, sliding his hands into the pockets of his trousers. There was something so ashamed about the gesture, the fact that I knew so little of his life washing over both of us at the same time.

It didn’t matter, I told myself.

All that mattered was how much I loved him. The family that may or may not work for Mab was secondary to that.

“Are you quite finished?” Malachi growled at my back, tightening his grip on my collar and tugging it back until it dug into the front of my throat. A growl worked its way up my throat, and my head turned so I could bare my teeth at him.

Soren waved a hand, unbothered by Malachi’s impatience, as he stepped away from Caldris’s side. “Mab would like you to know that the blight are observing your every move and will report to her far faster than you can make any attempt to save your mate’s life, should you decide to misbehave. You are not to leave Malachi’s nor my sight while aiding Caldris with the task given to you to assist in the preparations for the Solstice,” he said, glancing over my shoulder to Malachi. “Did I get everything? I covered the usual doom and gloom, yes?”

Malachi grunted, his distaste for Soren evident in every motion of his body as he jerked me closer toward him. His hand pressed into the magic of the lock of my collar, the mechanism hissing with air as it dropped and separated. Malachi was quick to snatch it up, wrapping it within a piece of cloth he pulled from his fur-lined cloak and tucking it into the pocket.

“Get to work,” he grunted, nodding his head toward the crest of the hilltop.

Caldris held out a hand for me, and I was left to step toward him as my power rushed in my veins. With each step, it filled me. With each step, the creature within me rose to the surface, the golden threads of fate lingering in every direction I looked.