What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(48)
“We should reach the mountains by the end of the day,” he said, taking his hand away from my cheek where it lingered and lowering the one from his cloak when I didn’t push to return the garment to him. “We’ll stay close to their bases as we travel, and there’ll be caves we can hide out in at night. Fires will help us stay warm as the weather gets cooler,” he explained, taking my hand in his and turning back to continue the way we’d been traveling.
His long legs had to move considerably slower than seemed natural for him so I could keep up, but he didn’t seem to mind as he kept my hand clutched in his and swung it between us casually. As if we were a married couple out for a stroll in the pre-dusk hours, and not two Fae Marked humans on the run for our lives.
“Okay, but what will we do when the snow comes?” I asked, glancing down at the dress I wore and his thin trousers and tunic. Even if we’d both had cloaks, they would do nothing when we were trudging through waist-deep snow in freezing temperatures with the wind howling through the trees. We needed protection from the elements and layers of blankets and a fire if we were going to survive.
“Before the snow comes, we’ll find a safe place to wait out the worst of the season. We won’t have a choice. Our tracks in the snow will just lead the Mist Guard right to us,” he said. “We probably have a week before we have to worry about the snow if the weather holds. We can put some decent distance between us and the boundary before then.”
The words he didn’t speak hung between us, a harsh reminder of the one undeniable truth. A lot could happen in a few weeks, and we’d need to survive them before we had to worry about where we would be for the winter.
Even if the thought of hiding out in a cave with him for an entire season, with nothing to do, did make my stomach flutter. No interruptions and no worry of someone stumbling across us. No awkward fumbling to get dressed if we heard people on the trail.
Just the two of us.
I shook my head, blushing when I noted Caelum’s attention fixated on me as he walked. He smirked, as if he could sense the direction my thoughts had gone, then he took pity on me, clearing his throat with a chuckle and turning his attention back toward the path we walked through the woods. “Tell me about your family. Was it just you and your brother?” he asked, his face solemn and sympathetic as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.
“My mother too,” I said. “But we had to leave her behind. My birth was difficult, and her legs just can’t support her anymore, so she told us to run after I was Marked.” I sighed, wishing I could turn back and make sure she was safe, but my presence would only put her in danger all over again if I dared, because the Mist Guard wouldn’t hesitate to use family against me if it meant ridding the Kingdom of one more of the Fae Marked.
I shuffled my feet as I walked, dragging them through the leaves in a small protest that my steps continued to take me farther and farther from her and the life I’d known. “Your father?” Caelum asked, his brow furrowed.
With no mention of him in my first response, he had to know there was no happy ending where he was concerned. “Dead. Sacrificed to the Veil when I was a girl,” I answered, my hand unconsciously rising to feel the spot on my throat where the High Priest’s blade had touched me. The wound was gone, and I swallowed past the reminder that I wasn’t entirely human any longer.
“Sacrificed to the Veil,” he said slowly, as if he were turning the idea over in his mouth and trying to decide what to make of it. He tightened his grip on my hand momentarily, apparently brushing off whatever thought had consumed him. “I’m sorry, Little One.”
“It was a long time ago,” I responded, ignoring the flash of pain in my chest, as if time could ease the loss of someone so monumental in my life. My ghosts followed me wherever I went, my grief for them hanging over my head as a constant reminder of how fleeting life could be.
Even so, I didn’t open up and mention that I’d been about to suffer the same fate, or that I’d touched the magical fabric of the Veil in the moments before it fell.
It couldn’t have been my fault. Even so, no one could know what I’d done; I’d touched it in the moments just prior to it shattering. Not if I wanted to live without the blame people would place upon my shoulders.
“The memory of the people who matter to us never leave, no matter how many years pass,” he said, pausing until I met his gaze from the corner of my eye. Something dangerous shifted behind his stare, a dark reminder of how little I actually knew about the man who’d become my travel companion. “Never hesitate to own your love for them, and to make it known that you miss them every day.”
I smiled despite myself, curving my lips up at the corners as he watched the subtle movement. “Who is it that you miss every day? A girlfriend?” I asked, wishing I could mentally stab myself in the mouth.
That was not the kind of question I’d intended to ask to get to know him better, completely inappropriate considering I had no intentions of trying to fill that void if there was one.
Gods. Just kill me.
“I wouldn’t call her a girlfriend, so much. The relationship we had was complicated at best, distant if I’m honest. But things have changed. I don’t miss her anymore,” he admitted. “Relationships are like that. Constantly evolving and changing. Not like family.”
“No. Not like family,” I said, thinking of Loris. While I wouldn’t call him anything more than a friend, in spite of our sexual relations, I’d cared for him in my own way.