What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(73)

“If you would like to hide out in these caves like animals, be my guest. But I can offer you something you’ll never find on your own,” Melian said.

“What’s that?” Caelum asked, glaring at the woman who dared to show no concern for the fact that he could probably gut her before she so much as blinked.

“A safe place to rest your head. A place to live without fear,” she answered. “A bed with blankets and food to fill your belly. We’ll give you a few minutes to discuss it between yourselves. If you decide you’d like to come with us, we’ll be around the corner.” She nodded to her companions, supervising as they picked their weapons up off the ground.

The man I’d disarmed stood when I removed my foot from his wrist, accepting the sword I handed back to him with a tentative smile. They followed Melian as she walked around the corner, leaving Caelum and I to stare at one another from across the distance between us.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his chest rising and falling as if it took everything he had to control himself and push back the anger he’d felt when we were ambushed.

“I’m fine,” I said. Even if there had been a brief moment where I wondered if we’d find a way out of our predicament, they hadn’t successfully hurt me.

The thought of them hurting Caelum was almost laughable.

“Good,” he said, bending down to pick up the blanket that had been left on the floor when they’d pulled him away from me in our sleep. He shoved it into our pack, forcing the rest of his belongings into it and slinging it across his back. “Let’s go.”

He made his way toward the entrance to the cave, going in the opposite direction of Melian and the others. “Wait, what?” I asked, hurrying after him and grabbing his hand. “You said you were hoping they would find us. If they can give us a safe place, we have to take it.”

“That was before they put a sword to your heart, Estrella. We can’t trust them.” He sighed, glancing back toward the rebels. I knew without a doubt he was curious about them.

It seemed unfathomable to consider that they’d existed before the Veil had shattered, but there hadn’t been time to organize anything in the days since.

“You can’t blame them for being cautious. If they weren’t, they’d probably be dead by now. They didn’t hurt us,” I said, tugging him back toward where they’d headed. He nodded, but his expression remained guarded and torn. As if he couldn’t come up with a genuine excuse why we should keep our distance, he looked back in their direction.

“If they give me a bad feeling, we leave. No questions; you do what you’re told, Little One,” he said, earning a glare from me.

“I’ve had enough of men telling me what to do. I thought you were better than that,” I said, tugging on my hand to try to get him to release it. If he thought I’d go back to being nothing more than a plaything and the property of a man, I’d leave and take my chances without him.

Freedom was more important than love, even if my heart did stall with the realization that I suspected love was exactly what I felt for Caelum.

“When I tell you to do something, it is because I want to keep you safe. Not because I want to tell you what to do. There’s a difference, Estrella. You can be whoever you want to be, as long as you are safe when you do it,” he said, the timbre of his voice dropping low enough that I knew he meant it.

“I suppose being at your side is a requirement too?” I asked, glaring at him as he took my hand in his and adjusted his grip.

“Not a requirement so much as very strongly encouraged,” he said, guiding me toward where the Resistance had disappeared. They waited around the corner as Melian had said they would, lifting torches off the ground and lighting them with the flint they pulled from their pockets.

Rumbling came up from the depths of the tunnels as Melian turned and led the way with one of the men on either side of her. At the insistence of the remaining three men, Caelum and I followed after her with the others taking up the rear. Caelum’s discomfort was palpable, hanging between us as he squeezed my hand tighter in his.

“What’s that noise?” I asked, turning to face him as the rumble seemed to grow louder with every moment that passed.

“Cave beasts,” Melian said from the front. She held a sword clutched in her hand, the others armed as well. Caelum’s had never left his hand, and I felt strangely naked without one of my own. I pulled the dagger free from Caelum’s sheathe strapped to his thigh, holding it tightly in my grasp.

“What happens if they find us?” I asked, glancing back to the men behind me.

Jensen met my gaze, a sly smile transforming his face. “We fight. You aren’t scared, are you, pretty? I’m happy to protect you, but you should know there are much scarier things in the woods now with the Veil down. Cave beasts are the least of your concerns.” His hand came down on my shoulder, making me glance down at the intrusion in disdain.

“If you value that hand, you will remove it immediately,” Caelum growled, his voice echoing through the narrow tunnel as Melian stopped in her tracks and stared back at the altercation behind her.

“Or what, pretty boy?” Jensen asked, raising an eyebrow at Caelum in challenge.

“Or I will sever it from your wrist and give it to her as a token of my affection,” Caelum responded, his lips peeling back from his teeth ever so slightly even as the tunnel seemed to cool with the rising tension between the two men.