What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(107)
His willingness to leave them to die was wrong. It spoke of something lacking within him, that he didn’t care enough to save them, but he didn’t do it out of heartlessness.
He did it because he loved me. Because my life was all that mattered.
“I don’t want to leave them,” I murmured, keeping my face gentle as I stared back at Caelum and silently begged for him to understand. Those people were like me. They were what might have become of me, if he hadn’t found me and saved me.
They needed a Caelum to protect them, and for once in my life, I wanted to be a part of something bigger. I wanted to be one of the ones helping instead of the person who needed rescued.
Caelum clenched his jaw tight, the frustration bringing out his chiseled square jawline. “If you get hurt…” His narrowed gaze and the fury rolling off of him were just as threatening as any words he could have uttered.
He would blame any and everyone involved, whether it was Melian or the Mist Guard. I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of that wrath. He closed the distance between us, laying a hand on the side of my neck. His thumb tipped my head up, uncaring of the audience of four, who watched us intently.
“You will not do anything foolish or put yourself at risk. Do you understand me?” I narrowed my eyes, attempting to tear my neck away from his grip, but he followed.
His eyes flashed with warning, as if pushing him too hard on this would be a fatal mistake. “Caelum,” I said, my voice dropping into a low warning of my own in response.
“You will do as I tell you to do, or I will drag you back to the tunnels, even if I have to carry you,” he said, crowding his body into mine as he towered over me. “And if you growl at me again, I can tell you exactly what we’ll be doing the moment we get there.”
I swallowed past the desire his low threat created, my throat dry as I forced myself to concede. “Fine.” In addition to the Fae Marked hiding in Calfalls, my curiosity about the legendary Ruined City itself served to drive me forward. The destruction caused by the God of the Dead during the war had been the perfect cautionary tale to make us fear the Fae.
“I don’t have good feelings about his resolve to get the lot of us through Tradesholde alive,” Jensen said with a grimace, turning away from us as if he couldn’t stand to watch the display any longer. Melian’s personal guards, Beck and Duncan, followed after him in stoic silence, grabbing the pile of brush that disguised a boat tied to a tree by the shoreline.
“Get in if you’re coming; turn back if you’re not, but stay out of my way,” Melian barked at Caelum as the three men turned it around and held it steady at the shore. She climbed into the large rowboat, taking the front seat and looking out over the strait.
“Shouldn’t we at least wait for daylight?” I asked.
“Until we have the cover of trees, moving at night is better. We’ll find a place to sleep for the night on the other side of Tradesholde,” Beck answered, climbing in after Melian. I followed after him, moving to the middle seat with Caelum at my side. Jensen and Duncan took up the rear, pushing the boat off the shoreline as they hurried to scramble inside. Melian passed back oars, handing one to Caelum and Jensen respectively so the two men could paddle on opposite sides.
The current threatened to sweep us away, even in the place where the strait widened and it became less forceful. I wrapped my fingers around the edge of the boat, looking over the side into the dark waters beneath us.
It was as if there was no bottom, and it plunged into a chasm that connected to the home of tortured souls who displeased The Father and The Mother. The bridge across the strait wasn’t far enough away to leave me with any sense of comfort, knowing that one strong current would be all it took to expose us to the Mist Guard waiting downstream.
The walled city on the other side of the strait was bigger than anything I’d ever seen, jutting up out of the barren landscape with gleaming torches to light the stone. It made the Mist Guard fortress at home seem like a playhouse, and it wasn’t even the capitol.
We hurried out of the boat the moment we touched the shore on the other side, the men rushing to cover it with brambles to the side of the beach area. Jensen swore as one caught the skin of his wrist, drawing it into his mouth to stem the flow of blood before he could leave a red stain on the snow.
“Let’s go!” Melian whispered, taking my forearm in her grip. She pulled me toward the stone wall of the city, shoving a moss-covered stone out of the way to reveal a narrow passage. We stepped inside the darkened tunnel, the walls oppressive as the men followed behind us and pulled the cover closed to disguise the entrance.
“How do you know about this?” I asked, keeping my voice quiet.
“Cover your marks,” she said, urging Caelum, Jensen, and I to pull our hoods tighter about our necks as she did the same. Beck and Duncan weren’t Fae Marked, and far more able to pass any inspection the Mist Guard might make if we were caught. “The Ladies of the Night might not be treated well above the surface, but they see everything. The Lord of Tradesholde likes opium, and this is one of the ways he sneaks it into the city.”
Lord Byron had done the opposite, allowing his companions to enter through the front door and pass by his wife in the sitting room as they went to service him. I was his only dirty secret; the only one he bothered to hide.
It made sense, as he couldn’t have married me if the High Priest thought he’d already played with me.