What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(108)
Caelum wrapped his arm around my back supportively, ducking low to keep from hitting his head on the roof of the low tunnel carved into the very foundation of the city. Water streamed through it, serving as a drain for the streets inside the city, trickling over the rock base as we slowly made our way through. With Melian at the lead and her men taking up the rear behind us, I kept my hand near the dagger strapped to my thigh, ready to draw it at the first sign of a fight.
Melian turned back when she reached the end of the tunnel, her gaze landing on each of us momentarily before she spoke softly. “The tunnel to exit Tradesholde is by the stables on the other side. If we’re separated, look for a stone cover carved with poppies on the right edge. It’s another way they deliver the Lord his opium supply.”
Beck and Duncan squeezed past us and stepped up beside her, shoving their shoulders into the cover in front of the entrance to the city. It slid to the side, slowly opening to reveal the quiet street of a city at night. Cobblestone lined the walkway at his feet as Duncan stepped out, looking around carefully before he waved a hand and summoned Melian and Beck to follow. Jensen followed in a hurry, not wasting any time with us. “Move,” he ordered, starting to heave the cover closed as Caelum and I emerged into the darkened city. Melian nodded once before she and the other men darted off, hurrying through the city as if they knew the way well.
“You stay with me,” Caelum growled as we tried to follow, his voice dropping low in a commanding reminder.
Melian’s concerns nagged at the back of my mind, joining with the questions I’d asked myself the night before, which had driven me to the library for more information. Despite my assurances to Melian, I couldn’t help but wonder about the man at my side. How he’d come to find me, why he’d cared enough to follow me that night the Wild Hunt attacked Brann and I, and how he’d come to know about the Resistance.
I looked up at Caelum, finding his gaze heavy on my face as he studied me intently. He took my hand as he pulled me through the streets, navigating as though he expected something to jump out and attack at any moment. Even so, suspicion still lurked in his eyes, as if he could see through my assurances and knew the doubt I’d warred with since he killed the cave beast.
Something had changed in our relationship in that moment, and Caelum damn well knew it.
“Is there something you want to talk about, my star?” Caelum asked, tilting his head to the side as he drew in a breath.
“Just nervous,” I lied, feeling the need to protect my thoughts from him. I couldn’t say what Caelum would do if he discovered I’d wondered about his intentions and his obsession with me, but whatever it was, I didn’t think it would be good, and the walls closed in around me some more.
“You could have stayed in the safety of the Resistance,” he remarked, tugging me around a corner as Melian and the others melted into one of the alleyways in the distance. “You’d be warm and comfortable there, waiting for me to wake you up with my cock.”
“Is that all you care about now? I am more than just something for you to fuck,” I said, my voice dropping low. I loved his innuendos and his desire for me, but in the moments when I had to wonder about the intensity of our relationship, the last thing I wanted was to feel as if I didn’t matter beyond the hole between my legs.
He stopped in the middle of the alleyway, looking down to glare at me in warning. “Trust me when I tell you that I know exactly what you’re worth, Little One. I know exactly how irreplaceable you are. That is why I would much rather see you waiting back in the tunnels, safe and sound where nothing can take you away from me,” he said, leaning forward to touch his lips to my forehead in a tender moment.
I tried to shrug off Melian’s concerns and the way they’d melded with mine, creating a symphony of worry inside of me that I couldn’t seem to shake. I sensed that I was dancing on the edge of something, missing what was right in front of my face.
“I don’t know what I’ve done to make you mistake me for a woman of leisure, Caelum, but I most certainly am not,” I said primly as my lips curved up, watching as his brow smoothed in the face of my sudden sass and the dissipation of the tension from a moment before.
“Not yet, anyway. I’d very much like to see you live a comfortable life one day,” he said, stepping up to the corner of an alley. He peeked around it, guiding me out onto the main street as we followed the shadows of Melian and her men in the distance. He walked at my back as I crossed the open space, hugging the shadows outside the circles of torchlight. I drew my dagger from its sheath and clutched it in my hand, taking comfort in the small blade that drew less attention than a sword would have.
Every set of eyes that fell on me from the windows of the homes lining the street felt like they would sound the alarm, like they would turn us in out of fear they might suffer the consequences of our freedom. We ducked into another narrow cross street, leaving me to breathe a sigh of relief at being less exposed.
“Are we going to talk about what you’re keeping from me?” Caelum whispered, his voice hushed as he walked at my back. I inhaled raggedly, the chilly air filling my lungs as I didn’t dare to look back at him.
“I’m not keeping anything from you,” I said, as I glanced toward a darkened corner of the alley and felt the sweet relief of nothing staring back at me.
We came to the mouth of the crossroad, Caelum pressing his spine into the wall at his back as he chanced a glance out into another main road. He raised two fingers, signaling me to hurry across the cobblestone roadway and into the alley on the opposite side. Once there, I waited, watching as Caelum ducked low and hurried to catch up behind me.