What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(25)

“Find her!” Lord Byron shouted behind us, and Brann and I exchanged a quick glance before we picked up our pace.

I could barely make out his features as he ran by my side, barely see my hand in front of my face with the darkness spreading across the sky. My cloak slipped as I hurried, dropping away from my neck, and the sudden burst of white light that filled the trees drew a startled gasp from me as I stumbled.

Any doubt I might’ve had whether the magic of Faerie had claimed me was gone in that moment.

The rest of my left arm burned, a line trailing down from my neck until even my fingers felt like they’d been lit on fire. I watched as black and luminous white swirls appeared on my wrist, giving way to a black moon that covered the top of my hand as I came to a complete halt in the middle of the clearing.

My legs stopped moving. They stopped listening to my brain entirely as I pulled my unmarked hand away from Brann and met his eyes with fear. “Estrella, what are you doing?!”

“They won’t stop,” I said, a ragged breath leaving me with the realization. They would hunt me down until they found me, kill anyone who helped me, and burn entire cities to keep me from being taken by the Fae who would make me his consort.

From the Fae who would become stronger with his mate at his side.

“We’ll deal with that later. Please,” he said, reaching out to take my hand once again. I knew without a doubt that all I would achieve by running with him was to put him in danger, and I couldn’t risk his life for this.

Even if we managed to get away. Even if the Fae didn’t cross the Mist, what kind of life could he have on the run with me? What kind of life could our mother have without either of us to take care of her?

“I love you,” I whispered. Taking his hand in mine, I squeezed one last time and then pushed him so hard he stumbled back into the brush on the edge of the narrow path and disappeared beneath the massive fern leaves.

The footsteps that sounded behind me seemed to loosen my feet, letting me turn slowly to face the guards who had watched me grow up. Who had known me when I’d been nothing more than a child, and would still put a blade through my heart without hesitation, ensuring that I would never reincarnate. There would be no more lives for me, not with my soul destroyed along with my heart.

The Fae could never be allowed to have their human consorts, in this life or the next. Of all the myths that had been lost over the centuries, all the legends, and the reasons and the whys, that one truth remained.

When a Fae took his human consort, the consequences were devastating.

“Gods,” Loris murmured as he stared at me, and I felt the glowing marks on my skin pulse in response to his words, as if they’d awakened something within me. “Is that…” he trailed off, and my heart dropped into my stomach when he seemed like he didn’t dare to speak of that which had marked my skin.

Of the monster who sought to own me.

I didn’t know enough of the legends, because only the guards needed to know the specifics of what they might face when the Fae finally broke through the Veil. The rest of us knew only what they deemed necessary.

When the Fae crossed the Veil once more, all would be lost.

“Kill her. Quickly,” one of the oldest guards said as he came up behind the younger two. The one at Loris’s side was his friend, someone I’d seen him with often during his hours on duty. “Don’t let her suffer,” the older man said, and tears stained my cheeks as I turned back to Loris and our eyes connected.

“Loris,” I said, swallowing past the lump in my throat. I didn’t have many friends, particularly not within the Mist Guard, since they were considered above and beyond the trivialities of man. But he’d been one of the few I trusted—enough to let him have my body, and to know about the nighttime walks in the woods, and to share those moments when I shed the roles I was expected to fill and just became me.

The betrayal threatened to cleave my heart in two, even knowing that he was right in his purpose. There was no point in escaping, because the alternative was a fate worse than death.

Being found by the Fae.

“I can’t,” he said, shaking his head and turning back to face his superior, staring into the face of the man who had trained him and been all but a father to him over the years.

“You will,” he ordered. “She’s not the girl you knew anymore. Now she’s nothing more than some Fae bastard’s whore.”

I winced, feeling those words resonate somewhere deep within me. My Mark revolted, writhing and twisting inside me as if it had a rage all its own, and I shoved it down. That was my future, if I lived. Death would be a blessing.

Loris stepped forward, his face twisting into a pained grimace when I made no move to run from the fate that was coming for me. The ferns at the edge of the path rustled as Brann moved, vaulting to his feet when he realized Loris intended to follow through. I pinned my brother with a look, trying to communicate the inevitability of what was coming.

“I’m sorry,” Loris said, and the pain in his voice left me with no doubt that his words were sincere. But duty came first.

“Me too,” I said, wishing it could have been anyone else. I had no relationship with any of the other Mist Guards and generally thought they were terrifying and cold.

But he’d been different.

He swallowed, lunging forward with his sword and looking to the side, as if he couldn’t bear to watch as he fulfilled his duty. I lifted my hands instinctively, flinching back from the impending blow with a shudder.