What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(27)
“Estrella!” Brann hissed in a whisper, and his booted foot touched my knee as he felt around for me. “Get up.”
He didn’t bother to check to see if I’d recover or ask what happened; only his urgency to put distance between us and the monsters that would follow drove him forward. “I can’t,” I said as my vision swam in a swirl of darkness and shadows.
A howl came through the trees on a blast of frosty wind, and everything inside me cramped with terror. “The Wild Hunt is coming,” I said, voice hollow.
The pounding of hoof beats echoed through the sky like thunder. My heart lurched, and, glancing into the darkness behind me, I couldn’t even see the trees we’d only just passed through. The darkness surrounding me only added to my rising fear, leaving me certain that something was watching us.
Something I couldn’t see.
“Get up,” Brann repeated. He fumbled for my arm, grasping my elbow and hauling me to my feet.
“You should leave me,” I warned, tugging at my elbow as he helped me through the woods. He slowed his pace, giving me time to catch my breath before quickening his steps when the heavens flashed with a plethora of colors that tore through the onyx sky.
“I will never leave you,” he said, even as he faltered, turning his face up to watch the black of night stained with watercolor pastels, which twirled and slithered through the clouds.
My mouth dropped open as I watched the colors writhe and twine, consumed by the unearthly beauty, which didn’t belong in the human realm. In the silence that followed as we stared at the sky in wonder, the burning of my lungs seemed to settle with a begrudging acceptance.
I would never be able to hide from beings who were strong enough to paint the sky. I’d never tasted true freedom, so consumed by the life laid out for me in Mistfell that I’d never thought to wonder what might be waiting for me further inland.
Now I never would.
Drawing a deep breath of frigid air into my lungs, I turned to stare at my brother’s face. Illuminated under the watercolor sky, his amber eyes reflected the light until the moment when he turned his face down to stare at me. He swallowed, the breath catching in his lungs when a flock of birds whipped over our heads and navigated through the trees, as if the risk of flying into a tree was far less than the danger that followed at their tails.
Another pair of amber eyes stared back at me: the only bird that didn’t flee in terror. The eerie eyes of the blight gleamed in the darkness before it took off into the sky and was lost to the night.
“We have to keep moving,” Brann said, pressing forward and dragging me along with him. My steps were slower, and dread settled over me for the day when I would need to say goodbye. Because the emotion I’d seen in his eyes only confirmed what I had already known in my heart.
We both knew parting would be inevitable.
His golden hair gleamed with the colors in the sky every time we came to an opening in the trees, and I tried to focus on him. On his strength beside me, pushing and pulling me to keep trying.
A scream pierced the air far behind us, drawing a shudder from him.
“We’ll never outrun them,” I said, knowing it would be pointless in the end. Even without knowing what kind of magic they had that would enable them to travel across the human lands, we were on foot. We were tired, and we were not used to walking long distances, let alone running. The arduous pace we’d set at the start of our journey hours ago wasn’t sustainable.
But even if it had been, it wouldn’t have been enough.
Brann nodded, seeming to accept the truth as I spoke it. We kept walking through the woods, staying as quiet as we could, as we both understood that any noise could be our downfall.
After what felt like an eternity of walking in silence, the colors in the sky disappeared in a slow wave of black that seemed to swallow the rest of the light from the world. My stomach clenched inside me, tightening as the black swirls on my arm felt as if they writhed in response to that eerie darkness.
“He’s here,” I whispered, turning to look for the brother I couldn’t see, as the woods were plunged into darkness once again.
“Who?” he asked, his voice so quiet that I knew instantly he already knew the answer.
I didn’t know his name—this faceless Fae who thought to claim me through magic.
But I felt him, pulsing inside me like an infection in my blood. It was different from the knowledge that the Wild Hunt were hunting through the Kingdom, the howl of their hounds and stomp of horse’s hooves echoing through the air.
I’d felt the moment his feet touched the human realm, treading upon the soil of Nothrek. I felt him inside my skin, my Mark writhing as if it could reach out and call to him.
“Him,” I said, and Brann’s presence at my side disappeared as he stumbled. Just like that, he was gone, lost to the night in a way I didn’t have a hope of finding him by sight. “Are you okay?” I asked, lowering myself to a crouch and feeling around the ground. The dirt beneath the layer of leaves on the forest floor was damp, the soil rich and hearty as my fingers dragged through it to feel for my brother.
Something slithered over the back of my hand, all smooth and scaled as it went past me without stopping. I squealed, lifting a dirt-covered hand to my face to cover my mouth and muffle the sound. “Brann!” I whispered, spinning around in my crouch and trying desperately to find him. Panic coated my skin, waiting for his answer, and then finally he groaned.