What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(36)
His body followed as his brow furrowed, his lips pursing as he tried to hide his obvious concern. “It’s okay,” I said, standing and stepping away from Caelum and crossing toward my brother. He left the barn door slightly ajar, making for an easy escape in the event that he decided my judgment wasn’t accurate.
I could hardly blame him. A man like Caelum made it hard to think rationally, quickly disarming all my thoughts of escape with his charm.
“Explain to me what exactly is okay?” Brann pointed toward my neck, which was visible with my cloak pushed to the side. It seemed to pulse as I lifted the fabric to cover it once again, as if it had a mind of its own and hated being concealed once again.
“Caelum is like me,” I said, turning back to look at Caelum. His dark eyes that had previously glittered playfully were like hardened stone as he glared at Brann, and the air around him felt tense, as if the power lurking inside him saw my brother as a threat.
I swallowed, pushing forward to find a way to keep the peace. They didn’t need to be the best of friends for us to be civil, and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the first living person like me we’d seen. “This is my brother, Brann.”
Caelum swallowed, his jaw clenching as he reached up to his heavy cloak and pulled it to the side until it shifted and revealed the mark. The two of them exchanged a look of confusion, and I watched from the sidelines as I waited for them to work their way through whatever male moment they were having.
“Her brother?” Caelum asked, glancing over at me. He paused, studying my face intently before finally shifting his attention back to Brann and giving an appeasing smile. “How unusual that you would flee with her.”
“I wasn’t about to leave her to the mercy of the Fae and the Mist Guard on her own,” Brann snapped back. His focus finally fell to the Mark on Caelum’s neck, studying it intently with his gaze narrowing on the entwined black and white before raising his eyes back to Caelum’s. Brann glared openly.
I just wanted to eat and go to sleep in the relative safety of the barn and with the warmth of straw at my back.
“We’re leaving,” Brann announced, reaching forward and taking my hand in his.
“It’s dark out,” I protested. “We won’t find shelter anywhere else so late, and Gods only know if we’ll be fortunate enough to find another place to hide. We should wait until morning.”
Caelum cleared his throat, and I turned to find his body holding perfectly still. His gaze wasn’t on me or Brann, but on the spot where my brother clutched my hand tightly. “I really think it would be wise that we stick together.” The words came through gritted teeth, as if he’d clenched his jaws so hard they’d melded into one.
“Why is that? So you can use me to go into the places you can’t be seen?” Brann asked, narrowing his eyes on the other man.
“Yes,” Caelum agreed, not even bothering to deny how useful Brann would be. “We can help one another. Unless I am mistaken, I don’t see weapons on either of you. It would be unwise to continue without any form of protection.”
“What good will a sword do us if the Fae come to steal her away?” Brann asked. “I’m assuming you haven’t had to defend yourself just yet, because if you had, you’d know that Mark on your neck is more than capable of doing it for you,” Brann argued, pausing to smirk in a moment of pride. “Or at least hers is.”
Caelum’s attention shifted to me, his eyes narrowing on my face as he studied my reaction to Brann’s words. Shame heated my cheeks, the reminder of what the Mark had done making me turn my eyes to the floor. “Someone tried to kill you?” he asked, his lips thinning with anger.
I nodded. “Two of the Mist Guard from my village when we fled. I didn’t mean to kill them,” I mumbled, scuffing the dirt on the floor of the barn.
“Of course you didn’t,” Caelum said, surprising me. His eyes were sympathetic and soft when he cleared his throat. “The Vinculum only acts as a last resort to preserve life.”
“The Vinculum?” I asked, watching as he approached. He closed the distance between us with slow strides that somehow seemed to take forever and happen too quickly, all at once. Brann’s hand tightened on mine when the strange man stopped in front of me, lifting a hand to the Mark on my neck.
It awakened, blazing with the swirling light that glowed through the gaps in his fingers where he rested his palm against my skin. “The Fae Mark,” he explained, his dark eyes lit by the white radiating from my body. Whereas the Mark had burned when Brann touched it, it came to life at the touch of another like me.
“How is it that you know so much about this mark?” Brann asked, tugging at my hand until he pulled me away from Caelum, whose hand dropped away. The shock of fresh air against my skin felt too warm, as if I would overheat and burst into flames in the wake of his skin on mine.
“My father was a fan of our histories. He spent a great deal of time studying the forbidden texts he kept hidden in his library,” Caelum answered, and I nodded even as Brann kept pulling me back toward that door. If his father had truly risked owning the forbidden books, his knowledge of such things made sense, no matter what my overprotective brother seemed to think. “Don’t be foolish, Little One. We are far safer together.”
I paused, holding his gaze as Brann tugged at me. “Let’s go, Estrella,” he warned, his voice dropping to the deep command he’d used when we’d been children and I was caught in a place I shouldn’t be.