What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(67)
I turned my stare to the sky and studied the position of the sun, readying myself for Temple to end. By the time he returned to my side, there was a pack slung across his shoulders, filled with supplies he’d gathered from the fringes of the village while I observed him from the corner of my eye. He’d snuck in and out of barns and houses, shoving in rope and blankets, more flint, and an extra canteen.
The axe he’d found was strapped to the sheath that crossed his back beneath his cloak. Between his two swords, the axe, and the dagger strapped to his thigh, he cut a formidable figure.
I held out a hand for the pack he’d loaded with the supplies, knowing that all the weapons he carried must have been heavy; not to mention, the pack would only hinder his ability to get to them if we needed them.
It seemed safe to say that day would come eventually.
“Hey! Thief!” a woman’s voice yelled as she stepped out of the temple and glanced toward her empty clothesline where her cloak had hung. She turned to the woods, finding us and seeing her forest green cloak wrapped snugly around my shoulders.
Guilt consumed me, knowing that there was every chance she couldn’t afford another one for the season, but she had a roof over her head. A fire in her home.
I had the promise of a cold cave and walking through blizzards.
“Run,” Caelum instructed, as people started to emerge from the temple to join with her shouts. I turned, running back toward the mountain range hidden behind the trees. I had to hope I was going in the right direction, with Caelum’s reminder of my useless navigating skills hanging over my head.
“They went that way!” the woman yelled behind us as I tore through the leaf-covered underbrush. Caelum didn’t speak as he followed me, his hand coming down on my spine every now and then to coax me to run faster. To hurry. I knew without a doubt he’d slowed his pace to stay with me, though his long legs were able to eat up the distance far faster than mine could ever hope to do.
“Faster,” he urged, taking my hand briefly to shift my path of direction.
More southward, I suspected.
“Return the cloak and you won’t be punished!” a man said somewhere behind us. He was close, too close for comfort. I spun to look back, risking the consequence of them closing in. If they caught us, punishment for stealing would be the least of our concerns.
We all knew what the Mist Guard would do to anyone who failed to turn in Marked who crossed their path. They wouldn’t hesitate to surrender us. Not with their lives hanging in the balance as well.
“Estrella!” Caelum warned from behind me, his voice erupting through the woods. I heard it over the sound of my heavy breathing, snapping my attention back to him just as my foot caught on a tree root and I went sprawling forward.
He’d somehow seen what I hadn’t. There was no ground beneath me, not for what seemed like an eternity as Caelum tried to grasp me by the new cloak wrapped around my shoulders. His fingers slipped through the fabric, grappling for purchase as I fell.
My hands hit the ground first, scraping raw along the harsh brambles covering the ravine. My cheek slid across it next as I squeezed my eyes closed in a desperate attempt to protect them, and then the rest of my body struck. Landing sideways, I rolled down a bank into a ditch until I came to a stop at the very bottom. My hand dropped into a narrow stream, the icy water burning my skin with cold so quickly that I yanked it back and rolled back toward the hillside.
Caelum barreled down the hill, running through the brambles as they tore at his clothes and skin until he reached me. The villagers stood at the top of the hillside, staring down after him while I watched.
None of them braved the drop into the ravine, talking amongst themselves and buying us some time. I planted a hand in the rocks next to the stream, the blood and scratches covering my skin making me grateful that the gloves Caelum had found for me were tucked safely in his pack and not torn to shreds.
I pushed to my feet, my cheek burning and body throbbing as Caelum reached me, wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me off the ground. “Are you alright?” he asked, studying the wounds on my face intently for a moment as he clenched his jaw. He turned that molten stare up to the villagers, who slowly started to brave the brambles to make their way down.
“I’ll be fine. Let’s go,” I said, nodding toward the path of the stream. I took the first step away from the villagers, my ankle caving beneath me the moment I put weight on it.
Caelum caught me as I fell, growling as his hand twitched toward a sword. He seemed to shake off the moment of fury, the unrealistic belief that he could fight the villagers off on his own. “Put this on,” he said, handing me the pack. I did as he told me, wondering why he would give me the extra weight when I couldn’t even support my own.
Clarity came the moment he pulled the axe free and lowered himself to one knee in front of me. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, my throat burning with the possibility of being caught. “Even you can’t outrun them with my weight. Just leave me.”
He spun, pinning me to the spot with a glare so fierce I thought I might shrivel up on the spot. It was worse than any humiliation I’d felt when he’d teased me about the inevitability of being intimate with him.
It was worse than everything.
“Do not ever let me hear you say those words again. Do you understand me, Estrella?” he asked, taking my hand and pulling me closer. He wrapped it around the front of his neck, leaving me to follow with the other one. As soon as I had my hands placed on his shoulders, he reached back and grasped me around the back of each thigh. Hoisting me onto his back, he stood smoothly and without any of the difficulty I’d have expected from something as bulky as an entire person and supply pack. And weapons.