What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(73)

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I murmured, peeling my lips back from my teeth as something vicious overcame me. I was so fucking tired of being a victim. Of being treated like I was less than the men around me, because they had a piece of meat swinging between their legs. I touched a finger to his sword, trailing it up the flat edge in a teasing motion. “He has his uses.”

“I’m sure he does,” the man laughed, his eyes narrowing in on that innocent finger. I pressed a palm against each flat side of the blade, jerking it to the side as I hooked my feet around his ankles and used them to slide myself down between his legs, causing him to stumble forward.

His sword plunged into the dirt above my head, Caelum’s shout echoing through the small alcove as I twisted out of the way and jumped to my feet. My ankle gave a tiny twinge of pain but held beneath me; the hours that had passed in the night had given it time to heal with my new abilities.

My boot came down on the man’s ass where he bent over in front of me, knocking him further forward. “There are far kinder ways to wake a woman in the morning,” I snapped, flinching when another set of hands grabbed me by the hair. The second man yanked my head back, twisting my neck from side to side as he looked at my ears.

Looking for the legendary pointed ears of the Fae, I realized.

I reached up above my head, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him toward me at the same moment I bent myself in half and pushed with my legs. He hit the ground in front of me with a thud, his arm landing at his side for a moment before he reached for his sword. I stepped on his wrist, squatting beside him to snatch the weapon away from his fingertips.

Caelum watched with a smirk on his face, distractedly fighting off the three remaining men who struggled to contain him, even when he didn’t give them all his attention. I had no doubt that he could have escaped them all if it hadn’t been for the risk to me.

It was a good fucking thing I could take care of myself in this way, at least.

“You will unhand my friend if you like yours breathing,” I said, putting my assailant’s own sword to his throat.

The man who’d first held a sword to my face slowly got to his feet, his hands held out in a peaceful gesture, as if they hadn’t actually intended to harm us. I believed he meant it, knowing we weren’t the Fae hunting him. “You got anything to add?” he asked Caelum, rubbing a hand over his face.

“I think she covered it, really,” Caelum returned with a smirk. He moved with a fluid grace that took our attackers off guard, proving my suspicion that he had only not fought them off for my safety.

That shouldn’t have made my stomach clench or butterflies rise up to my throat. Knowing that my safety came before his should have appalled me. Instead, I wanted to kiss him, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to be the initiator in our intimate moments.

Not yet, anyway.

He disarmed his attackers smoothly, until every sword was either held within his grasp or flung against the dirt, leaving the men gaping at him awkwardly.

“Perhaps you would like to explain to me what exactly you were planning to do before my love emasculated you?” he asked, weighing the hilt of one of the swords in his hand as he watched the men carefully.

“We’re looking for survivors. We had to be sure you aren’t one of those Fae bastards. Evan over there knows how to see through glamour,” he said, gesturing to the man who laid sprawled out in the dirt beneath me where I’d left him. His attention shifted over me and then to Caelum, studying us in a way that felt somehow invasive.

“The Fae Marks didn’t give it away?” I asked, glaring at the man who’d spoken.

“You’ve never seen a Fae, have you pretty? Those bastards are born with the Mark,” he grumbled.

He stared at the friend he’d said could see through Fae glamour, who nodded his head finally, and the men heaved a sigh of relief. The one who’d put a sword to my face came forward, holding out a hand for Caelum. “Name’s Jensen,” he said, holding Caelum’s stern gaze as he looked down at the offered hand with a sneer.

“I am not interested in shaking the hand of a man who chooses mine before the hand of the woman who bested him,” Caelum said, nodding his head toward me in acknowledgement of the slight. Jensen had passed me over when he wouldn’t have, had I had a cock. Even after I’d proven I was worthy of being treated as an equal, he’d still chosen Caelum. I couldn’t blame him entirely, not when Caelum had proven to be the greatest threat in the room.

But still, Caelum advocated for me when no one else would have.

“You know better than to underestimate a woman, Jensen,” a feminine voice scolded as the owner stepped around the corner of the tunnel. Her cloak was clutched around her, her hood pulled up to cover her head and hair. She moved through the tunnel with a sort of lethal grace, her steps more masculine than I was used to seeing with the women of Mistfell, who only had value in their femininity.

She drew the hood of her cape back slowly, revealing a beautiful face marred by a scar on one side that slashed through her eyebrow and across her cheekbone. Her blond hair was tied tightly into a braid that extended down over the shoulder of her cloak and toward her belly. A Fae Mark swirled on the skin of her neck, curling up to her face.

She stepped in front of me, glancing toward the two men I’d defended myself against as a wry smirk graced her lips. Her attention shifted toward Caelum, pausing on him as she studied him intently for a moment and then shrugged. “I suppose I don’t need to ask if the two of you can fight.”