A male body vaulted between us, the scraping sound of metal on leather bursting through the night as he unsheathed a sword. A single slash with the heavy weapon and the leader of the Wild Hunt stumbled back in surprise. My sudden protector took the opportunity to turn back and stare at where I lay sprawled on the ground in shock.
Familiar black eyes stared down at me, gleaming and furious, even as he held out a hand to help me up. Caelum growled, his lips curling back to reveal his white teeth. “I told you not to do something fucking foolish.”
13
I scrambled to my feet with a glare, my cheeks tear-stained as I wiped them furiously and raised my tree branch higher. “You couldn’t have come to the rescue sooner?” I asked, the bitterness I felt weighing my voice lower.
Caelum tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing on the way my body hunched over my aching ribs. “Apologies, Estrella. I’ll try to stalk you faster the next time you walk away from me.” Caelum shook his head at me as if I was amusing, turning back to where the leader of the Hunt stared at him like he’d been consumed by hysteria.
I had to imagine the Fae Marked didn’t usually run toward the danger of a life of captivity, but instead, as far away as they could manage. The Huntsman who’d wrapped his inky magic around my waist and prevented me from falling to my death stepped closer, tipping his upper body toward me as if that might protect his balls from my wrath.
I swung with my branch, following through on the swing even though he ducked back to avoid it. He chuckled, shaking his head from side to side as he stepped closer and evaded my second swing too. The branch was just too heavy for me to move with any speed, in spite of the adrenaline surging through my body as I fought for my freedom.
To my right, the sound of swords clashing together rang through the night. I glanced over, daring that moment of eye contact away from my opponent to watch Caelum move as if he was one with his blades. Wherever he’d trained, whatever his life had been, he avoided the leader of the Wild Hunt with a grace I’d never seen. His swords carved through the air gracefully, almost like he was dancing despite the bulk of his body and breadth of his shoulders.
He should have moved like a slug with all that muscle mass—more brawn than skill. Instead, he was as if carved from nightmares and crafted in sin. He was dangerous and beautiful and all the things a woman had no right to want for herself.
He was my only chance at freedom and a distraction I didn’t need, all at once.
The branch tore out of my hands when my opponent used my moment of gawking at Caelum to his advantage. The wood splintered under my skin, drawing a gasp from me that distracted Caelum from his fight. He turned to me, his face concerned as one sword paused in the air. “I’m fine!” I shouted, ducking down to avoid the Huntsman's arms closing in to grab me.
Lunging forward, I pulled the knife from the sheath strapped to his thigh and quickly stabbed him in the side three times. The Huntsman groaned, dropping to his knees in front of me as I spun on mine and darted to my feet.
“Gods,” Caelum breathed at my side, his eyes narrowing on my face for a brief moment as I drove my aching body away from the fallen Fae. There was no guilt. No self-reprimand within me for sinking a blade into his flesh. Not when he hadn’t hesitated for a single moment before running my brother through with his sword.
With the second Huntsman immobilized, I spun and raced for the cliff face with only regret for leaving Caelum to fight on his own.
He’d interfered on my behalf, rescued me from capture, only for me to abandon him in turn. The Huntsmen lurking at the edge of the woods kicked their skeletal horses forward as I turned my back on them, their hounds snapping their teeth as they exploded into movement. They kicked up the dirt as they raced toward me, their mouths dripping with the thick saliva that melted into shadows as their claws sank into the ground.
“Estrella!” Caelum yelled, raising a booted foot to kick the leader of the Wild Hunt away from him with a sudden burst of force that sent the other man sprawling onto his back. His voice echoed through the air, raising the hair on my arms as a chill swept over my skin.
The hounds snapped at my heels as I ran for the edge of the cliff, those enormous teeth clicking together as I reached it and threw myself off while shifting the dagger into my injured arm.
I fell, spinning as my body went weightless and I had to fight to suppress the scream that tried to claw its way up my throat. I faced the hounds who growled at the missed opportunity for a taste of my blood before they returned me to their master.
Caelum’s dark eyes landed on mine, his face twisting with shock as he stumbled back from his fight with the Huntsman and ran toward me—heedless of the hounds waiting for him at the edge. I dropped below the cliff, flailing my arms and legs.
I grabbed onto one of the tree roots sticking out from the dirt and clay of the cliff face, and my shoulder jerked from the sudden stop, the bones throbbing as I clung to the root in desperation. Unlike the weak and nearly useless one, my shoulder held as my body swung. The skin on my hand tore open, the bark of the root scraping it off.
“Estrella!” Caelum roared again, his voice echoing through the void where the land dropped away to ocean. I ignored the plea in it, pushing past the overwhelming urge to tell him I was safe.
Reaching with a pained grunt, I dropped the dagger, listening for the sound of it splashing into the water. I grabbed a lower tree root, searching for a place to put my feet as I prepared to lower myself down the wall. Brann had to be there. There had to be some sign of him and what had happened after he fell. I needed to see him, needed the closure that would come from laying eyes on his body.
The clay supported the very tips of my shoes, allowing me to move myself down the cliff with painful slowness while the sound of fighting rang out through the air above me, reassuring me that, at least for the moment, Caelum was okay.
He hadn’t yet been captured, but it was only a matter of time.
My arms ached as I continued to lower myself, my toes grappling for purchase to take some of the pressure off my limbs that were nowhere near strong enough to support my entire weight for long. I couldn’t believe I’d survived the fall at all, that I’d been capable of the strength to catch myself in the first place.
It had definitely been one of those moments where I’d acted first, with no thought for how exactly I would get back up to the top after I found what remained of my brother.
I shoved down a strange surge of guilt for choosing to look for Brann instead of helping Caelum fight. My brother would always come before a stranger, even one who called to the part of me that wanted to belong somewhere. It was my fault I was plunging down a cliff to try to find my brother’s body.