Once Caelum had navigated down, he reached up his long arms to place his hands at my waist. Lifting me up off the ground, he lowered me to where he stood, so that my body slid down the front of his. I felt every hard ridge of muscle as he maneuvered me, until the moment when my feet touched the ground in front of him.
I stared up at him for a moment, lost in the deep glint of his eyes as he looked down at me. The tide lapping against the rocky base of the incline finally drew my attention away, and I automatically scanned the shore for any trace of my brother.
There was none to be found, and Caelum seemed oblivious to my search as he took my hand and guided me to the tide pool. I lifted my dress as I squatted down, tucking it between my legs to keep the fabric from getting even more stained by the mix of mud and sand at my feet.
Plunging my hands into the freezing water, I felt a moment of shock as I realized my entire body had been submerged in it the night before. In my desperation to find Brann, I hadn’t felt the truth of how cold I was, or realized how close to freezing to death I’d come.
“Don’t even think about it, Little One,” Caelum ordered, snapping my attention back to him. I realized I’d been staring at the surface of the channel and the way the mist touched it. “It’s too dangerous. We’ve already spent too much time in one place. We need to move if we want to avoid another run-in with the Wild Hunt.”
I scrubbed the blood from my hands, and as soon as I finished, Caelum grabbed my hand and led me up the small incline to the cliff face. “How did you manage to get down, anyway?” he asked, heading straight for the cliff face. He eyed it, undoubtedly scanning the steep wall for the best way to climb back up.
“I jumped,” I answered, meeting his stunned expression when he stared down at me. It felt like stating the obvious when he’d watched me go over the edge and begin to fall; I’d seen the shock in his expression as I disappeared from view.
“You jumped? Are you out of your fucking mind? I thought you’d found some way down that I didn’t see when I came after you.”
“I scaled the wall. I didn’t just plummet to my death, though that was the initial plan,” I said, shrugging my shoulders when he clenched his jaw.
“So you are out of your fucking mind,” he said, rolling his eyes skyward as if the Gods would save him from having to deal with a reckless woman as his traveling companion.
“It’s highly probable, yes,” I snapped, shrugging off his touch when he reached over and grabbed me. Tugging me toward him, he pressed his chest into my spine, sliding his hands over the sleeve of my dress until he covered the bare skin of mine with his palms.
He guided them to a spot where there was a notch in the stone, curling my fingers around it as I stretched up onto my toes. “Alright then, Little One. Let’s see if you can manage to get yourself back up or if I’m going to have to carry you.” I turned to glare at him over my shoulder, finding his mouth twisted in a smirk.
A pounding in my ears nearly distracted me from the task at hand, leaving me twitchy with the need to smack the arrogant look off his face. “Fine,” I huffed, releasing the spot where he’d placed my hand. I bent down, gathering the fabric of my dress in my hands and twisting it up around my knees.
Cold air touched my legs, dancing over the bare skin, and I shivered in spite of myself. I twisted the worn, mangled fabric into a knot, letting it hang at my thighs so that I’d have full range of motion.
“Look up my dress, and you may find you wake up without any eyeballs one morning,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him as I raised my hand up to that notch he’d shown me before. I reached with my other hand, searching for a spot to place it as I put all the energy I had into pulling myself up.
My feet fought for purchase, looking for a place to take some of my weight. Coming down had been easier; I’d been so filled with adrenaline and desperation that nothing could have kept me away.
My fingers trembled as I gripped the rock, taking it one reach at a time, one step at a time. Caelum waited until I was halfway up the cliff and turned to look down at him, my vision swimming with nausea as I stared down at the sheer drop.
In the middle of the night, it had been so easy to underestimate just how far that fall was. So easy to convince myself Brann might have survived. But in the light of day, I knew the fall into the sand or water below would have broken every bone in his body.
Even if he hadn’t been stabbed first.
Caelum scaled the wall at my side, moving much quicker than I could, with an agility that seemed impossible. His arms and legs were so much longer than mine, letting him cover more ground with every precious movement.
He paused at my side, staring at the way that I fought for my grip. I tilted my face forward, letting the cold of the stone touch my forehead as I drew in a deep breath. “I can still carry you.”
“Fuck you,” I snapped, turning to pierce him with a glare. The thought of anyone carrying me up this steep embankment was ridiculous, but there was no doubt on his face as he moved up with ease at my side. He stayed with me, offering guidance when I needed it but otherwise leaving me untouched, when I needed to prove I wasn’t a complete waste of breath—even if only to myself.
My lungs heaved with the effort of shoving my body up the cliff I’d jumped over in a moment of impulse, which had turned out to be pointless. By the time we reached the top, I was half-tempted to throw myself to the ground and kiss it.
I grabbed the ground at the top, trying to pull myself up as my arms shook with exertion. Caelum scaled it at my side, pulling himself over the ledge and holding out a hand for me to take. I grunted as I placed mine in his, hating the moment of weakness but accepting the help anyway. At that moment, I was too tired to care beyond a fleeting thought, even knowing it would nag at me the next time I tried to fall asleep.
I sprawled out on the ground, trying to catch my breath as Caelum spun in the clearing at the top of the cliff, with his hand on his sword. There was no sign of the Wild Hunt that had sent Brann and I over the ledge the night before; they were gone without a trace as they sought out more of the Fae Marked.
“How did you escape the Wild Hunt, anyway?” I asked. The signs of the scuffle of the night before could be seen in the boot marks in the dirt, in the torn grass and disturbed foliage at the edge of the woods and the hoof prints all over the clearing.
In the spots of blood staining the ground.
Caelum paused, turning to look at me with his brow raised in question. “They were far more interested in getting to you than they were winning the fight against me. After you went over the edge, they mounted their horses and tried to find another way down the cliff,” he said, his stare intensifying as he gave me a cursory look-over. “So tell me, Little One. What’s so special about you?”