“If we were capable of doing something like that to a male we thought was dead, were we ever really any better?” I asked, sighing when Caelum lent me the warmth of his hand on top of my shoulder in silent support.
I wanted to wither when Melian pierced me with one of the fiercest glares she usually saved for Caelum, but she rolled her eyes and turned on her heel. “I would think someone like you would understand what it is to be beaten down by someone more powerful than you,” she said, in reference to my scars she’d seen in confidence. “What would you do to get retribution against the man who wronged you?”
I paused, considering all that I’d suffered at Lord Byron’s hand, and his command as an extension, mulling over the need for revenge I’d felt once. There’d been a time when I wanted nothing more than to watch him suffer for everything he’d done to me.
Now the idea of it just made me tired.
“Nothing,” I answered, shocked at the revelation. “I’m free. That’s all the revenge I need.” The words hung between us as she and Beck angled toward the pathway at the edge of the cliff, where the waterfall disappeared to pour into the plunge pool below. The pathway zigzagged down the rocky cliff face, the steepness of it taking my breath away.
The trail was narrow, forcing us to walk in single file as we descended from the top and picked our way down into the valley of the city. I trailed my hand over the rocks at my side, hugging them as tightly as I dared and staying away from the sheer drop on the other side. Melian walked in front of me as she followed Beck with quick, assured steps. Her body was a testament to the training she’d endured through her life, fine-tuned muscle that gave her the confident stance I wished I had.
“If you so much as twitch toward that edge, I swear to Gods I will tie you up and drag you behind me, Estrella,” Caelum ordered, following closely behind me.
“I don’t have a death wish today,” I said, glancing over my shoulder to smile at his unamused face.
“Tell that to every cliff or hill you’ve ever met,” he grumbled, his hand remaining only a few inches away from mine, as if he could catch me and save me from falling if I really did decide to try to fly.
“Being around you two is absolutely maddening,” Melian groaned. “Not every word you speak to one another needs to be flirtatious.”
“I don’t flirt,” Caelum said, his voice dropping disingenuously. “That’s too juvenile for what happens between Estrella and I,” he added smugly.
“Just stop it and hurry up. We need to get back to the tunnels before Imelda’s warding wears off, and we’ll have to take the long way if we want to avoid Tradesholde.” Melian glanced around the city as we approached the bottom of the cliff. The ruins of the town were everywhere, buildings leveled into piles of rubble. The ones that remained standing were stone behemoths with entire sides missing, rising into the sky as if they had reached for freedom from what had destroyed them.
She continued into the ruined city, disappearing around the corner of a building as Caelum helped me down from the ledge of the walkway. “She’s going to get us killed,” he growled, keeping pace with me as I hurried to keep up with Melian. It wasn’t safe for us to get separated here, not when we’d already encountered the Fae once on this venture.
“She’s grieving and trying to make sure the Fae don’t take any more of us. Can you blame her for being a little reckless?” I asked, turning to stare up at the side of his face as he looked all around the ruined city.
“I can blame her for just about anything if her behavior puts you at risk,” he said, turning that square jaw until his dark eyes pinned me in place.
“I’m not that fragile,” I said, hurrying along the side of the building.
Caelum grabbed me by the arm, spinning me until my back pressed to the tarnished silver of the building behind me. He leaned over me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear as I squirmed away from the touch. “You don’t have the first idea just how fragile you are.”
His hand touched the side of my neck and the Mark there before trailing over the front of my throat. He grasped it gently, squeezing his fingers into the skin ever-so-slightly, as if considering the fact that he could snap it with a twist of his hand.
I stared into his eyes as a deep chill took over his features. Something ancient peered out from behind the dark eyes I’d gotten so familiar with over our weeks together. “Stop looking for answers you aren’t yet ready for, my star,” he warned, leaning forward until his lips touched the side of my neck.
Everything in me froze at his murmured words, a jolt of panic spreading to my limbs. He erased all of it by trailing his tongue over my mark, finding the top of the writhing tendrils that seemed to dance beneath his touch.
He sank his teeth into my flesh, using them to grip me hard enough that they bruised me all over again, but he didn’t break the skin. My resistance fled, my body sagging beneath the hold, against my will. He pulled back and stared into my face with singular focus that drew a whimper from me, all my fears about him rushing to the surface all over again.
“What are you keeping from me?” I asked, flinching when he took my hand tightly in his and drew me around the corner suddenly. His face was crazed, as if he could sense something that I couldn’t. Up ahead, Melian’s head of blond hair gleamed from the shadows of the ruined city as I tugged my hand out of Caelum’s grip and hurried to follow after her.
Something was wrong. I felt it in my bones, and from the tension in Caelum’s body, he did too.
I didn’t care about the ruckus I made in my urgency to escape Caelum, while I felt him following at my back, his presence heavy with the weight of an unfinished confession.
But a confession of what?
He hurried to my side while the something Other retreated from his face, all traces of anything but worry gone as he glanced from side to side. Grabbing my arm, he pulled me to a halt and touched a finger to his lips in warning.
“What?” I whispered, staring at him in surprise. His expression was ominous as he turned his focus up to Melian. I followed his stare, watching as she spun back around and looked at the ruined city with her brow furrowed.
Beck was gone.
Melian continued to spin, searching for the man who had been ahead of her only a few moments before. There wasn’t any sign of him, and I watched her hand slowly reach toward the sword secured at her waist.
“Did you hear that?” she asked, turning to face us directly. With the rubble of one of the buildings at her side, she glanced across the broken cobblestone street. I listened, trying not to breathe as Caelum kept his grip tight on me.
There was nothing, not even the rustle of trees in the distance, or birds or other wildlife scurrying through the ashes of what had once been a prosperous tribute the God of the Dead.