Page 56 of What Lies Beyond the Veil

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.”

“Unless you like to waste time stating the obvious, it would appear not,” I said, glancing down at the hand she held outstretched. I placed mine in it, watching as the Mark on her neck glowed a soft red.

“A tongue as sharp as your blade,” she said with a chuckle. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Estrella. That’s Caelum,” I said.

“Welcome to the Resistance, Estrella. We oppose all parties who wish to dictate our way of life. As such, we offer refuge to any who seek refuge from the Fae, the monarchy, or the Mist Guard. My name is Melian, and I highly suggest that you come with me. My scouts spotted the Fae in the area last night. It’s fortunate that we found you first,” she said, tilting her head to look back to the tunnels she’d emerged from deeper inside the mountain.

“Why would we go with you? How can we trust that we won’t wake to another sword in our face tomorrow?” Caelum asked, earning a glare from me. He’d said we had to hope that the Resistance would find us, and they had.

Why would we not want to go with them to survive the coming winter?

“If you would like to hide out in these caves like animals, be my guest. But I can offer you something you’ll never find on your own,” Melian said.

“What’s that?” Caelum asked, glaring at the woman who dared to show no concern for the fact that he could probably gut her before she so much as blinked.

“A safe place to rest your head. A place to live without fear,” she answered. “A bed with blankets and food to fill your belly. We’ll give you a few minutes to discuss it between yourselves. If you decide you’d like to come with us, we’ll be around the corner.” She nodded to her companions, supervising as they picked their weapons up off the ground.

The man I’d disarmed stood when I removed my foot from his wrist, accepting the sword I handed back to him with a tentative smile. They followed Melian as she walked around the corner, leaving Caelum and I to stare at one another from across the distance between us.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his chest rising and falling as if it took everything he had to control himself and push back the anger he’d felt when we were ambushed.

“I’m fine,” I said. Even if there had been a brief moment where I wondered if we’d find a way out of our predicament, they hadn’t successfully hurt me.

The thought of them hurting Caelum was almost laughable.

“Good,” he said, bending down to pick up the blanket that had been left on the floor when they’d pulled him away from me in our sleep. He shoved it into our pack, forcing the rest of his belongings into it and slinging it across his back. “Let’s go.”

He made his way toward the entrance to the cave, going in the opposite direction of Melian and the others. “Wait, what?” I asked, hurrying after him and grabbing his hand. “You said you were hoping they would find us. If they can give us a safe place, we have to take it.”

“That was before they put a sword to your heart, Estrella. We can’t trust them.” He sighed, glancing back toward the rebels. I knew without a doubt he was curious about them.

It seemed unfathomable to consider that they’d existed before the Veil had shattered, but there hadn’t been time to organize anything in the days since.

“You can’t blame them for being cautious. If they weren’t, they’d probably be dead by now. They didn’t hurt us,” I said, tugging him back toward where they’d headed. He nodded, but his expression remained guarded and torn. As if he couldn’t come up with a genuine excuse why we should keep our distance, he looked back in their direction.

“If they give me a bad feeling, we leave. No questions; you do what you’re told, Little One,” he said, earning a glare from me.

“I’ve had enough of men telling me what to do. I thought you were better than that,” I said, tugging on my hand to try to get him to release it. If he thought I’d go back to being nothing more than a plaything and the property of a man, I’d leave and take my chances without him.

Freedom was more important than love, even if my heart did stall with the realization that I suspected love was exactly what I felt for Caelum.

“When I tell you to do something, it is because I want to keep you safe. Not because I want to tell you what to do. There’s a difference, Estrella. You can be whoever you want to be, as long as you are safe when you do it,” he said, the timbre of his voice dropping low enough that I knew he meant it.

“I suppose being at your side is a requirement too?” I asked, glaring at him as he took my hand in his and adjusted his grip.

“Not a requirement so much as very strongly encouraged,” he said, guiding me toward where the Resistance had disappeared. They waited around the corner as Melian had said they would, lifting torches off the ground and lighting them with the flint they pulled from their pockets.

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