Page 64 of What Hunts Inside the Shadows

“I do not know,” Imelda said with a sigh. She pursed her lips, as if the truth pained her as much as it pained us to hear it. “She was taken from the Resistance by her guardian three lifetimes ago. He must have shielded her from view and disguised her witch’s mark. We’ve tried to find her but have been unsuccessful. She could be anywhere by now.”

Caldris groaned, dropping his head forward. “The other girl. What was she that was so significant she needed protecting? Was she the child of one of Mab’s enemies?”

“I don’t know that either. That information was guarded by the elders. We knew that one of them was the child of Mab and that someone would come for her one day, but only the elders know the truth of the other and what her purpose will be in all of this,” Imelda answered, turning her attention to where the Wild Hunt watched from the sides of the cavern.

“Then bring me your elders.”

“One is dead at the hands of the other. The other,” she said, her gaze connecting with Caldris’s, “is the guardian who stole the other child.”

“Of course it was,” Caldris said, his anger palpable as it filled the cavern surrounding us. “You had better hope she is Mab’s daughter and not the mystery being, for all our sakes. Mab will show you the meaning of pain if she thinks you have some knowledge of her daughter and do not share it. We leave in an hour. Both of you take the time to say your goodbyes and pack your belongings,” Caldris said, the order resonating between them. Imelda nodded, the motion followed by Fallon’s as she moved to an older couple waiting on the sidelines.

Her family, I realized.

Fallon glared back at Caldris, an odd sort of resignation in her gaze. Whatever she did or didn’t know about herself, it was clear that she’d always known the day would come when she would need to leave her human family behind. Our eyes met briefly, nothing but a fleeting moment of connection that seemed to arc between us. It was over as quickly as it began, with Fallon tearing her eyes away from mine and stepping into her father’s embrace.

I squeezed my eyes closed, heartache pulsing through me. I knew what it was to leave our family behind, to be forced to go on a journey that we neither chose or wanted.

It was misery, and I was a part of it now.

25

ESTRELLA

The Fae Marked had already been shuffled out through the tunnels, led to the surface so they could be loaded into carts and undoubtedly shackled when they reached the surface. I appreciated that Holt and the Wild Hunt spared their friends and family from the sight of them in chains before they left.

I moved through the passage toward the surface, unable to function with the knowledge that had been thrown at me so quickly. Imelda had known the truth, and as she walked alongside me while Holt and Caldris discussed their plans for the coming days, I didn’t know if I should be appalled by that. “Why didn’t you warn anyone?” I asked her, falling into step with her as she maneuvered away from Fallon.

I had no doubt the other woman would feel the same, that she’d long to know why someone she appeared to be very close with hadn’t moved to protect her in the slightest.

“I chose peace over knowledge,” Imelda said, her voice soft as it carried between us. The end of the tunnels loomed up ahead, and the first riders of the Wild Hunt stepped out into the winter sunshine to leave the center of the Resistance behind us. There was too much at stake to think of it as a good thing, the missed opportunities for alliances making something inside of me ache.

I wished that we could all be united in our quest to right the wrongs of the world, to find a way to ally us all in our common goals. As someone who had only recently come to terms with all this, it didn’t seem likely that it would happen. My heart hadn’t been filled with as much hatred, not with the way I’d despised the Lord of my village and the people who’d enabled him to remain in power.

“There wasnothingI could have done that would have stopped Caldris from taking the Fae Marked to Alfheimr. Even if I’d revealed his identity the moment I laid eyes on him, it would have been pointless. All it would have achieved was death. I chose to hope for peace, and that I could negotiate for the lives of the humans who did not need to die needlessly. I chose to save what lives I could, in the face of a terrible choice resting upon my shoulders,” she explained.

I nodded, understanding taking over my features. I didn’t want to understand that choice, or that sometimes the greater good meant doing things that we would have once thought were unimaginable. But I related far too much to interrogate her until she was forced to relent that she’d made the wrong decision.

I didn’t think she had.

If Imelda had revealed his identity, I would have learned the truth of who he was before he ever touched me. I wouldn’t have known the intimacy of having him moving inside me, and I would have been far less likely to give in to that aspect of our relationship. It was easy to accept him inside me when I did hate him, because he’d already been there, and he’d already had that part of me.

The sun shone off Caelum’s head as he stepped out into the light. The gleaming silver of his hair was the color of iced-over snow, of the icicles as they hung from the eves of homes in Mistfell during winter.

I followed behind him, letting him turn around to guide me down to the ground from the tunnel entrance. In spite of knowing I could handle it, I enjoyed the feeling of his helping hands on mine. He set me down a few feet away from the entrance, lowering me down his body smoothly while I smiled up at him. Not so long ago, I would have fought him for the way he seemed determined to take care of me. It was ridiculous to think of doing that now, knowing that his care came from a place of love. That it wasn’t a statement of his belief that I was incapable of doing things for myself.

It was just him. Loving me. “I love you, min asteren,” he said, confirming the thoughts that he must have seen written on my face.

“And I love you, Caelum,” I said, and that part of me who had hated to admit such things because they felt like a weakness finally withered and died. She shriveled up inside of me, abandoning me to the knowing that I could do this. That I could trust someone with my heart and know that it would be safe.

“Imelda? What is it?” a woman asked, and I turned to find Fallon leaning over Imelda where she’d hunched over with her hands on her knees. The black fabric of her dress was bunched in her fists, her mismatched eyes glazed in a way that I wouldn’t have thought was possible.

Caldris followed my gaze, taking a step toward her even as we both cursed the interruption to what must have been an incredible moment for him. To have me acknowledge my feelings so openly, I didn’t think I’d ever done that.

Imelda looked up from the ground, that eerie stare meeting mine in a shock that sent pain rippling through me. She stood straight, marching toward me and pushing past Caldris to grab my hand in hers. She lifted it, staring at the side of my palm as I tugged away from her. “What are you doing?” I asked, pulling harder. Her grip remained like a vice, clinging to me as she stared down at my bare skin.

“Imelda, don’t—” Caldris said, but she ignored the warning in his tone.

She muttered something beneath her breath, an incantation in the Old Tongue as I tried to translate the words quickly enough to process them.La solis ne lunat.

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