Page 72 of What Hunts Inside the Shadows

“Estrella stop!” Holt called, the words breaking through the fog in my head. I shook them off, enjoying the way the Fae Marked women scrambled back to avoid the skeleton stalking toward them. The murder they’d tried to commit would haunt them until the moment they died, but it almost made me sad to know it would be short-lived.

Caldris appeared at the pathway that wound up the mountain, his face flushed as if he had run up the hill. I knew he hadn’t; I’d watched him appear from thin air. His hand was pressed to his chest, as if he’d been able to feel the way mine had been stopped in the dream that had taken me from the pain of drowning.

I shook off thoughts of the strange male crafted from the shadows themselves.

Caldris took in the sight before him with wide, frenzied eyes—the curl to my hand as my fingers spun the threads and guided the skeleton’s steps. His eyes raked over my nudity that was on display as he made his way across the stones. He came to me, swinging the cloak off of his shoulders as he walked and wrapping it around me. I didn’t take my eyes off the skeleton, or the vengeance I wanted with a ferocity that took my breath away.

“Estrella,” Imelda said, her voice gentler than Holt’s had been. I didn’t turn to look at her, only hearing her pull herself out of the hot spring. Water slid off her body as she came to stand only a few feet away, but I didn’t turn to look at her—not with my vengeance within my reach.

I was so tired of being hurt.

Caldris grasped my hand, his presence at my side like a soothing balm, but I didn’t want to let go of the rage. I didn’t want to release the fury that kept me warm. Lifting my palm wrapped in the threads of our bond and cradling it in his palm, he turned his stare to the skeleton, his brow furrowing as he focused on it.

It never stopped moving forward slowly, its steps measured as it tugged against the control Caldris tried to exert.

“It’s time to let it go, min asteren,” he said, his voice tormented as he touched a finger to the golden thread I’d wrapped myself in. The bond shuddered, chasing away some of my rage.

“They’ve made it clear that it is either them or me,” I said, my voice echoing over the spring. “It will not be me.”

“They deserve every bit of the punishment you would mete out to them, but think of the mates who are waiting for them. Who have waited centuries and think they’re so close to finding them. They deserve better. They deserve the opportunity to fight with them to change their perspectives, the way you have done.” He touched the threads again, and a strangled sob clawed its way up my throat, my bottom lip trembling as the rage eased enough for the pain to sink in. I released the threads with a groan, letting them fall away from my hand as I turned and touched my forehead to my mate’s chest.

He heaved a sigh of relief, wrapping his arms around me.

He faced the people in the spring. “If you value your lives, you will get dressed and get the fuck out,now,”he growled, and the Fae Marked, Imelda, and Fallon hurried out of the water. Their chains vanished as Holt moved to follow at their side, and I watched as Caldris commanded the skeleton out of the water. The skeletons guided the shivering human toward the path down the mountain, herding them away as they fought to tug on their clothing as quickly as possible.

“Not you,” Caldris said, the order snapping out like a whip. It struck Holt in the back, making him turn slowly toward Caldris. “The dead will guide them to your riders.Youwill stay right here.”

“I didn’t even realize she was beneath the water. I was trying not to look at her. We both know you’d be furious if you thought I was peeking at her while she was fucking naked,” Holt protested.

“And yet she somehow ended up standing naked in front of you anyway,” Caldris said, placing a hand to the small of my back. Sleepiness settled over me as he guided me right up to the edge of the water, quickly stripping off his clothing as soon as the Marked were gone from sight.

He jumped down into the water, standing at the edge and running his hands over my ankles. I shivered, the cold air making me long for my clothes, but I couldn’t seem to muster up the energy to make my way toward them.

“I want to go to sleep,” I murmured softly, staring down into his dark eyes.

He smirked up at me, running those soothing thumbs over my skin. “Do you remember when I fucked you in the bathing chamber with everyone watching? You were shocked that I would want them to watch me fuck you into oblivion, when I don’t even like men staring at you for too long.”

“I remember,” I murmured, letting my eyes drift closed.

“Now Holt has seen you, min asteren. He’s seen you naked and not stuffed full of my cock. Worse yet, Ilostyou. For one fleeting moment, I felt the pain of this world without you in it,” Caldris said, his voice dropping low with his jealousy. “I need to be inside of you, and I need him to see it.”

I felt that need course through him; I couldn’t understand it, but I felt how genuine it was to him. I didn’t know that I had the energy to fight him, but I wasn’t certain I was capable of sex at the moment, either.

I just wanted to sleep.

“She was fuckingdead,” Holt protested, rolling his eyes to the sky as he dropped down onto the stone, propping his elbow on his knee and cradling his head in his hands. “That was the last thing on my mind.”

“If you had a mate, you’d understand, but you don’t,” Caldris said harshly, his glare settling on his friend’s face as his nostrils flared. “Take off her cloak, Huntsman. Show me what’s mine.”

My eyes widened, my gaze snapping to Holt in shock. “Caelum,” I murmured,.

My mate smirked, his dark eyes shining with amusement as he trailed his hands higher up my legs. “He knows if he touches any part of you, I will remove that part of his body. As it stands, he’s fortunate I’m not carving out his eyes for seeing you this way.”

“I would have anyway, when you finally convince her to let you fuck her in front of the fire,” Holt said with a grimace, making his way over. He stepped up behind me, the coolness of his translucent body washing over me in a way that made me shiver.

“We both know that’s different,” Caldris said, his eyes narrowing on the place where Holt carefully reached around me. He didn’t touch me at all, his fingers grasping the clasp delicately and tugging it open until the fabric pooled at my feet.

Caldris reached up, grasping me around the thighs and pulling me forward. Wrapping his arms around me fully, he carried me and turned until we were in the center of the hot spring and he lowered my body down, sliding it against the length of his.

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