Page 61 of What Lies Beyond the Veil

“It isn’t his fault. Men have no need of manners,” I said, shifting in my seat to look at Caelum from the corner of my eye.

He set his spoon into his bowl loudly as he finished shoveling the stew into his mouth. “What are you trying to say?”

“That you’re more beast than man half the time, clearly. Don’t be daft. You just told Skye you had a brain; now isn’t the time to prove yourself wrong,” I argued, smirking at the mock-incredulous expression he wore on his features.

“That’s rich coming from you,” he said. “I seem to recall you putting a knife to my throat when we first met. I hardly think that’s a polite way to greet a newcomer.”

“You intruded on my shelter for the night,” I said, taking another bite of bread and chewing thoughtfully. If we’d just stayed like I’d wanted, would Brann still be alive? Would he and Caelum have found a way to coexist?

I swallowed. Not if Caelum had insisted on being intimate and touchy with me. Brann would have castrated him while he slept.

“I believe I was there first,” he said, picking up the spoon I’d abandoned in favor of my bread. He scooped a spoonful of it and lifted it to my mouth, touching it to my lips as I parted and let him feed me. It again reminded me of the day when he’d fed me fish so I didn’t have to touch it with dirty, bloodstained hands.

It should have reminded me first of Lord Byron’s aged fingers feeding me delicacies I’d never asked for and calling it a gift. But nothing Caelum could do would ever feel as slithering and disgusting as the actions of the Lord who’d tried to groom me from childhood. Who’d made me watch the High Priest sacrifice my father, and then tried to force me into his bed.

I shivered, chewing the stew that suddenly tasted like ash in my mouth.

He continued to feed me while Skye and Jensen watched, the moment between us feeling far too intimate for their prying eyes. It was such a simple thing—letting him guide nourishment to my mouth and swallowing what he gave me—but the gleaming expression on his face was haunting.

As if feeding me appealed to him on an animalistic level, his need to provide for me rose to the surface with the uncertainty and risk of death behind us. He scraped the last of the broth out of the bowl, resting the spoon on my tongue and letting me swallow the liquid down while he stared at my mouth in fascination.

Skye cleared her throat, turning her attention back to the pot behind her as Jensen snapped out of whatever trance he’d gone into while we had our moment. “I’ll show you to the baths in case you’d like to get cleaned up. We’ll see if we can find something more fitting for you to wear, Estrella. Dresses are fine in the caves, but if you ever go to the surface, we recommend all the women skip them and just wear pants. They’re warmer and easier to maneuver in.”

I stood, letting Caelum take my hand in his grip as we followed behind Jensen. His possessiveness in the face of a man who’d expressed a tiny inkling of interest wasn’t lost on me, and I let it warm me from the inside. I had to hope it meant he didn’t intend to mess around with other women, especially now knowing I could have options, as well.

We passed by the members of the Resistance as we made our way even lower into the caves. The cave complex seemed to go on forever, curving and twining until the air grew humid. “There are far fewer women than men here,” I observed, noting every person we passed.

Jensen turned back to me with a sad smile. “Most women aren’t taught to be able to protect themselves. It’s much more difficult for them to escape when the Mist Guard comes for them. Most of them never so much as made it out of their villages before they were cut down. We’ve had lots of Fae Marked men join our numbers since the Veil fell, but only two women have made it to the Hollows that we know of.”

“But theViniculumshould have protected them, shouldn’t it?” I asked, glancing toward Caelum. He nodded, but his face dropped with sorrow.

“There are ways to prevent the magic of theViniculum. Faerie magic cannot survive the touch of iron. If they managed to capture them with iron somehow, the Marked would be defenseless entirely.” I thought back to the collar the Mist Guard had placed on my neck and the way it had drained my energy away from me, rendering the snowy magic useless. My stomach filled with dread, thinking of being hunted down and killed with that heavy collar on my neck and no brother to help save me.

“The Mist Guard has had centuries to devise ways to entrap the Marked when the time came again, and other ways to fight the Fae. Everything has changed since the war before the Veil,” Jensen agreed, shaking his head sadly. “Our only hope is to bring as many of us here as we can, and to wait out the worst of it.”

He walked through an open archway, stepping into what I knew had to be the bathing room. Steam billowed off the underground spring, filling the air with humidity and warmth. But that wasn’t the most shocking part of the bathing room.

Men and women bathed in the water together. Some of them minded their own business and kept to themselves. Others coupled off. A few were joined in groups of three or more.

“Gods,” I mumbled, cursing myself when both Caelum and Jensen turned to look at my flushed face. It was worse than the statues carved into the stone at the place Caelum had taken me to.

These people were real. They moved and writhed together.

“You’ll get used to it,” Jensen said with a laugh. “I’m sure it’s quite the shock compared to what you’re used to.”

“This is going to be a problem for us. I don’t relish the thought of other men looking at her. Is there nowhere we can bathe in privacy?” Caelum asked.

“The springs are limited in number. You’ll just have to try to time it so that they’re less crowded, if that’s your preference. While I’m sure many people wish we had springs where we could afford privacy to everyone, it just isn’t feasible with this many people using one bath.”

“Of course not,” I said, tearing my eyes from the scene in front of me. I didn’t want people to see me naked, but I wouldn’t be that spoiled and entitled brat who protested their way of life and acted as if I was above it. If this was to be my home, I’d need to assimilate to it sooner than later.

“Estrella, you don’t have to do something you aren’t comfortable with,” Caelum said.

“We’ll come when it’s more likely to be empty until I get used to it. I’m more concerned about your snake drawing too much attention,” I said, brushing off my nerves in favor of pretending I was unaffected.

Caelum would fixate if he knew how much my insecurities threatened to surface.

The naked women in the bath and at the edge of the spring were beautiful, with healthy and striking bodies. Not scarred and too thin to be appealing.

---