Page 67 of What Lies Beyond the Veil

“I suppose this would be an inappropriate time to tell you that I intend to kill every man who has felt you like this. Who has had the pleasure of your body wrapped around him?” he growled, leaning forward to sink his teeth into the sensitive skin on the side of my neck where he’d bitten me the night before.

“You can’t kill a man just for having fucked me, Caelum,” I argued, unable to force myself to push him away. Even when he was acting ridiculous, I’d have done anything to pull him closer. To take him inside me and make me burn. “Think how many women I would have to kill.”

He pressed his hard length against my thigh as he worked me with his hand, building my orgasm higher as he pulled back to stare down into my face. Malice lurked in his gaze when he met my eyes. “I would love to see that, my star.”

“That’s not normal,” I argued, my body jolting when he applied more pressure to my clit.

“I assure you, I do not give the first fuck what is normal when it comes to you. If you want to watch the world burn, I’ll set it on fire for you. If you want to slaughter every woman who has ever taken what is yours, then I will gladly sit back and watch you play,” he said, a twisted smile toying about his lips as he dropped his mouth to my lips and sank his teeth into the plump flesh. “Now fucking come for me, Estrella.”

“Caelum,” I gasped, then I shattered beneath his touch as he worked me, my legs feeling like they would have caved beneath me if it hadn’t been for his support holding me up and the knee he shoved between mine.

“These lips were made to moan my name,” he said, leaning down to kiss them gently as he pulled his fingers free from my pussy. He returned my dress to normal, letting it fall flat and cover me from view as he kissed me sweetly.

He made no move to ask me to return the favor, simply imparting a gift upon me for whatever reason. He could give me that gift every day for the rest of my life and I suspected I would never tire of it.

28

Another night passed without Caelum doing anything more than kiss me in the privacy of our shared room. After our moment in the library when he’d touched me, part of me wondered if something had happened to take away his sense of urgency. The other part of me was grateful, because I still hadn’t worked up the courage to bathe with an audience just yet and had to settle for a few awkward sponge baths instead.

That would change today; I knew the activity of the morning would drive me to need a true bath, as I followed Caelum to the training cavern. Even knowing that Melian may not be pleased with the decision to come here, and at the end of the day I would still return to those books and the knowledge they contained, I couldn’t not have some form of activity.

I couldn’t sit on my hands and eat the food Melian had delivered to me as I read, letting my body fall into disuse. I’d been easily exhausted and unable to run when I’d needed to escape Mistfell.

I wouldn’t allow it to happen again.

We made our way through the commons, accepting the light breakfast of buttered bread and the tea they gave me, made from lily of the valley plants, to prevent unwanted pregnancy. I ignored Caelum’s pointed stare while I downed the drink, handing my empty cup back to the woman who passed them out to any who wanted it.

We continued on our way, and I winced when all eyes turned to me the moment we entered the caves where the fighters trained, and I knew there had been conversations about me since Melian had assigned me to the texts. I didn’t belong here; not when I had another task that needed my attention.

“She can’t expect you to spend all day locked up in that cave alone,” Caelum murmured at my side. His voice dropped lower, his tone becoming scathing. He didn’t approve of the task Melian had given me; rather, he didn’t approve of the fact that I would need to do it alone, away from him. “Perhaps I should mention that I can also read the Old Tongue. If translating these texts is so important to her, surely my time is better spent there than having me train with her fighters.”

“She believes we need to be kept separate as much as possible. I highly doubt she’ll approve of giving us more time together,” I said, scoffing as Caelum guided me toward the center of the training space. He hefted two practice swords off the rack, tossing one to me that I stumbled to catch by the hilt.

I hadn’t been able to lift Loris’s sword when he’d taught me how to defend myself, so we’d focused on daggers and my own body being my weapons. The wooden practice sword was weighty, but not to the point that my arms ached. Or perhaps that was due to the changes in me since being marked, since the increased strength had changed me from human into something more.

Caelum lifted his sword, eyes bright as he waited for me to strike. It went against everything I knew of fighting for me to make the first move, because my smaller body would always be at a disadvantage. I didn’t know how to fight when my opponent didn’t think me incompetent, and was prepared for even my minimal level of skill.

I spun the sword in my hand, testing the weight and adjusting to the unfamiliar object. I hated to think that my first time truly fighting with a sword would be with an audience to judge me, but I would not allow myself to be discovered helpless.

Never again.

“Come on, my star. Show them how bright you burn,” Caelum murmured softly. The soothing intensity of his eyes on mine shoved away those insecurities, bolstering me. The point of the exercise wasn’t to show off the skills I already had. It wasn’t to prove something to anyone but myself.

It was to learn.

I struck, moving my body in the way I’d so often seen the men do when they trained at the barracks at Mistfell. Caelum blocked the blow with a swift swipe, knocking my sword to the side.

I did it again, feeling awkward with the too-long weapon in my hand, trying to find a way not to have my weight thrown off balance.

“It is an extension of your body. Your sword is a part of you, Estrella. Not the most important part, not even your sole focus. You have the movements and the ability to fight inside of you. I’ve seen you disarm men with no weapon at all. This is just another tool. Nothing more, nothing less. Sink into that place you go when your life is actually in danger,” he said.

I inhaled deeply, letting my eyes drift closed as I reflected back to my terror in the woods on the day I’d lifted the tree branch to fight the Wild Hunt, and to the ghostly rider I’d stabbed with his own weapon. To the fear I’d felt in the caves the moment I’d awoken with a sword pressed to my chest.

I moved then, twisting my body with the fluid grace I hadn’t been certain I possessed. My body was small, and I was able to curve through spaces with more natural rhythm than a larger person could use. I jabbed the sword toward Caelum as if I might aim for his chest, dropping to my knees and spinning on them in the dirt as he moved to block the blow to his chest that no longer came.

I cracked the flat side of my wooden sword against his knee cap hard enough that the smack echoed through the room. Caelum grunted, a chuckle rising in his voice as I leaped to my feet and backed away as quickly as I’d attacked.

“There she is,” he said, his voice dripping with approval and physical attraction.

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