Page 62 of What Hunts Inside the Shadows

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ESTRELLA

The stone tunnels felt more oppressive than normal as we made our way toward the common area in the main cavern. I didn’t know if the members of the Resistance would be allowed out in the open, but the commotion coming from the end of the tunnel implied far more voices than just those of the Wild Hunt.

I swallowed back my trepidation for what was to come, shifting my wrists to wring my hands in front of me. The shackles rubbed against my skin, the chain clinking and echoing off the tunnel walls. Caldris turned to look at me, staring down at them with all the hatred I knew he felt for the fact that I needed to be treated as if I was a prisoner.

Some days, I nearly asked him to remove them. The Fae Marked already hated me. They’d made that very clear, and I couldn’t imagine them despising me and my companionship with my mate anymore than they already did. His gaze darkened, as if he was only a few moments from tearing the shackles off me. After my agreement to accept the bond, it seemed even worse to be chained.

I wasn’t his prisoner any longer, but his partner moving toward freedom at the end of a fight for his freedom. It was a strange conflict to find myself at the center of, to feel as if I was solely responsible for the deaths that would come, but I could also be a part of the peace on the other side.

If I lived long enough, anyway.

All I knew, all that mattered to me, was that, at the end of the day, Caldris and I would live together. We would fight together. We would die together. There was comfort in that. A constant in the unknown.

We stepped into the main cavern and a hush fell over the space as all eyes fell on us. Holt straightened his shoulders, his hand going to the hilt of his sword as he prepared for whatever may come. Skye, the woman who had fed us on the day we’d arrived the first time caught my eyes, her mouth parting in shock as the breath left her lungs. She hurried over as Caldris tensed at my side, then took my hands in hers with a gentleness that made my heart ache.

“Estrella,” she said, her eyes filling with tears as she looked around behind me. “Where are the others? Melian? Duncan?”

Moisture gathered in my eyes as my nose burned, and it was all I could do to shake my head sadly. “The Mist Guard…” I trailed off, not needing to finish that sentence as her eyes drifted closed.

She shook her head slowly, heaving out a sigh. “All is truly lost then,” she said, and when her eyes opened she turned her attention to Caldris. She stared into his blue eyes with all the hatred any of them would have felt for the Fae, but as her gaze darted over the features of his face and went to his swords strapped across his back, I watched the ragged gasp leave her lungs. “Caelum?” she asked, stumbling back a step. She shook her head, pressing a hand to her mouth. Her gaze dropped to the matching marks on our skin, and to the way they seemed to move in tandem without Caldris’s glamour to hide the similarity. The way they pulsed as one, linking us across any distance between us.

There was no mark on Skye’s neck, but she reached up to touch herself as if there was.

“She trusted you,” Skye said, those eyes filled with accusation as they turned back to me. The hatred she felt for the Fae was nothing compared to the hatred she held for me, thinking I’d betrayed her people in a way that was unforgivable.

“I didn’t know,” I said, shaking my head sadly as I gave her my truth. We all had our choices to make and our burdens to bear, and knowing that I’d been the reason for Caldris’s deception was mine. But I was not responsible for the half-truths he’d spun, for his grand play to work his way into the Resistance.

I hadn’t done this knowingly.

She took another step away, moving into the arms of a man who wrapped her in his embrace. He wasn’t marked either, but his glare settled on Caldris exclusively. Why was it that women were always so quick to judge other women? Why was it the woman we vilified, even when presented with the truth that the woman had been a victim of the same deception?

Women needed to be better, to do better, because at the end of the day,everyone of our actions could see us condemned—while men were free to fuck and murder, to steal and lie, and it was all just brushed off as another day under the sun.

Bitterness rose within me, hatred so blinding I couldn’t see past the dark tinting the edges of my vision. At the center of the fog, the man guided Skye forward once again until they stood directly in front of us. He stared up into Caldris’s face, his eyes glaring in challenge.

Then he struck, reaching for the dagger strapped to Caldris’s thigh with movements as quick as I’d seen from any human. My mate blocked it easily, grabbing the man by the wrist and holding him. His grip was firm, the man’s skin pinching beneath his hold, but given what I knew of Caldris’s ability to tear a beating heart from a man’s chest with his bare hands, his restraint was admirable.

I stared down at his hold, wishing others could see it for the gentleness it was, for the control it took with strength like his. I saw him through a different lens, turning my stare up to his face as he met my eyes sadly.

Something wet splashed against my cheek, startling me as I turned to look at Skye. She wiped her mouth of spit with the back of her hand. “You didn’t know? That doesn’t seem to have stopped you from making loving eyes at him now. Spare me your fucking lies, you Fae-fucking whore.”

I reached up, wiping the spit off my cheek with trembling fingers. I reached forward, grasping her by the shirt and using it to clean my skin of the traces of her abuse. I said not a word, not bothering to waste my breath as she watched me pointedly, waiting for the response that I would not give.

“Do you have nothing to say for yourself?” she asked, pulling her shirt out of my grasp and crossing her arms over her chest.

“I encountered less judgment from the man who caned me when I failed to please him,” I said simply, keeping my expression blank. “But he taught me one valuable lesson. There is nothing I can say to lessen your hatred, because it exists within you. It is not about me at all, but about you as a person and who you will never be.”

“Am I supposed to strive to be like you? To stand there and allow myself to be his pet?” she asked, leaning into the side of the man next to her as Caldris finally released him. My mate kept quiet, not offering me a word of defense.

I was glad for it, knowing that, if I was truly to be an equal at his side, then there were some battles I needed to be able to fight for myself.“I would never tell you to be like me. I would advise you to find love in your heart, to find patience and understanding, even if I am incapable of it myself. Because as we’ve stood here having this worthless conversation that I will not bother to remember in a few days’ time, I’ve already imagined a dozen different ways I could kill you,” I said, watching as her eyes rounded with shock. She swallowed, glancing at Caldris out of the corner of her eye. “I do not need the God of the Dead to fight my battles with a human woman; I would do it myself. So no, Skye. Don’t be like me. Be better than me.”

“The God of the….” she trailed off, her eyes flashing back to Caldris as she stumbled back out of the man’s hold. It wasn’t surprising that those of the Resistance didn’t recognize him. The portraits of him were hidden away in the library of the lower level, where none seemed to go because of their inability to read.

“Do come visit us in Alfheimr, Skye!Caldrisand I would love to repay the kindness you’ve shown us during our time here,” I called as she disappeared into the watching crowd. It swallowed her whole, taking her as far away from the threat of the God and his violent mate as she could manage.

“I will make sure you regret this one day,” the man said to Caldris, turning his attention back to him once Skye was gone from view.

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