Page 10 of What Lurks Between the Fates

“You aren’t supposed to be here. I didn’t believe it when you said that you felt like something within you revolted againstthese shores. You are far too dangerous to exist in the clutches of the one person who would use you to burn the world as we know it to the ground. With you at her side, she could be unstoppable,” Caldris explained, his gaze softening for a single, delicate moment.

“She already is. If she wasn’t, someone would have stopped her by now,” I said, hanging my head as I considered that freeing my mate from Mab may be impossible in the end.

It seemed unfathomable that one person could have so much more power than what I’d observed in him. There’d been a time when the power my mate possessed seemed infinite, and in truth, it still did in so many ways.

What must Mab’s power have looked like if it was too much for the male who’d decimated Calfalls to fight?

“Maybe we were just waiting for you. Even if we didn’t realize it,” Caldris said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “It has been suggested that my mate may be enough to increase my power so that I could stand a fighting chance, but we never considered what you may be. You are more than just a mate for me to love, and your power will feed our bond far more than a human’s life force ever could. No matter what you are, there is something inside of you that will frighten Mab when she comes to realize how deep it runs in you. When you factor in our bond, the two of us would be unstoppable if we could only complete the ceremony and tie our lives together in truth.”

I sank to my knees on the stone beneath me, touching a hand to the rough surface and wishing the iron around me didn’t dull my senses so much. I’d never healed from it before stepping foot in Alfheimr, so something about this land strengthened me.

As much as I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be here, this was where I’d been born in my first life.

This was the land that coursed through my soul, that powered my very existence. So why did it repulse me, as if the earth itself wanted to send me away?

I shuddered as I bent my fingers, digging my nails into the stone and pressing down with every bit of the aggravation I felt. The stone cracked beneath my touch. Jagged pieces jutted up from the surface to surround my hand. I picked them apart slowly, nudging them out of my way as I touched my fingers to the soil beneath.

It was rich, hearty, even in this place that seemed so devoid of life. The grains were perfect for growing plants, wet and healthy in ways the grainy sands of Nothrek could never be without the magic of the Faerie. I cupped a handful and lifted it from the ground, curling my arm toward my torso as I stared at the dirt that felt so different from the soil I’d spent an entire lifetime toiling away in.

“What are you doing?” Caldris asked, his voice muffled, as if I was drowning beneath the surface. As if the water that flowed through the hills of Faerie raged inside my head, making it so that I could barely see him.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, staring down at the hole in the earth where I’d taken the dirt from it. I returned the soil, placing it gently and touching my fingers to the earth once again. My fingers curled into it, the individual grains imbedding themselves under my nails and staining my fingers.

I ignored the pulsing whisper, the driving force to remove my hand from the thing that did not belong to me. It did not claim me, that quiet murmuring of the soil that echoed in my head.

Abomination,it seemed to say; and if dirt and soil and all those things had the ability to speak, I might have taken that insult to heart.

A trick of the mind, I reminded myself, finally pulling my hand away. I covered the hole with the stone once again, piecing the shards together like a puzzle until it wasn’t readily apparent to any guards who might intrude on my personal cell.

“It doesn’t want me here,” I whispered, trying not to acknowledge the melancholy in my voice. It was foolish to care what something that did not live thought of me, but I couldn’t shake the stinging feeling of rejection.

I’d never belonged anywhere, and it seemed I still wouldn’t.

“What doesn’t?” Caldris asked.

I could feel his gaze on me. I hadn’t yet met his face, not wanting to see the concern in his eyes. I wondered if whatever had changed within me had also taken something from me. If it had changed me into something less stable, crafting me into something that would always struggle to separate the truth from fiction.

I raised my eyes, finally meeting his blue stare. The dirt seemed to cling to the Fae Marks on my palm and fingers, as if it could hide who and what I was.

“Faerie,” I answered, not knowing what else to call it. The magic that coursed through the dirt was natural, derived from the Primordials who’d crafted the world themselves.

Was it the Primordials who did not want me here, if that was the case? Or was it purely the result of their magic?

“You say that like it spoke to you,” he said, his brow furrowing.

I was sure he’d heard the whispers that danced in his head; and given that I, myself, questioned if they were real, I couldjust imagine how difficult it must be to hear them through the bond. Like a secret whispered through people, how much of what we sensed from one another was diluted or altered?

“It wasn’t words so much as a feeling,” I confirmed, because the word I’d put to it was my own. The only word to match the feeling it gave me. How could I possibly thrive in this place where I was a prisoner in a land that didn’t want me?

“What’s happening to me?“ I asked instead, tears pooling in my eyes. My nose stung with the threat of them, as if they could burn a path up my throat and scorch the world. The realization of all that had happened, all that I’d lost, overcame me.

I’d known being with Caldris meant sacrificing my freedom, but I hadn’t been expecting to be held within a literal cage.

There was sacrificing my freedom for love, and then there was having it stolen for no reason. This was the latter, and I wanted to do whatever it took to get back to the sacrifice.

“I don’t know,” my mate admitted. He didn’t shrug his shoulders. The movement would have been far too casual for the seriousness of our conversation, but the lack of commitment was there, nonetheless. “We’ll figure it out when we can. For now, we’re better off not having the answers. Mab can’t demand information we do not have.”

I nodded, trying not to let my curiosity get the best of me.

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