Caldris turned to us, his eyes gleaming with black when he met my wide stare. There was no trace of blue in that night-filled gaze, no trace of anything but malice as his rage crashed into me so suddenly that I flinched back.
“Fuck,” Holt cursed, dismounting his skeletal horse. He turned to me, taking my reins in his grip and handing them to Aramis. He reached up and waved his hand over my wrists, releasing the shackles there. “Get her the fuck out of here.”
Aramis nodded, angling his horse to line up parallel with Azra. He kicked his horse into a canter, making Azra pick up the gait to follow as I shifted my weight forward and struggled to keep my seat. He raced back the way we’d come, Azra following at his side with me atop him, leaving the others behind. Azra whinnied his protest, tossing his head as if he didn’t want to leave Caldris.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, fighting him for control of Azra’s reins.
“We need to get you as far away from Caldris as possible right now,” Aramis said, meeting my stare for a brief moment. The path was almost treeless as we made our way back in the direction of Black Water.
We should have just stayed in the hut for an eternity, like I’d wanted, hiding out there and living full lives in secret. The only thing that had kept me from asking to do just that was knowing we would bring more danger to the people who lived there. The next time the Mist Guard found them harboring the Fae Marked and Fae alike, they would burn the village to the ground along with everyone in it.
Aramis stopped suddenly, pulling Azra to a halt as he looked around the clearing. There was nothing to be seen, not a sign of danger as I spun to look at him with ragged breath. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked, wheezing and trying to adjust my position in the moment of stillness.
“He spent fucking centuries without his mate; that’s what’s wrong with him. It would be enough to make a Fae go feral under good circumstances, but when you factor in what he’s lived through, the possibility for the loss of control grows,” Aramis answered, continuing to look around the clearing. He guided the horses into a trot, his journey much more cautious as his body was consumed with tension.
The rage blazing down the bond was like nothing I’d ever known, rivaled only by my wrath the night before. It was all-consuming, terrifying in its intensity. It threatened to burn the world to the ground and claim the ashes as his war prize. “He’s never been like this before. I don’t understand what brought it on.”
“Mab killed his father and strung him up. Left his body to hang there, rotting in her throne room for weeks when Caldris was only a century old,” Aramis answered, turning to look at me. He swallowed, his gaze straying over my shoulder. I spun, finding a lone figure standing in the snow a few feet away.
My mate tilted his head to the side, his posture inhuman as he stalked forward toward us with slow steps. “Get off the horse,” Aramis said, tossing the reins back over Azra’s neck.
“But you said—”
“Get off the fucking horse before he kills it to get to you,” Aramis ordered, jumping down from his own steed. He slapped it on the rear, sending it back toward the group we’d left. I had to hope they were still alive—at least those of them who were alive in the first place.
Blood dripped from Caldris’s hands, his nails curved into pointed, black talons. His sword was gone from his hand, not a weapon in sight as he approached Aramis.
I dismounted Azra, sending him to follow Aramis’s horse with a nervous swallow. Aramis put distance between us, stepping away slightly as Caldris headed straight toward us.
“You coward,” I hissed back at Aramis, my lips twisting with a snarl as I stared into the gleaming eyes of death. Even feral, even lost to the rage and madness consuming him, I had to believe Caldris wouldn’t hurt me.
Right?
“He will gut me and feed me my entrails while I watch,” Aramis said, quirking an eyebrow up at me as he glanced down my body. “He just wants to fuck you, and given the noises I heard coming from your hut last night, you aren’t entirely against the idea.”
I turned away from him, facing the male prowling toward me. His hands were still at his sides, those black nails gleaming in stark comparison to the snow that fell behind him. “Caldris,” I said softly, ignoring the way the sound still seemed to crack through the silence.
The fact that Holt and the others didn’t try to intercede didn’t bode well for us at all, and the menace on his face made me swallow nervously. His eyes turned toward Aramis, his lips peeling back into something resembling a snarl as he studied the other man, who seemed desperate to put more distance between us.
“Fuck!” Aramis yelled, dropping to his knees in the snow, making himself submissive.
“You can’t even fucking die!” I yelled, watching as he bowed his head and lowered himself to the ground.
“That doesn’t mean it won’t hurt like a fucking bitch, you menace. Would you just give him what he wants already?” he asked, staring at the way Caldris’s boots carved through the snow. It fell steadily, landing on my cloak in heavy layers and covering my hair in white flakes, then scattering as I flinched away from the male prowling toward Aramis. There was no doubt he would tear the other man limb from limb while I watched. I stared at him, considering the vengeance I couldn’t achieve on my own through his death.
Would his pain ease the part of me that called for blood?
“Estrella, please just give him what he wants,” Aramis said, his voice nearly quivering as he stared at Caldris’s boots. “I am sorry about your brother, but you’re alive because of what I did.”
“Who said I wanted to be?” I asked, tilting my head to the side. That darkest part of me rose from within, enjoying the way he huddled in on himself in fear. For a single moment, I didn’t want to stop the bloodshed—I wanted to join in.
Caldris stopped with his boots directly in front of Aramis’s head, leering down at the other male with that brutality etched into the lines of his face. Gone was the male I knew, the one who would regret what he’d done when he came back from this madness that possessed him.
It wasn’t protectiveness for Aramis that forced my hand, but the knowledge that I would always want Caldris to stop me from becoming the monster I feared. I would want him to intervene, to keep me from committing sins I couldn’t take back when I emerged from the dark well inside of me.
“Fuck,” I hissed, the realization jolting me as I turned and ran in the opposite direction of Aramis. I raced due East, hauling my body over the snow-covered plains as quickly as I could manage. Trees loomed in the distance, and I didn’t know why, but I focused on them as my plan for escape.
I knew as well as anyone that there would be no escaping the Fae chasing me.
I glanced over my shoulder, expecting to find him following close behind, enjoying the chase, thriving on the thrill of hunting down the mate who dared to run from him. I halted in place, spinning back to look at Aramis kneeling in the distance.
Caldris was gone.
All I felt coursing down the bond were his rage and the way it mingled with his excitement. I turned my head to the side, studying the snow between Aramis and I for footprints that I couldn’t find. There was only one set, only my sloppy trail through the snow as I raced as if my life depended on it.