“Caelum?” I called, my lungs feeling as if they might seize, but there was no breath, no movement in my breast. My heart was quiet and still.
I turned forward once more, frantically raising my hand to my chest. My nails clawed at the skin covering the heart that refused to beat, my fear pushing me to my feet. A male figure stepped out of the darkness, shadows twining around his form. His skin was paler than the darkness surrounding him, his eyes set deep into his face and gleaming with the light of stars. Golden threads twined up his arms, wrapping around his hands and forearms until they finally settled against his bare shoulders.
I swallowed, not daring to speak as he took measured, leisurely steps toward me, as if time was a construct he didn’t understand, because he had eons of it.
“Hello, Estrella,” he said, his voice striking me in the chest. It was deeper than I’d thought possible, the vibrations of it sinking inside of me. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from those golden threads covering his arms, and only his amused chuckle forced me to look up into his star-filled, black stare. “Only you would be in my presence and be more interested in the threads of fate than in me.”
“Who are you? Where am I?” I asked, swallowing as he finally halted directly in front of me. Golden threads rose out of the clouds at my feet to wrap around my wrist.
“Answers will come when you’re ready for them,” he said, reaching forward with a single hand. He stroked a finger over the flesh of my cheek, then air filled my lungs suddenly. I bent over in pain, glaring up at the male as he patted my head soothingly. “But it is not your time yet, child.”
I woke from my dream lying on the rough stone beside the hot spring. I sputtered, coughing as water expelled from my lungs. Twisting my body to the side, I vomited the water from my stomach, emptying my lungs of all the fluid trapped in them. One of the skeletons stood between me and the Fae Marked still in the spring, his spine straight as my vision returned.
Holt stood, staring over in shock as I tightened my grip on that golden thread clutched in my grasp. The skeleton crumbled to the ground, giving me a perfect view of the people who had attacked me. Of the four faces I would remember until my dying days, their arms marred with bloodied scratches I assumed they’d gotten from the skeleton who’d pulled me from the water.
Fallon leaned over me, her face flushed and twisted in concern. I had the vaguest sense of her breathing air into my lungs—of her pressing on my chest in an effort to awaken me.
The cold finally touched my skin, making me realize that I lay upon the stone naked for all to see. I pulled on that golden thread once more, flinching back from Fallon’s gentle hands as she touched my face. She mouthed something, her words lost to the roaring of my rage in my head.
At the corner of my eye, the skeleton rose to his feet once more as I lifted the hand wrapped in my mate bond. It rolled its neck around on its shoulders, the bones and vertebrae cracking and drawing Fallon’s shocked eyes to the place where it jumped down into the water of the hot spring.
I pushed on the stone, maneuvering to my feet and staring down at the women who had wronged me in such a malicious way. I didn’t move my feet, allowing the skeleton to be the one to step forward.
“Estrella stop!” Holt called, the words breaking through the fog in my head. I shook them off, enjoying the way the Fae Marked women scrambled back to avoid the skeleton stalking toward them. The murder they’d tried to commit would haunt them until the moment they died, but it almost made me sad to know it would be short-lived.
Caldris appeared at the pathway that wound up the mountain, his face flushed as if he had run up the hill. I knew he hadn’t; I’d watched him appear from thin air. His hand was pressed to his chest, as if he’d been able to feel the way mine had been stopped in the dream that had taken me from the pain of drowning.
I shook off thoughts of the strange male crafted from the shadows themselves.
Caldris took in the sight before him with wide, frenzied eyes—the curl to my hand as my fingers spun the threads and guided the skeleton’s steps. His eyes raked over my nudity that was on display as he made his way across the stones. He came to me, swinging the cloak off of his shoulders as he walked and wrapping it around me. I didn’t take my eyes off the skeleton, or the vengeance I wanted with a ferocity that took my breath away.
“Estrella,” Imelda said, her voice gentler than Holt’s had been. I didn’t turn to look at her, only hearing her pull herself out of the hot spring. Water slid off her body as she came to stand only a few feet away, but I didn’t turn to look at her—not with my vengeance within my reach.
I was so tired of being hurt.
Caldris grasped my hand, his presence at my side like a soothing balm, but I didn’t want to let go of the rage. I didn’t want to release the fury that kept me warm. Lifting my palm wrapped in the threads of our bond and cradling it in his palm, he turned his stare to the skeleton, his brow furrowing as he focused on it.
It never stopped moving forward slowly, its steps measured as it tugged against the control Caldris tried to exert.
“It’s time to let it go, min asteren,” he said, his voice tormented as he touched a finger to the golden thread I’d wrapped myself in. The bond shuddered, chasing away some of my rage.
“They’ve made it clear that it is either them or me,” I said, my voice echoing over the spring. “It will not be me.”
“They deserve every bit of the punishment you would mete out to them, but think of the mates who are waiting for them. Who have waited centuries and think they’re so close to finding them. They deserve better. They deserve the opportunity to fight with them to change their perspectives, the way you have done.” He touched the threads again, and a strangled sob clawed its way up my throat, my bottom lip trembling as the rage eased enough for the pain to sink in. I released the threads with a groan, letting them fall away from my hand as I turned and touched my forehead to my mate’s chest.
He heaved a sigh of relief, wrapping his arms around me.
He faced the people in the spring. “If you value your lives, you will get dressed and get the fuck out, now,” he growled, and the Fae Marked, Imelda, and Fallon hurried out of the water. Their chains vanished as Holt moved to follow at their side, and I watched as Caldris commanded the skeleton out of the water. The skeletons guided the shivering human toward the path down the mountain, herding them away as they fought to tug on their clothing as quickly as possible.
“Not you,” Caldris said, the order snapping out like a whip. It struck Holt in the back, making him turn slowly toward Caldris. “The dead will guide them to your riders. You will stay right here.”
“I didn’t even realize she was beneath the water. I was trying not to look at her. We both know you’d be furious if you thought I was peeking at her while she was fucking naked,” Holt protested.
“And yet she somehow ended up standing naked in front of you anyway,” Caldris said, placing a hand to the small of my back. Sleepiness settled over me as he guided me right up to the edge of the water, quickly stripping off his clothing as soon as the Marked were gone from sight.
He jumped down into the water, standing at the edge and running his hands over my ankles. I shivered, the cold air making me long for my clothes, but I couldn’t seem to muster up the energy to make my way toward them.