26. UNTOLD

twenty-six

UNTOLD

K nees cold, soaked in blood. Hand scraped raw. His nose and cheeks scalded, and eyes aflame with tears, blotchy with indiscernible shapes worsening the longer he looked down at Tau.

Laying on the ground, lifeless.

A shimmering, glowing beauty. Skin of light, entirely exposed. The outlines of Oliver's fingers white as they hovered the breadth of a kiss away from a face he couldn't look upon for long. He squeezed his eyes shut against the vividness, against the excruciating agony tearing his chest apart.

He couldn't breathe, each attempt a long-pending keen.

His face grew hot, warming an endless stream of sorrow.

Someone moved to the side of him.

Oliver wheezed, " Don't ."

They weren't supposed to see him.

"Don't look."

The surrounding silence persisted, but the thumping in his head had grown impossibly loud. His quivering fingertips lowered to bare skin, visible to him even with his eyes closed. Hot. Cold. Unmoving.

Someone's boots shuffled across cobblestone.

Again, Oliver managed, "Don't look."

"Here." Jacob's gravelly voice, and heavy fabric fluttering.

When he opened his eyes again, all he saw was a blur of green.

Not Tau's green. Not like a lush forest, or a sparkling emerald.

Tarpaulin canvas, heavy and dull and blocking out Tau's corporeal light.

Oliver's cries became ragged as he curled over the hidden form, and arms wrapped along his shaking shoulders. Lucetta nudged his temple with her forehead. Maji pressed hers into his chest.

"You'll be alright," said Jacob gruffly from somewhere nearby. "Us unlucky few have no choice but to be."

Oliver didn't have the strength to respond, to acknowledge the footfalls rapidly approaching. He didn't fight the strong arms embracing him from behind, pulling him against a warm body. Away from Tau.

He resisted, then went slack. The mantle was gone, but his curse wasn't. He could hurt Benjamin, and there'd be no one to heal any injuries.

Oliver sat there, trapped in a firm hold that wasn't Tau's.

"I said I'd never forgive him." His throat felt too tight, his voice sounding listless. Distant. "Those were my last words to him."

"He knew you loved him more than anything," murmured Benjamin against the back of his head.

"It should have been me. I should've been the one to sacrifice myself for him this time." Anger surged, and briefly, Oliver attempted to pull out of the hold. "He's such an arsehole !"

"Alright." Benjamin's voice was only a whisper as he moved Oliver further away.

"No!" Oliver croaked. "Please, Ben, don't . I'm not leaving him."

He couldn't fight him. Couldn't stand upright, either, his knees buckling when he tried.

"Alright," said Benjamin again.

"You're going to have to move eventually," said Samuel. "People are coming around."

"We need to keep him covered." Gently, with a hand that would never again be steady, Oliver tucked the dull green fabric more securely around Tau. "No one can see."

"The Vestibule is gone," whimpered Janice from somewhere. "We can't take him back there."

"The inn, then?" Samuel approached Tau's feet and bent to grab them. "We'll carry him."

Benjamin eased his hold on Oliver and moved to help. Lucetta and Maji too. Oliver didn't try to stop them, but neither could he join, lacking the strength as they struggled to lift Tau.

Despite their combined efforts, they barely managed to lift him off the ground. They shuffled as one, the scrape of their boots unravelling something horrible inside Oliver as he watched, rending the front of his shirt with an aching grip.

They lowered Tau again, panting. Lucetta arched her back with a strange noise. A groan.

A groan that hadn't come from her at all, but from the tarpaulin, sounding disgruntled. Oliver stared as his friends made to lift Tau's body again, unable to move, or to speak, or to—

"Leave."

They all stilled, hands hovering over canvas fabric and exchanging looks.

Oliver moved to him, the crawl on his knees clumsy. He frantically waved the others away, fighting the immediate urge to rip the tarpaulin back. Instead, he settled his hand on an unmoving chest.

"Sunshine?" he quavered.

"Pain."

Oliver croaked, his last sob still caught in his throat. He laid flat on the ground and lifted the cover. Not by much, wincing at the bright light emanating from under it. Like motes of dust caught in sunlight, tiny sparkles floated upward, vivid against the purpling sky. Oliver reached in, fingertips connecting with intermingling temperatures, and skin as soft as his own.

Tau made another noise. Irritable, but damn, if it wasn't the most beautiful sound Oliver had ever heard. The tarpaulin shifted. Everyone stepped back to give Tau room as he made to get up. Sunlight flashed with each flutter of fabric, cinching Oliver's chest with a panic that had him hovering, ensuring Tau remained covered. Something that became increasingly difficult once his Sentinel raised himself to his full height, unsteady on his feet. A hand shot out from under the tarpaulin and clutched Oliver's shoulder for support. The armour had shed entirely. Pure vividness led to golden sunlight that tapered off into a subtle green of the hand's contours. An extraordinarily beautiful hand, but not one Oliver wanted on display. He rushed to push the hand off him and cover it back up.

Unfortunately, Lucetta had seen, her eyebrows raised high.

"He's just light?"

Oliver ignored her, ushering Tau toward the inn.

"How does that add up?" Her question chased him, and he sent her a dirty look over his shoulder.

"Don't look!"

"It makes so much sense now!" Lucetta continued, following with the rest of them.

Maji gasped with an epiphany. "Nu was a tree!"

Okay, that made a lot of sense, and yet the others whispered behind him like it was somehow baffling.

"It's okay, Sunshine, they'll forget."

They wouldn't. Oliver certainly couldn't block out the image of Tau laying on the ground, even as he helped him edge inside the inn and meticulously kept every part hidden. A sob lodged itself in his chest again, and he ducked low to hide it, stepping over rubble and through a broken doorway.

Things had come crashing through the windows too, and the roof, littering the second-floor landing with debris. The rooms were draughtier than before, but out of all structures within the vicinity, the inn appeared to have suffered the least amount of damage.

Tau shuffled toward the bed and eased down to sit on its edge with a strained groan, while Oliver ran to grab a spare blanket folded on a chair to drape it over his knees, hiding clawed feet that had come uncovered.

"You alright under there?" asked Lucetta, shutting the door to the room behind her. It was split down the middle.

"Yes," muttered Tau. So grumpy.

Oliver, on the other hand, heard himself calmly utter, "Good. Because we need to have a talk about what you pulled back there."

Lucetta asked, "How did you survive?"

The tarpaulin shrugged.

It didn't matter to Oliver how Tau had done it, just that he had. He squeezed his eyes against the flashes of things that would plague him for the rest of his life, and sat beside Tau. As close as he could, without hurting him.

Jacob scoffed, shuffling over the armchair in the corner with a tired groan. Maji wasn't in a much better state, plopping down on the bed at Tau's other side, prompting a disgruntled, "Pain."

"Oh, sorry!"

Nervously, she tapped her feet on the floor, while Lucetta crossed the room to the ruined bay window and peered outside. It was still dark out. Voices floated in from the docks below. Not many, but by the sounds of it, they drew closer.

"We won't be able to stay here for long if we want to hide Tau." Lucetta pushed away from the window and glanced around the room as if its cracked walls would tell her something. "He's already got a track record for causing flash burns wherever he goes. People here are bound to put one and one together soon. Are you up to walking, Tau?"

Another shrug.

A faint knock on the door, and Benjamin, Samuel, and Janice slipped inside before shutting away escalating noise from inside the inn.

"People are getting too curious," said Benjamin. "We should leave before any authorities get here."

"We should stay exactly for that reason," said Samuel, lingering by the door. "Someone has to let them know what's happened here."

Oliver grimaced, promptly deciding that was something he'd leave up to the others, if that's what they wanted to do.

"Tau's too exposed." He reached under the tarpaulin, desperate for reassurance his boyfriend was still there and breathing—or whatever the Sentinel equivalent was. Long, clawed fingers wrapped around his, sending gooseflesh up his arm. "Do you have more of those bandages?"

Janice looked entirely out of place, standing with her arms around herself closest to the door as if ready to run. "No. Not now that I've been locked out."

"You aren't able to get back inside at all? No back doors?" asked Samuel.

Her knuckles turned pallid, fingers digging into her white coat. "I don't think so."

"Are you going to be okay, Sunshine?" Oliver asked in a low murmur. "You'll heal?"

"Yes."

"Why did you leave the elevator?" asked Lucetta. "What are you going to do now?"

For an awful moment, Oliver thought Janice might cry again. Although tears spilt, they did so silently this time.

"It was a–a mistake. I just—I wanted to see. I don't belong here, but I have nowhere to go."

Lucetta turned to Jacob. "What about you?"

"He's coming with us," said Oliver immediately.

"I don't need to be going anywhere with you," was Jacob's immediate and churlish response.

"Yeah, you do," said Oliver, although his attention hadn't left Tau once. Specifically, the way it felt to touch his bare skin, the way their palms connected, for once unhindered by armour.

"You're both coming with us, then." Lucetta sighed. "Question is, where are we going, and how are we getting there without money?"

Oliver cast a glance around the room, but everyone appeared to be at a loss. It would require too much money to travel back to the Tesera Mine by train. Tau wasn't in a position to transport them, and Hennessey was long gone.

"On foot it is," said Lucetta, coming to the same conclusion Oliver had been about to. "We've been away from the mine for months already, another few weeks won't make a difference."

"I suppose I'll be the one staying to inform the police," said Samuel in slight exasperation.

"Yeah, do that." Lucetta dismissed him with a wave of her hand, moving to gather her rucksack. "Tell them what little we know."

She nudged past Benjamin and Samuel to peek out the door, shortly waving Oliver over. Reluctantly, he released his hold on Tau's hand and helped his boyfriend up to guide him.

The bedimmed landing was empty, but the clamour of lucky survivors below promised a headache.

Lucetta pulled Oliver close with an arm over his shoulders to whisper into his ear, "There's a back door through the kitchen. Maji and I will create a diversion, and you sneak Tau out with the others. I have a feeling Sam's going to try and follow, so shake him off if you can."

"Uh—"

"Don't use the main road. Meet me at the bottom of the hill we came out on."

She didn't wait for an answer. With the rucksack slung across her back, Lucetta and Maji returned to the room. Oliver thought they had gone to the bay window, but Benjamin and Samuel's broad frames blocked his view.

"Uh…"

Oliver couldn't resist glancing at Samuel, standing impassively by the door. Unlike Benjamin, who had taken to fidgeting with his fingernails. Out of them all, Janice was the most nervous. She looked outright terrified, her eyes bulging at a sudden explosion a short distance from the inn's entrance. Survivors rushed to escape, their backs illuminated by lanterns squeaking on their handles.

With a hand on Tau's stomach, Oliver gently eased him back into the shadows. Not that anyone was looking. Neither did they hear Jacob beginning his shuffle down the creaking stairs. A glower from the old man prompted Oliver to quietly swear, realising this was their moment to flee.

He grasped Tau by the hand and eased him along, following Jacob through a kitchen with floor tiles so grimy, the soles of his boots stuck to them with each step. No doubt that had to feel unpleasant under Tau's bare feet.

The back door squeaked on its hinges, and squeaked each time someone passed through its narrow frame. The large structure above was gone, permitting moonlight to filter from between clouds, haloing the destruction with silver, while the seaside wind remained relentless. It whipped past Oliver's ears. Low brush sibilated at his heels. He glanced over his shoulder, relieved to see they weren't being followed by anyone other than his friends. And Samuel, whom he didn't know how to get rid of.

The first sign of dawn made itself known as a dark orange band across the hill when he eventually crested it, although whether this was the right one or not, Oliver didn't have a clue. Tau kept pace, though he still seemed unsteady, bumping into Oliver when he came to a stop to keep a lookout for Lucetta and Maji.

"Oliver," Samuel began, and it made his heart drop. "We should stay, talk to the police."

"You can," he snapped, twisting his arm around his tarpaulin-boyfriend's hips.

"The telephone lines are probably down, anyway," mumbled Benjamin.

Samuel clicked his tongue. Whatever he longed to say vanished as two familiar silhouettes drew into view, their footfalls tired. Lucetta scowled at her brother, then tutted at Oliver.

"We should cut some eye holes for Tau," said Maji, her breath pitched with fatigue.

"Don't be daft. You don't see like we do, right Sunshine?"

"Speaking of," Lucetta gave Oliver a pointed look. "You little liar."

Startled, mostly because he wasn't sure what he'd lied about, Oliver guided Tau down the other side of the hill.

"That's right, you take your entirely non-human boyfriend," she said behind him.

Not angrily, but teasingly, he was sure. He hoped, anyway.

"What was that explosion?" To Oliver's befuddlement, Lucetta looked sheepish.

"I forgot there's a reason non-miners aren't supposed to touch Sentinel magic. Popped one of those star clusters into the inn, and it bounced against someone's leg."

Oliver huffed in amusement.

They poured out onto the road, still quiet. Benjamin had to be right in thinking the lines were down. If the monstrosities hadn't destroyed them, Tau would have. Oliver glanced across the packed dirt of the road, the flashes of light cast across it with every flutter of the canvas fabric. He worried his lower lip in thought.

Samuel was right. People did deserve to know the truth about Malimoure and who was responsible. Entities could still be lurking there. On the other hand, there'd be a cart-load of questions Oliver didn't think any of them were equipped to answer.

Not to mention it would throw into chaos the entire idea of mining for magic. Would people stop mining, if they knew what they'd helped create? Or would they deem the matter resolved and continue?

"I'm staying," said Samuel, moving toward the harbour town.

"What will you tell them?" asked Benjamin, standing between his husband and the rest of them.

"People need to know what Sentinels truly are and what they're capable of." Samuel's dark gaze pinned to Tau. "What they're guilty of. No one should worship them."

"If–If I might interject," said Janice, back to hugging herself. "You have no evidence, and trying to explain things that are completely outside of anyone's understanding will only make you look crazy."

"I like her," said Lucetta with a nasty smile. "She's right. No one's going to believe you. It's likely the government is already involved in this, anyway. But you could always join the Antisents if you're that determined."

"Sam, listen." Benjamin reached out to take both of Samuel's hands. Samuel did not move. "We will talk this through, but let's get our heads on straight first. We've been through so much. Don't you think we deserve some rest and to spend some time together, after all this?"

Even before Samuel shook his head, Lucetta scoffed. She knew her brother, and Oliver was beginning to see why she hated him so much.

Samuel turned away. Lucetta became an angry blur as she gathered a stone off the ground and threw it at his retreating back. It hit him hard in the shoulder blade. He grunted in pain and whirled to glare as the stone rolled away past his feet, although he didn't say or do anything to retaliate. Benjamin looked at Lucetta in shock, then darted to his husband and stood at his side.

Flinging two middle fingers up at them, Lucetta turned and walked the opposite way.

Oliver stammered, met Maji's equally horrified expression, then gasped, "Wait, Ben. You should come with us."

Wherever they were going.

"I'm not leaving him again."

Behind Benjamin, the horizon grew brighter, the harbour town a shadow of ruins. He was too far for Oliver to see the amber in his eyes, but he liked to think they were full with a confidence he hadn't seen much of lately.

"I get it," he said, surprised at the tranquillity he felt at that moment. "Take care, Ben, okay? We'll see you around."

Hopefully.

Resolutely, Lucetta didn't look back, visibly seething while Maji gave the two men a tearful goodbye.

"Don't look at me like that," she grumbled, and Oliver yanked his focus off her.

"Sorry. It's just—are you sure you want the one finger salute to be the last thing you say to him?"

She had to know what he meant, when twice now he'd said awful things to Tau that could have been his last words to him. Lucetta might never see her brother again, and while she would readily say that would be the best thing, Oliver doubted she'd mean it.

"Absolutely."

"Why are you so mad at him?" Maji asked, meekly, as she approached. "I know it's none of my business—"

"He sent my mom to prison for a while." Lucetta sounded calm, but the storm raging inside her reached her chestnut eyes. "I told you she was cursed, right?"

Oliver opened his mouth to say that yes, of course he remembered, but something heavy settled in his stomach. Something he hadn't realised before, when Lucetta had first spoken to him about it.

Was .

She kept her stony gaze on the hills. "And how touching her during one of her fits let you see the things she did?"

"I…remember," murmured Oliver.

"Well, Sam once touched her. He'd always been a prick about curses, he barely tolerated it about mom, but when he saw what she saw, he assumed she'd killed—as if she would!" Lucetta blinked, rapidly, but did not shed tears. "He went to the authorities and made a bunch of accusations, even told everyone else who would listen, including all our friends. Then he ran off. Mom was cleared of the charges since they didn't have any evidence to convict her. Sound familiar?"

Oliver was beginning to feel sick. He turned back to look, but Samuel and Benjamin were gone.

"The damage was done. We were complete outcasts, my mom's friends turned on her and… Eventually, she just couldn't take it anymore."

"Oh, Luce."

What was he meant to say? Oliver could think of nothing, didn't dare reach out, either, knowing Lucetta preferred to withdraw. She had to be heartbroken, even now. Maji didn't seem to know what to do either, her hands twitching forward before she stowed them into her armpits.

"I admire you though," Lucetta said after a moment, regarding Oliver. "Sam's going to tell everyone about things he claims to have seen Tau do, and you let him."

Oliver's hand sought reassurance from Tau's over the tarpaulin. Had he made a mistake, letting Samuel go?

"Not like I could have stopped him unless I socked him in the face."

"Maybe you should have."

Maybe, but he didn't really fancy lengthening the list of people he'd killed—regrettably shorter than he'd thought. Oliver deliberated mentioning Ondine was somehow still alive, but Lucetta jerked her head at Janice and Jacob loitering nearby, neither of them subtle about having listened in.

"Come on. We'll walk and see if we can't find a quiet place to rest for a bit."

"That's your plan, is it? Just walk?" grumbled Jacob.

"Got any better ideas?" Oliver countered over his shoulder.

Jacob didn't have a comeback, and that suited Oliver just fine. The old man had suffered a terrible loss, and after a life of hardships, he deserved some form of kindness. Taking him along to ensure he wouldn't die of loneliness was the only way Oliver could think to help him.

They walked in silence for a long time.

Birds sang to their heart's content as the sun cast them in a bright haze, faltering behind every thick tree lining both sides of the narrow road they had turned into. At odds with the restless whirl within Oliver's stomach.

At some point, Jacob's grunting and Janice's limping and pained hisses became too difficult to ignore, even for Oliver, whose frantic thoughts kept him preoccupied. Lucetta veered off into a grassfield occupied by sheep watching them all with keen eyes.

Oliver kept hold of Tau, by now certain that his boyfriend couldn't actually see anything at all, and lowered to the grass. "Sit, Sunshine."

"You alright?" asked Lucetta, holding her hand out for Janice to take.

"Y-Yes. My shoes." Janice avoided touching Lucetta in favour of plopping down nearby and taking her fancy little shoes off to expose blisters the size of thumbs.

"Sorry, I didn't think about it much." Lucetta moved to the old man to check on him. Although he had secluded himself in the shade of a tree, his surly expression was unmistakable.

While Maji tended to Janice's feet, Oliver turned his attention to Tau. So silent. He hadn't said anything at all since the inn. Oliver shifted his touch under the canvas fabric and squeezed a powerful thigh. Other than Tau's hand moving to cover his, though, he didn't say anything.

"Say, Maji, aren't we sort of headed in the direction of your village?" asked Lucetta.

Maji glanced up in surprise. "We are. I'm amazed you remember."

"What? Why didn't you say anything?" demanded Oliver.

"I just… Well. I uh–I don't know."

"Do you think we could stay there for a bit? I'm not ready to go back to the mine." Lucetta sat beside Janice. "We could do with an obscure place to rest. You said your village is out of the way, right?"

"Oh, it is. I guess–I guess it would be nice to go home."

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" asked Oliver.

"Six years…"

Lucetta glanced at the sitting tarpaulin. "Will they be alright with Tau?"

"I think so."

Maji was hesitant, and Oliver knew why. In passing, she had said her mother hadn't approved of her leaving home to become a mystical miner.Not to mention they were all failures, something that had never sat well with Maji in particular, who had only ever wanted to help others with discoveries.

"We'll have Tau with us, so that's something, right?" Oliver mustered a faint smile.

"Alright. So we'll go to Willow's Rest, if that's fine with everyone."

"Okay," mumbled Maji.

As long as he was with Tau and his friends, it didn't matter to Oliver where he went. Janice shrugged. She had little choice if she had nowhere else to go, and Jacob glowered, although remained silent. That probably meant he was fine with it.

Oliver looked across the fields, at the sheep lazily chewing grass. Quiet, and peaceful, the early summer sun warm on his skin.