Page 52 of Against the Veil (Endangered Fae #3)

With a little smile for his beloved, Lugh sat up, using his size to command attention.

“Thank you, Sergeant Morrison. Ladies and gentlemen of the general assembly, while the Fae Collective cannot pretend expertise in human magic, we have a keen and vested interest in the health and welfare of human magic users.

Your magic affects our magic and, for the denizens of the Otherworld, magic is life.

With the current crisis, we fear that life is uncertain for us yet again.

“We feel that education and training of magic users is the only way to effectively combat spontaneous outbreaks of wild magic and the magical hysteria witnessed in the recent urban riots. The Collective has set aside funding, available to any country where we do not see human rights violations against magic users, for the founding of schools and university programs for the magically inclined. Proposals will be received at the Consulate on Tearmann Island, beginning immediately.”

The Secretary General recognized one of the Eastern European delegates, who asked, “Your Highness, will the Collective consider any magical registration effort a violation of rights?”

“Yes. The language of the education fund specifically states that any country insisting upon registration of magic users will be automatically barred from receiving grant monies.”

“Highness, is there a ceiling on grants?”

“Not at this time. All proposals will be dealt with on an individual needs basis. A school for elementary-age children in a small village, for instance, would require a good deal less than a new college of Magical Studies in one of the world’s trade cities.”

“Mr. Ambassador, do you claim this is not an attempt to influence how sovereign nations choose to deal with these unnatural aberrations?”

Zack shifted next to him, a sub-audible growl rumbling in his chest. Lugh gave his arm a reassuring pat and smiled at the speaker. “Mr. Aziz, magic is no more unnatural than gravity and we do not consider human magic users aberrations. We consider them gifted.”

“And what of these…diseased ones? The ones that become monsters?”

Lugh fought the tightening of his jaw. To say such things with Zack sitting right there was bordering on an international incident.

“We have encountered no monsters, sir. If you refer to certain afflictions of human kelan strands, the Collective would like to make clear that these are only monstrous in fable and in the minds of intolerant individuals.”

The delegate sat back with a frown but refrained from saying more, ceding the floor to the delegate from Ireland.

“Will there be funding available for support and crisis centers?”

Lugh leaned closer to the microphone. “Yes, most definitely. Specifics for the recommended available services can be found in the fund’s charter document.”

The questions continued for some time, but Lugh answered them all with an ease he had never felt before in a human gathering.

Nothing in his long life had ever been this easy before.

Now, with his Zack beside him, with their hearts entwined and keeping the dark forever at bay, he could no longer imagine why such things had been so hard.

“My heart, my own, it’s time.”

Diego only nodded, gaze locked on his feet as he rose, and that frightened the stuffing out of Finn.

He had exploded in a fit of rage when Danu had told him there would be a trial, in front of both courts, no less, but she had explained why this had to be. Step by step, Angus and Sionnach had told him what he needed to expect and eventually he’d seen a bit of wisdom in it. Perhaps.

It was all for Diego and, he hoped, another step toward recovery. At least they hadn’t insisted he come in chains.

“Diego, love…” Finn twisted his hands together feeling helpless. “Should I carry you?”

Diego ran a shaking hand back through his hair. “No, I…I’ll walk. Should I… Where are my shoes?”

Finn took his hand, pulling Diego close to tuck him under his arm. “We’re going to the field. You don’t need shoes.”

“I should brush my hair.”

“I did it, love. Just a few minutes ago.”

“Oh.”

How many times can a heart break before it shatters into too many pieces to retrieve again? Finn pulled the man he loved into an impulsive hug, wishing, oh wishing so hard for the thousandth time that Diego would come back to him, whole and strong.

There had been deluges of tears, the self-recriminations and the screaming nightmares.

There had been the hopeless despair when Diego no longer wished to live.

And now? Now there was this lost, hollow shell, this child-man who no longer remembered things from moment to moment, and who forgot to eat unless someone told him to.

Oh, this is cruel.

Perhaps he would simply take Diego away. Run off to Montana with him and hide. Forever. No one would find them and they could simply live a peaceful, quiet life…

Diego squirmed in his arms. “They’re waiting for us.”

Or perhaps not.

Down the stairs, through the doorway that Diego himself had helped build, the one permanent doorway between the human and fae worlds, and out under the brilliant blue sky of the Otherworld.

Fae of all shapes and sizes packed the field, those attached to the courts and some who were not.

A terrible stillness had settled over all those gathered, unnatural in races that were normally so restless and vocal.

It was not to be a trial as the humans had, not like the ones Finn had watched on television, those long, tedious tournaments of words between lawyers. This would be a trial in the sidhe sense of the word, accusation, declaration and sentencing.

Danu half reclined on the one great outcropping of rock that thrust up in the middle of the field, not an odd sight itself, with her court around her, but odd that Balor stood by her shoulder in silent accord.

She lifted a hand and beckoned to Diego, who shook Finn off and placed himself on trembling legs in the empty spot in the grass before her.

“Santiago Sandoval y Romero, we accuse you. You have used your power to perpetrate violence without calling challenge, to create terror in the human world and to manipulate events to your own ends. You held a prince of our blood against his will, chained with cold iron, and your actions caused the death of one human child, possibly two. What say you to this?”

Finn knew it wasn’t done, knew it was against all court protocols, but if he didn’t speak, his heart would leap from his chest and run screaming into the wilderness.

“He did nothing! He was under compulsion. You know this, Light of the World. It was not Diego but some shadow of him that did these terrible things!”

Danu’s hair lifted in the magic wind she called, her voice sharp and terrible as she shouted him down. “Fionnachd, be still! You have no voice here! Sit down!”

Finn had no choice under the weight of her words. His legs crumpled and he sat hard. Diego, however, held his ground. For the first time in nearly two weeks, his head came up. His eyes shone clear and sharp.

His voice shook when he spoke, but he pitched it to carry.

“ Majestad , forgive my wounded husband. He grieves. He worries. I don’t have enough apologies for the anguish I’ve caused him.

But he’s wrong. Yes, I labored under a spell of compulsion, my own native compassion removed, but the rest of me remained to do the terrible things I did.

I didn’t realize it before or maybe I refused to, but the arrogance of the Dark Mage was mine.

The need to be proven right was mine. The certainty that my solutions were the only worthwhile solutions…

was mine. Perhaps I wasn’t whole when I committed these crimes, but I was still me . I have no defense. I am guilty.”

The stillness grew heavier. Finn thought it might pound him down into the ground so far no one would ever be able to retrieve him.

Danu finally spoke again, her voice gentle and sad.

“Listen then, to the shape of your punishment, our Taliesin. You have caused harm in the human world and therefore will be banished for three years and three days. You may not have contact with any human during your banishment, nor may you speak with any member of the fae courts. Go and wander among the wild fae and perhaps you will find those things you lack to protect yourself and to protect others from you.”

Diego swayed, visibly shaken. He had obviously expected something else. “Must I go alone, majestad ?”

No! Finn screamed inside his head. I am no court fae! They will not keep me from you, never, ever again! I will turn into a serpent and crawl after you through the grass if I must!

“We are not so cruel to separate you from your husband again. If Fionnachd wishes, he shall journey with you.”

“Thank you,” Diego whispered as he dropped his head in his hands. His swaying grew alarming and he would have fallen if Finn hadn’t lunged to catch him. “Finn?”

Finn held him tight. If he held him tight enough, he could squeeze all the darkness out and let the light filter back through into Diego’s heart. “It will be like a vacation, a…what is that odd word? A sabbatical . Just you and I, beloved. We’ll have a lovely time, won’t we?”

Diego clung to him and wept, but it was a soft rain of tears this time rather than the howling thunderstorms that had come before.

There was hope in that and Finn had always lived his life rock hopping from hope to hope.

He would nurture that hope for them both, keep it safe as he would keep Diego safe, help it grow, and when it was big enough to stand on its own, hand it back to his love, and watch the light return to his eyes.

They stood on the banks of the Alainn again, but this time everything was different. That other time felt like years ago instead of weeks, and all the beauty of the scenery had been sucked away in those weeks of frustration and fear.

“The end of innocence,” Zack murmured.

“Just when a man thinks he has no more innocence to lose,” Diego replied with a bemused shake of his head. “So much lost.”

The canoe sat ready, tethered to the rushes at the bank. Diego’s pack lay in the bottom, disconcertingly flat with the light packing. He wouldn’t need much, of course, a couple of spare kilts, a toothbrush and razor, a gift for the dragons. Otherwise, the world around him would provide.

“Where will you go?” Zack hated the desolation in his voice, but he wasn’t good at hiding things like that.

“Lord Hssetassk has asked us to guest with him for a bit,” Diego managed on an uneven breath. “He…has things to teach me.”

“That’s good, right? He’ll teach you to shield yourself better and stuff?”

Diego nodded, chewing on his bottom lip, going nonverbal again. For a man who had made his living with words, he seemed to have lost his power over them.

A bundle of blankets sailed over Zack’s head to land unerringly in the canoe. Finn managed a tight smile and a bit of swagger despite the sorrow in his eyes. “Did you say a proper farewell to everyone, beloved?”

Again, the wordless nod, Diego staring at Finn with naked, helpless need. With a strangled sound, Finn crushed his husband close, holding Diego’s head to his chest with a hand on the back of his neck. He whispered in Diego’s ear, “A shoulder where Death comes to cry.”

Diego whispered back, “Take this waltz, take this waltz.”

They were reciting song lyrics to each other, or poetry, but it made Zack feel better despite the morbid words. This was a familiar thing, something Diego and Finn did with each other, a normal thing. A small, butterfly-sized shadow lifted from his heart. It helped.

He put a hand on Diego’s shoulder and the other on Finn’s. “Damn it, I’ll miss you.”

Diego got a hand free of Finn’s long-limbed tangle and seized a handful of Zack’s shirt. He yanked and wriggled around and ended up with his arms thrown around Zack’s neck, shaking as if he might fly apart.

“Hey, shh. It’s not forever. It’ll be okay.”

A muffled sob trembled against Zack’s shoulder, Diego whispering, “I’m so sorry. I’m so damn sorry.”

Zack turned his head to kiss Diego’s temple. “Not gonna say it wasn’t your fault, because I know you think it was. But you know what? I forgive you. I do. And so does Lugh.”

Diego lifted his head. The pain in those dark eyes made Zack want to break down and cry. “He’s not here.”

“No, bud. He had to go to Washington. They’re finishing up the hearings before Congress takes all the new magical law stuff into session to try to vote on it. He thinks the registration part won’t pass now that his grandparents have put some cash value on not passing it.”

“ Gracias a Dios ,” Diego murmured and rested his head back on Zack’s shoulder. “I’ll miss you terribly. I love you both. Even when…when all I felt inside was cold and hard, I still loved you, you and Finn and Lugh.”

He took Diego’s face between his hands, trying to convey the truth of what he said by sheer will.

“I know that. So does he. When we were on that rooftop, you flattened me and you just held Finn still when you could’ve really hurt us.

Even when you were forcing me through the change, you were trying to show me something.

Teach me something. Even then, even though it was twisted, you were thinking of me. ”

Tears swam in Diego’s eyes but he nodded. “So much to learn still, isn’t there?” He turned his gaze downriver, where he and Finn would be headed. “Maybe it’s not the end, then, but the beginning of a new innocence.”

“Virgins all over again?” Zack managed what he hoped was a reassuring smile and his heart leaped when he actually got a little quirk of lips in return.

“I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

“Odd,” Finn said as he bent to kiss Zack’s cheek. “I don’t believe I remember being a virgin in the first place.”

That actually got a muted snicker from Diego and Zack felt that little seed of hope in his chest start to rock and shove out of its casing.

He stayed on the bank while Finn helped Diego into the canoe, stayed while they paddled down the river into exile.

When they turned, he raised an arm to wave, hoping he didn’t look too forlorn.

I’m here. I’ll be here. One faithful soldier waiting for your return.