Page 19

Chapter Nineteen

Maeve

I woke up, flat on my back, wrapped in the scent of home. The aroma of dust and wood wafted from Balor’s jacket, which he’d tucked around me sometime in the night. There was a weight on my chest.

Something was curled up on my chest, and it was purring.

Gilly!

The poor cat was almost sent flying as I shot into a sitting position.

“Oh my god, Gilly!” I scooped up the chubby calico, fat tears of joy rolling down my cheeks as I smooshed my face into her dappled fur.

“Figured you ought to have yer cat with ya.”

I looked toward the voice to see Balor in his usual spot on the broken pillar, his blackweed pipe in hand and tendrils of smoke swirling around his head like a crown.

The last time we spoke of Gilly, Balor had called her his cat. But this time, he called her mine. Keeping Gilly secure against my chest, I leaped up and ran over to Balor. He was in a sitting position, his mouth in perfect kissing range.

I brought my lips to his in a lingering kiss. “Thank you.”

He seemed stunned at first, then that grin I was learning to love crept across his face. “No need to thank me. It was my fault she was lost in the first place. Found her nestled behind the dumpsters where the shop used to be. Gathered some other things fer ya too while I was there.”

The giant gestured to one of my suit cases I’d brought back with me from Boston.

I crouched, setting Gilly in the grass and opened the case.

Inside were some of my monster books, rain damaged but mostly intact.

Balor had also gathered most of my colored pencil collection, a sketchbook, some pieces of clothing, and my monster toy.

I blushed, thinking how long that had to be lying out in the street.

“It’s weird no one picked these things up.”

“I used some of my magic to create an illusion on the plot where McCrum’s Curios had sat, before we stepped through the Portal. To human eyes, it looks like the buildin’ is still there. It was already closed months beforehand. I’m sure no one has batted an eye at it still bein’ closed.”

“What about Conor? He disappeared, and I was the last one seen with him. There were tons of people at the Pub on St. Patrick’s Day night who saw me leave with him.”

“They think the cultists killed him.”

It all sounded too good to be true. I’d wanted to go home, but this was the first time I considered that maybe I couldn’t. Not if I was the number one suspect in a murder case. “Did they find their bodies?”

Balor took a hit on the pipe, leaving me in suspense for a beat before releasing his breath in a plume of smoke. “Yes, but no one has tied their deaths to the shop.”

Relief lifted my chest and I released the breath I’d been holding. “So we can go back!”

The giant’s good eye narrowed, and he took one last puff on his pipe before it disappeared in a shimmer of magic. “I didn’t say that. We can’t go back, Maeve.”

My heart fell into the pit of my stomach. Just like that, all my hopes of returning home, were dashed in a moment. “You don’t have enough magic to cast another portal spell?”

“I didn’t say that either.”

“Then fucking tell me why I can’t go home.”

Balor’s gaze hardened. “I have enough magic to take ya back. But with the crack in my eye, my spells are… unpredictable . There’s no telling if I’ll be able to protect you if the cultists come back.

And mark me, Maeve McCrum. Don’t make the same mistake yer grandparents made, thinkin’ they won’t come back.

No matter how many decades may pass, they always come back. ”

“You saw how I handled myself on St. Patrick’s Day. I can protect myself.”

“Ya were lucky.”

“I’m never lucky,” I muttered.

“Even if they don’t come back, that won’t fix the problem with my eye and my magical reserves.

If I use magic faster than I can make it, all the spells I’ve cast before might shatter.

All the antiques that have come from the shop, gone in a blink.

And if we go back, I’ll have to keep myself hidden constantly.

What if I can’t keep up the illusion? One moment I’m invisible, the next, there’s a green giant with flamin’ hair standin’ in front of yer customers. ”

I opened my mouth to argue but he continued before I could interject.

“I’ve managed to keep the illusion spell up on the buildin’ but fer how much longer…

” He tapped his damaged evil eye. “While hemorrhaging like a battlefield wound? What will ye do when, in broad daylight, the antiques and the walls and everythin’ else vanishes while customers are shoppin’? ”

“We can figure it out. Please, Balor. You can’t keep me here. I’ll go crazy.”

Balor didn’t falter at my pleas. I knew now that he had a soft spot for me, but there was no exploiting that. I had to reason with him…

What I had to do was make a deal. Fae creatures love the fuck out of that shit, and with what I was cooking up, there’d be no turning me down.

I chewed my lip, thinking carefully as Gilly rubbed against my leg, happy as can be that we were back together. “What if I told you I might be able to fix your eye?”

“I’d tell ya that I think yer lyin’,” he said, nostrils flexing with his snort.

“Pretend for a second that you believe me. Are you confident you can keep the shop and the building going?”

Balor laughed, the sound guttural and booming, sending a few birds in a nearby tree flying. “Girl, if my eye was fixed I could do just about anythin’. But ya can’t, not without magic of yer own. Magic weaned its way out of yer bloodline generations ago.”

Balor was right, in part. I didn’t have my own magic powers, but who needed those in the modern world?

I tugged on my McCrum’s sweatshirt and some shorts he’d brought back for me. They weren’t exactly clean, but they would do for now. “Okay, let’s also pretend for a second that you believe I can fix your eye without magic. If I do fix it, I have some conditions.”

The giant’s smoldering copper brows hiked toward his hairline. “Which are?”

“You can’t use your magic to grow big, at least not in Ireland. If you want to run around in your true size, you have to come here to do it. No crushing people, or making Ireland pay for driving magical beings to extinction or whatever.”

He rubbed his beard in mock thought. “Well now that ya mention it…”

“Balor. You have to give me your word or no deal.”

“Fine.” He huffed. “Ye have my word. What else?”

“No killing humans, except cultists. But you have to do it discreetly.”

His smile widened. “Now that I can agree to. What else does my queen command?”

“You don’t have to be the shop anymore, but you have to use your magic to keep McCrum’s going. And you have to help me run the shop. No touching the customers though. I don’t need anyone mysteriously combusting. That would be bad for business.”

My chest tightened as I waited for his response. I prepared myself for him to turn me down. Why in the world would a magical being like him want to hang around a dusty antique shop that used to be his literal prison?

So my heart skipped a beat when he nodded in agreement. “Is that all?”

Was that all? It felt like I was asking the world of him. I shook my head, sucking my lower lip between my teeth. “There’s one last thing… once your eye is fixed, will you take me back here and…”

I trailed off. It was too embarrassing of a request.

“We’ve been over this. Ya can tell me anythin’ wee one. Tell me what devious thoughts are bloomin’ in that wicked head of yers.”

“When you have all your powers back, will you take me back here and do what you threatened to do when we first met?”

Balor blinked. Shock looked so out of place on his face. “You mean… You want me to take you in my hand and…”

“Drown me in your cum. Yes.” My entire body flushed with a blush. “Minus the actual drowning part.”

A slow, diabolical smirk stretched Balor’s mouth. “Ya’ve got yerself a deal, human.”