Page 3 of Beyond the Veil (Endangered Fae #4)

The heart-stopping blue of the sky, the riot of lush grass and wildflowers stretched out before him, nearly blinded him as he stepped through to the sidhe fields.

He didn’t stop to let his eyes adjust, though.

He put his head down and ran flat out, heading for the river and Cian’s Ford.

That was where Diego and Finn would come.

That was where everything seemed to end and begin.

Fae had gathered on the banks, just as he’d predicted, restless tides of sidhe in both humanlike and animal shapes, eager knots of Fomorians in all their multiformed splendor. King Balor towered over them all, his sharp tusks catching the sunlight as he tossed his head.

“Zack!” A blur of red hair and pale skin slammed into him, stealing his breath in a bone-creaking hug. “They’re coming!”

“Hey, there.” Zack set Sionnach back, chuckling at the way the little fox fae ’s tail waved madly behind him. “I heard. Spotted them yet?”

Sionnach pushed the wild red hair from his eyes. “Not yet. Oh, you will know, Consul, the moment someone has.”

He linked his arm through Zack’s, weaving through the growing crowd where hands reached and petted in greeting.

It had taken some getting used to, the touchy-feely, we-don’t-know-what-personal-space-means social interactions.

Even for physically demonstrative humans, it was overwhelming at first, but Zack had grown accustomed and simply petted back, touching arms and shoulders and gripping hands as he passed.

At the river, a flat protrusion of granite jutted out over the rushing water.

Zack tugged Sionnach up with him, shielding his eyes against the sun, searching downriver for any sign of movement.

He twitched when a large hand clasped his shoulder but the wonderful, earthy-male scent of Lugh settled him.

“Warn a guy, maybe?” Zack tipped his head back, trying to scowl at his sidhe lover but the damn prince had the nerve to laugh and pull him into a fierce hug.

“Are you happy? That they’ll be home soon?” Lugh murmured in his ear.

“Yeah. Happy. Nervous, though. I don’t know…”

He couldn’t finish the thought but Lugh nodded, a shadow of sorrow under his bright smile. “It will never be the same. But all things change, my braveheart.”

Several of the excited sidhe shifted to their animal forms, the avian ones taking wing to keep an eye out aloft. Angus, the sidhe court’s herald, already circled overhead in golden eagle form, possibly with the sharpest pair of eyes in the Otherworld.

Zack tipped his head up to watch his friend’s flight path since Angus would spot anything approaching long before he could. He leaned back into Lugh’s arms, soaking in his heat, letting the strong heartbeat against his back calm him.

High above, Angus stopped his circling and arrowed forward in a flash of golden feathers. He let out an aquiline scream, all the other winged sidhe hurrying in his wake.

“There.” Lugh pointed, his deep voice caressing Zack’s ear.

Zack squinted and spotted a black dot in the sky, maybe half a mile downstream, growing steadily larger as it headed toward them. At first, he thought maybe Finn had flown ahead in crow or falcon form with Diego following more slowly in their canoe. But the shape grew larger and larger.

“That’s no bird. What the hell…?”

Lugh chuckled. “It most certainly is not. Our Finn has learned a thing or so in his travels.”

How Finn had learned this, Zack couldn’t imagine.

What swooped down toward them was something out of myth, and not the sort Zack had met in his years of dealing with the fae.

Finn’s horse form, sure, he’d seen that plenty of times, but not with these shining black wings, a full twenty feet across if they were an inch. A pooka Pegasus. A Pookasus?

“Wow.”

On the near bank, the fae cleared a space, shielding their eyes from the wind kicked up by Finn’s back winging as he landed. If there had been any doubts about this beautiful, impossible creature being Finn, Diego sat astride the beast. Who else would it be?

The fae let Diego dismount, then mobbed him, nearly burying him under a tide of overeager bodies crowding in to welcome him home.

Zack took Lugh’s hand and stepped off the rock, making his way slowly through the crowd.

It was hard to make out in the mob of voices, but Diego’s was definitely becoming more stressed by the second.

“I think we need to mount a rescue,” Zack muttered.

Lugh shot him a grin and bellowed over the tumult, “Gently! Quietly! Let the man breathe!”

A path opened up for them and, though the fae still thrummed with excitement, the mob around Diego retreated far enough so Zack could see he was still standing.

A little shaky, a little pale, but on his feet.

A mixed pile of sidhe and Fomorians, on the other hand, had tackled Finn, though he took it all in good humor, laughing and wrestling in the grass.

“Zack?”

Oh, that voice broke his heart, so uncertain and anxious. “Diego.” Zack approached with his hands held out, overjoyed when Diego took them without hesitation. He yanked Diego closer into a hard embrace, whispering, “Damn, but it’s good to see you. You don’t even know.”

Diego clung to him, shivering. Maybe the flight had been too cold. Maybe he fought tears. Zack wasn’t going to embarrass him and ask.

“It’s good to see you, too. I…didn’t expect all this.”

“Sorry. I would’ve tried to keep it quieter, but they’ve just all been so excited.”

“I just don’t understand it. Why would they…? After everything…”

Lugh wrapped his arms around them both. “You have served your exile. It is done. We have all missed our Taliesin. Welcome home.”

“Thank you.” Diego lifted his head from Zack’s shoulder. “Should I say something?”

“Only if you want to. Then maybe they’ll simmer down and we can get you settled.” Zack kept a hand on Diego’s shoulder as he turned to take in the assemblage.

Shoulders squared, Diego took a breath and pitched his voice to reach into the crowd. “Thank you for coming to greet us. Thank you for…” Diego hesitated, apparently stumbling over what word he should use, “all your kindness. It’s good to be home.”

Cheers, roars, shrieks and squeaks erupted after his words, but the fae allowed him to pass now and let go of Finn so he could catch up.

Zack flanked him on the left, Finn on the right, with Lugh taking the rearguard so Diego could walk up the bank toward the door in relative peace.

“It is. Good to be home.”

“It better be.” Zack growled. “And don’t you ever leave me alone with these damn loonies again.”

Diego laughed and things felt right once more. Just like that, the world turned the right way up again.

If Zack hadn’t been so preoccupied with being happy, he might have noticed the dark shape sliding along in the reeds near the shore.