Page 27 of Outside the Veil (Endangered Fae #1)

Chapter eighteen

Practice

T he mind Finn embraced had touched his in more than one lifetime.

The physical manifestation had been different the last time, the body larger, the personality more confident and carefree, but still the same shining soul.

Even in his most awakened lifetime, though, Diego had not summoned lightning.

“My hero? Are you well?”

The mental image of Diego shook his head. “It’s so…strange. I feel like I’m really sitting here with you.”

“You are. In a way. Your thoughts nestled next to mine. I thought this would be a better way for you to begin. Rather than seeing your own body from outside.”

Diego shuddered. “Right. I might’ve thought I was dead.” He stared upward for a long moment. “Finn? What are all the stars? What do they mean?”

“They are merely stars.”

“You’re such a liar.”

“Yes.”

“I’d rather you told me it’s none of my business than have you fib to me.”

“Fib?”

“A small lie. One that doesn’t necessarily hurt anyone.”

Finn chuckled. “Ah, they come in degrees and types now. I like that.”

Even connected like this, Diego kept much of his mind closed off. Finn waited while he mulled something over behind his walls.

“Why doesn’t it hurt you when I seize?” he finally asked.

“I feel your lightning, love, it sparks and hisses. But you do not hurl it at me.”

“But why?”

“You know when you are in danger and when you are safe,” Finn answered as simply as he could. “While you have not been aware that you acted to save yourself, your instincts have held.”

Again the shuttered, solitary thinking. This would be much easier, m’boy, if you simply let the battlements down.

“I heard that. I can’t help if my thoughts aren’t all out in the open. Carino , if I’m seizing now, why can’t I see the lightning?”

“State of mind, my hero. Everything here is thought, not the sight you have with your eyes.”

“Wait. All I have to do is think about the lightning?”

“Something like that, yes.”

A thunder-roll of irritation rippled from Diego. “I thought you said you would help me figure it out.”

“Perhaps it is like when we sat at the table and you tried to explain art to me. I could not find anything to hold on to in the explanation until I had seen it for myself.”

“Nice analogy. Not helping.”

Finn pointed up. “You asked about the stars. Reach for one. Take it down.”

“What? I can’t—”

“You must put aside your stubborn disbelief, my love. It’s become rather tiresome.”

“Fine, fine,” Diego grumbled, and reached up. At first, he snatched at emptiness and Finn despaired that he would be unable to let go of himself enough. As he stared at the stars, though, he became entranced and his light grew from golden to white-hot. He reached up and closed his thoughts around—

“Diego, no! Not that one!”

Too late.

“Moira, tell them! You know him! He’s not evil!” The man’s features contorted in anguish and frustration, his flame-red hair sparking in the last fingers of sunset.

“But he is. He took you from me and he’s bewitched you. For you I do this,” she answered, tone cold and flat. She refused to look at him.

Agony, unbearable agony—the iron spike through his chest, the iron shackling him to the cage, cold, so cold, the pain so sharp it robbed him of speech and breath…

“Holy shit! What the hell was that?”

“A memory, my love,” Finn answered softly. “One I didn’t wish for you to see.”

“God. Warn a person next time.” Diego’s light shivered and wavered from the shock.

He faded behind his walls again, thinking.

“That’s what happened, wasn’t it? What drove you into the Dreaming for so many centuries.

You loved him, she loved him, she was jealous so she went to the authorities screaming witchcraft. ”

“Yes. But I loved her as well. It was a terrible thing she did. One I still can’t fathom.

They…caged him. Tortured him. They burned him when he would not confess to things he had not done.

As his ‘demon familiar’ I was made to watch.

Too weak to protect him, too wounded to save him, I could not stop them.

Then they dismembered me and tossed me in the river. ”

“ Carino , I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“Hush, my love. Done is done. Of course your mind would be drawn to the memories you share with me.”

Diego faded to gray, and for a moment, Finn thought he might be shocked back to the waking world. He whispered, “The man with the red hair…was me?”

“Yes, love. Yes. We had a short few months together that time.”

“Finn—”

“Wsht. Console me later. We have work to do.” Finn pointed again, this time to a specific spot. “Try there. You may find that one to be more helpful. And less upsetting.”

With a quicksilver shimmer, Diego recovered enough to reach out again.

The man’s fingers caressed his harp strings. It was as if he called the wind into his music, the rustle of the leaves and rush of water.

He watched and listened from the shadows he had pulled about him. Not fearful, merely cautious. Humans could be so strange. But this one’s heart shone so bright, his blood sang so clear and true, how could he be anything but a friend? He took on a songbird shape and hopped into the sunlight.

“Good morning, little one.” The man smiled. “Did you come to join me in my song?” He cocked his head to one side, white- blond hair gleaming in the light. “Though you are no more bird than I am fish. I hope you do not hide yourself out of fear of me.”

The man put his harp down and his smile grew brighter.

“Here. I will show you what I learned today.” When he stretched out his hand, a tiny whirlwind grew on his palm.

The nest of wind tugged at the air and became a miniature cloud.

The cloud hovered over his hand, gray as a dove’s wings and plump with moisture.

Upon his skin, mist-sized raindrops fell.

A laugh like a stream in spring flood leaped from him…

“There, my love, was that one better?”

Diego hugged him tight. “I felt it! I felt what he did! Reaching, yes, a kind of twist of thought. But it’s more than that. I could feel him…it…connect!” In his excitement, he tore himself from Finn’s grasp and vanished from the Dreaming.

Finn opened his eyes to find Diego’s essence staring at his body convulsing on the bed.

“That’s disturbing…”

“I feared it would be.” Finn sat up with a sigh. “You must not lose contact with me when we face the beast. Please.”

“Sorry. I got so caught up. The man with the harp, that was me, too, wasn’t it?”

“Indeed. A different you, but you all the same. From long, long ago.”

“Was that…” Diego’s shimmer flickered and rippled. “ Was that the first time we met?”

“Yes, my hero. The very first. I loved you from that first moment. Sometimes it takes me longer to recognize you. Most times, you have no memory of me at all. But it is always good to find you again.”

“Did you know me on the bridge? Is that why you came with me?”

“Not in that moment, no. I was frightened and in pain and simply saw a bright, shining heart, without guile or malice. And then I did not wish to see, hid the knowledge from myself to guard my own heart.”

“You’re not going to tell me. When you knew.”

“If you must know, it was when you brought me the crayons,” Finn grumbled. “Enough. Concentrate. Do you see your lightning now?”

“Yes, I think so. Like fireflies.”

Finn wrapped his arms around Diego’s shimmer to guide him since Diego still thought of himself as a physical being.

“Gather it together. On your palm if you like, as you saw with the little cloud. Feel how it sings to you, through you, for it is yours. Yours to command. That’s it, m’boy, sing with it, ask of it, try to—”

The ball of lightning suddenly grew to the size of Diego’s head. He whirled and flung it out of the open window. A sharp crack split the air and fire blossomed in the sky, bright enough to rival the afternoon sun.

“Like that?”

Finn stared at him in shock, unable to recall how words were formed. He cleared his throat twice, his voice shaking when he spoke. “Yes, love, something like… Just like that. That was… How did you do that?”

“It sort of…told me how. It just felt right.”

“Do that tomorrow night and I don’t think we need worry,” he said with a grim chuckle. “But pray be certain you don’t hit me instead.”

“I’ll do my best, mi vida. How do I get back into my body?”

“Ah, for that he still needs me.” Finn swept him a little bow and held out his hand as if asking for a dance. “With your permission?”

Diego’s hand of white light settled in his and Finn led his essence back to his body, lifted it and settled it back where it belonged. The twitching, flailing body immediately quieted and Diego was once more ensconced behind his walls.

He tried to recall all the things Diego would need when he woke and fetched extra blankets, the little bottle of white pills and water. His heart still hammered, but he slid under the covers to take Diego in his arms and send warmth to his chilled body.