Page 15 of Through the Veil (Endangered Fae #2)

Chapter eleven

Veil

S ince no one protested and no one seemed to have a better suggestion, Diego turned the Great Hall into a sick room. Finn sat with his back against a stone pillar, Sionnach curled up beside him, pride threatening to make his heart burst as he watched Diego marshal the Fomorians.

He knew, in an intellectual way, that this side of Diego existed, knew he had stepped in to run homeless shelters back in New York when they needed him, had often taken charge of the Code Blue efforts on those nights when the cold became dangerous for the ones who lived outside, but Finn had rarely witnessed these things.

Diego’s soft, gentle requests sent people scurrying for blankets, for water and for food.

He organized a search party to scour the caverns for anyone else who might be ill.

When the sidhe arrived, with both Lugh and Angus carried on litters, Balor began to roar again, and Diego’s quiet, reasonable words calmed him.

Ask him to do something for himself, and Diego would delay and defer endlessly. Put someone in need before him, and he became the warrior-chieftain he had been in earlier lifetimes.

Balor himself carried Faolchú up from the living quarters and set him down beside Sionnach. Dear goddesses, he looked worse than the first time Finn had seen him lying ill. He struggled for every breath, the air rattling in his lungs.

“Pretty fox, I need to hold him. Go see Angus.” His touch had comforted Faolchú before, though he had no notion why. He could only hope it would ease him again.

Sionnach crawled the few feet to Angus’ litter and curled up close. In the clutches of a raging fever, Angus wrapped his arms around Sionnach, though his eyes darted fretfully as if he no longer tracked on anything in the physical world.

“Apparently, he managed to deliver his message and collapsed.” Diego crouched next to Finn.

He had pulled on only his jeans, even though the sidhe had brought all his clothes.

“Fever, shaking, severe stomach and joint pain, dizziness.” He stroked Faolchú’s head.

“And this guy’s obviously been sick the longest. God, he must’ve been gorgeous when he was well. ”

“He was.” Finn ducked his head to hide his tears and gathered Faolchú to his chest. “He will be again.”

Diego stared out into the middle distance, chewing on his bottom lip. “They found one more in his bed. The court’s seer, they called him. Cute little guy with a ferret’s head.”

“Pine marten.”

“Sorry?”

“He’s a pine marten, love. His name is Easóg.”

“Oh, sorry. Not up on my weasels. But, look, there are so many things that don’t make sense here.

Why don’t they go into the Dreaming to get better?

And why are they all male? Why isn’t there any pattern to the infection?

You’re not sick. Nathair’s not sick. No one who said they’d slept with Lugh lately is sick. ”

“As for the Dreaming, Faolchú said he could not cross over. That he could not reach it. For the rest, I don’t know, my hero.” Finn shook his head. “And there is no hospital for the fae, no doctors with tests and books who could glean something useful from all this.”

“Finn, you hate doctors.”

“For myself, yes. But they have helped you.” He shifted Faolchú to a more comfortable position. Had his breathing eased, or was it wishful thinking? “Tia Carmen would know. She always knew how to ease what ailed me.”

“She’s on the wrong side of the Veil, mi amor . Doesn’t help us much.”

“Diego,” Finn began. Oh, gods, he didn’t want to say this, didn’t even want to think it. But someone would say it eventually. “You opened the Veil once.”

“Yes, during a tantrum, that brought on a massive seizure. Are you planning on driving me into a jealous rage again?”

“No, my heart.” Finn stroked Faolchú’s ears when he moaned. Definitely breathing easier. “But you could not call the lightning lance before without a seizure, either. You… Diego, do you recall how I’ve always told you your channels were closed? The magic blocked by your own mind?”

“Yes.”

“They are open now, love. I felt it last night. You have as much access to your magic now as I do mine.”

“Oh.”

A few feet over, Lugh began to bellow and thrash again. He had been bound hand and foot to prevent his fists and hooves landing blows indiscriminately. While he had accepted the necessity, the waves of pain took his reason and he raged against the ropes.

Diego ran his hands back through his hair.

“We’ll talk about this later, mi vida . Let’s get our patients stable first.” He brought Easóg and Scath to Finn, the little pine marten’s head ending up in his lap and both the féileacán snuggled against his left side across from Faolchú.

A bizarre arrangement, but the three little ones soon fell fast asleep.

When Lugh’s bellowing ceased, Diego spoke softly to him and untied him.

He sat back against a pillar a few feet away and let Lugh lie between his thighs, head on Diego’s stomach, arms wrapped around his waist. Then he coaxed Angus and Sionnach to him, one on either side, and they soon ceased any restlessness and whimpering as well.

Odd, for Finn to see his Diego wrapped up in someone else’s arms, even if that someone was deathly ill.

That should have been him, nestled there between those strong thighs.

He didn’t quite know what to make of the sensation gathering around his heart, a painful heat, reminiscent of anger but different in flavor.

“Jealous,” Faolchú got out on a spare whisper.

“Stuff and nonsense,” Finn protested. “I’ve never been jealous.”

Faolchú snorted. “Smells…like it…to me.”

“Go to sleep, bucko. You’re talking rubbish.”

When Faolchú had taken some water and all their charges had fallen asleep, Finn eased out from under the slumbering forms and met Diego halfway between.

“Did you ever get breakfast?” Diego’s brow wrinkled in concern.

“Nathair brought me some cave crickets.”

“Sorry I asked.”

“They were roasted. Nice and crunchy.”

“Please, querido .” Diego patted his arm. “I don’t need to hear any more.”

Finn tactfully changed the subject. “You have thought on what I said?”

“I have…but I don’t know how. I mean, I don’t even know where the Veil is or what it looks like or feels like. How do I open something I can’t find?”

“You are my hero, my Taliesin. I have faith in you.”

“This belief that I can do just about anything because of who I was in a past life is getting a little tiresome.”

Finn chewed on his bottom lip a moment, then said, “It is Diego Sandoval I believe in. This version of you, here and now.”

“Oh.” Diego pulled in a slow breath. “I’m not sure if that’s more or less disturbing.

Not that it matters. We have to do something.

I have no idea why you and I are able to help when their own healers can’t, and it’s fine for now, but what happens when there’s not six, but ten, and twenty, and two hundred sick? There’s not enough of us to go around.”

“And I would rather find a different solution before someone decides I need to be cut up into a few dozen pieces again so there would be enough to ‘go around’, as you say.” Finn shuddered.

“The Veil is…not a place, love. Or not in one place. It is something you move through, like the air, like water.”

“So how could it be closed? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I’m sorry, my heart.” Finn shook his head. “It’s difficult for me to explain something I simply know. Perhaps it would be easier to show you.”

He rose and offered his hands to Diego, a wave of desire rushing through him when those strong, graceful hands settled in his. Not now, you idiot. His cock still stirred and expanded despite his efforts, so he did his best to ignore it.

When he led Diego out of the caverns and the sunlight glinted off his golden shoulders and raven-black hair, Finn gave up entirely.

He pulled Diego into a fierce embrace and tilted his head to press their lips together in a searing kiss.

He moaned as those beloved hands roamed over his bare back.

Finn let his tongue caress Diego’s and explored every sensitive ridge and plane of his mouth.

The moan turned into a whine of frustration when Diego pulled back.

“ Carino, we have things to do.”

Finn barely suppressed the urge to stamp his foot. “But I want you. Here. Now. Please, love, just a few minutes…”

Diego lifted both hands to cup his face. “I wish we were home, snuggled on the sofa, watching bad TV, with a pizza in the oven. I wish this would all go away and I could just have you to myself. But we’re not, and I can’t right now. People need us.”

He pulled Finn’s head to his shoulder and held him tenderly while Finn tried to hide both his body’s trembling and his roiling thoughts.

“What is it, mi vida ? This isn’t just about sex.”

Storm and sea wrack . They were too closely attuned now to hide much. Finn thought of a dozen things he wanted to say, such as “I love you so” and “I will stand by your side always”. Instead, to his utter horror, he heard himself blurt out, “Did you mate with him?”

Diego pulled back and blinked at him, coffee brown eyes wide in confusion. “Mate with…oh, Lugh. No, querido . He asked several times, and we did sleep together but only sleep.”

“Ah.” Finn pulled in a shuddering breath. “Even that seems too much.”

A smile lit Diego’s face, the one that always made Finn’s heart race. “Finn! You’re jealous.”

“No, I’m—perhaps I am. A bit.” He rubbed at the ache in his chest. “Is this what it feels like to be jealous? As if a heated stone is lodged in your gut and a sudden urge to violence washes over you?”

“Well, yes. Something like that.”

Finn huffed. “I don’t like it.”

“It’s not a pleasant feeling.” Diego stroked his cheek. “You don’t need to be, though. I’m yours and no other’s. All of me. Even when I’m not with you.”

“I love you so.”