Page 21 of Through the Veil (Endangered Fae #2)

“They must be small places. Dangerous,” Balor rumbled. “The humans would find us and hunt us again.”

“The witch hunts are over, Heart of the Earth. The inquisitors long gone. Modern humans no longer believe in real magic and so only see what they think they should. If it’s simply a matter of having a haven, somewhere the fae could come and stand on the ground of the outer world to get better again, I think we could arrange it.

” Diego shivered and pulled the furs closer around him.

“Though I’m not sure how many times I can hold a door in the Veil open before I’m comatose. ”

Danu settled back on the sand beside him. “A door could be built, little one. A door you needn’t struggle to keep open.”

“You said it was impossible!” Balor snapped.

She shrugged. “And so it was, before Diego came to us. The door needs four corners. A human sorcerer must be one of them. A human for the fire, one of the sidhe for the air, a Fomorian for the earth and one of the water folk.” She turned to the mouth of the chamber.

“Fionnachd, you may as well join us, since you have eavesdropped on all the rest.”

Finn’s head appeared around the wall. He gnawed on his thumbnail. “It was not my intent, Light of the World. I simply—”

“Yes, yes, you were worried for your love and found the conversation too fascinating to interrupt,” Danu said with a hint of a smile. “Come in, dearheart. It is good to see you.”

“And you, most lovely of the sidhe .” The rest of Finn followed, limping in with a blanket clutched around his shoulders, a sure sign he wasn’t feeling well.

“How’s the leg, mi vida ?”

“It will heal. There was no bullet in the wound.”

“You do know my heart stopped when that gun went off.”

“I’m sorry I worried you, my hero.” Finn settled by him and let Diego lean against him. “I seem to do more than a bit of that.”

Diego patted his arm, less exposed with Finn beside him.

“The blasted bitch knew all along,” Balor muttered, still wallowing in bitterness.

“As if you had not guessed,” Danu shot back.

“Please, majestads , your people are the priority now. They can’t die.” Diego clutched at Finn’s arm, suddenly dizzy. “The magic will fade…the worlds will fail…”

“We have the four of us with Fionnachd. We open the door at once!” Balor struck the wall with his fist.

Tia Carmen shook her head. “Let Diego regain his strength first. He can barely hold his own head up and you want him to build magical doorways?”

Balor grunted, subsiding. “He may rest here, then. Fionnachd may stay with him. Fionnachd, you stay by your Diego. He has sense. Listen to his council and not the poisonous words of she-bears.”

“I will think on this solution.” Danu bent to kiss Finn’s cheek. “Comfort him, keep him warm. You were always welcome in the Grove.”

The room pitched and spun, the only solid point Finn’s heart beating against Diego’s ear. He wanted to say something to comfort Finn, he seemed so subdued and anxious, but he couldn’t find his voice and couldn’t concentrate enough to reach out to Finn’s mind.

“Finn—”

“Shh, my heart. You have driven yourself too hard. Please rest.” Finn rocked him gently, humming to him.

Diego smiled when he realized it was a Natalie Merchant song.

Finn sat with Diego’s sleeping form across his lap for more than an hour, watching Balor’s magic fire, which only required a single log a day to keep it roaring.

He tried to pretend it was their fireplace at home, but it was no use.

Echoes from other chambers kept interrupting his attempts at fantasy, reminders of where they were and what surrounded them.

At least he understood now why he had been able to help the ailing fae. He had been in the outer world, had absorbed the magic there that they had been missing. It was not, as Nathair suggested, any special quality about Finn. He was simply a carrier of magic residue.

“ Querido , go walk,” Tia Carmen said when she came back from checking on her patients. “Your leg will stiffen. I will stay by him.”

He nodded and rose carefully, only satisfied when Diego had been tucked under the furs and his breathing had evened out in deep sleep again.

“You were very brave today,” she whispered to him.

“I was foolish. You saved us,” Finn murmured, chewing on his bottom lip while he gazed down at Diego’s handsome face.

“Finn…” A catch in Tia Carmen’s voice made him look up. “Whatever someone has said to you, whatever thoughts were planted, he loves you. Never doubt that.”

He managed a little grin for her. “Never, dear lady. Not even if the sun freezes.”

When he wandered out to the Great Hall, he found it nearly deserted except for the ill fae and Danu, who approached them with a sharp look toward the throne. It stood deserted though, Balor nowhere in sight.

Angus tried to rise to greet her and fell to his hands and knees, gasping.

She crouched down to help him back into his blankets and to dry Sionnach’s tears.

Then she knelt by Lugh to speak to him, stroking his hair.

Scath received a gentle hug, Easóg a pat.

Finn thought his jaw might unhinge at what she did next.

She stretched out next to Faolchú, kissing his muzzle and nuzzling at his ear.

Perhaps Faolchú truly had made love to every fae he had ever seen.

After a few moments, she rose and walked out. Driven by an odd mix of curiosity and concern, Finn followed and caught up with her near the entrance to the caverns, tears glistening on her lovely face as she turned her gaze to the moon.

“Danu? Why do you weep?”

She shook her head and swiped impatiently at her face. “Ach, Fionnachd. It is hard to see him suffering so. These are the nights Faolchú loved, with the full moon and the fog rising. He has always been so strong.”

“Yes.” Finn took her hand. “But there is still hope.”

“So it would seem. But I cannot see what lies ahead, and Morrigan’s orb has gone dark. What if we do this, we open a stable doorway, and it is the wrong thing? What if the humans hunt us as Balor says, with these new, terrible weapons?”

“There are many compassionate humans.” Finn stepped closer to wrap his arms around her. “You love Diego and you see Tia Carmen. I have seen them through Diego’s eyes, and there are many I have come to cherish.”

“But are there enough?” She leaned into his embrace, and a frisson of sudden desire raced over his skin.

Her touch had that effect on most males.

“Do we go from death to death, one worse than the other? We gave them everything, Fionnachd. When they were naked starvelings, we pitied them. Showed them how to hunt and to fish and to plant. Why have they forgotten us?”

“Human lives are so short, Light of the World. And their memories often die with them. I think in the times when we weren’t ever-present, they forgot. I don’t say we should reveal ourselves to them, go on the evening news and shout ‘here we are’—”

“Evening news?”

“Humans use it to tell them important things, like if it will rain the next day.”

“They could simply look out the window in the morning.”

“Yes, well, true enough, but what I meant to say was I have been living safely in the human world. I think it can be done.”

She placed a soft kiss on his lips and his knees threatened to buckle. “You are different, Fionnachd. I am not certain yet it is a good thing.”

With that, she vanished on the wind, leaving his arms empty and his mind spinning.