Page 29 of Through the Veil (Endangered Fae #2)

Chapter seventeen

The IER

T endrils of cool fog crept over the back porch steps the next morning. Diego padded out to perch on the rail with his coffee. He had left Finn in bed, burrowed under the covers, his face so angelic in sleep Diego couldn’t bear to disturb him.

The fog shrouded the doorway to the Otherworld, rendering it entirely invisible. Even in the brightest light, the opening remained elusive unless one felt the magic pulsing there or one stood directly in front of it and realized the landscape no longer matched.

“Probably should find a way to hide it altogether,” Diego muttered to the garden.

“Hide what, love?” Finn stood in the doorway in nothing but a pair of black silk boxers, a glorious sight as he stretched, long, lean muscles rippling.

“Good morning.” Diego chuckled and pointed with his mug. “The doorway. This is a relatively safe place back here on private property, but I don’t want someone stumbling on it by chance.”

Finn wrapped his arms around Diego from behind, kissing a soft line down Diego’s jaw to his shoulder. “Hmm, yes, I suppose there are ways. Humans always had trouble finding them before, since most humans are quite head-blind and don’t see such things.”

“True.” Diego hummed in pleasure and tangled his fingers in Finn’s hair when soft lips fastened on the side of his throat. His voice gone husky, he asked, “Are you hungry, mi amor ?”

“Always,” Finn whispered, his sharp teeth grazing Diego’s skin.

Diego turned to cup the side of Finn’s face. “Then why don’t you go grab your shower, and I’ll make you breakfast.”

“I like showers much more when they include you.”

“But you like your breakfast ready when you come out, too. I can’t do both.”

Finn heaved a tragic sigh, and Diego’s heart stuttered at the way his pecs moved on the long inhalation. “Very well, as you wish. I must reek dreadfully this morning, if you push me away so quickly.”

“You smell fantastic,” Diego murmured, burying his face against Finn’s chest. “And you look amazing. But I want you sitting down and serious and not distracted. I have something I want to talk to you about.”

“Have I done something wrong again?” Finn asked in a small voice.

“No, no, carino, don’t worry. I just—”

A figure barreling out of the fog interrupted his thoughts.

Faolchú bounded through the garden and ignored the porch steps in favor of an impressive vault over the rail.

“Fionnachd! There are herds of summer-fattened deer in the forest! Come hunt with me. There could not be a more perfect morn for it.”

Nathair appeared on the bottom step as if he had materialized from water vapor. “My light, perhaps Diego wished Fionnachd’s company this morning.”

Faolchú stopped bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Ah. I… Your pardon. Did I interrupt?”

“It’s all right,” Diego reassured him on a helpless laugh. The excitement thrummed from both would-be hunters, and it seemed cruel to deny them. “Go on, you two miscreants. What I need Finn for will keep.”

“You are certain?” Finn asked.

When Diego nodded, he found himself swept into Finn’s strong arms and bent backward for a fierce kiss.

Finn’s lips, firm and demanding, urged him to open.

Diego parted his lips with a moan, their tongues dueling for supremacy for one breathtaking moment.

Then Finn released him with a grin and a wink, leaving Diego panting and dizzy as he and Nathair watched the hunters lope off toward the woods.

Blue light flickered around Finn as he ran, his body melting and condensing until black wolf-dog Finn ran beside Faolchú.

“It is tempting to go watch the hunt.” Nathair slipped an arm around Diego’s waist and laid his head on his shoulder. “They are wonderful to see together.”

“Hmm, yes, to a point. I don’t think I’d be able to watch them pull down a deer and tear it to pieces.”

“They would make a clean kill, swift and sure. A hard blow to the head—”

“Honestly, hon, I don’t want to know,” Diego said with a squeeze to Nathair’s shoulder. “Where’s our fox and eagle this morning?”

“Court duties called them away. They said they would return soon, most likely carrying messages.”

Diego laughed. “I got so used to having them here, I forgot you all have a life outside my garden.” A howl drifted to them from the depths of the forest, the half-mournful song of the pack hunt.

Diego shivered. “How in the world did you two get together? I can’t see you running in the hunt with him, and I don’t see him hanging out with you to pull weeds. ”

“We have known each other for so long, but never saw each other clearly.” Nathair’s voice held an aching tenderness.

“Then shortly after Danu closed the Veil, I was out gathering mushrooms for soup. A deer in flight crashed through the thicket beside me, and Faolchú crashed into me. He lay atop me, apologizing and asking if he had hurt me. I looked up into those winter-blue eyes and suddenly never wanted him to get up.”

“He felt the same right away?”

Nathair laughed. “No. Or, rather, he tried to deny it and kept pursuing everything but me. But he kept coming to me for little favors. ‘Nathair, do you have any bread?’ ‘Nathair, there’s a thorn between my pads I can’t get out.

’ ‘Nathair, do you have something for an aching head?’ Until one day in my garden, he knelt at my feet and said, ‘If I can’t have you, I will die.

Please don’t refuse me.’ When a hero comes and pleads on his knees, how can you refuse? ”

“Not that you wanted to.”

“Not even for an instant.”

“So, did you eat, or can I tempt you into having some eggs with me?”

The morning passed in relative quiet. An attempt to get some work done followed breakfast with Nathair, though Scath and Croi decided to visit Diego, chatting about this and that, insisting on perching on the arm of his chair or in his lap.

Distracting didn’t begin to cover it. By the time they decided to fly off into the woods to play, Sionnach and Angus caught him in the kitchen, bearing messages that gave Diego a headache.

“A second doorway in Ireland?” Diego rubbed at his temples.

“That is the request from Himself,” Sionnach confirmed.

“And Danu says what in response?”

Angus shrugged. “Much what one would expect. She declares it too dangerous and will allow no such thing.”

“So, they want me to do what about this?”

“To mediate, oh, wise Druid-Bard.” Sionnach flashed his most charming smile.

Diego sighed, irritated that the two rulers could not hold simple negotiations on their own. He needed to talk to Finn, damn it, to give him the ring, and would if they could get a moment’s peace. “Could it at least wait until tomorrow?”

“At your leisure, Light-wielder,” Angus intoned with a courtly bow.

“Well…good.” Diego blinked at the unexpected realization that he had a choice. “Good. You boys can stay for lunch, then. Sionnach looks ready to pass out, and you don’t look too much better.”

Sionnach sank into the nearest chair. “The Voice takes a good deal of effort.”

“And leaves one drained.” Angus swayed where he stood, and Diego pushed him into the next chair over.

“They should both be ashamed, using you like this when you’ve both been so ill.” Diego put the kettle on, then dug in the cabinets for the tea Tia Carmen had left. “I know, sacred duty and all that, but they could have a little sense.”

Sionnach crawled into Angus’ lap and used a broad shoulder to pillow his head.

Diego could only imagine the torture of the past hundred years for them—the separation, the stolen moments.

They certainly were making up for lost time, unable to keep their hands off each other for more than a few minutes at a time.

Suddenly, Sionnach’s head jerked up. “Someone is coming. Vehicles like yours, Diego, driving up the road to your house.”

“I better go have a look.” Diego shot them a reassuring smile, Sionnach looked so anxious. “Don’t worry. Probably just the rangers. You’ll like them.”

When Diego opened the front door, though, he found something other than park service trucks pulling up outside.

Four gunmetal-gray panel vans skidded to a precision choreographed halt on the gravel drive.

Not park service, but they appeared to be from some government agency if the official emblems on their sides were any indication—a picture of Earth twined round a banner with the letters ‘IER’. Feds? Environmental agency?

A man dressed in coveralls climbed from the passenger seat of the lead van. He stopped at the bottom of the front porch steps, glanced down at his clipboard then up at Diego. “Mr. Santiago Sandoval y Romero?”

The use of his full given name pulled him up short. No one had addressed him that way for years. “Yes? Can I help you?”

“You’re Mr. Sandoval, the owner of this property?”

“Yes, I am. What can I do for you?”

More men emerged from the vans, some of them in midnight blue coveralls, others in what appeared to be full biohazard suits. Diego’s surprise ratcheted up to full-scale alarm.

“Sir, for your own safety, we need you to come with us.”

“For my—has there been some kind of toxic spill? Chlorine gas accident?” Diego still stood in the doorway, one hand motioning behind him to keep Sionnach and Angus out of sight.

Both fae wore their human glamours, but the situation made the hairs on Diego’s arms prickle.

Who are these people, and what the hell do they know that they’ve come here?

Did someone see something in the woods? Report it to some agency? Dios , what the hell do I do now?

“Something like that, sir.” The man with the clipboard held his position, the other men fanned out around the house. “We need you to come with us now, Mr. Sandoval. For your own protection. We’re evacuating the area.”

“I need a better explanation than that, I’m afraid.” Diego tried to keep his voice friendly and calm. “If there’s been an accident, I have friends hiking out in the woods. I can’t just leave them here.”