Page 29 of Kissing the Kelpie

“Me too,” he confesses. “But I promise, we can get through it together. You just have to let your fear go and have faith.”

“In what?” I’ve given up on things like faith and hope. Finn was my last shot at either. Every time I crack the door to those foreign notions, it’s slammed hard in my face.

“In me. In us. I’ve got you, Masha, and I’ll fight for our family.”

“We don’t have a family. I have a family.”

“You, Ana, and our baby are now my family as well.”

I cry out as a ripping pain tears across my abdomen. After a minute or two, I find the strength to speak again.

“We’re not flowers, Finn. You don’t get to pluck us and hide us away for your keeping. That’s not how it works in my world.”

“I’ll fight anyone or anything that threatens to come between us. That’s how it works in my world.”

I have no doubt he believes what he’s saying, but I don’t think it’s that easy.

“Your kind kills my kind. End of story.”

What is taking so long? We should be there already! And why doesn’t this look like the trail to the spring?

“I’ve never killed a human, and I don’t plan to. How can I prove myself when you won’t give me a chance?”

“I can’t when it means risking Ana’s life or mine.”

His chest rises as he inhales deeply, and his feet stop moving. I’m sure I’m frustrating him. Good, maybe he’ll give up his ridiculous ideas and let me be.

“What do you see as my role once the baby is born?”

“You have no role!”

I cry out, more from the pain of being cheated out of my happily ever after once again than the burning pain in my middle, and Finn resumes his previous pace. I hate him for lying and for being a Kelpie. But I love him. I love him for being sweet and gentle and for saving me from that monster.

“I can’t share my life or bed worrying that the person in it will snap one day and attack me.”

His face softens. “That won’t ever happen. I promise.”

“Your word isn’t enough. I’m sorry.” I close my eyes, focusing on my breathing. The pain makes it impossible to think.

“And what of our child?”

“What of it?”

“How do you plan to raise and deal with a child you can’t relate to? That you don’t understand and are openly terrified of?”

“I’m not—”

“You will be. If you can’t teach it how to resist certain urges and nurture its human side, it will turn into the very creature you despise.”

He comes to a stop, and I look around in confusion. The trees don’t look familiar, but the trickling sound of water reassures me that we are where we should be. And where the hell is Em? He was by my side when Finn collected me in his arms.

“Look, Masha. This is our new home.”

I turn my head and see a beautiful log cabin set on a rock foundation. There are windows and a peaked roof. It has to be twice the size of my cottage and looks like a professional builder designed it.

“The front yard will be covered in grass.” He points behind a mini-rock retaining wall. “Here you can have flower beds, and you can plant shrubs there,” he motions with his head to a patch opposite it. “On the side of the house, we have our own, personal spring. I thought it would be helpful to have one where we live.”

A rounded area of about ten by ten has been dug out. Water trickles over rocks as it spills into the pool, looking like a decorative waterfall. I’ve joked with Em and Erin that we should find a way to make one at the spring.

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