Page 30 of Highballs & Hexes

“How is it possible after all the exploding food?”

Sharp pain started behind his eyes, and he closed his lids to fight off the sudden throbbing ache. The ringing began in his ears again, and he covered them to drown out the sound. Pressure built, and it felt as if his brain were about to explode. He cried out in his agony.

“Patrick?” Fi’s voice came from beside him. When he dared open his eyes, she was there, looking worried but also as if she suspected him of acting.

His heart thudded in time to the pulsing pain in his skull.

“I’m grand,” he said.

“You sure?”

“Aye,” he lied.

“Right. So if your powers are in full force, you should try to get us out of here, then.” Her tone was grudging, as if she still didn’t trust him, but was willing to pretend if it achieved her goal of freedom.

His chest tightened further. Why did women always want to escape his presence? Was he so undesirable? Was he so unskilled in his advances that he turned others off? It bore further thinking about, but he’d be damned if he’d ask Fi, not when she looked at him as if he were about to abscond with her family’s silver.

Clearing his throat, he stood and, concentrating on placing one foot in front of the other, crossed to the center of their cell. “Aye. Come, and I’ll try to send you home, yeah?”

She scrambled to her feet—too fast for his liking—but Patrick remained mute on the subject. Once she placed her palms in his, he shut his eyes, closing out the distrust she exhibited.

“Dear Anu, hear my plea,

assist me in this time of need.

Release Fionola from this place,

and take her where she’ll be safe.”

Light filled the room, and a crack appeared in the fabric of space. Through the slit, Fionola’s small village appeared to grow closer. If one squinted, they could see Noah Fucking Riley’s place in the distance.

The thought of her returning to the pub owner soured his stomach.

“Wait!”she cried.

Patrick was unprepared for the impact of her body with his, and he stumbled backward with his arms full of Fi. Maintainingthe spell was impossible, and the portal sealed shut with a snap and a fizzle.

“For fuck’s sake, woman! Do you not have the sense the Goddess gave a feckin’ mule?” He set her aside and began to pace. His blood pressure shot up, doing nothing to ease the ache in his head. “You’d have had your wish to be away from me, and what do ya do? You feckin’ ruined it, ya did!Are ya mad?”

After blocking his path, she gave a vicious shove to his chest and settled her fists on her hips. She was stunning in her fury. “Don’t speak to me like that, ya lug!”

An incredulous snort escaped him, but he kept his mouth shut because what he wanted to say would blister her ears. Even a low-level witch knew better than to interrupt a casting the way Fionola had.

“You did it wrong,” she said in a haughty voice.

Frustrated beyond measure—and not just about a spell gone wrong—Patrick’s jaw clamped. Not only did he fear for the welfare of his molars, but he was certain his head was about to explode. Still, there were worse things than dying of one quick brain splat.

“Did ya hear me?” she demanded.

“Aye,” he snapped. If he didn’t wring her neck before the day was through, he’d be grand. When he could speak again without spitting teeth, he asked, “And what, pray tell, did I do wrong, O' Wise One?”

Her lips compressed in a tight line, and her eyes were troubled.

His anger dissolved in the face of her upset.

“Fi? What did I do wrong?” For the life of him, he didn’t understand. If he’d missed something and created a portal to harm her, he’d never forgive himself.

“You weren’t going to save yourself,” she whispered. “Just me.”

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