Page 67 of Outside the Veil
“Finn?”
“Hmm?”
“Could you stop a minute? I need to show you something.” Diego waited while Finn drew a few more curls on a Gordian knot of Caribbean Green and Cornflower.
He had hoped they would be able to surprise the wendigo while it slept that morning, but Finn said it would be impossible. With a spirit of wind and ice, he insisted, one had to wait until it manifested and that would not be until evening.
“I’ve set the phone up on speed dial. In case something happens or if you need help and I…can’t help you anymore, I want you to be able to call Tia Carmen.” He held the phone out so Finn could see the numbers. “Press any one of these top buttons and you’ll be able to talk to her, all right?”
“And if she is not at home when it shrieks?”
“Rings,mi vida, we say a phone rings. Then you’ll hear a click and Tia Carmen’s voice will tell you she isn’t home. Theanswering machine. You know how that works. When it beeps, you say you called, turn the phone off and stay close until she calls you back. Do you have all that?”
Finn’s forehead crinkled. “It seems simple enough.”
“You don’t sound sure.”
“I will do what I must when I must, never fear,” Finn said, with a dismissive wave. Then he scrubbed his hands over his face with a sigh. “My love, if you did not need rest, I would ask you to walk with me in the woods. I feel a melancholy humor creeping into my blood which we can ill afford today.”
“I know. Me, too.” Diego chewed on his bottom lip. “Let’s take our lunch out onto the porch. Almost like being in the woods, right?”
Only a small dark stain on the wood near the window remained of the horrible scene two nights before. The wendigo had taken Tara’s head and body when it fled, and Finn had whisked the remaining blood and gore away on a stream of water he’d coaxed from the air.
The dark patch was reminder enough, though. Diego shivered despite the warm sun on his back. Finn pulled him onto the porch swing and held him tight while he sang to him in the soft, earth-and-water tones of ancient Gaelic.
They stayed wrapped in each other’s arms until the sun settled atop the pines.
Diego broke the silence. “We should get ready.”
“Would you like the bed again, then?”
“No,cariño. I think it’s best if I stay out here. If things reach the point where you need to let it possess me, both you and it have to be able to get to me easily.”
“I won’t let—”
“Shh, hush.” Diego put a finger over his lips. “I know. You want to protect me this time because the last time you couldn’t. But unless you’ve been spinning some pretty incredible lies, allyou have to do is wait until I come back again in another body, right? Somehow, I get the feeling there’s not the same option if you die.”
“I couldn’t say,” Finn answered on a hard swallow. “I’ve never died before.”
“Right. The price of immortality. But if everything I’ve ever heard or read is right, if one of the fae is destroyed, that’s it, you’re toast.”
Finn’s brows drew together. “I don’t think I would become a slice of heated bread…”
“Sorry, stupid expression. I mean, I don’t think you’d get to come back again.”
“So I have been given to understand as well.”
Diego took Finn’s face between his hands. “You need to keep your promise. Back off if the time comes. Let it happen. End it quickly. Don’t let me linger.”
“But—”
“No. No wheedling, no arguments. You need to swear to me you’ll do what I need you to do.”
“I—” Finn heaved a shaky breath. “I do so swear, by the waters that sustain me. I will not permit you to linger in horror and anguish.”
“Thank you.” Diego leaned in to give him a swift, hard hug. “Ready?”
“I’ve certainly had more romantic propositions,” Finn grumbled. “Give me a kiss and tell me you love me and I shall be.”
