Page 71 of Outside the Veil
A laugh bubbled up despite the barrage of despair. The laugh shoved the darkness back a hair, and for a moment, he caught a glimpse of himself through Finn’s eyes, a shining being of white light, shot through with threads of golden magic. He spread his arms and reached out once more, stretching further into the bright web.
The trees, the birds, the streams, the very ground beneath their feet all contributed to the outpouring of heat. The bridges of connections multiplied into infinite webs, every cricket, every blade of grass, every life lending its light, its strength, its notes. The weaving became a song so bright and complex, Diego’s heart threatened to burst with joy.
With a piercing howl, the wendigo attacked, claws and teeth of ice sinking into him, trying to rip him away from Finn and from the tendrils of magic. Diego grappled with it, discordant notes knifing into the magic as they raged back and forth, heat of the sun battling the howling chill of the void.
The liquid stream of song had taken root in the core of the wendigo’s being and would not be dislodged. Note by note, the void filled, the light growing in the vast chasm of despair. Diego clung fast as he felt the monster weaken. In desperation, it tried to attack Finn and hurled a bolt of black rage at his essence. Finn answered by throwing up a wall of blue fire to block the missile and adding his own voice to the song.
The wendigo shrieked, clawing at the magic invading its being, tearing itself to pieces as the emptiness filled. The chill dissipated, the light of the world melted its heart of ice. There was peace where there had been emptiness, calm where there had been raging despair.
The howling wind died down as the wendigo’s essence scattered. Diego found himself back in the woods by the tree where Finn lay. The malevolent spirit no longer inhabited the world. Only its magic remained to join the song, a whisper on the wind.
“Cariño, will you be all right?”
“Won’t be but a moment, my hero. I need a shape that doesn’t require a backbone,” Finn said as his bear shape contracted into a large bumblebee.
“All right. I’m just so tired now.”
Finn snorted, an odd sound from a bumblebee. “I would think so, m’dear. You only worked more magic in a night than I’ve seen any other man work in a lifetime.”
Chapter twenty
Waiting
Finn stared morosely at Diego’s body, so terribly still and pale as death. Back behind the walls of his mind, Finn could not reach him, and he had retreated so deeply, he could no longer hear him either.
“I don’t think this is good, my love,” he murmured. “You just don’t look well at all.”
The prolonged seizure and a night in the chill while Finn tried to put himself back together properly could not have done any good. He had carried Diego inside as soon as he could and wrapped him in blankets, but he still would not wake.
As much as it pained him to admit, Diego needed human help. He picked up the phone and tried to recall everything Diego had said.
“Buttons…buttons…the ones at the top,” he muttered. He pressed one then another. Nothing happened. Near panic, he shook the phone and was about to fling it across the room when he recalled a little red light came on when someone’s voice camethrough. The large, blue button in the center, yes, that’s how Diego said one ‘turned it off’. Perhaps it worked the other way as well.
He pressed and received a contented sort of hum from the thing. Good. It’s happy with me.Then he tried the top button on the left again. The hum stopped, replaced by little tones and then a shrill sound.Ringing, that was the word.
“Hola?”
Oh, thank the gods…“I need help, dear lady, please. Or Diego does. I’m at a loss.”
“Finn?”
“Yes, yes, it’s me. He had an overlong seizure, he won’t wake, how do I get help for him?”
“Why did he have such a terrible one?”
Another time he would have loved to tell the story in loving and graphic detail, but his worry kept him to short, terse sentences.
“Don’t worry,querido. I’ll call Ms. Thorpe. She’ll get help to the house. You stay by him. Keep him warm. There will be men coming in a truck with flashing lights. The truck might make a loud, screaming sound. You must not be afraid of these things. They’ll help Diego.”
“I will do my best.”
“Keep the phone with you. I’ll call again in a little while.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He waited for what seemed an interminable amount of time before the men in the screaming, flashing truck finally arrived. They took in what he told them and worked quickly to bundle Diego onto a little cot with wheels.
“You will be gentle with him?” he asked, his heart already aching to think of Diego being taken from him.
