Suzanne McLeod - The Shifting Price of Prey

Faint heat coloured Finn’s cheeks. ‘Look, forget about that now, Gen. There’s something else we need to sort out.’

Oh, yeah. The whole Helen/Malik/Spellcrackers/Finn working or not for me thing. So not something I wanted to get into. ‘Now’s not really the right time, Finn.’

‘Not that, Gen,’ he said quietly, then pointed at the cambion’s tent. ‘Hugh says you’ve been hit with a massive dose of fertility rite magic, about five times more than normal, even without taking into account the rest of the stuff the idiot had in his cauldron. Add that to the Fertility pendant problems Tavish says you’ve been having, and it’s not surprising you were rolling round on the ground.’

‘It was pretty surprising to me,’ I said, then mock-grumbled, ‘as was my impromptu shower.’

‘You’re drying out’ – Finn glanced down – ‘which is a shame—’

‘Hey!’ I stuck my finger under his chin and pushed upwards. ‘Eyes up, okay?’

He gave me a quick grin, then sobered. ‘So the fertility rites were about increasing the fecundity of the land long before the witches co-opted them for making baby witches.’ He waved an arm at the semi-circle of tents. ‘Look at it. The place is halfway to a drought, and the shows have sucked the natural magic dry. The ground is starving. It was reaching out to all the fertility magic inside you. You’re lucky it didn’t absorb you.’

Swallowed by the earth. I shuddered. So not a great way to die. ‘Guess I should say thank you again, and mean it.’ I gave him a rueful look. ‘Thank you, Sir Knight, for saving me. With your trusty fire extinguisher.’

‘You’d have done the same for me.’ He smiled. ‘Even if I didn’t need saving.’

I stuck my tongue out at him. ‘Just give me an opportunity. But truly, I am grateful, Finn. So thank you.’

He brushed a damp strand of hair from my forehead. ‘You’re welcome, Gen.’ He lifted my hand and dropped a kiss on my palm, sending a shiver through me that had nothing to do with the shade. ‘Though there are other ways you could show your gratitude, if you were so inclined, my lady.’

‘Hmm.’ I shot him a repressing look. ‘And what ways might those be?’

‘I’m sure we can think of something fun.’ He winked. ‘After we’ve got this sorted.’ He pressed a butterfly-light finger to the hollow of my throat, making my heart skip a beat. He touched his wet finger to my mouth and I tasted salt. ‘As soon as the saline dries,’ he said, gaze turning serious, ‘the fertility magic will come raging back. Believe me, I know.’

I licked my lips. There was one sure fire way of getting rid of all that magic. Sex. The thought coiled desire low inside me. ‘What do you suggest?’ my mouth said, before my brain had time to censor it.

He waggled his brows. ‘Want to come and visit my glade?’

Shock flashed in me. A satyr’s glade was a sacred place, and they only ever shared them with their loved ones. It was tantamount to a declaration for him to invite me. In fact, after what he knew had happened with Malik, I had to wonder why Finn was even thinking about showing me his glade.

My thoughts must have shown on my face. ‘Hell’s thorns, Gen, you must know I care a lot about you and our friendship, even if I have been an idiot recently’ – he rubbed behind his left horn in exasperation, then sighed – ‘other things may have changed, but that hasn’t. But I know that you said you’ve moved on, too.’ A muscle jumped in his jaw. ‘So I don’t want you to think there’re strings to this or that this is about sex. Unlike here, my glade’s private, safe and overflowing with life and magic. The ground there will accept the fertility inside you gently, without hurting or trying to absorb you.’

It sounded great, if I ignored the disappointed voice, grumbling about no sex, in the back of my mind.

‘And if you don’t do something like that soon,’ Finn warned quietly, ‘the magic could end up forcing you into a sex-a-thon.’

‘I vote for option two,’ I said, then shook my head, my mouth was damn well going to get me into trouble if it didn’t stop. ‘Sorry, not sure where that came from.’

He clasped my face, his palms warm and slightly rough against my cheeks. ‘That’s the fertility magic talking, Gen. And much as I’d love to, I know that isn’t what you want from me.’ Sorrow darkened his green eyes. ‘But I hope our friendship is. And I also know that if I take a jealous hike over something that happened with the vampire’ – his expression hardened – ‘which might not have been your choice, without us talking about it, then I’ll lose any chance of keeping our friendship.’

‘Finn.’ I put my hands over his. ‘Malik didn’t force me.’

‘You’re hyped-up on fertility magic, Gen. It can influence you and get out of hand pretty quickly. Believe me, I know.’ He did, it was how the Witch-bitch Helen had tricked him into getting her pregnant with Nicky; ironically enough using the same Fertility pendant that was giving me problems now. ‘So, what I’m saying,’ Finn carried on earnestly, ‘is that I’m back and I want us to see if we can work things out between us.’

I pulled away from him. ‘Finn—’

‘C’mon, Gen, even if this thing you have with the vamp is serious, he shouldn’t stop you seeing your friends.’

‘Finn, that’s not going to happen, I make my own choices. And I don’t want to lose your friendship, but—’

‘No buts.’ He took my hand and gave me a half-grin. ‘I’m not going to give up on us. And I give you fair warning, I’m hoping to persuade you to choose me. But if it’s not to be, then I can’t promise to be happy about you and the vampire’ – his fingers tightened around mine – ‘but I will try, so long as you are. I don’t want to lose your friendship either, Gen.’

Wow. Only—‘What about Helen?’

‘You were right. I shouldn’t have let Helen talk me into keeping things from Nicky. I went back and had it all out with Nicky. Turns out she remembers more than she was admitting, but was worried I’d be hurt if I found out what her mum had done, so she was keeping quiet.’ His face turned grim and angry. ‘I have a suspicion that Helen might have put a geis on her, but I can’t prove it. But it’s all out in the open now. Nicky and I are back here. Helen isn’t with us and she’s not going to be.’

I blinked, trying to take it in, wondering about his quick attitude turnaround towards Helen from yesterday. ‘That’s a lot of sorting out in just a night?’

He shook his head. ‘A night here but nearly three weeks in the Fair Lands. I didn’t want to rush things, but I also didn’t want to miss any more time here, so I persuaded the Morrígan to take us out of timesync again.’

Three weeks. So his decisions weren’t quite the spur-of-the-moment ones I’d thought.

‘Gen, if we’re not to be, then that’s up to you. But I want us to continue working together, with you as the boss if things work out with the herd, but most of all, I want us to stay friends.’

Oh boy. Part of me thought he sounded too good to be true, but another part was happy, ecstatic even, that he’d come to his senses about the Witch-bitch, and about everything else he’d said. I hadn’t wanted to lose his friendship. Though whether we could work things out . . . well, it was early days. And there was still all this stuff with the kidnap victims, the Emperor, and the fae’s trapped fertility to deal with first. But Finn was right, before any of that, I needed to get rid of the fertility magic otherwise I’d be no use for anything; paying a visit to his glade sounded like the quickest, easiest way to go.

Hugh agreed when I explained, then said, ‘We need to plan around this “trap” of Max’s, in case we need to use it to gain entry into the forum. How long before you can come to Old Scotland Yard?’