I thrust myfinger in his face. “You don’t know my brothers.”
Phin’s facefell, and he gently covered my hand in his. “I’m truly sorry. I didn’t mean tooffend you. I should not have talked about your family members with such carelessregard and commit to do better in the future.”
His apology wasso sincere it almost broke my heart, but I also had to stifle a laugh at theformality in which Phin delivered it.
“Apologyaccepted your royal high—”
Phin put afinger to my lips. “We’ll have none of that, love.”
The feeling offloating on air was an overused cliché, and one I’d certainly never experiencedbefore, but when Phin touched my lips, that’s exactly how I felt.
“Okay, now, hopon board,” Phin said, bringing me back down to earth.
“What?”
“I’ve only gotone more thing to carry and that’s you, so come on,” he said, extending hisarms towards me.
“You’re going tocarry me the whole way? I thought we were going to hike it.”
“The river isnineteen kilometers away, and my fishing spot another six down river,” he said.“So, all aboard.
“Uh, okay,” Isaid, practically jumping into his arms.
“Don’t beafraid,” Phin said, holding me securely to his chest. His intoxicating scenthelping to slow my racing heart. “We’ve done this before, remember?”
“Not really. Itwas dark, I was completely freaked out, and you kept cosmically roofying me.”
“Not that itworked that well,” he joked. “Alright, here we go.”
No sooner had hespoken than the trees began to whizz by us in a green blur. Despite our speed,Phineas managed to traverse the rugged landscape with ease, the cool morningair whipping against my body tempered by the warmth of Phin’s body. As we spedthrough the woods, we remained in constant communication telepathically. Not somuch through words, but emotions and shared sensations. I’d never made lovebefore, but it’s almost how I’d imagined it feeling.
We reachedPhin’s spot in less that five minutes, and he set me down near the embankment.The River Ness was breathtakingly beautiful. Clear blue water moved swiftlypast a shoreline of smooth stones and fine sand. The banks were lined withthick groves of lime trees, stretching on as far as the eye could see.
Phin began tounpack. “You see why I wanted to bring you here?”
“It’smagnificent,” I replied, taking in a deep breath of the crisp, clean, air.
“For us it is,but not so much for the fish,” he said raising and lowering his eyebrows like acartoon villain.
“Phin thehunter,” I said as I slid a Wellie on. “This is a side of you I haven’t seen.”
“Just you wait.These poor fishy bastards don’t know what’s coming their way.” He cocked hishead. “Now, do you prefer trout or salmon?”
“Trout, pleaseand thank you.”
“Trout it is,but don’t thank me. You’re the one whose gonna catch it.”
I gulped. “Aye,aye, cap’n.”
“So, you wanttrout, so I need to catch us some salmon.”
I screwed up myface. “Huh?”
Phin smiledwide. “There’s nothing more delicious to a trout than salmon eggs. And since Ihaven’t got any salmon eggs, I need to harvest them from the river. That is tosay, from a pregnant female salmon currently swimming in the river.”
“How do you catchonlya pregnant female?”
“You don’t. Youcatch a bunch of fish and toss the males and virgin females back.”
