“So it couldn’t have been a kid?”
Arthur’s face turned stony. “Shit.”
“Don’t slash yourself up over it, Arnold,” Blake said. “We’ve got enough blood from Flynn.”
I gasped. Corbin looked mortified. But Arthur just laughed. “I never thought you’d be the one calling me on that shit, fae.” He rubbed his arm. “I’m not doing that anymore.”
Just like that. I wondered if it was Aline’s ritual affecting him. It sure was affecting me. And Corbin too, judging by the way he’d kissed me last night and what he was willing to do and the fact that he was trying to get me to a doctor again.
And Flynn…had the ritual got under his skin, too? Could it somehow explain his strange desire to pick a fight in the pub?
“In the pub, people were talking about Aline,” Blake said. “A kid saw us talking to Daigh through the mirror, and they all put it together after they recognised Aline from old photographs from her coven days.”
Maeve paled. “So the village knows about Aline.”
“Aye, and now they think we’re necromancers as well as witches.”
“You’re a damn fool,” Maeve scolded Flynn, who winced. “You’ve made everything worse.”
“Leave him be for now,” I said, taking the mug from Maeve. “You can yell at him later.”
I managed to get the rest of the tea down his throat, and Aline and I packed his wounds with yarrow leaves and bandaged him up. Corbin helped me to lift him so I could tie a sling around his arm. Hopefully, the magic tea would knit the break back together in a few days and he wouldn’t need to go to a doctor. I slid to the floor, exhausted, as Arthur scooped Flynn off the counter. “Up to bed with you.”
“Not bed, the couch. I have a mind to watch some action films and take my mind off my imminent castration at the handsof Einstein.” Flynn grinned at Maeve, who folded her arms and glared at him. He probably wasn’t wrong about the castration.
Arthur rolled his eyes. “Fine. As long as it’s notCommandoagain.”
“I’m the one who got marmalised. If I wantCommando, I getCommando.”
Arthur and Blake settled Flynn on the couch, placing a blanket over his knees and the TV remote in his hands. I brought him some snacks and set them on the table in front of him. Aline went to the kitchen to make tea. I got up to follow her, but Maeve grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the hall. She beckoned Corbin to join us.
“So…” she gave each of us at stern look. “Blake mentioned that when he came in you two were locked in a rather passionate embrace.”
Corbin looked guilty. “It was all me. I’m sorry I?—”
“Don’t think that. You’re not in trouble. I know you’ve got this thing going on that’s much older than me. I like it. Iloveit, in fact. Seeing you guys last night made me so happy, you have no idea. I have all of you, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have each other, too. But I’m going to need all the magic I can get if we’re going to defeat the fae, so this is a warning – don’t fuck it up for the next eight days, got it? Because I need both of you at my side and in fighting and fucking form, and if I can’t have all five of you because the two of you are fighting, then it’s not going to work.”
Corbin slipped his fingers through mine. The smile he flashed me melted my heart. “We’re here for you, no matter what.”
I nodded, unable to find words.
Maeve grinned, and wrapped her arms around us both. Her sweet, spicy scent hit my nostrils, mingling with Corbin’s dusky, heady aroma and bringing me back to the night under thebridge, the night I’d poured out all my secrets and found the love I’d never believed could exist.
“I love you both so much,” Maeve whispered. “Now, get out of here. Go do something useful. Trust me, you don’t want to be around for the bollocking I’m about to give Flynn.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE: FLYNN
“Okay, tiger. You’ve had time to gird your loins. We need to talk.”
Maeve plonked down on the beanbag in front of me, her head blocking the screen so I couldn’t see who Arnie was shooting at. I had a smart comment ready to rip, but the expression on Maeve’s face said I’d better not chance it. I paused the movie with my good hand, and raised myself up, the movement sent a splitting pain through my injured arm.
“Hit me with it, Einstein.”
“Do I need to tell you what a monumental idiot you were, dragging Blake into the pub and then picking a fight?” Maeve said.
When she puts it like that…
