5
Fin
“I’m trying to make it right. I got you away. All I can do is go out there and kill more of them.” I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know how to treat the welts or the poison.
Her fingers curl around mine. Her palm is slick with sweat, but her grip is strong. “You aren’t leaving me.”
“Then I can’t hunt.” To quit hunting is all I have wanted since I arrived. I study Megan. I don’t want her to die either.
Another poenpoeth jumps up onto the windowsill. How long until they break the glass or one of the returning housemates lets one in, or gets stung?
I'm running out of time and options.
I can't take her somewhere else, even though she's sick and needs care, as we are trapped in the house and I'm no doctor. I'm also a pretty poor hunter. Some people aren't meant to be riders and I'm one of them. I hate my father for pushing me into this.
While I've been in the human world for close to two years in faery not much time has passed at all. A month? Maybe two? Maybe less? The time correlation between the two worlds is fluid at the best of times. To go back so soon will be seen as a bad thing. It's easy to talk about grabbing a woman and going home, and I've had plenty of chances, but it's much harder to actually do. I don’t want to ruin someone else’s life to save my own.
I also don't want to be seen as a failure because I rushed home after being unable to hack it here. The human world is tolerable when out of the city, it's the hunting and killing I can't stand. I feel the weight of every death and I'm sure they will never leave me.
Her skin is too hot, and her face is flushed. The swelling is growing with every minute I waste. The skin is stretched, and cracking, and dark lines have started to spread from the center where the barb was lodged in her. I have no idea what damage is happening inside of her body, but I’m sure that if she is left here, she will die.
If I take her to faery, will the healers be able to help her?
“I need to make a call and ask some other hunters to help.” I slide my hand free of her sweaty grasp.
She whimpers. “You’re going to leave me to die.”
“You’re not going to die.” I force a smile. My arm is warm and tender, but otherwise I haven’t gotten any sicker.
“You’re lying. I can see it in your eyes.”
And I can see her death in hers. Her eyes have taken on a glassy appearance and she’s not getting any cooler. “Do you have any medicine to lessen the fever?”
Her eyes close and her words slur. “Maybe I should’ve gone to hospital.”
All they would’ve done is manage the fever. They won’t know how to treat the poison corrupting her body. If I offer a one-way trip to faery, will she accept?
Is she in any state to be making decisions like that?
“Megan?”
Her eyelids flutter, then her body starts to shake. Shit. I scoop her up, her skin feels like a brand scorching my hands and arms. I carry her to the bathroom and put her in the bath before turning on the cold tap. I don’t know if it will be enough to cool her down.
I retrieve my cell phone from my pocket and call the café, hoping that Oran answers.
It rings three times before anyone picks up and my anxiety grows with each passing second.
“Outer Realm’s Café,” Danni says.
“It’s Fin and I have a poenpoeth situation, is there a rider available?” The words tumble out. I know I sound like I’m begging, but I’m desperate. It’s too easy to imagine the house overrun with poenpoeth, attacking, and killing anyone who enters.
“Just a moment. Kian…call for you,” Danni shouts. “How bad is it and what’s a poenpoeth?”
“Bad, they stung me and I’m fine, but they stung a human woman and she’s unconscious, feverish.”
“Cool her down.”
“What do you think I’m doing? She’s in the bath in cold water.” I put the phone on speaker so I can turn off the tap without dropping her head in the water. “The poenpoeth are gathering outside the house.”
