“Do you see me so reckless, so hell-bent on my own destruction?”
“I see you as I did on Samhain when you would have left our circle and safety to go after Cabhan alone, even at the risk of never coming back to your own place and time. Do you think so little of us, Fin? So little you’d step away and leave us behind?”
“I think everything of you, and the others, but he’s my blood, not yours.” The words held a bitter taste, but were all truth. “And still I won’t act alone. I won’t because if I go wrong I’d risk you, and the others. Everything.”
“Your hand on it.” She held out her own. “Your hand on it, to seal the oath.”
He took her hand in his. Light streamed out between their fingers, sizzled and snapped like a wick just fed the flame.
“Well. Well, now,” he said quietly. “That hasn’t happened in some time.”
She felt the heat, the spread of it through her—both comfort and torment. Would it grow, she wondered, if she moved to him, if she reached for him?
She drew her hand from his, stepped back.
“I need to tell the others before they scatter for the day. You’re welcome to come.”
“You’ll deal with it.” And he needed some distance from her. “I’ve things to do.”
“All right then.” She started back, him with her, to his front door. “I’ll be working with Iona today, and we’ll see what we can do. It might be best for us to meet, all of us, but not tonight. A little time more to sort through it all. Tomorrow night if it suits you.”
“You’ll be cooking.”
“My lot in life.”
He wanted to run his hand over her hair, just feel it as he’d felt it in the dream. But he didn’t touch her. “I’ll bring wine.”
“Your lot in life.” She stepped through the door when he opened it for her, then turned, stood for a moment with the morning mists around her. “You’ve built a good house, Fin. Handsome for certain, but it has a fine, strong feel to it.”
“You’ve seen hardly more than the kitchen.”
“Well now, that’s the heart of a home. If you could come tomorrow at around three, we could work before the others come for supper.”
“I’ll work it out, and be there.”
He waited while she walked to her car, surprised when she stopped, looked back again with a quick, saucy smile.
“I should’ve mentioned, your skin’s not far off from rose petals, but in a manly way, of course.”
When he laughed, the tension in his belly eased even as she drove away from him.
5
AFTERBRANNATOLDHERTALE,ASKEDHERCIRCLETOthink on its meanings, she put in another request.
“I’d like the house cleared of men tonight, if you don’t mind, and to spend it with my women here, with wine and paint samples and such. If you could do me a favor, Connor, Boyle, would you invade Fin’s house, and stay there? Do whatever men do with an evening free of females. I don’t want to know what that might be.”
When Connor hesitated, she drilled her finger in his belly. “And don’t be after thinking the three of us need the protection of men. Two of us are witches same as you, and the other could kick your arse into next week if you riled her.”
“I take pains not to rile her. All right then. What do you say, Boyle, we’ll drag Fin off to the pub, then stagger back to his place?”
“I’m for it. He’ll want the company, I expect,” he said with a glance at Branna.
“Want it or not, he needs it. I’ll be in the workshop. Iona, when you’re done here, I’ll put you to work.”
“I’ll be here by six,” Meara told her, and waited until Branna left the room. “A terrible hard thing for both of them. I don’t know how they stand up to it. So let’s give them some fun and ease tonight at least.”
“That we can do.” Boyle rubbed a hand on Meara’s shoulder, turned to Iona. “It’s good you’ll be with her today.”
