At first, Faye had thought little of it: she knew of nightclubs in the human realm where similar things were a feature and people vied to dance in them.
Yet, as she revelled in the pleasure of Finn’s touch, she realised that, unlike the dancers, none of the creatures in the cages were fae.
They were all human. And though some of them danced, many of them looked exhausted, gaunt and starved. The cage closest to her held an inert, decaying human body.
Faye shivered in horror.
‘Finn! Stop!’ she cried out, pushing him away. But though he stopped pleasuring her, he continued dancing Faye around the ballroom, while she fought and struggled in his arms.
Finally, she broke free of his grasp, pulled off the opal ring and all of the jewellery that he had draped her in, ripping off the silk dress, too, until she was completely naked, standing in the middle of the vast ballroom. She had no idea why she was able to remove the ring and the rest of it here, when she hadn’t been able to back in the human world. But she was grateful to be able to tear it from her hand.
Free of the jewels, Faye’s head cleared, and she knew that she had to leave. Without looking back, she ran through the dancers, naked, out of the castle and towards the faerie road. She heard Finn call after her, but she knew that he had no power to keep her in Murias if she decided to leave. And leave she must. Immediately.
26
The walls of Mistress of Magic were no longer enough to protect Faye from Finn Beatha.
Faye wondered if they ever had been; after all, Finn had walked into the shop, the first time she had met him. But she remembered how he had stood at the threshold, how he had asked to be invited in.
Faye could keep Finn away if she tried hard enough; she had to believe that she could. There was no way that she wanted to be spirited back to Murias at the whim of a decadent faerie king who wanted to use her as a sex slave. Finn could spin her stories about how important she was to the faerie realms, how she was some kind of saviour, the subject of a prophecy. But she would never willingly go there again.
What she had seen at the faerie ball had shaken her to the core. The human bodies in cages – left there to starve to death, kept as entertainment for the faerie ball that never stopped. Grandmother had told her about the legendary faerie reels: the never-ending dancing, as if it acted like some kind of gyre or engine, powering the whole realm.
Faye would not be a part of anything that enslaved humans and murdered them in the name of entertainment.
So, to protect herself, she returned to Grandmother’s grimoire, just as Grainne had advised her when she sought guidance from the ancient crystal ball. So far, Faye had enchanted mirrors to turn away faerie enchantments, and drawn banishing sigils on their backs. Grateful for the pile of hagstones that she and Annie continually brought back from the beach, she strung them into companion charms for the one that Grandmother had hung by the door and hung them around the house – remembering that, somehow, the charm had not been hanging by the door on the day that Finn had walked in. Was that how he had been able to get to her? she wondered. Had he somehow been able to influence the charm being taken down, to allow him entry?
She had smudged the house with smoking bundles of rosemary and rue for protection, and spritzed the corners and the doors liberally with blessing oils. But was it enough?
It had been a week since Faye had returned from Murias; since she had dragged herself back down the faerie road, feeling the weight of the human world pull her down and down, until, when she found herself on Black Sands Beach – naked and shivering – she had barely been able to move. She had been grateful that it had been the middle of the night when she had reappeared, and had managed to drag herself home, unseen. She had taken a hot shower and wrapped herself in as many blankets as she could find, but couldn’t stop the violent shivering. It was hours later when she had finally slipped into a fitful sleep.
Since she had been back, Faye had felt the same flu-like symptoms as before: now, she knew that it was the hangover from being in Murias, and the increasingly toxic effect of the human world on her body. It was worse, this time. She had barely been able to work, telling Annie and Aisha she had flu.
She had heard from Aisha that Rav was away on business. She knew that if she saw Rav, it would endanger him. But shewantedto see him, nonetheless. She had texted, aware that she had literally disappeared in front of him when Finn had taken her. But there had been no response.
Faye looked up as some villagers passed by the shop on their way to church. A thick shaft of sunlight sliced through the window and across the dresser where she stacked tarot and oracle cards. Yet, she was still cold.
The protections that she had in place seemed to be keeping Finn from taking her, but he still appeared in her dreams.
Unlike before, where the faerie king had seduced her in her dreams, now, he tortured her.
Every night was the same. Faye would close her eyes when she could not fight sleep any more, and enter a dark room where she lay chained to a black table.
She was naked. Finn Beatha stood over her, smirking, holding a whip with an ornate shell handle and long strips of something like seaweed trailing from it. But when he struck her breasts with it, and her stomach, and her abdomen, before trailing it wetly up her thighs, watching her squirm in fear and discomfort, she realised that it couldn’t be seaweed, because it cut her skin, hard.
Did you think you could escape your destiny, Finn said, every night, as she flinched and bit her lip, swallowing the cries that she wanted to scream out loud.Did you think that I would just let you go, sidhe-leth? You are mine, forever.
Yet, Faye refused to answer, refused to give him any sign that he was breaking her will, that he was hurting her, though she woke up with the lines of pain still smarting on her skin.
She needed something more. She couldn’t go much longer being tortured every night by Finn Beatha, and while she might be safe from him inside the shop, she hadn’t yet tried goingoutside. What if Finn could magic her away to Murias if she left her safely protected home – even without the ring that he had given her? She had found the strength to cast it away from herself on the ballroom floor, but there was no guarantee that Finn wasn’t able to transport her to the faerie realm, anyway.
Finn had told her – unwillingly – that Levantiana had taught Moddie the faerie magic of Murias, because Moddie had made a bargain with her. But it was only possible for Moddie to learn the magics after she died and not before. It was forbidden to teach the magics to a living human, even if she was a witch.
If Faye could somehow learn the faerie magic, then surely she would be able to use it to protect herself from Finn Beatha? Coughing, Faye picked up Grandmother’s grimoire again and flicked to a section she remembered about the faerie queens.For the knowledge of and conversation with High Queens of Faerie, Grandmother had written,and to learn their magicks.
Yes. This is it, Faye thought, her heart starting to thrum.If I can summon Levantiana and persuade her to teach me her magic, that might make me powerful enough to resist Finn.
She started to read.
