‘There’s no time. Rav’s safe.’
‘Safe? I just thought the pressure got to him or something. When he didn’t turn up for the concert?—’
‘No. He was…’ Faye shook her head. ‘I’ll tell you later, okay? But we have to end the gig. Now. Before Finn can…’ She broke off, because Aisha had turned away from her and was staring raptly at the stage. ‘Aish! Please. We have to stop it. Put the curtain down. Put the lights up. Whatever we have to do to get the people to leave…I…’ Faye exhaled in frustration. ‘It’s dangerous.’
‘What? Why?’ Aisha’s brow furrowed. ‘It’s all run fine so far.’
‘Aisha. Listen to me. He’s dangerous.’
‘Faye. Please. It’s the last song. Stop being a drama queen,’ Aisha hissed.
Finn was playing the flute, and the quick trills of notes, up and down, had grown faster and faster. The drummer was playing so fast that the individual beats were hardly discernible.
‘But he’s not what he seems. Finn Beatha. He’s…Look, I know you won’t believe me. But he’s enchanting this whole crowd. He’s a faerie king, Aisha. I know, I’ve been to the faerie realm. I’ve seen it. Please. I think he wants to take…a woman, maybe more than one, back to his kingdom. Maybe all of them, I don’t know. To be trapped there forever.’ Faye pulled at her friend’s arm to make her turn away from the stage and, as she did so, her hand slid down to Aisha’s wrist, and she noticed the rose gold and opal ring on Aisha’s index finger: the same as the one that Finn had given her.
‘Where did you get that?’ she asked, but she knew the answer. Aisha pulled her hand away.
‘So, what if I have it? So, what if I have him?’ Aisha scowled at her. ‘God, you’ve always got to be in control, haven’t you? Got to be the top dog. Can’t stand it that I have Finn Beatha now. He’s mine, Faye.’
On the stage, Finn was opening his arms wide as the rest of the band piped and drummed.
‘You…and Finn?’ Faye’s heart felt like it stopped beating as she stared at her friend. She was dimly aware that the crowd had formed a huge circle and was dancing, running around it in exactly the same way as the dancers at the faerie ball in Murias. She stared out at their contorted faces and a dawning horror made her mute.
‘Yes. Me and Finn.’ Aisha turned her wide brown eyes to Finn, metres away, and he held his hand out to her. Below him, the crowd were no longer dancing; now, it had turned into something else, something darker and more savage. They reeled and trampled each other; there was screaming, but Aisha couldn’t hear it, Faye could tell: her face was beatific as she caught and returned Finn’s gaze. ‘It was the spell, Faye. It brought him to me,’ she sighed and then, without warning, ran on to the stage towards the faerie king’s open arms.
‘Aisha! No!’ Faye grabbed for her friend’s hand, but Aisha’s fingers slipped through hers. Faye ran after her, but it was too late. Finn Beatha picked Aisha up, and glared victoriously at Faye.
‘You didn’t want me,sidhe-leth. Don’t blame me if someone else did.’ His voice cut through the music as if there was a direct channel between them.
‘You can’t take her!’ Faye shouted, but Finn cradled Aisha in one arm and thrust his other palm out towards her. Faye felt an invisible barrier rise in the space between them.
‘You can’t stop me,’ he replied, smiling, and swept Aisha into his arms so that she lay in them like a child, bewitched. ‘I will have my lovers, human or half human; it is no matter to me. We need human blood to keep us strong. Worry not, Faye. I will keep your friend safe in my bed.’ He cast a wry glance over the half-naked, cavorting crowd. ‘Perhaps with some of these others,too. A faerie king does not like to be bored. And Murias needs stock and women ripe to nurse them when I am done with their mothers…’
Finn was no longer singing and so the drumming reached fever pitch; everyone in the crowd was leaping and screaming. Their faces were masks, and the sheen of humanity was slipping from them. They were becoming more and more bestial with every passing second.
Faye felt horrified that she had ever desired Finn so deeply. She took out the hagstone charm from her pocket and tried to push through the energy barrier towards him. ‘You will not take her!’ Faye screamed, holding it up like a lamp in the darkness, but his power was too great and the barrier, whatever it was made of, choked her as if she was drowning.
In desperation, she threw it at him, but he caught it and jumped into the middle of the crowd, which ran to him like rivulets into a stream. He laughed.
‘Your charm cannot stop me,’ he called as he jumped. ‘It protectsyoufrom my kind like it always has,sidhe-leth. But none of these others are so protected.’ Aisha clung to him, her arms around his neck, burying her face into his chest, kissing him. Finn threw the hagstone charm away to the far side of the stage.
‘Aisha! Don’t go!’ Faye screamed, but she could see the enchantment in her friend’s eyes; Aisha didn’t even hear Faye. She knew what Aisha was feeling, and she felt a stab of shame at her own hypocrisy; no one would have been able to call her back from Finn’s arms when she had been the one in his favour.
Aisha was at Finn’s mercy now. If she displeased him, she would have no defence against his power. She didn’t have the magic that Levantiana had taught Faye and she was not half faerie. Aisha might not survive the savage faerie reel if she was thrust into it by a faerie king who had grown tired of her.
Faye watched as others in the crowd grabbed him and went to him willingly, for they all wanted him; they had all been enchanted in exactly the same way as she had.
‘Farewell,sidhe-leth.’ Finn’s stormy eyes met hers and she felt grief pass through her. There was a part of her that still wanted him. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn’t help it. She steeled herself against the power in his gaze. ‘Until our lips meet again.’
‘You will never have me again!’ she screamed, making her eyes meet his with as much power in them as she could muster.Resist him, resist, she told herself, but his power was strong.
Finn laughed cruelly. ‘As you will. Go back to your mortal man. But you will always yearn for me.’ He smiled, and there was no kindness in his expression, but instead the calculating look of an eagle weighing up its prey. ‘And since you have betrayed me three times now – by loving the mortal, by rescuing him from my realm, and for trying to thwart me tonight – I will bar you from entering Murias by any means from now on.’
‘I am half faerie. It’s my right to be there if I choose,’ Faye retorted, but dread twisted her stomach. Murias was Finn’s world, and she didn’t know if even Levantiana could admit her if Finn had forbidden it. There was no way to stop him, no way she could help Aisha if he took her there.
Finn called out something in Gaelic to the band, still playing on stage; as if following an order, they finished the song, dropped their instruments and jumped into the crowd, grabbing people at random.
It had to be now.
