26. Finnian

TWENTY-SIX

FINNIAN

It’s so quiet I can hear the blood pumping inside my veins. Even Tiernan reads the room loud and clear for once and stays silent. Her confession is one I didn’t see coming. None of us did, with the exception of Dmitri who I’m assuming already knew the story.

When she told me that Devlyn was her other half, I didn’t think she was being literal. I ached for her when I thought she’d lost her best friend, but knowing he was her twin brother magnifies that loss by a thousand.

Fiona, who knows more about fae magic than any of us, having been raised by a powerful conjurer, is the first to break the silence.

“Mystics within the specialty lines are incredibly rare, and their power remains dormant for centuries, the fae themselves not even knowing what they are until that power surfaces when they’re older and in their prime. But I read that in extreme cases, trauma could trigger the magic early. Is that what happened to you?”

Taryn nods stiffly. “I blacked out and woke up days later in my bedroom with the acrid stench of smoke in my nose and a thrum of magic like I’d never felt pulsing just beneath my skin. I could only remember bits of what happened in the throne room, but it was enough to know what I’d done.”

Taryn sits completely still, looking like she’s facing down a firing squad. Back erect, chest rising and falling with short breaths, and gaze straight ahead, chin slightly raised, waiting for us to condemn her.

She’s expecting disdain and judgment, disgust and indignation. She’ll get none of it.

Because she can’t see what I see. What I know even my family sees, despite only knowing her for mere hours. And that’s someone who is inherently good . The kind of person who is fundamentally compassionate and empathetic, loyal and brave. The kind of person who wanted to fight in the Purity war alongside her brother and the other warriors to protect her people instead of standing by doing nothing.

The kind of person who would cast a spell to spare another from the horrors of drowning, knowing she couldn’t do the same for herself.

Caiden weighs in, his voice as gentle as I’ve ever heard it. “The grief brought on by the news of your brother’s death caused your Mystic powers to manifest before you were ready to handle them, and you lost control. It was an accident, Taryn.”

“Lack of intent doesn’t change the fact that I killed dozens of innocent fae that day. I was no better than my mother. In fact, I was much worse. I no longer deserved to live among them, much less rule. So I left, taking nothing with me, save my Armas.”

“I understand,” Caiden says. “Have you tried practicing with your powers?”

I nod. “All the time at first. I’d do it in remote locations with no one around, but every time I open the door, it overpowers me. Eventually, I just locked it down and promised to never tap into it again. I only broke that promise once before today.”

“I’m guessing it didn’t go any better than the first time?” Tiernan asks.

Taryn glances briefly at Dmitri, and something passes between them I can’t read. Turning back to the rest of the room, she answers simply. “No, it didn’t.”

Caiden rubs his chin thoughtfully with the side of his finger, then looks at me. “Okay, Finn, get us up to speed on things. Start at the beginning and take us up through how you ended up trapped in our father’s secret burial site.”

Tiernan jumps in. “Seriously, what the hell is up with that? That had to be Mom or Seamus. Hey, wolf boys,” he says to the twins. “Did your dad secretly bury our dad? Because, as king, I can lock him in the castle dungeon for that shit.”

Fiona rolls her eyes. “We don’t have a castle or a dungeon.”

Connor gives Tiernan a droll look. “We don’t know anything about it, man.”

Conall’s mouth lifts in a grin. “But if we did, we wouldn’t tell you, anyway.”

Tier narrows his eyes and points at his friends standing by the bar. “You’re all going in the dungeon.”

Both men hold up their middle fingers in unison, completing the bro banter just as Caiden regains control of the room. “Enough, guys. Why our father’s ashes were buried and by whom is the least of our concerns right now, Tier. We need to know what Edevane’s next move is, so we can make ours. Finn?”

Leaning forward, I brace my elbows on my legs and clasp my hands together, remembering the day I spoke to Edevane while he was imprisoned beneath the Temple of Rhiannon.

“I guess it all starts the day Dmitri and I went to the ToR. The day Edevane escaped and stole the Tri-Stone, which wasn’t a gift from Rhiannon like our grandmother claimed. It was the spearhead from Lugh’s legendary Spear of Assal.”

Everyone listens as I tell them what Edevane revealed to me about Moira stealing the spear from Cormac during their affair before breaking it and hiding the halves so the Light King couldn’t use it to usurp Aine’s power and destroy Faerie. I finally come clean about the strange pull Taryn’s Armas had on me while we were searching for her, then gave a brief rundown on how Dmitri and I rescued her from the facility inside Superstition Mountain, which I’d told my brothers about when I saw them the other day.

“But then things get really wild.”

Conall pauses the bottle of water halfway to his mouth. “Sorry, were things not already really wild?”

Connor reaches up and smacks his brother on the back of the head. “Stop interrupting.”

Before things can get out of hand—I once saw them go from brotherly chiding to shifting into wolf form and going for each other’s throats before Seamus put a stop to it—Caiden shoots them a quelling look they both obey but will likely get back at him for later. After almost two centuries together, the three of them have a dynamic that flows seamlessly between business and friendship and back again.

Caiden gives me the nod to continue. “The morning after Taryn and I arrived in Vegas, I received a letter by courier here.”

“You said no one knew about this place,” Tiernan says.

“They didn’t. The letter was delivered by an attorney’s office at the instruction of Barwyn. That reminds me,” I say, turning to Connor. “Did you set up a time we can meet with him? I have a lot of questions I think he’ll be able to answer.”

The twins share a look that makes my stomach drop before Connor answers. “I’m sorry, man, but Barwyn is gone. We were coming back from his place when we got the call about you and Taryn.”

Conall adds, “We asked Chief McCarthy to run some tests to make sure, but we don’t suspect any foul play. He and his coyote were old as hell, bro. I think it was just their time.”

“Shit,” I mutter, swiping a hand over my face.

I didn’t know Barwyn well, but I know he was a friend of the Midnight Crown and did what he could to help us when we needed him. Taryn looks at me with concern swimming in her lavender eyes. I suspect she’s sympathizing with the loss of one of our subjects as well as what his death means for this quest.

Fiona asks, “What did Barwyn say in his letter to you?”

“That’s just it,” I say. “It wasn’t from him. His only job was to send it after the bizarre lunar eclipse happened the other night. The letter was from Moira Verran.”

There’s another record-scratch moment as everyone processes that mystery. Except for Dmitri. “Who is this Moira? Why does everyone look like they have seen a ghost?”

Taryn answers her brother. “She’s their grandmother who died in 1903. Three years before Finnian was even born.”

“Ah, so she is ghost. That is why.” Satisfied with that explanation, the Russian sits back again and takes a drink of his vodka. “Continue.”

Bryn puts her hands out in front of her like she’s stopping traffic. “Hold up. You’re saying Moira wrote a letter to her grandson who didn’t yet exist, then asked a friend to send that letter on a night when a lunar eclipse shouldn’t have happened to a place that didn’t yet exist, but once it did, no one knew the aforementioned grandson owned it and would be there to accept said letter?”

Taryn and I glance at each other, then back at Bryn. “Yes,” we say simultaneously.

Bryn rubs her temples. “God, I wish I could drink alcohol right now.”

Caiden wraps a supportive arm around his wife. “There’s only one reason any of that could happen. Moira must have been a seer.”

I nod. “That’s what she said in the letter. Even though we lost our court-born magic as one of Aine’s curses, Moira would’ve retained her specialty power the same as any fae who lived in Faerie before being exiled.”

“Like our dad,” Conall says. “But then why didn’t you already know she was a seer?”

“She said it’s dangerous for seers to reveal their gifts,” I say.

Fiona chimes in. “Most families with the seer specialty don’t even know about it. The secret is kept between the ones within their line who inherit the powers. It can be the same with conjurers. They do it to prevent others from wanting to use them for their abilities, or siphon their magic by drinking from them.”

Taryn pales next to me. “Yeah, about that.”

I take her hand and intertwine our fingers, squeezing them gently to let her know I’m here for her as she continues the story and tells Dmitri and my family the real reason Edevane held her hostage for a year. We also take turns filling them in about Moira’s visions and the scavenger hunt she’s set us on to find the other half of the spear.

Connor drops ice cubes into a rocks glass for a refill on his drink. “I get that Moira saw all the things she needed to know to make all this work, but how did the clues get into their hiding places when the Bellagio and the Venetian weren’t around until the late 90s?”

“I think she had another person she gave instructions to,” I say. “When I touched the clue that we found in the Bellagio, I had a vision of an elder fae male placing the glass vile behind the stone during its construction.”

“You’re having visions now?” Tier asks.

“Not like that. I think she spelled the clues to give me the vision.”

Tiernan arches a brow. “For what purpose?”

“How the fuck should I know, man? In case you haven’t noticed, most of this doesn’t make sense yet.”

He holds a hand up as if to say fine, I’ll back off so I pick up where I left off; the part where Edevane followed us into the burial chamber, stole the second clue—which I note I did not get a vision from because I didn’t get a chance to touch it—and then left us to drown.

Dmitri, no longer relaxed, shoves to his feet, his eyes red with bloodlust. “I will drain him dry and feast on his bones.”

Taryn and I speak in unison again. “Get in line.”

Bryn’s hand rubs over her belly absently as she thinks. “I wonder why Edevane doesn’t have the same reaction to your power as you, Taryn.”

Tiernan speaks up. “Because he only has a fraction of the power she has. When I siphoned Erin’s magic to do that memory spell on all those NPO members, it felt like I could barely contain it. Edevane has just enough to get the job done, but not so much that he’s bursting at the seams.” To Taryn, he adds, “I can’t imagine having what you describe flowing through you.”

Taryn offers a self-deprecating grin. “Zero out of ten, do not recommend.”

“Can I see the letter from Moira?” Fiona asks. “You said some of it doesn’t make sense. I’m pretty good at deciphering the cryptic language of the elders from all the old tomes I used to read with my mom.”

Bryn places a hand on her big belly and the other on the back of the couch to scooch herself to the edge of her seat. “Now you’re talking, sister. Let’s have a look, Finni.”

I retrieve the letter from where I stashed it in the gun safe and hand it to the girls who are now at the dining room table with everyone else hovering around them.

Pointing to the lines on the page, I say, “Here’s where we get stuck.”

Fiona reads, “‘For it is only you, my brave Finnian, who can harness the magic that saves our fair world.’”

Everyone looks up at me like they’re seeing me for the first time. I shift my weight and cross my arms defiantly, uncomfortable with their appraisal. “What? I’m sure she’s just being hyperbolic. The whole thing sounds like that.”

Tiernan arches a thick brow. “Maybe it sounds like that because you’re like the messiah of the fae. You’re Dark Jesus.”

The twins snort laugh, and I do my best to school my features so I don’t do the same. Sometimes the things that come out of his mouth are so ridiculous laughing is the only response. “Shut the fuck up, Tier, before I knock you unconscious like I did the last time you were being an ass.”

He glares at me. “That was a sucker punch, and you know it. I’ll be ready next time. And then I’ll throw you in the dungeon that I plan on making for those two fleabags,” he says, jerking his chin at the twins.

“Tiernan,” Fiona says, still poring over the letter.

“Yes, my queen?”

“Shush. I can’t think with you making ridiculous threats you don’t mean.”

Miraculously, he does in fact shush. But not before he mouths the words you’re dead to me over the top of her head. I just grin back at him, satisfied I won this round. Dmitri gestures between me and Tier to his sister. “See how they do this? Innocent sibling fun. No one is stabbing their brother with a silver dagger.”

“Don’t be such a baby,” she says. “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll only use regular daggers from now on, so it won’t burn. Much.”

Me and the other guys laugh, glad the focus is off us for once, but Bryn and Fiona are in full-on investigative mode, talking to each other and volleying ideas back and forth.

“Okay, listen to this part,” Bryn says. “‘Remember the path to victory is not in combatting the darkness but in melding it with the brightest of flames. Only then will you be able to vanquish the oppressive light.’ Darkness, flames, and light. She has to be talking about Finn and Taryn combining their powers to fight against Edevane.”

Taryn nods. “That makes sense. She never mentions me by name, but we think she might have foreseen me working with him because some things he wouldn’t have been able to do without me. I recognized the flame lilies in the Conservatory and used my magic to form them into an arrow that pointed to the next clue. And then in the cavern, my Armas is what unlocked the box that held the second hidden clue.”

Fiona looks up. “Maybe your Armas is spelled. That’s why Finn felt such a strong need to find you when he had it. It was literally trying to bring you together. Who gave that to you?”

Taryn fingers the pendant on her chain. “My father had it commissioned for me. It’s customary for all Fire jewelry to be made from Ember, the metal from our region in Faerie. But he insisted the fabricator make it from Luna, which is from the region previously occupied by the Darks. He disappeared before it was delivered, so I never knew his reason for that. Until today, when it unlocked a box made of the same metal.”

Bryn, who’s always been a big believer in destiny and fate, looks awestruck. “If that’s not enough to convince you that fate is real, Finni, I don’t know what will.”

My eyes find Taryn’s and hold them from across the table like I want to hold her and never let go. I’m still shaken up from the realization that I almost lost her today, and part of me wants to tell my family to fuck off so I can simply be with her and reassure myself she’s okay.

But there will be plenty of time to do that once we figure out how to stop Edevane once and for all. Right now, this has to be the priority.

Without looking away from Taryn, I say, “Oh, I’m a hardcore believer now, little sis.”

Taryn blushes, then clears her throat and changes the subject. “Fiona, what do you think Moira meant by ‘to break the bonds that trap the night, you must spill the blood of the One True Power’? She’s not saying we need to kill my mother, is she? I thought that’s what we’re trying to prevent Edevane from doing.”

Fiona frowns. “No, I don’t think it’s referring to Aine. Like you said, the whole point is to save her. But it could be referring to you. As her daughter, you have her blood.”

Caiden speaks for the first time in a while. “I think that’s the most likely explanation, especially since Moira references Taryn in the other parts of the letter as well.”

Dmitri nods, as though it’s already a foregone conclusion. “This makes the most sense. Your Armas was key for box, and you are key for Faerie.”

Taryn’s brows knit together. “Wait, what? How can I be the key for Faerie?”

“You can cross the veil still, yes?”

“I mean, I haven’t tried, but unless Aine locked me out like she did…” Her wheels start turning, and I love the way I can see her beautiful mind working. “Bonds that trap the night. That’s the curse locking out the Night Court, meaning Finn. She says he’s not meant to carry his burden home alone. And if I’m the key, that means my blood will get him through the veil. Dmitri, you’re a genius.”

“I know,” he says nonchalantly.

I brace my hands on the table, realizing something else. “That must be how Edevane checked the original ToR.” All eyes swivel to me. “He told us in the cavern that he knew the other half of the spear wasn’t in Faerie like Moira made Cormac believe, but he wouldn’t tell us how he knew. He’s been able to go through the veil because he has Taryn’s blood in him.”

Connor and Conall look at each other, saying, “Damn.”

I rake a hand through my hair, releasing a frustrated breath. “Bottom line is that the vision Moira had about what happens once Edevane has the spear is a total annihilation of Faerie. We can’t stand by and let that happen.”

Tiernan nods, “I’m with you, baby bro. Got any ideas on how we stop him?”

Taryn and I share a helpless look. “No,” I say. “We didn’t get a look at the clue before he took it, so we can’t beat him to the location of the spear.”

Caiden crosses his arms over his chest. “That means our only play is to stop him once he already has it.”

Tiernan places his hands on Fiona’s shoulders affectionately. “He might not even be able to use it. Legend says its power died with Lugh.”

“That would be ideal,” I say, “but when I spoke to him before his escape from the ToR, he said something about Moira knowing how to activate it. I have no idea if that’s true, but we have to assume that the knowledge is out there somewhere, or Moira’s vision wouldn’t be centered around the damn thing.”

Tiernan nods. “Good point. I doubt Ede-Lame could start an end-of-times sitch using a regular long pointy stick.”

Conall catches my gaze and winks. “So, future king of kings, what’s the plan?”

I narrow my eyes at one of my oldest friends and sparring partners. “Let’s all agree that Grandma Moira had a flair for the dramatic and ignore the parts of her letter that are obvious flattery, shall we?”

Tiernan claps a hand on my back. “Whatever you say, Dark Jesus.”

I sigh. “I need a drink.”

After brainstorming and trashing several plans, we finally land on a Plan B, with Plan A being a no-go since we don’t know where the spear is and can’t prevent Edevane from getting it. So, Plan B, it is.

“All right, so to recap,” I say from the where I’m standing at the bar, “Staying here will be Brynnie because she’s too pregnant, Caiden because he can’t be far from her or he dies, Fiona because she’s human, and Tier because he’s a cosseted king.”

Tiernan looks up from playing a game on his phone. “Bite me, bro.”

“Don’t tempt me,” I banter back with a flash of fangs. “That leaves me, Taryn, Connor, Conall, and Dmitri who will head to the veil in Joshua Tree to wait for Edevane to show up with the spear. If he does, we stop him with an as of yet TBD plan. If he doesn’t show up within forty-eight hours, we’ll have to assume he beat us to it, which means we stop him in Faerie. Since time moves much slower there, the hope is that he shouldn’t be able to do any real damage before we get to him. Questions?”

Taryn raises her hand a little sheepishly, drawing my attention. “Just one. If we have to travel to Faerie, you guys will need my magic to cross the veil. Except Dmitri. Ironically, the only one who doesn’t need to drink my blood is the vampire.”

The vampire shrugs. “I bring my own for snack.”

“What’s your question, solnyshko ?” From the corner of my eye, I see Dmitri raise an eyebrow at my use of the Russian endearment, but I ignore him, focused on what Taryn and whatever has her nerves showing.

“My question is how . I mean, are we just going to…” She gestures at the side of her neck, and the image of the Woulfe brothers drinking at Taryn’s throat has me seeing red.

“Fuck no, we’re not,” I growl. Stalking over to her, I take her hand and pull her up from the couch. “Come on.”

I grab a glass water bottle and a knife from the kitchen, then lead her into my private bathroom, closing the door behind us. Taryn perches on the counter, her wrist extended towards me. The knife in my hand feels heavy, its blade glinting under the fluorescent light, but I remind myself that she’s strong enough to heal quickly when we’re done.

With a steady hand, I make a precise cut across her wrist, the blood welling up immediately, dark and crimson. I hold her wrist over the mouth of the bottle, the sound of the steady drips almost hypnotic in the silence.

“I wish you wouldn’t have cast that sleep spell on me,” I say softly, my voice barely above a whisper. “You masked the truth to protect me. I don’t want you doing something like that again.”

Taryn’s eyes meet mine, a mixture of defiance and tenderness. “I make my own choices, Finnian. I wanted to spare you any suffering, so I did. You would’ve done the same thing in my position.”

Fuck, she’s got me there. “Maybe.” Definitely. “But you need to honor my choices, too. So let’s agree that we’ll always be completely honest with each other so we can make our own decisions. Fate might be real, but not everything has been mapped out for us. Deal?”

She nods, her gaze softening. “Deal.”

When the bottle is nearly full, I press a towel against her wrist and hold it there for a few seconds, then watch as her skin knits together. Once it’s smooth and unbroken, I kiss the spot where the cut had been, then find her mouth with mine. What starts out as sweet and gentle soon grows in intensity, filled with the raw emotions leftover from the turbulence of the day.

Her lips are warm and yielding as my tongue sweeps inside to stake its claim. She moans and wraps her arms around my neck. My hands grab her ass and pull her to the edge of the counter to eliminate as much space between us as possible.

She lifts her head to catch her breath, so I trail open-mouthed kisses along her jaw, to the place behind her ear, and down her neck.

“Drink from me, Finnian.” I hesitate, pulling back to search her eyes. “You’re going to need my blood anyway if we have to cross the veil. I want you to,” she says, urging my head back to her neck.

Giving in, I let my lips find the pulse in her neck. I slowly graze the line of her vein with my fangs, offering her a chance to change her mind, while hoping she won’t.

Then she whispers my undoing. “Please, sire.”

Growling, I bite down, piercing her soft flesh with the sharp points of my fangs. She gasps as her blood fills my mouth, and I moan from the way she tastes. Like a heady blend of an aged honey whiskey and the smoky sweetness of a summer bonfire.

I’m surprised at the rush of warmth and power.

I begin to drink her down, and with every pull, her moans of pleasure tell me this is every bit the passionate act I’ve heard it was. A rush of warmth and the thrum of an unfamiliar power flows through me. I feel my senses get sharper, my mind clearer.

“Finn!”

I pull away, terrified I took too much. “Fuck, did I hurt you?” But she doesn’t look hurt. She doesn’t even look fazed. She’s actually looking at her left palm and laughing. “Taryn?”

Meeting my gaze, she gives me the biggest smile. “We can try Plan A first, after all.”

Still reeling from the aftereffects of her blood, I frown. “What do you mean?”

“It took its sweet time, but it worked.” She shows me her palm, where the next clue is glowing faintly in my grandmother’s handwriting.

My eyes flare wide. “You magically transferred the clue onto your hand?” She nods, beaming with pride, as well she should. “Taryn Emory, you’re my fucking hero.”

Her laughter is infectious, and I can't help but join in as I grab her in a bear hug and swing her around in celebration. Score one for the good guys. We’re not out of the race yet.

When I set her down, she grabs the bottle of her blood and sashays out of the bathroom, swinging her hips and glancing over her shoulder at me. “Come on, big guy. Let’s go find us a spear.”