Chapter 32

Thirty-Two

WESLEY

I dozed in and out, the tightness in my chest making it hard to rest. Finn held me, his body warm. Absorbing my energy I realized, and was too sore and tired to care.

“Your tiny horns are back,” Finn whispered, but nuzzled my cheek rather than teasing the hyper sensitive horns. “I’m draining you, aren’t I?”

“It’s okay,” I said.

“I don’t know how to stop. Will your fawn form return? Does that heat come with it every time?”

“Yes, and yes.”

Finn cursed, and I flinched. “It’s not that I don’t want to do that… what I mean is it’s not what we need right now. You’re sick and hurt and we need to find a way out of here.”

“Winter’s curse is draining you, and you take from me to keep going. It’s a vicious cycle.”

“At least you’re not slurring your words anymore. How do we break this curse thing?”

“True wuv,” I said, then giggled. “Mawridge…”

“The Princess Bride?” Finn asked. “There weren’t any fae in that. Can love fix this?”

I snorted. “No. I don’t know. Maybe? Summer and Spring broke theirs, but I never really asked how. Whether it had to do with finding their mates or not,” I shrugged.

“But if you’re the wolf’s mate, that means you’re my mate, too,” Finn said.

“Leave it to you to be rational.”

“That’s me… rational.”

I stared at him, memorizing the lines of his face. “You could kiss me.”

“I could, yes, but is that likely to get us out of here? Won’t it trigger your heat?”

“Eventually. But you created a portal in the water when you were all charged up. Maybe we have to do it again.”

Finn stared at me, his fingertips caressing my face. “You look exhausted, pale, and thin.”

“Ouch.”

“It’s not an insult. It’s an observation. I’d be a piece of shit if I take advantage of you when you’re not feeling well.” He traced a line down my throat to my chest, which I realized ached from the inside out. “You’re bruised, and your breathing is shallow.” He rested his palm on my forehead. “You’re a little warm, too. Fever? Can fae get pneumonia?”

“Probably not. But I’m only half anyway. The wolf was right.”

“About what?”

“Humans are weak. It’s why the fae hated the rise of the new court. They are all meant to be half fae. Part human, or something like that. Spring was the first, born in the mortal realm, though never truly human. The previous sovereigns tried to kill him, and when they couldn’t, they cursed him, froze him in ice and cast a thousand mortal curses to keep him from rising.”

“The fae don’t sound very nice.”

“If you live forever watching others die every sixty or so years, you let all that go or find yourself maddened by the loss.”

“Humanity? Or emotion?”

“Both? I don’t know. The fae were never human.”

Finn held me in silence for a few minutes, then asked, “The statues the wolf has in the sanctuary, were they all people Autumn lost?”

“I think they represent memories. Sebastian is alive. He left the cake at the cabin.”

“I forgot about the cake. Do you think that would help him find you?”

“Maybe. Autumn’s barrier is pretty strong, but Summer has always been a rival only to Winter.”

“Hmm,” Finn said. “Can you walk if you lean on me?”

“Can’t I nap?” I asked sleepily staring up at him. He looked bigger again. Which meant I was back in the fawn form. The heat would rise soon.

“I can carry you for a while.” He glanced around. “I was never a gym bro. But this smaller form isn’t that heavy.”

“You could fuck me and recharge.”

“Tempting as you are… will you be good if I carry you?”

“Define good?”

“Not tempt me to throw you on the ground and fuck you till we both see stars.”

“That sounds really nice.”

“Not when you might have broken ribs and a fever.”

I sighed.

“What?”

“Last chivalrous man on earth, and I get stuck with him as a mate.”

“You want me to act more like the wolf? He’s an asshole.”

He was and wasn’t. His demand instinct rather than emotion. Was that the difference? Animals could feel emotion. I never questioned that. Not only because I could become the Stag, but I’d seen my fair share of animals reacting to everything from harm to loss to affection. Did the wolf think he was immune to emotion if he buried it deep enough or cast it to his human half? Or maybe Winter froze that part of him.

He knelt down. “Climb on.”

“The mark has gotten bigger.”

“I’m trying not to drain you. Get on.”

I draped myself over his back and wrapped my legs around his waist to ease some of my weight, and he rested a careful hand on my thigh when I’d rather have it on my bare ass. “You’re thinking very hard,” Finn said.

“I’m getting very hard, too,” I grumbled as my cock pressed against his stomach.

He groaned. “I can tell. Behave. Rest. The sun is coming up and I think I know where we are.”

“Okay,” I agreed. The heat emanating off him soothing even while my groin ached. “Really sucks being witchborn,” I grumbled into his shoulder. How could he still smell good after several days out in the woods without a bath? Was he using some sort of glamour? I licked his shoulder.

“Don’t do that.”

“You taste good.”

“Okay.” He hesitated. “Do I want to know what witchborn is?”

“It’s what everyone calls those who are part fae.”

“An insult, you mean?”

“Depends on the person speaking.”

“Usually does,” Finn said. He carried us away from the clover field and past the little creek. I longed for a bath as the sweet sound of running water trickled by, and hadn’t realized how tired I was until Finn was shaking me awake.

“Huh? I’m awake.” I coughed hard, lungs screaming for air. After a few rounds of coughing and wheezing, I sucked in air, though craved more.

“You’re burning up.” Finn leaned over me. “And still shivering. Fuck. We need to get you out of here.”

“Never been sick before,” I said.

“I was sick a lot as a kid.” He lifted me to sit upright against a solid surface. “I can see the cake. But can’t reach it.”

“Cake?”

He pointed and I realized we’d found our way back to the cabin. The rubble a sprawl of charred wood. We sat near the edge of where the door had been, and a narrow tunnel glowed with light. The slice of cake sitting untouched on the plate inside.

I stared at it, half dreaming I could reach it, but must have fallen asleep again because Finn shook me awake. “Wesley, please.”

Tears dripped down his face, and I reached up to trace my fingers through his warm tears. “Why are you crying?”

“You said it’s okay that I cry.”

“I mean, are you hurt?” My lungs ached. I stared at him with a sleepy gaze thinking he was handsome in a lot of ways, and very young in others. “Your face kind of grows on a person.”

“Uh, thanks, I think. I like yours, too.”

I wiped at his tears. “Did the wolf hurt you?” Had I missed another attack?

“Not me. You. I need you to get to the cake, Wesley. Can you do that for me?”

“Are you hungry?” I asked wondering why I wasn’t.

“Starving.”

“Oh.”

“Can you get the cake for me, Wes? Please, love.”

Love . That was nice. No one had ever called me that. I hauled myself over to lie on my stomach and stare at the slice of cake buried beneath some miniscule protective barrier less than two meters away. Finn leaned over me and kissed my shoulder blades one at a time and then down my back.

“That’s right, love. You can do it.”

“Keep that up and there will be ass instead of cake,” I grumbled at him.

Finn laughed, his lips brushing my skin. “Get the cake and I’ll spend days making you come in a thousand ways.”

“And kisses. I like your kisses.”

“I like your kisses, too. We can kiss and cuddle all you want.”

I worm crawled toward the cake. “Better not be lying to me.”

“Never,” Finn said.

“This useless form should be for something other than sex.”

“And fitting through narrow spaces,” Finn said. “I don’t think it’s useless. You’re adorable. Like a spicy kitten.”

I glanced back to glare at him, but wound up looking over my bare ass, which he had full moon glory of, to see he was still crying, despite the teasing. “Finn?”

“Get the cake, please,” he begged.

I turned back, crawled a few more inches and had to pause. A low hanging beam left too little space, I stretched for the plate. It sat just at the edge of my fingertips. “I can’t reach it.”

“Please try, baby. You can do it,” Finn said. “I believe in you.”

I wriggled and ended up on my back, pulling myself through an opening so narrow I got stuck for a half second, fearing my ass was too big to fit. But I slipped into a tiny dome between broken and burnt boards and scooped up the cake, triumphant.

“I got it!” I cried, sucking in air like breathing through a straw. I leaned down to peer through the opening, ready to shove the cake toward Finn, but a shadow overtook the light of day. Finn’s sad face still sat beyond the tiny tunnel. Behind him loomed the dragon. “Finn?”

“I think I’m starting to figure all this out. It’s in a protective dome of magic, right?”

“Huh?”

“The cake? The falling cabin didn’t crush it or anything.”

I held it up, a ripple of magic fluctuating around me to keep the cake safe, and since I was holding it, me too. “It’s not burned or rotting or anything.”

“Eat the cake, baby. Get the Summer king to keep you safe. Okay?” A blotch of darkness crawled up his face. The blight taking him over as the beast loomed ready to retake control of its other half. Would anything be left of Finn? “Will you do that for me?”

“I thought you wanted the cake?” I asked, brain a mushy mess of weariness and fever.

“I want you safe more than I could ever want anything.”

“Finn?” I called, reaching for him, but he kicked the edge of a beam near him and the tunnel collapsed on his end, leaving me sitting in a bubble of Sebastian’s glowing energy, alone. “Finn!”