The Magic of I Do (Faerie 2)

Claire took the bottle and hunkered down next to Finn. “Drink,” she said as she poured it past his lips.

“Now we wait,” her grandmother said.

***

Finn woke to a thousand tiny anvils being pounded by mallets in his head. And someone had stuffed his mouth full of sand. He licked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and blinked his eyes open. Lying beside him was Claire, asleep. She was curled into a ball, fully clothed. Robin slept in a chair across the room. Finn looked toward the window. Night had fallen.

He lifted his head, groaning at the pain of it. “Where the devil am I?” he said.

Claire startled awake. “Finn!” she cried. She rolled quickly toward him and pressed kisses to his face over and over and over. “I knew you wouldn’t die,” she whispered, tears rolling down her face.

“I wasn’t as certain as you,” Finn croaked out. She reached over and got him a glass of water and brought it to his lips. He drank slowly until she pulled the glass away. “Where are we?”

“Land of the fae,” Robin said as he woke.

“How did we get here?”

“We came through one of Claire’s paintings.”

Finn looked down at his naked chest. He’d been shot in the chest. He’d bled. He’d bled so much that her body had been covered with it.

Claire wore her faerie clothing, which she’d once told him was made to shrink and grow when she did. She wasn’t wearing his blood. “Am I alive?”

Claire nodded. She’d never looked happier, not in all the time he’d known her.

The butler from home stuck his head in the doorway. “Lord Phineas has awakened?” he asked.

Finn arched a brow at Claire. “We brought the butler to the land of the fae?”

“You’re heavy. Robinsworth couldn’t carry you all by himself.” She shrugged.

“How’s the land of the fae treating you?” Finn asked the butler.

“Well, my lord. Very well.” He blushed furiously.

“He thinks he’s in love.” She rolled her eyes.

“So am I,” Finn said.

Claire’s heart expanded. “I love you too.”

“You do?” He looked like a motherless child, looking for hope.

“I gave up my magic for you, didn’t I?”

Finn sat up on his elbows, clearly startled. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s forbidden to bring anyone to and from the land of the fae without permission,” Robin clarified for him. “Claire was aware of it, but she brought us all anyway.” He coughed into his closed fist. “She might lose her wings.”

“Why would you do such a thing?” Finn cried, the motion of it making his chest hurt. He wasn’t healed completely, though he was better than he’d been before.

“Because I love you more than my magic, you dolt.” She punched his arm, looking guilty when he winced. “I always will.”

Finn’s heart swelled in his chest. But at the same time, it broke for her pain. She loved her magic. Yet she’d chosen him over it. “Will they punish you severely?”

She shrugged, taking his hand in hers and clasping it tightly. “I don’t care.”

“I care enough for both of us.” He would never forgive himself if she lost that part of herself because of him. She’d chosen him over magic. She’d picked him for forever. She’d given up the most important thing in her life. He wanted to weep with the beauty of it. “You should have left me to a human physician so you could keep your wings.”