I licked my lips. There was one sure fire way of getting rid of all that magic. Sex. The thought coiled desire low inside me. ‘What do you suggest?’ my mouth said, before my brain had time to censor it.
He waggled his brows. ‘Want to come and visit my glade?’
Shock flashed in me. A satyr’s glade was a sacred place, and they only ever shared them with their loved ones. It was tantamount to a declaration for him to invite me. In fact, after what he knew had happened with Malik, I had to wonder why Finn was even thinking about showing me his glade.
My thoughts must have shown on my face. ‘Hell’s thorns, Gen, you must know I care a lot about you and our friendship, even if I have been an idiot recently’ – he rubbed behind his left horn in exasperation, then sighed – ‘other things may have changed, but that hasn’t. But I know that you said you’ve moved on, too.’ A muscle jumped in his jaw. ‘So I don’t want you to think there’re strings to this or that this is about sex. Unlike here, my glade’s private, safe and overflowing with life and magic. The ground there will accept the fertility inside you gently, without hurting or trying to absorb you.’
It sounded great, if I ignored the disappointed voice, grumbling about no sex, in the back of my mind.
‘And if you don’t do something like that soon,’ Finn warned quietly, ‘the magic could end up forcing you into a sex-a-thon.’
‘I vote for option two,’ I said, then shook my head, my mouth was damn well going to get me into trouble if it didn’t stop. ‘Sorry, not sure where that came from.’
He clasped my face, his palms warm and slightly rough against my cheeks. ‘That’s the fertility magic talking, Gen. And much as I’d love to, I know that isn’t what you want from me.’ Sorrow darkened his green eyes. ‘But I hope our friendship is. And I also know that if I take a jealous hike over something that happened with the vampire’ – his expression hardened – ‘which might not have been your choice, without us talking about it, then I’ll lose any chance of keeping our friendship.’
‘Finn.’ I put my hands over his. ‘Malik didn’t force me.’
‘You’re hyped-up on fertility magic, Gen. It can influence you and get out of hand pretty quickly. Believe me, I know.’ He did, it was how the Witch-bitch Helen had tricked him into getting her pregnant with Nicky; ironically enough using the same Fertility pendant that was giving me problems now. ‘So, what I’m saying,’ Finn carried on earnestly, ‘is that I’m back and I want us to see if we can work things out between us.’
I pulled away from him. ‘Finn—’
‘C’mon, Gen, even if this thing you have with the vamp is serious, he shouldn’t stop you seeing your friends.’
‘Finn, that’s not going to happen, I make my own choices. And I don’t want to lose your friendship, but—’
‘No buts.’ He took my hand and gave me a half-grin. ‘I’m not going to give up on us. And I give you fair warning, I’m hoping to persuade you to choose me. But if it’s not to be, then I can’t promise to be happy about you and the vampire’ – his fingers tightened around mine – ‘but I will try, so long as you are. I don’t want to lose your friendship either, Gen.’
Wow. Only—‘What about Helen?’
‘You were right. I shouldn’t have let Helen talk me into keeping things from Nicky. I went back and had it all out with Nicky. Turns out she remembers more than she was admitting, but was worried I’d be hurt if I found out what her mum had done, so she was keeping quiet.’ His face turned grim and angry. ‘I have a suspicion that Helen might have put a geis on her, but I can’t prove it. But it’s all out in the open now. Nicky and I are back here. Helen isn’t with us and she’s not going to be.’
I blinked, trying to take it in, wondering about his quick attitude turnaround towards Helen from yesterday. ‘That’s a lot of sorting out in just a night?’
He shook his head. ‘A night here but nearly three weeks in the Fair Lands. I didn’t want to rush things, but I also didn’t want to miss any more time here, so I persuaded the Morrígan to take us out of timesync again.’
Three weeks. So his decisions weren’t quite the spur-of-the-moment ones I’d thought.
‘Gen, if we’re not to be, then that’s up to you. But I want us to continue working together, with you as the boss if things work out with the herd, but most of all, I want us to stay friends.’
Oh boy. Part of me thought he sounded too good to be true, but another part was happy, ecstatic even, that he’d come to his senses about the Witch-bitch, and about everything else he’d said. I hadn’t wanted to lose his friendship. Though whether we could work things out . . . well, it was early days. And there was still all this stuff with the kidnap victims, the Emperor, and the fae’s trapped fertility to deal with first. But Finn was right, before any of that, I needed to get rid of the fertility magic otherwise I’d be no use for anything; paying a visit to his glade sounded like the quickest, easiest way to go.
Hugh agreed when I explained, then said, ‘We need to plan around this “trap” of Max’s, in case we need to use it to gain entry into the forum. How long before you can come to Old Scotland Yard?’
I looked at Finn and he said, ‘A couple of hours should do it.’
Hugh nodded and we all agreed to meet then. Finn grinned as he slung an arm round my shoulder. ‘So, Gen, you ready to come and commune with the magnificence that is’ – he gave me an exaggerated wink – ‘nature in my glade?’
I groaned and elbowed him (gently) in the gut.
Chapter Forty-Eight
‘The entrance is through there?’ I frowned at the impenetrable tangle of greenery. It was about twelve feet high and wide, and crowded round a double-stemmed oak tree. Ground level was a dense mix of sharp-spiked gorse and stinging nettles. Above, dark-leaved rhododendrons were twisted with convolvulus, the weed’s white trumpet flowers dotting the greenery. Finger-thick blackberry stems sporting wicked-looking thorns and hard, unripe fruits arched out of the tangle, swaying in the summer breeze like the feelers of a monster triffid.
We were in one of the rougher, less-used areas of Primrose Hill park. The wide-spread branches of the oak cast a heavy shade, but other than the bushes beneath it, the area around the tree was free of anything but rough grass for a good thirty or so feet. It meant no one would be likely to use the oak as an illicit trysting place, and anyone using the entrance would have a clear view before either popping out of thin air or disappearing, as we were about to do. Something that would either freak humans out or make them too curious; a trait that doesn’t just kill cats.
‘It’s not as bad as it looks, Gen,’ Finn said encouragingly. ‘Though it’s a touch more overgrown than I remember.’
‘Thought you said this was a regular shortcut?’ The shortcut led through a section of unclaimed Between – the space joining the Fair Lands and the humans’ world – to London’s other parks and green spaces, including Wimbledon Common, home to the satyr herd (and wombles, though the satyrs get a bit ansty when anyone mentions that), and Finn’s glade, obviously. Supposedly the shortcut was a five-minute walk which was way quicker than fighting through London’s traffic for more than an hour, with the added advantage that we’d get to Finn’s glade before the fertility rite magic forced me to commune with the earth or rethink the option of a sex-a-thon with Finn. Not that part of me wasn’t doing that anyway.
‘It is a regular shortcut, or it was anyway. I haven’t used this entrance in a couple of years, though.’ He held out his hand. ‘Just imagine it parting like a pair of curtains, put a bit of juice behind the thought, and stick close to me.’