Winter Solstice, Nine Years Into the New Wheel
"Where in damnation is he?" Lana hissed as she supported her massive belly with both hands and struggled to walk the length of the lodge deck. Maeve and Dru trailed dutifully alongside. Cernunnos had always said growing a godling was more difficult than a human pregnancy and he told truth. The last month especially, Lana was losing strength rapidly as the godling drew from her. They never left her alone, now.
"He'll be here," Dru soothed.
"Huh." Maeve said from the other side. "Sean's like his daddy. Conor was playing a gig in Chicago and missed you and Sean being born."
"Maeve, you know damn well Sean is going to make this birth. His flight landed an hour ago. He'll be here before breakfast. There's more than fifteen hours before the Solstice."
"Oh Lord, fifteen more hours of this," Lana leaned heavily onto the rail and surveyed her kingdom. What once was Hearne's Camp was now Hearne Academy for Alternative Education, a residence school for teen witches, pagans, and Roman godspawn troublemakers. Much of the base camp had been cleared. Now school buildings and residence halls sprawled in front of the lodge.
This was winter break, however, and all of the students were away. The campus was currently littered with the Mystic Mountain Huntsmen, who were ensconced under canopies and around grills and propane heaters and TV's hooked to satellite dishes, cooking breakfast for the crowd of witches and Hearne Academy faculty that remained for Solstice and the Joyous Event.
"Why in the hell do y'all think the birth of my child is a tailgate?" Lana yelled down to Martin Buchanan, Head Huntsmen. He just winked at her and raised his coffee cup, fully aware that Lana was now a goddess and could smite him as easily as spit at him.
"Because a new godling is a gift to us all, and a cause for celebration," Finn's calm but resonant voice preceded him from the lodge. He came to stand behind her, rubbing her back and kissing her neck. "You are so beautiful today. I can't wait to see the look on your face when you hold our baby for the first time," he said the tender words easily, completely unembarrassed by Maeve and Dru's presence.
Lana snorted. "There's a fucking lot that has to happen before that, James. Hours of agonizing pain, uncontrollable screams, flesh-ripping. Possibly cat claws and lamprey-like teeth tearing their way out of me. "
He reached around her and put his hands low beneath her belly, and Lana's strain visibly relaxed at his godly touch. "Now Lana, you know this godling is perfectly human in form. You're not birthing a Sir Kittyhart."
"Are you sure?" Lana asked anxiously.
"I'm sure," Maeve replied heavily for the hundredth time, and tapped her third eye. Dru marveled at Lana's weird, unreasonable anxiety that her child would take after the monster that had fueled Finn's godpower. Dru figured she had watched Alien too many times as a kid.
"The birth is going to be beautiful, Darlin'. There is no one as strong as you. And your mother, and Dru and the coven will attend you. And I'll be right by your side. We will all ease you, and keep you perfectly safe."
Dru rolled her eyes. Maeve shook her head and muttered something about, "Sappy newbie gods that hadn't ever seen childbirth but thought they knew everything about creation," to which Dru muttered a sassy, "Mmmmm-hhhmmm."
Finn ignored the two hardened witches who might have him on life experience but couldn't compete with his Divine Intuition. The birth was going to go well, and Lana was on the cusp of transformation. In the moment she held their baby, she was going to blossom into a goddess both more fierce and tender than even the Beloved Goddess had been. He smiled at the memory of Cerridwen, recalling the day that she had told him Lana deserved to know she loved a brave man.
He figured if he was nothing else, he was certainly that. As Sucellus liked to remind him, it took a god with balls to head a school for teenage scoundrels, witches, and drunks, and it was a fearsome task not only to keep them in line, but to turn them into productive people. He couldn't do it without Dru of course—the school was their shared brainchild, and she was the Dean of Students. Or Lana, who completely oversaw the liberal arts and witchcraft curriculum. Or especially the biggest drunk, the Biological Sciences Teacher, none other than Sucellus himself. Every day at Hearne Academy was a precarious one—spells gone wrong, fights between the kids of the varying pagan traditions, and breaking up shine parties in the middle of the night. No matter how many times Finn told Sucellus to keep the shine up the mountain where he now lived with Maeve and his children, it always found its way down to camp somehow.
Like now. Sucellus was pulling in a truck filled with the stuff.
"Godsdammit, Sucellus!" Lana was shouting at him.
Sully bowed to her as he started to unload. "My Lady, save the swearing for our Noble Prince. He's the one you should be mad at today, not me." He squinted at Finn and scratched his beard. "What the hell are you doing up there, anyway? You should be down here getting drunk with your men, not up there with the witches."
Finn laughed at Sucellus but didn't even bother to answer him as he slowly walked his Goddess back into the lodge.
"Really, Maeve, how do you stand him?" Dru asked, shaking her head at Sucellus as he turned to the men and began some other obnoxious rant.
"That ole shit-stirrer just grew on me, somehow," Maeve says with a smile. "Speaking of the men who don't deserve us," she tilted her head toward the drive. "I just had a sighting. My wayward son, aka your sometimes lover, is being held up down in Weirville by selfies with some Sabit students. You would think he was famous or something."
Dru smiled. Maeve didn't fool her. She was prouder of her son's musical stardom than anyone. It was Maeve's wall his platinum singles hung upon. Sean didn't really stay in one place long enough to have a home of his own. When he came home, he mostly stayed with Dru in her residence cabin here at the school, but in the last few years he had been traveling nine months out of the year, and he and Dru were no longer a committed couple.
Maeve looked down at Dru's left hand, to her alarmingly gray ring finger. "You still don't mean to tell him?"
Dru snorted. "He's here for Lana, not for me, Maeve. Sean and I aren't together anymore. What am I supposed to say? Hey, so Cernunnos is blowing me up from Divine Space, wanting his return ride. Will you please risk your life and share your soul with me? Don't worry, it will just take a minute, you won't miss your next tour date."
"I call bullshit on you pretending to believe he cares more about the music than he does you," Maeve challenged. "I know it's hard with him being on the road all the time, but y'all love each other more than I've ever seen two witches love each other."
"Maybe we just have...too much chemistry."
At first, when they were newly together, and it became obvious that they weren't going to need to attempt the Divine Act immediately, they took things slow, and everything was wonderful between them. They had a year and half together as little more than college students. They did all the things they had missed their freshman year—road trips, Friday night concerts in Asheville, messing around in the room they shared above Malone's and eventually, simple safe sex. Of course, their idea of safe sex was about not catching on fire or blowing things up.
But when Sean left college his junior year because his music blew up, things changed. They spent so much time apart and missing each other, that their reunions were too emotional, too fueled. And they were each growing in power as they matured, but not growing together in balance. Every time Sean came home, or Dru met him on the road, their love was incredible but their sex grew more and more dangerous.
Every day was perfect bliss and every night was a damn near disaster. They were...fire and gasoline. If they both allowed themselves to be totally free with one another, they had to go far into the woods, far away from all people, and even then their Greenspark trailed through the ground until it found something man made to disrupt. To get far enough away from civilization was rarely possible, so either they didn't have sex or when they did, Sean held back all of his sexwitchery to diminish their Greenspark. When he did that, it was an awkward, unsatisfying encounter at best. The last time they had made love, was the last time Sean was home, and they didn't hike into the woods far enough, and neither one of them held back at all. Their energy collapsed a faculty cabin. Fortunately Grace and Susan were awake and flung up a protective spell over themselves, so they weren't hurt. But they could have easily killed friends, or family, or students, Dru realized.
That's when Dru told Sean they had to end things for good.
He'd fought her, refusing to accept it, literally refusing to move out of her cabin, instead pacing and arguing with her for days, until she was dark and furious Druantia and he was riled with his own sexwitchery and they threw curses at one another. Finally, Finn came to break apart the fight, because it was concerning some of the students. Finn seemed to find them very amusing, reminding them of the night they interrupted his fight with Lana in the Chevron, so long ago.
Then Lord Finn found himself with two angry witches relentlessly hexing him in unison. This was a formidable challenge to his normally completely benevolent nature. In the end, it took his pregnant goddess stepping between to bring an immediate end the magical shoving contest.
Sean still refused to accept the break-up, or to leave the cabin. He slept on the couch the remainder of his visit, and he and Dru skulked around each other. In the end, when his music called, he went. Dru had been dodging most of his calls and responding briefly to his texts, ducking out of invitations for long weekends in the six month's since.
Maeve was speaking, recalling Dru from the memory of their break-up. "The Greenspark misalignment you and Sean have ain't nothing to do with your magic. Your problem is completely in your dark little heads. Y'all are scared to death to commit to one another," Maeve said.
"I can't imagine why. You and Conor were such a stellar example of a stable relationship. And then there's the fact that I killed Angus Og by loving him."
Maeve sighed and tapped Dru's hardened, nearly dead ring finger. "Your Lord is calling you from the other side. What do you think is gonna happen to you if you continue to ignore it?"
"Why don't you tell me?" Dru snapped. "It was your spell that bound me to him through the ring."
"That ain't my handiwork," Maeve said, looking at Dru's finger. "That's your doing. Your guilt is turning to magic, eating you up. You better figure it out, witch. Or you are gonna lose more than a finger." She handed Dru a pair of gloves and joined Finn and Lana inside.
In fact, Dru didn't plan to ignore Cernunnos' magical call any longer. She had a plan. It just didn't involve Sean.
As soon as Maeve was busy inside making Lana a labor pain potion, Dru slid on the gloves and skulked by Sully's truck, jerking her head meaningfully. He strolled over with a cup of shine but an unhappy look. Dru took the cup from him.
"Don't get drunk. I'm going to need you, tonight."
"I'm a God of Spirits, I only pretend to get drunk, cause it's more fun that way," he said soberly. "But I wish to fucking stag you'd change your mind."
"It's the only way, Sucellus. And I can't ask the witches to help, you know Maeve will never let me."
"Only because she loves you like the daughter you ought to be, and because it's a very dangerous thing you plan to do."
"You said you think the effects will be temporary."
"Oh they'll be temporary, all right. One way or the other," he laughed. Then he raked a distraught hand through his hair. "Dru, look...I think you're making a big mistake. I'm only helping you because...well, it's Nuno, calling you. But I honestly think you and Sean have a better chance than this crazy spell of yours."
"My spell is not crazy," Dru smiled darkly. "Did you tell Carrie her plan was crazy, the first time she brought back Cernunnos?"
"Noooo, but only because I didn't exist then," he said judiciously. "Dru, you aren't Cerridwen, and you aren't working with her resources."
"No, I'm not Cerridwen, with her fiddle and her perfectly curled hair and her mischief that had you and Cernunnos hooked upon her every whim. I'm Druantia. I'm a fucking ancient Druid Witch Queen that wields death magic,remember?"
"Yeah, this last six months, you do seem more Druantish," he agreed and swooped back his cup of shine.
"That's because this roll of the wheel sucks for me, too. But the good news is, I'm always most powerful, when I am..."
"Desperately lonely? Thwarting your own happiness? Pushing away the person that loves you most?"
Dru flicked her finger and Sully's shine spewed all over his face. He clawed at his burning eyes. "When I am dark. I was going to say dark. Meet me at the ritual site one hour after Finn announces the baby. That should be enough time."
Sucellus let out a long, disapproving breath but he nodded. When a dark, expensive sedan rolled down the drive, he looked much happier. "I'll let you two dance."
Dru grabbed his arm to make him stay, but he unmade himself, leaving her alone to greet Sean.
The famous sexwitch exited the car with nothing more than a guitar and a duffle bag. He casually handed the driver a substantial tip. Dru found her bones aching at the sight of him. Hell, how was it possible that this man became more desirable to her with each reunion?
Probably because at twenty-eight, he was in his prime and much more than effortlessly gorgeous. Every time she saw him, his features were more rugged, his long,natural hair more perfect, his lean body more defined, his swagger more sexy. It was his sexwitchery. He exercised it every time he played, and every time he took the stage he was raising his own personal power.
But it wasn't just his appearance or his energy. It was the way he still looked at her, after all this time, after all the frustrated disconnects and all the wild, scary sex, too. He still had the look of love, of pure faith that they could find a balance. He dropped his bags, walked straight up to her, and alarmingly invaded her personal space, but he didn't touch her.
He cocked his head, examining every part of her, relearning her. Then he let the witchtimbre flow full force. "I love you. I miss you. I want you," he rumbled.
She wanted to look away, feign irritation, but she couldn't. The power of his voice was that compelling. "You could make this easier on me, you know."
He smiled. "It's never easy between us. It doesn't mean it's not worth it."
"We almost killed Grace and Susan last time."
"We didn't."
"We could have."
"We didn't." Another full wave of witchtimbre washed over Dru, leaving her shaking. He reached out, as if to quell it, and she stepped back. If she died tonight, it wouldn't make it any easier on him to leave Sean with his fingers itching with their Greenspark.
He dropped his hand, but not his smile. Sean was a sexwitch in love and not easily deterred. He jerked his chin to the elevated lodge. "I can feel her. Lan's terrified and that's making her furious," he said softly.
"Like a hellcat trapped in a burlap sack," Dru agreed.
Sean laughed. "You sound more like Maeve every time I see you."
"Take that back."
"Take me back, and I will," Sean said softly.
Dru's resolve to keep a barrier between them faltered. She couldn't help herself. She kissed him once, swiftly, and stepped away. Greenspark spiraled away from them like fireworks. "Go see your sister. She needs you."
He touched his lips with satisfaction and then he touched her mark upon his chest, like a silent benediction, but he didn't press her anymore, for the moment. He spread his arms wide, a cocky sexwitch expression on his face. "What? The Lady Lana needs someone besides Noble Fucking Finn?"
"Yeah. He's being entirely too sweet and annoying the bejesus out of her. Go fight with her a little. It will make her feel braver."
Sean took the deck steps two at a time, and Dru smiled to hear Maeve and Lana immediately begin to berate and screech over him at the same time. All the witches in the house cooed and pawed him. Dru shook her head. He had no idea the power he held over that coven. They all worshiped him like a prodigal son.
*************************************************
Eight hours later, all the jubilation of Sean's return was worn away and Lana was in hard labor. Her birthing team consisted of Maeve and Janet Calloway, the experienced midwives, and Dru and Sean and Finn for magical pain relief and support. Perhaps not surprisingly, Finn's godlike confidence was slipping as the hours wore on and Lana's pain increased. She was fighting the spells they were trying to use to help her, and fighting Finn the most.
"We...are...never...doing...this...again...ever. Never...ever..."she hissed at him after the strongest contraction yet.
"Okay, darlin'," he soothed as he tried to place his hands on her stomach.
She slapped his hands away. "Don't fucking touch me. And don't patronize me either."
"Okay."
"What the fuck did I just say, Finn?" she bellowed.
Finn held his hands up in surrender and rose from the floor where Lana was leaning on a chair. "Tagging out," he murmured to Sean.
Sean smiled from ear to ear as he plopped down beside his twin and offered her a suck of a homebrewed popsicle. "You know, Goddess, just because you are hurting like a bitch doesn't mean you should act like one. Show some divinity."
"You can go straight to fucking hell, Sean Faraday. And let me tell you another thing—the way you stay on the damn road all the time and never come around your family—you are all kinds of wrong. Wronger than a virgin on a Beltane altar."
He raised his eyebrows, his grin firmly affixed. "That's pretty fucking wrong, Lan."
"Damn straight it is." Lana latched onto Sean's free hand as another contraction washed over her. He gasped, "Stag, the hand! I'm only mortal, you know." She didn't relent her grasp because she couldn't. She accidentally broke his hand as they both cursed through the pain.
After the contraction, he held his broken hand up to Dru, his eyes burning, forcing her to the memory of the time he hit Hearne and broke it. That was the night they made out for the very first time and made Greenspark, and she had healed him.
She took his hand and kissed it gently, a little Greenspark easing his pain. "Finn can heal it without cracking the wall," she joked. Finn leaned over, gave Sean a fist bump and set the bones effortlessly.
"Thanks."
"Goddess in labor here," Lana whined.
"We are all painfully aware," Sean jammed the popsicle back in her mouth before she could curse him again.
Finn laughed, and that was much more offensive to Lana than Sean's good-natured ribbing.
Lana's face contorted in fury as she spat out the popsicle. "Duck!" Sean shouted and jerked away onto the floor as Lana flung her hand back and tried to smite Finn with a blast of divine fury.
Finn hit the floor and Lana shattered a glass window behind him.
Maeve came from the kitchen and slapped a cloth soaked in herbs on the back of Lana's neck. "Okay, missy, that's enough. You ain't the first witch ever to have a baby. Every one of 'em wanted to murder their husband while they were having it, ain't none ever done it, and my daughter ain't gonna be the first. I don't care if you are a goddess, you'll act like a right proper witch. Boys, take a walk. Nope, Finn, I mean it. This baby ain't coming for hours and Janet and Dru and I are going to try an actual spell so Lana can get a little rest."
*****************************************************
"It ain't ever the same," Sucellus assured Finn solemnly, as Finn looked pale and gulped moonshine.
Sean looked at Sucellus with distaste. He shook his head at Finn. "He's just fucking with you. Cerridwen gave birth ten thousand times...and she was...perfect...I mean...perfectly...restored. Perfectly." Everyone looked at Sean like had uttered the foulest words known to sexwitch.
"I'll thank you not to talk about The Beloved Goddess's...divinity," Sucellus squinted at Sean.
"Well, I'll thank you not to talk about my sister's, yeah?" Sean sipped his own shine and looked involuntarily toward the lake, in the direction that Cerridwen's old cottage lay. He missed her, too, but she was more than a saint to him. She had been his, for a time, and unlike Dru, she had trusted him. Fuck, he wished Cerridwen was here. Selfish, he knew, but he could really use Carrie's advice about Dru.
Instead, all he had were Sucellus and Finn and the mountain men. He sat his shine down. "All right, listen. Somebody fill me in. Dru seems...dark. What's going on with her? Y'all are supposed to be taking good care of my girl, while I take care of paying the bills."
This was always an uncomfortable topic of conversation but it was true nonetheless. Sean's success and wealth were mostly dependent on his constant touring. That's what made money in the modern music business. And Sean's financial contributions were keeping the Pantheon afloat. His donations were singlehandedly responsible for building and operating the Hearne Academy and expanding the Mystic Mountain Moonshine business into a full fledged distillery down in Asheville. Mystic Shine was finally turning a profit, but the school had cost millions to build and the operating budget was large. Most of the students were on scholarship so there wasn't much revenue or other funding.
Though Finn had salaries from Hearne Academy and his teaching position at Sabit, he considered himself penniless by the standards of his old Roman existence. Jupiter himself had blacklisted Finn when Mercury apparently neglected to do so, and Finn's godspawn family had disowned him. And although Finn was Cernunnos' heir, and Cernunnos had substantial wealth, Cernunnos hadn't left a mortal will. His fortune was in a mortal limbo, since there was no way to bequeath it when Cernunnos wasn't even really dead. Probably.
Maeve had been right in a way. Sean Faraday was the future of the Mystic Mountain Coven, because his philanthropy was keeping everyone on this mountain either employed or on their way to being educated in the pagan tradition. It wasn't a role that Finn begrudged Sean, but it also wasn't a role that he felt Sean should fill forever.
Finn rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Listen, Sean, it's time the Pantheon stood on its own. I've been talking with Sucellus and Martin. I have a pretty good head for business. I'm going to personally oversee a new venture... Mystic Mountain Ales. The potionry Sucellus and Maeve are brewing into the ales make them unbelievably popular. We'll make a fortune. And the operating budget for the school is covered for next year already."
"What are you saying, Finn?"
"I"m saying, you can step away from the constant touring, if you want to take a break. Come home. You've done your part. I'll figure out how to support the Pantheon and the Coven. It's my responsibility, not yours."
"No way, man. You're the head of this Pantheon. You run the Academy. You and Lana both teach, here and at Sabit. And you're about to be a father. You have enough on your plate. We all play a part. Mine is to mix my witchcraft and the music. As a public pagan I raise awareness for us and I bring the money home. That's my contribution to the Pantheon. This is what we all agreed." Sean looked at Sully and Finn and the Mountain men.
Sully grimaced. "It ain't working out so good for you and Dru, is it? Y'all were on your way to divinity, until you hit the road, now...she ain't happy. She likes her job as Dean well enough, but she's a powerful witch and she's not living up to her potential. Cernunnos wouldn't like that. I promised I'd look out for her. I ain't doing right by her, and neither are you."
Sean laughed bitterly. "Do you know how many times I've asked Dru to marry me, Sucellus? I'd do right by her today, and you could fasten the rope, if she'd just hold out her hand."
"It ain't about a rope. Every man she's ever loved left her. Cernunnos left her. Twice. Angus left her in death. You left her, too. It's been seven years since you left, and you gotta face the fact—she ain't gonna follow you, son."
"I didn't leave her and I didn't expect her to follow me. My job makes it hard, but I've never stopped trying to make it work between us," Sean growled. "What I do, I do for the greater good."
"You sound just like Nuno, in the Old Wheel. But you ain't got an eternity to make it right with Dru."
"Look Sucellus, just because you are handfast to my mother doesn't mean you're my father. Step the fuck off."
Sucellus put down his glass and his eyes flashed amber with anger. "You're right, I ain't your father that is not even here to see his first grandchild born. I'm a god, Sean, and you ought to take my godgiven advice and very soon, before you lose Dru forever."
Finn layed a hand on both their shoulders. "Peace, brothers. Today is a day of joy. Dru is happy today, Sucellus. And Sean knows we are all behind him, whatever path he chooses. Come on. I want to get back to Lana."
Sean climbed the stairs behind Finn. "He's right," Sean murmured.
Finn paused as they entered the lodge. "Yes, but he doesn't really understand everything. There's no denying that you and Dru...your love is volatile. I haven't forgotten what it was like to be mortal. I remember the fear of barreling straight into my own potential destruction. A man doesn't do that unless he has no other choice he can live or die with." Finn shoots a speculative look at Dru. "You are also right. Dru is darker, these last few months. She doesn't speak of it to me and certainly not Lana, but perhaps she will unburden herself to you. After my son is born." Finn grins and winks.
"A son? You're sure?" Sean smiles.
"Between Maeve's sight and my god's eye, yeah, absolutely. We've had him constantly in our sight since he was conceived. He's perfect." Finn's eyes glow, and then he shrugs. "Well, almost. Listen...I need you to do something for me. After he's born, I need you to distract Lana for just a minute. Maeve and Dru need to perform a little spell work on him."
Sean's eyes went round. "Lana's instinct is right, isn't it? The baby's part Questing Beast?"
Finn bit his lip. "Just a little tail. Tiny. " He held his hands apart, wincing as he increased the distance to about six inches.
"Shit. So Maeve wants to take it off? That seems a little...cruel. I mean, can't he keep it? Cernunnos had horns."
"I know," Finns sighed. "Believe me, Maeve and I have had it out. But it has a poisonous spike. I thought maybe we could teach him not to strike, even as a baby. He is a god, you know. But Maeve had a vision that he..." Finn gets a weird smile..."that he stings his little brother."
Sean blinked. "Little brother? Why am I not seeing my nephews?" he grumbled indignantly, gesturing at his third eye, but he knew why. He was out there on the road, all the time, too distant from the people he loved, to see their futures. "When?"
"Uhhhm.. Two or three years, I think," Finn says. "So really it's probably better if Maeve and Dru magically snip it. I couldn't bring myself to tell Lana. The pregnancy has been so hard on her, and she's been having nightmares that something goes wrong, or he has teeth like Sir Kittyhart. He doesn't. I've been all over him and all in him with my god's eye. His form, his brain, his heart, his teeth—thank Creation—all perfectly human. We'll tell Lana about the tail together, after they remove it, okay? "
Sean raised both hands in protest. "We? Fuck that. You tell her. She's going to be furious you didn't tell her before he was born, and I'm not taking one for the team, or for Sir Kittyhart. Lana's wrath might kill me. I'm mortal, remember?"
They found themselves laughing like brothers as they went to attend the birth of the baby that would share their blood. And Sir Kittyhart's.