Stephen, in his exhaustion, was tempted to tell him it was magic. He shut that idea out of his head and recalled what he and his father had discussed earlier … yesterday … forever ago. Tarmien had made a call to a friend who would make sure their names turned up on the manifest for a flight they weren’t on, while the police were investigating.
“We decided to catch an earlier commercial flight instead. Were there any survivors in the crash?” he asked, pasting a concerned look on his face.
The detective nodded. “Were you aware that one of the flight attendants had a crazy ex-boyfriend who was also an airplane mechanic and wanted her dead?”
The expression of honest shock must have answered the question. The detective went on.
“What was your flight number … on the flight you were on?”
“No idea. Check with my father. Speaking of which, don’t I get a phone call? I’d like to call my dad and get a lawyer, since you’ve decided to keep me here. Maybe I can at least get a decent cup of coffee.”
Stephen tilted the cup in the detective’s direction, and the man turned to leave.
“I’ll get you a phone,” he said on his way out.
Fifteen minutes later, they let him go on his own recognizance. He called home from his cell phone the moment he stepped outside. Tarmien picked up on the first ring.
“Stephen, is Herman okay?”
“I couldn’t get in to see her. George beat me to it. But they said she was stable. I’m just leaving the police station. What’s going on there?”
“Police station?”
“I’ll explain later. Did you find Nina?”
“Yes.” Tarmien sighed. “Charlie left about an hour ago. We explained the curse to her, and she agreed to give Nina the hysterectomy here at the house. She’s gone back to the hospital to get it all organized; she can do it today or tomorrow.”
“Didn’t she say anything about Herman? Why isn’t she at the hospital looking after her?” Stephen frowned and rubbed his eyebrows. Lack of sleep along with the transport from Edmonton were starting to affect his brain.
“Charlie saw her earlier. She told me that the shock hasn’t really hit yet. She left orders to keep her sedated. When you called I thought maybe Herman had taken a turn for the worse since Charlie left.”
“Not that I know of. Listen, my cab just arrived. I’m on my way home. I’ll see you soon.”
Stephen ended the call. He climbed into the taxi that would once again distance him from Herman.
CHAPTER 46
The sunlight shone through Stephen’s bedroom window, waking him from his morning slumber. He opened his eyes and looked straight into another pair, of a bright blue that matched the fifth element—the one she was named after. For two and a half weeks, Skye had been his one and only salvation. With George guarding Herman like a rottweiler, there was no getting near her. Charlie had sustained him with information on Herman’s condition on a daily, if not hourly basis, even though she’d had to get it second-hand. And then, three days ago, George had disappeared. Just like that. When Stephen received the call from the hospital that Herman wanted to see him, he dropped Skye off with Margaret at Mark’s house and raced to Kingston General Hospital as fast as his car could get him there. He held her until he could no longer stand not looking at her, and then he kissed what remained of the bruises on her face until, laughing, she begged him to stop. When the pair of them, overjoyed at being reunited, had finally been able to speak, Herman told him what had happened with her father.
“For a week, he had me convinced that it was you who beat me senseless. And I was senseless. The doctor told me I had amnesia, brought on by trauma. But then a week ago I started to remember. Nina.” She swallowed, then looked into his eyes for strength to continue. “I know she put me in this hospital bed. Charlie told me the whole story after my dad left.”
“Herman, I’m so sorry,” Stephen said, tears welling up in his eyes. “I …”
“No,” Herman whispered, putting her finger to his lips. “I know you did everything in your power to save me. It wasn’t your fault the plane crashed, and you had no idea that Nina could have been in Kingston, let alone in our bed.”
Stephen had smiled a little when she said “our” bed. It made him believe that she might come home to him after all.
Herman went on. “I asked my dad why he couldn’t have predicted the crash, and he said he can’t foresee what machines will do. Only people. Anyway, when my memory came back, I told my dad to leave. He argued, pleaded, and all but begged me to come with him, but …” She smiled, even though a tear ran down her cheek. “I know I can’t live without you, Stephen Dagmar. You are my beginning, my end, my everything, whether it be good, or bad, or in between.”
And so Stephen had left the hospital that day uplifted.
Today, he gazed at his daughter lying quietly beside him in his bed—in his and Herman’s bed—and he smiled at her.
“Herman’s coming home today,” he told Skye. “I hope she loves you half as much as I do.”
He got up and dressed. When the baby was ready as well, he put her in the car. She was going to spend the day with her grandparents, Lotta and Hawkins.
Charlie’s reservations over performing Nina’s hysterectomy had been tempered by the fact that Nina had begged for it, though it was evident the girl was still convinced that she would have a chance with Stephen once the curse was broken. Upon examining her and discovering that her reproductive organs were damaged by a case of undiagnosed chlamydia—which was likely the reason Stephen, in his demonic state, hadn’t impregnated her—Charlie had finally agreed that it was for the best. Lacking an anesthesiologist, Tarmien had done the next best thing. He transported Nina from the house to Antigua and then back to the Dagmar’s private island, ensuring that she would be unconscious for much longer than was necessary.
After Nina’s hysterectomy, Lotta and Hawkins moved out of the home they had lived in all their married life. The Dagmars had given them enough to live on for a year, as well as enough money to buy a house in Kingston so they could stay close to their children. Nina was confined to a home nearby, and Reed had chosen to stay on at the farm, moving into the main house to be close to his half-brother. Charlotte planned to move in with him in the next month.
Stella and Daphne had flown back to Antigua right away, leaving Tarmien to stay and help Stephen clean up. Even though Lotta was gone, the tentative relationship between Tarmien and Reed was more than Stella could bear. She left with a promise to her husband that she would take encouragement from Herman’s understanding and try to accept his son.
It had taken Nina five days to recover from her hysterectomy, during which time the police hounded Stephen, demanding answers to the whereabouts of the missing person whose blood he had been covered in. They had let search dogs go on every part of the property except the one place they were unable to get to: the ice was unsafe between the mainland and the island. They had assumed it was impossible for anyone to get out there, by boat or by snowmobile, so they didn’t bother to check. It wasn’t until Nina’s family finally gave her up that the police let Stephen off the hook. Seeing that Nina was not only relatively unharmed but she was also unstable, they admitted her to the psych ward at the hospital and asked questions afterward.
Doreen was the only other casualty of the day. Her setback was slight, but her doctor said it would take a few months for her to recover to the state she had been in at Christmas. It was decided, therefore, that it was best she stay in Ottawa for the time being.
After everything was cleared up with the police, Stephen had insisted that his father go home to Antigua. For eight days, Stephen had stayed alone in the big house, having only his baby daughter as company. As Herman had lain in her hospital bed being deceived by her father, Stephen grieved for what he was certain he had lost. He had kept Margaret at a distance, not wanting to drag her down now that she had found happiness at last with Mark. And they were
happy. Their shared near-death experience had given them what they needed to be sure they wanted to be together.
And so Stephen survived. For the sake of Skye, he had kept going. He had fallen in love with her, motherless and completely dependent on him as she was. He had given up hope that Herman would ever talk to him again, under the circumstances.
* * *
When Stephen arrived at the hospital, a dozen red roses in his hand, Herman was sitting in a chair, looking out the window. She was crying.
“What’s wrong?” He placed the flowers on the bed and knelt beside her.
“The nurse just told me they still don’t know if I can ever get pregnant again. I didn’t know that was even in question.”
“I’m going to talk to Charlie,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ll find out what’s going on.”
Within half an hour he stood before the desk of his friend and former coven mate, who was alternately shuffling through papers and checking her computer.
“I have no idea where the reports went …” Charlie stepped out of the office. A second later she was back.
Stephen watched, biting his fingernails, as she flipped through the papers in the folder she held open in her hand.
“There it is,” she said finally. She smiled and looked up at him. “You’re all clear. The damage was minimal.”
Stephen leaned across the desk and kissed her, full on the lips. He turned to go.
“But …” She held a finger up. “I would wait for at least a few weeks before you have sex again.”
At that, he stopped.
Charlie continued. “Also, the tests confirmed that because of Nina’s chlamydia, she probably wouldn’t have carried her baby to term, so you can stop feeling guilty. Assuming there was even a baby. She couldn’t have been any more than a week into gestation.”
Stephen nodded. He was positive she had been pregnant, but he wasn’t going to argue. “Are you sure the treatment worked?”
“I can test you again, but the test on you came back negative in the first place.”
“Just to be sure. Since we can’t have sex anyway.”
“Okay, just to be sure.”
“Not a word to Herman, though. She doesn’t need to know.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Thanks, Charlie.” He turned and headed to the elevator, to give Herman the good news.
* * *
When Stephen opened the door to her room, Herman snapped out of her gloom. Still sitting in the same place beside the window, she’d been contemplating the wisdom of telling Stephen the details of all that had occurred during her time in the hospital. Things that weighed her down with guilt. Things that she wasn’t sure she’d ever confess to Stephen. Now, nothing mattered but the question at hand.
“Did you find Charlie?” she asked his reflection in the window. When he didn’t speak, she turned to look at him. His smile answered her question.
“Oh, Stephen.” She held her arms out, and he rushed into them. He held her and kissed her, and she knew that everything would be all right. Everything, except the one thing she had hesitated over for the last three days.
She pulled away from him and looked down at her hands. “I want to ask you, but I’m not sure I really want to know.”
He waited quietly for her to go on.
“Did you take any of Nina’s blood?”
He nodded.
“Did it work? Are you cured?”
He bent to look her in the eye. “I don’t know for sure. I still have my magic.”
He held out his palm to her and, with a whistle so faint that she barely heard it, her engagement ring appeared. She gazed into his eyes. She thought it odd, after all that had happened and all she’d learned about him, she still felt comforted by the hint of mahogany red in his irises.
“But no one has threatened Skye, so I don’t know if there has been any change.”
“Never mind that for now,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll never have to find out.”
He plucked the ring from his palm and held it before her. He swallowed before he spoke.
“Will you …”
She felt her brow relax, and her mouth twitched into a smile. He smiled back at her, and it was as though the heavens had opened up and dropped an angel beside her, just like the day they met.
“Will you wear my ring?”
“For ever and ever.”
He slipped it onto her finger and kissed her lips.
“My love,” he said, “let’s go home.”
EPILOGUE
“Miss Curry, your aunt is here to see you.”
Nina shooshed away the orderly and looked across the game room in which the patients were stationed during the afternoons. The woman stood in the doorframe looking as glamorous as though she were about to step on a stage fit for a magician. She waved and Nina waved back.
The dazzling lady crossed the room and sat down opposite Nina at the table. Even from a distance, she could smell the booze wafting off the older woman’s breath. She had promised to sneak some in, but in the last five visits, she hadn’t delivered. Today was to be no exception. The woman shook her head, answering the question Nina’s eyebrows had asked. Oh well, maybe next time.
The woman put her hands on the table, and Nina clasped them in her own.
“How have you been?” she asked.
Nina answered with a grin. “I’m fine, Aunt Mona Lisa. How are you?”
Acknowledgments
I’d like to give special thanks to my extraordinary cover artist, Belinda Borradaile: you really outdid yourself with this one, my dear. Thanks also to my copyeditor, Mary. Your help made it possible to get this book published when I really needed it to be. I’d like to thank my beta readers, all of whom helped immensely to enhance my story. They are, in order of when they read it from earliest to latest: Jeanine Lebsack; Janice Hillgren; my foodie friend who helped me lay the Dagmar’s table, Jolene Mottern; Deborah Cousins; Tracy DeNeal; Beth Hale; Jessica Cale; and my friend and fellow language-lover, Milly Bellegris. Thanks also to Rynestone, magician with an edge, who gave me insight on the life, practice, and business that is magic on the road. Any inaccuracies in this book are on me.
Thanks again to the City of Kingston for its inspiration. Some special points of interest: the Hochelaga Inn, which is the inspiration for the Dagmar house (book a night in the tower room!) and the Kingston airport, whose land I expropriated for the locale of the Dagmar house.
To my living muse, Sakurai Atsushi, your lyrics, your stage presence, and your fashion sense forever inspire me. Dōmo arigatō gozaimasu. My profound thanks go to the music of Buck-Tick, Japanese band extraordinaire.
And thank you to my readers! Without you I’d be scribbling to myself. For updates on the release of The Great Dagmaru – Book 3, please visit my blog at lindaghill.com and sign up for my mailing list. And please leave a review of this book! Even a few words are greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
Linda
About the Author
Award-winning author Linda G. Hill was born and raised an only child in Southern Ontario, Canada. She credits the time she spent alone when she was growing up, reading books and building worlds and characters of her own to keep her company, as the reason she became a writer.
A stay-at-home mom of three beautiful boys, Linda is a graduate of the Writing Program at St. Lawrence College in Brockville, Ontario. Aside from caring for her family, she enjoys traveling the world, eating trout cooked on the barbecue, and of course, reading.
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The Magician's Blood Page 31