by Camryn Rhys
“You do that,” Cowboy said, pulling out his own phone. “I’ll call Ty. We’ll fix this, Mom. Just… Hang on.” He walked out into the sunny Colorado afternoon, settling his hat back on his head.
“Caleb, please,” Mattie said to Patagonia. Her voice had a strange sort of pleading quality to it, like a little girl would have to her father.
Will’s shoulders dropped and he stood. “Is this guy threatening you?” he asked, stepping between her and Caleb. “Because he should back the hell off if he is.”
The drawn features on Caleb’s face softened into a smile. “I like this guy.”
She put a hand on Will’s back and gave a light push. Not enough to move him out of the way, since his feet were in a wide stance, but enough to let him know that it was safe to move away.
He didn’t. Couldn’t.
Mattie walked around him instead. “You have to know, Caleb, I wouldn’t have done magick if I didn’t feel like I had to.”
“Then what are you not telling me, here?”
She glanced back at Will, licking her lips like she wanted to say something and couldn’t. All Will could focus on was her tongue, and the way it moved on her mouth. He still wanted her so much. If he was honest, being tied up had kinda turned him on.
“Will was my first boyfriend, back in Concord.”
“Boston?” the man asked.
“We didn’t live in Boston,” Mattie said. “I was as vague as possible with the details, because of my family.”
“So, he does know your family?”
“I do.” He stepped forward, into the conversation, trying to get at least a little real estate of his chest between Mattie and the mountain man. He didn’t like how Patagonia acted like it was any of his business who Mattie talked to.
“Does he know your family?”
She sighed. “Yes. He knows they’re witches. He knows I’m a witch.”
“And does he know that Brady’s a witch?”
“Brady?” Will turned to look at Mattie, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Is that what you call Jamie? Is that her middle name? Did you use my—”
“Jamie? What rock are you living under?” Caleb’s grunted reply barely registered while she still wasn’t speaking.
Will had to take a breath to try and assimilate this information. Mattie had lied to him again. After he’d been trying to help her, with Caleb and the cowboy.
Jamie was a witch. Or Brady, as they apparently called her.
“Will, no.” She reached for him, but he pulled away, crossing the room.
“I’m done,” he said. “I’m done lying for you. You want to know the truth, Caleb? Here’s the truth.” He pointed his bound hands at Mattie. “She was engaged to me, pregnant with my daughter, and while I was on a double-shift, she ran off with her mother and hid from me, like I was some kind of psycho.” He was spitting, but he couldn’t stop the anger from boiling over. “I chased her all over the country, for years. And she still hid from me.”
“You have a daughter?” Caleb rounded on Mattie, his voice hard.
A strange wave of something coursed through the room, striking Will in the chest and driving him back into the wall near the cabinets. Dishes clattered against each other and his anger grew again.
“Stop doing magick,” he spat out. “You promised me, when we did the Kindred Spell, that you’d never do magick on me again—”
“Kindred Spell?” Caleb said, putting up his hand. Another wave of magick hit Will, but instead of making him angrier, it slowed him down.
“Caleb…” Mattie reached out her hands, like she would stop him.
“You,” the man spat out, pointing at her, “sit down. Right now.”
The protective streak rose up in Will again, and he moved forward, getting in the bigger man’s face. “Stop ordering her around, jackass. She’s not your wife.”
“No, and she’s not yours, either.” His features were tight, but Caleb didn’t strike him, didn’t goad him, didn’t get angrier. “Now, sit down.”
“You can’t order me around either.” He pushed against Patagonia’s chest, ready for a fight. “You have no power over me.”
“I may not, but I own this land. And Mattie’s land, legally. So if you don’t sit down and shut the hell up, I can kick her out of the white woods for good, and then you’ll all be in big trouble.”
“The white woods?” Will asked.
Caleb pointed at the couch. “Sit. Down.”
There was that thrust of magick again, pushing him backwards. He took a seat on the couch beside Mattie, but not touching her. He needed his wits about him this time.
“What is a Kindred Spell?” asked the mountain man, standing in front of them with wide legs and hands on his hips. “And no lies.”
She looked at her hands, so resigned, it felt like she had given something up.
Will didn’t like that look on her.
“When we first met, her eyes started glowing green,” he said, glaring up at the annoying landowning jackass. “Her mom said it meant we were Kindreds, so they did a spell on us that made other people unable to see the glowing. Just me.”
Caleb looked straight in his eyes. “Are they glowing now?”
He glanced over at her, his anger softening. “They are. But you can’t see it. You’re not her Kindred.” Will studied Mattie’s face. There was a part of him convinced he’d never tire of looking at her face. Seeing that shimmer of green overtake the blue of her eyes when she was around him. It filled his heart with the same feeling he’d had for her when they first met.
He’d tried so hard to hate her, for so long. But…being in her presence again. Having sex again.
Will didn’t want to ever leave her.
“So, it’s like a Mate Bond?” Caleb asked, staring at Mattie.
She nodded. “Similar, I think. Only someone else has to perform the spell for us. We can’t do it to ourselves. There’s more of a ritual with ours.”
“And have you told Brady yet?”
Mattie’s features went so tight, and her brows rose, like she was about to cry. Will wanted to reach for her, but his damn hands were still tied. He offered the bonds to her and was trying to find the words to ask when another voice called out from the door.
“Tell me what?”
Will glanced over. Cowboy stood, framed by the sunshine, hanging half inside. The words were what struck him.
‘Have you told Brady’…and…‘Tell me what.’
Me.
Brady was the cowboy.
His son.
This is my son.
Chapter Nine
Mattie could tell by the shock on Will’s face he’d put together the very thing she’d been trying to hide from him for so many years. Once Caleb and Brady had entered the cabin with her, there’d been no doubt in her mind that it would all come out.
She was tired of running. Tired of hiding.
“Yes,” she said to Will, reaching for the ropes and pulling at the knots. “It’s true.”
“What’s true?” Brady asked, and her heart ached. All the carefully prepared lies were going to unravel, and everyone was going to know the truth today.
Maybe it would be for the best.
“Will is your father.” She finally got the knot undone and released the rope as he yanked his hands away.
He was shaking his head, quick movements back and forth, like he was arguing with himself inside. There was no arguing with the truth. They looked alike, they thought alike, they acted alike. Even their voices had a similar quality.
“Brady is your son,” Mattie said, trying to catch the ropes again, but Will had already pulled them out of her reach.
He stood from the couch and backed toward the bedroom. Away from her, away from Brady. His eyes were glassy, his mouth open. He pulled the loosened knots and the ropes fell off. He held one wrist, no words coming out of his mouth, although everyone seemed to be waiting for him to speak.
“Will is…” Brady’s voice was
constricted and his features drawn. He gripped his hat so hard there was white on his knuckles. “My father?”
“He is.”
“But you said my father was dead.” Her son’s chest heaved and he stepped all the way into the room. “For years, that’s what you’ve said.”
“I had to tell you that, honey.” Tears slid down her cheeks. “Will’s still too tied to his family, and to mine. They would’ve followed him here and I couldn’t risk that.”
“It’s like Witness Protection,” Caleb added, compassion underlining his tone. He stepped back and grabbed one of the seats at the table, pulling it out and motioning for Brady to sit down. “Once you’re in, you’re in for life.”
Her son stood, stock-still at the door, waving off the help. Just like his father would. So much like his father.
“We had to cut ties with anyone, once you were born,” Mattie said through her tears. “I’m so sorry I never told you this, sweetheart. But I thought Will had stopped trying to find us.”
“It’s… It was…” Will’s voice was gravel, rocks scraping across each other under the weight of something heavy. His eyes watered, even as they shimmered green for her. The Kindred Spell had done that. Hidden the magick from the rest of the world. Only he could see hers, only she could see his. Like a private reminder that they belonged to each other. She’d missed it.
“It’s because he was a boy. Isn’t it?” he asked.
She nodded, wanting to reach for him, but he was so far away. The memories came rushing back and fell out of her mouth, breaking her heart all over again. “You were gone when the contractions came, and Mom tried so hard to find you. She called everywhere. You should have been off work and on your way home, and we didn’t know what had happened to you. The baby came so fast, we didn’t even have time to get to the hospital, but you were out on a delivery and—”
“We got stuck in rush hour traffic on our way into Boston.” His voice was hollow, from across the room. Broken. “I got trapped in the city with Ray driving and had to stay through the next shift to finish the deliveries.”
“I was at home with my mother.” Mattie wiped at her wet cheeks. “The contractions had started early in the morning, but they started coming too fast, I couldn’t get to the hospital. Then he was born, and we saw he was a boy.” Her chest ached and she shook her head at Will. “I didn’t know what to do. There hadn’t been a baby boy born to a Banfield in more than a generation. I didn’t want them to kill my son.”
Matching tears fell from Will’s eyes as his lips trembled. His brow was furrowed with deep frustration, and Mattie wanted nothing more than to make it all go away.
“My aunt lived across the street and she…she helped us with the birth. Mom had to give her the Paralysis Spell when a son came instead of a daughter, and we ran. I tried to convince Mom to wait for you, but we couldn’t. I thought they might have gotten to you. I didn’t know.” Mattie felt the urgency leaking through her voice. All the things she’d wanted to say to him when they were on the run. “They would have used you to get to Brady. They would have used anyone they could to find him and kill him. I had to. I hated every day of that choice, and then it started to feel like you were working with them, and I just couldn’t take the chance.”
“Mom…” Brady had the same hollow sound in his words. Mattie couldn’t look at him. She had lied to him, her own son. But for his own good.
“I should’ve told you all this, years ago,” she said to her son. “When your magick came. I should’ve told you about your father, but I was afraid you would try to find him. Leave the white woods.”
“Mom, stop.” He held up one hand. “You did what you had to. Don’t apologize. I would’ve done the same thing, if it was my kid.” His voice was so matter-of-fact, so resolved.
Will nodded. “I should’ve known.” He took a long breath and blew it out, tightening his hands into fists. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t leave me if it wasn’t necessary.”
Mattie stood and walked toward him, but he brushed past her, keeping his eyes averted. She stared after him as he crossed the room to his son.
Brady opened his arms and Will walked into them, both of them letting out the tiny sob of guy-cry that would likely be all the emotion she’d ever see. It felt good to hear it. Like she’d been waiting all her life, on some level, to see them holding each other.
It would never make up for the twenty-eight years Will had missed, but it would have to be a start.
When they separated, Will kept his arm on Brady’s shoulder and Mattie turned to look at Caleb. Her old friend shrugged and raised his arm toward her. She walked into his side hug, grateful for the little comfort he offered. She didn’t deserve it, after all the lying, but she’d take what she could get.
“Do you have a truck here?” Will asked, from across the room.
Brady answered, “Yeah. Need a ride?”
“Can you take me down into Springfield? I need to get my vehicle.”
Mattie walked out of Caleb’s hug, but before she could speak to the two most important men in her life, they’d walked through the door together, without her.
Neither one of them looked back.
Will was numb with emotion. Tears had started in earnest when he realized he was in the same room with the child he’d been searching for.
He still didn’t know what to do about Mattie. He settled for spending a moment alone with his son, out in the mountain air. It was clear, like clean water to a parched throat, and revived him.
Will followed his son to a red truck and climbed inside. Mattie was at the cabin door, staring after them, but he didn’t look directly at her. He couldn’t make out what was going on inside. He needed some space.
“I called the Sheriff,” Brady said, once they were in the truck and pulling away from the cabin. “So that’s all handled. You should still call your brother, though.”
“I will. I just…I need to think for a minute.”
The little road that led down into the forest, out of the clearing, was bumpier than he remembered, and every roll of the tire felt painful. Will looked in the side mirror and the little cabin disappeared as they entered the thick of the trees.
The white woods were a strange addition to the landscape, where he’d expected pine or evergreen. These trees had large, white trunks, and long, narrow canopies of green leaves that would likely turn a brilliant color in the fall, and then perhaps fall off all together before winter frost.
“What kind of trees are these?” he asked, trying to focus on a small detail that would ground him.
“They’re called Aspens,” Brady said in a nonchalant tone. “They’re native to this part of Colorado.” A small, sharp intake of breath stopped the conversational tone, and he added, “They’re what brought Mom here.”
“They are?”
He nodded, keeping his eyes on the road, and Will wanted to turn the young man’s face to his own, just to look at him again.
After all these years.
His son.
He’d been expecting a daughter. But…he loved Brady more than he’d thought possible to love another person, no matter what gender. After almost thirty years of searching, he had his family back. The fullness inside was going to choke him.
“The Protection Spell,” Brady said, fishing a long, leather-corded necklace out of his shirt. A white stone was attached at the end. “The object has to be white in order to hold the spell.” He dropped the necklace so it hung against his chest. “She and my grandmother made us protection necklaces, but they worried that if anything ever happened to one of them, we would all be vulnerable again. So they had to find something white to cast the spell on.” He gestured around with one finger. “They found the white woods.”
Will couldn’t help the smile that crossed his lips. That was ingenious, but then again, that was Mattie. She could adapt to the nuclear apocalypse with a ten point plan before they’d even seen the top of the mushroom cloud. “You’re handling all thi
s well.” His chest swelled with pride and love for his son. He hadn’t ever been able to imagine leaving Mattie the way she’d left him, with no word, but as much as he’d always desired and admired her, this was a different kind of love. He could finally understand exactly why she’d run for her life.
“I was raised well,” Brady answered with a smile. “She’s a good mom.”
“She really is.” Will heard the edge of sadness in his own voice. “She was right to do what she did, y’know.”
“I know.”
“Her family has a superstition about male witches.”
His son’s eyebrows rounded and he turned his face just enough for Will to get a good, full-on look at him. There really were features of both his and Mattie’s in the young man’s face. It was like looking at the best things he’d always loved about her, and seeing the strength of his own lineage looking back at him together. A perfect blend of the two of them.
“A superstition? She’s never told me about this.”
“There hasn’t been a male witch baby born in their family since the Korean War.” He rubbed at his wrists, which were still a little raw from the ropes. “And before that, even longer.”
It all made so much sense to him, now. The way Ursula Banfield pushed him to find Mattie and his daughter. It was too urgent, their support too complete. He should have seen it before, that they were too hell-bent on finding Lianne Matilda Banfield and her daughter, but that’s what they’d been telling him for twenty-eight years.
“What’s the superstition?” Brady asked.
“I don’t know exactly where it comes from. But they think male witches are dangerous.” Will gripped his son’s arm and squeezed. “She was protecting you, by taking you away from me.”
The emotion compounded, through Will’s fear and the sadness evident on Brady’s tightly-lined features. The man had composure. He was his mother’s son.
“It saved your life,” Will whispered. “They killed the last one. After Mattie left. They found a male witch that they thought had died at birth. Poor guy was hiding with his wife and daughter, and they killed him.” He swallowed back the memory. “I was there.”