by Jones, AE
“I believe that if you both are able to escape, the curse will be broken. If that’s the case, then I would be released as well.”
“But you don’t know that for sure.”
No, she didn’t.
“What if we take the two remaining bags and take a third out of each to make a third bag. They would each have the same amount in them. Two-thirds in each bag should get us home, right?” Roderick said.
She didn’t know if that would work either, but she couldn’t imagine leaving one of them behind. “I think that’s the best option.” She looked over at McHenry.
He hesitated for a moment before responding. “Aye.”
“We’ll have to figure out how to split the bags up evenly.”
“My grandfather left me a small scale that I use to measure precious metals. I saw it in the lean-to. I’ll go split them up.”
He scooped up the bags and walked out of the cabin. Right away the cabin felt bigger. His presence—physical and emotional—took up a lot of space. But Darcinda found comfort in it, because, while the cabin felt bigger, it also felt empty, even with Roderick staring at her.
“What?”
“Go talk to the grumpy demon. You know you want to.”
Darcinda chuckled. “You’re actually a nice person now that I know you aren’t evil.”
Roderick laughed. “Who says I’m not evil?”
“I’ve seen how much you love your daughter. There is nothing remotely evil about that.”
Roderick’s eyes looked suspiciously moist, and he nodded at her once before clearing his throat. “Go on.”
Darcinda headed outside and across the packed earth to the lean-to. McHenry stood at a table with shelves at the back, facing away from her.
“Have you come to check up on me, faerie?”
“No. I’ve come to check on you.”
He turned to face her. “Healer’s prerogative?”
“Yes.”
He crossed his arms. “Was it healer’s prerogative that made you risk your life to come here?”
“Yes.” But it was more than that. Something he wasn’t ready to hear, based on his body language. Heck, she wasn’t sure she was ready to admit it either. Not now. Not when they had less than thirty minutes to try this spell again.
She took a step closer and his eyes flared slightly. She prayed it was attraction and not the anger and frustration she had felt pulsing off him. Not that she could blame him. To be trapped for decades…
He frowned. “Don’t, lass.”
“Don’t what?”
“Pity me.”
She took another step toward him. “There are a lot of things I feel about you, but pity isn’t one of them.” Okay, maybe she was going to go there now. She reached up and rested her hand on his cheek, his beard tickling her palm. “You are a good male, McHenry.”
“I’m sorry for before.”
“Before?”
“When we kissed and I pushed you away. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She pressed her fingers over his lips to stop him. “It’s okay. I understand. You’ve been under a faerie curse your whole life. How exactly would I fit into the equation?”
He encircled her hand with his and pulled it away. “I wouldn’t expect any female to stay with me. My mother lived in Scotland with her first husband and had my sister. After she lost her first love, her true love, she met my father, and he talked her into movin’ to America. My father forbade her to leave the property and she was miserable. But when she realized he was cursed and couldn’t leave, she escaped with my sister and went back to Scotland. It was there she found out she was pregnant with me.
“I was born in Scotland, and we stayed there happily for years—until my father paid someone to kidnap me.”
Darcinda swallowed her gasp. She didn’t want to stop his story. He needed to get it out, and she was there to listen.
“My mother came back to America because she couldn’t bear the idea of me bein’ here alone with my father.” He sighed. “And my sister ran off and married young so she could escape our prison. Her husband left her and the boys without a backward glance. I’m not the only one who’s suffered because of this curse.”
“When we get out of this, McHenry, I think the curse will be lifted. Which means you’ll be free, and you can travel to Scotland and visit your family.”
His eyes tightened on her. “I don’t know what bein’ free means.”
“Let me show you.”
She stood up on tiptoes and rested her lips oh so lightly on his. Then she did it again. A low growl rumbled in his chest before he reached for her.
Yes!
He pulled her to him and deepened the kiss. She had been immersed in magic her whole life, but this kiss…it took magical to a whole new level.
After a few seconds, minutes, hours…he finally released her.
He cleared his throat. “That was…”
She grinned. “Yes, it was.”
His mouth quirked up. “Okay, lass. It’s time for you to head back into the cabin so I can work on the magic bags. You’re distractin’ me.”
She nodded before heading back to the cabin. Her heart was lighter than it had been in a long time, even though they were still trapped in a curse dimension.
Roderick sat at the table staring at the journal.
“What is it?”
He frowned. “New pages have appeared. I think we should wait for McHenry.”
A few minutes later, McHenry came inside and placed the two bags on the table.
“Where’s the third one?” Darcinda asked.
McHenry reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a bag to show her before dropping it back inside.
“There’s some new writing in the journal for you to read,” Roderick said.
“You didn’t read it?” McHenry asked.
“It’s your grandfather’s journal. It’s yours.”
McHenry turned the book toward him. He took a slow, deep breath.
Darcinda walked up to him and laid her hand on his arm. “What is it?”
He picked up the book and started to read.
Anna came to the cabin today, riding the beautiful sable horse. She took my breath away as she slid off onto the mounting block and looked around. I walked out of the lean-to and Anna greeted me with a hug.
Roderick came out of the house and asked what Anna and I were doing. He called her by name. He knew her!
I looked down at her, and she went over and hugged Roderick as well.
I couldn’t breathe.
The story came out. She had been spending time with both of us, and she liked us both. Roderick and I demanded that she make a choice. But she shook her head and said she wouldn’t come between us. She had recently realized that we were friends, and she believes our friendship is more important than she is.
But that wasn’t the right answer. She needed to choose, and we both told her so.
She was crying when she jumped onto her horse and rode away, leaving us standing in the dust.
How did this happen? How could we both be seeing her? Roderick must have seen me with her. He was competitive, always had been. I confronted him, and he insisted he didn’t know, but then he turned the tables on me and insisted I had taken her from him.
What am I going to do now?
McHenry looked up for a moment before turning the page. As he scanned the writing, his face went pale.
Roderick and I argued into the night, and Roderick stalked out of the cabin and slept in the lean-to. The next morning, we had both decided to go to the Faerie Kingdom and confront Anna. Is this a game to her? But I couldn’t allow myself to believe she would do such a thing, or I wouldn’t survive.
As we prepared our horses, a flash of light streaked across the sky, and a female appeared in front of us. Power seethed from her, as did despair and anger. Sparks of color lifted her hair and she screamed.
Roderick and I dropped to our knees.
“My daughter is
dead. She was thrown from her horse and died. But not before she told me what you did. You should have treasured her. Instead you treated her as a competition, as men do.”
She pointed her finger at me, and then Roderick. “I curse you. I can see what you value in your hearts. That is all you will ever have. You will never feel true love.”
He paused for a moment.
My Annalinda will be avenged.
Darcinda gasped.
“What is it?”
“Annalinda was the heir apparent. She was killed when she was thrown off her horse, but no one knew how it happened. Holy Fates, your grandfathers were cursed by the faerie queen.”
“The female currently at my house?” McHenry said.
“No. Belinda took over after the previous queen, who was never the same after Annalinda died. Belinda was her niece.”
Roderick stood. “Do you think Belinda is responsible for what happened to Selina?”
Darcinda frowned. “She would be the only one who might know about the curse besides you two. I will definitely ask her when we see her again.”
“Get in line behind me,” Roderick growled.
Darcinda nodded before she looked into McHenry’s eyes. “Is there anything else in the journal?”
McHenry flipped the pages and read to them. The words were angry and twisted. His grandfather kicked Roderick off the land and immersed himself in his blacksmithing. He declared he would build a reputation and a grand house on this land. He didn’t need anyone.
Roderick stole Anna from me. Roderick is dead to me.
Darcinda shook her head. “Instead of them each taking responsibility, they blamed each other.”
“And perpetuated the hate through subsequent generations,” McHenry said before glancing at Roderick. The demon nodded back at him.
“Now we know the truth, we’ll do better,” Roderick said.
The ground shook slightly.
“It’s time,” Darcinda said.
She and Roderick picked up the magic bags, and the three of them walked into the meadow the few steps they could. McHenry pulled the bag out of his pocket and they stood in a circle.
Darcinda recited the spell and the ground bucked. Heat ran up her palm into her arm, and this time the heat surged into her chest and through her limbs. Her skin tingled and lightened as she started to fade away.
“It’s working!” Roderick shouted as he disappeared.
Darcinda turned to McHenry, but he stood solidly in front of her. Why isn’t he fading?
He opened his palm and looked down at the bag. “Tell the boys I love them.”
Oh Fates! The selfless, stupid demon hadn’t separated the bags.
“No!” She reached for him, but her hand passed through his arm, and the world went gray.
What good is magic?
Chapter 30
Light blinded her.
Darcinda blinked several times, trying to get her sight back. After a couple of seconds, it returned, as did her hearing.
Shouts and screams surrounded her as the team and their mates, along with the magistrates, Godfrey, and Cambridge, gathered around them. Maeve pulled her into her arms. Darcinda looked over to see Roderick and Selina in a tight embrace.
Darcinda pushed away from Maeve and spun around.
“Where’s Mac?” Andrew yelled over the voices.
“He’s not back yet,” Tim said.
“What went wrong?” Roderick asked.
“Damn him. He didn’t split the bags. He made a fake one,” Darcinda said.
Roderick glowered. “That idiot.”
Darcinda ran over to the table. “Do the spell again, get him out of there.”
Maeve and Tim didn’t argue. Instead they started the spell again. But nothing happened.
Roderick made his way over to the table. “Send me back. I’ll take both bags, and you can pull us out again. All three of you use your magic this time.”
“Dad, no!” Selina cried.
“We have to try. Give me your bag, Darcinda. I’ll bring him back.”
Darcinda’s hand shook as she handed him the magic bag. “I should go.”
“No, it’s our curse, and we need to make it right. Do it.” He looked at Selina and then Andrew and Jamie. “I’ll bring him back.”
Tim and Maeve started the spell to send Roderick back, but before they could get the entire spell recited, the book jerked on the table. The page with the cabin ripped itself out of the journal and rose into the air, crumpling into a ball before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Darcinda froze. No no no. This wasn’t happening. But the anguish she saw on Maeve and Tim’s faces told her it was. “Keep going.”
Tim shook his head. “We’ve lost the destination point.”
“I don’t care!” Darcinda pushed the hands reaching for her out of the way and held hers over the remainder of the journal, reciting the extraction spell. He wasn’t gone, dammit.
She tried over and over again. To Tim and Maeve’s credit, they recited the spell with her.
Finally, two sets of hands rested on her shoulders. “Don’t touch me.”
But they didn’t listen.
Andrew and Jamie turned her away from the table and held her. She looked up into the eyes of McHenry’s nephews. They were amber like their uncle’s.
“He said to tell you he loves you both.”
A sob broke from Julia, and Jack pulled her against him. Tears flowed from the others as Andrew and Jamie wrapped her in a three-way embrace. Even JT knew something was wrong and cried along with his mom.
Darcinda couldn’t cry. It was like she could see what was happening but wasn’t part of it. Typical. She was still broken inside. This was why she shouldn’t have risked her heart. Piercing pain peeled away the layers she had built around herself, the same thing her mother felt when she lost her husband, Darcinda’s father, and willed herself to die.
Darcinda wasn’t sure how long they clustered in a group, but when the others seemed to collect themselves, the elf king stepped up to them. “I’m sorry to ask at this difficult moment, but can you and Roderick explain what happened?”
Roderick started by explaining where he and McHenry had ended up, and what happened up to the point when Darcinda arrived. At that point, Darcinda took over the explanation, her sentences just spilling out in what she hoped made sense.
“During the second spell, one of the potion bags was destroyed. We agreed to split the two bags into three, even though we weren’t sure it would work. Or at least I thought we did. McHenry volunteered to split them. Instead he created a fake potion bag and gave us back the real bags.”
Roderick nodded. “He sacrificed himself to get us out.”
“Why would he help you?” Belinda asked.
Darcinda turned to her. “If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand, even if I told you. Roderick volunteered to remain behind as well.”
“As did you,” Roderick said.
Before Darcinda could respond, the ground shook.
“Earthquake?” Devin asked.
The ground in the meadow beyond them began to move in expanding waves. The rumble set her heart pounding as a man shot up from the earth into the air before landing on his feet.
“Mac!” Andrew shouted as he and Jamie tore across the meadow.
Darcinda stood there watching the nephews slam into McHenry, but the mountain of a demon didn’t go down, instead wrapping his arms around the two young men and clinging to them.
The rest of the team and their mates also rushed across the meadow to join them, but Darcinda couldn’t move. Is this a trick?
After a couple of minutes, McHenry made his way over to her, grinning, as the others trailed behind him. He reached for her.
She slapped him.
He held his hands up, palms out, as if to calm her. “It’s okay, faerie girl. I know you’re mad.”
“You know I’m mad?” Was he serious ? “Why did you do that?”
“Because
I didn’t want to risk all three of us. And you had said you thought once we were free from the curse, the three of us would be returned. You were right.”
Her hands shook and she clenched them into fists. McHenry reached slowly for her and she walked into his embrace. She should be running the other direction. She shouldn’t risk her heart.
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head as she settled against his chest.
“What is the meaning of this?” the faerie queen shouted.
Sullivan stepped up to hush her. “Give them a damn minute, Belinda.”
“I won’t give them anything. He is a demon, Darcinda. You can’t be with him.”
“The Tribunal made it illegal to block interspecies marriages,” Devin said as he wrapped his arm around his wife.
The faerie queen ignored him, aiming her ire at Darcinda’s back. “You can’t be with him.”
Darcinda turned in his arms. “You don’t get to tell me who I can be with.”
Belinda held up her hand, balancing a ball of fire on her palm. “You forget whom you are addressing.”
“Enough!” the elf king growled. “Don’t make me intervene, Belinda.”
Devin backed Alex and JT out of the tent and headed back toward the house.
The queen closed her fist. “He is faerie-cursed.”
Darcinda couldn’t hide her smile. “Actually, I don’t think either of them are cursed anymore.”
Belinda’s eyes flared. “Impossible.”
“Let’s cast a spell to find out.” Darcinda walked over to her spell book and flipped to the page she wanted. “Tim, would you prepare this for me?”
Tim looked down at the spell and then up at her before nodding. Darcinda beckoned for Charlie to come over, and she whispered in his ear. He jogged back to the house. Tim put the ingredients in the bowl, and Darcinda recited the spell.
Colors shot from the bowl and spread over the tent. Yellows and greens hovered over the journal where Tim and Maeve had cast spells. A bright turquoise circled the witness chair. The same turquoise circling the hand Belinda used to form the fireball.
“What is the meaning of this, Darcinda?”
“This is the spell I used in McHenry’s workshop to see who the spell caster was. I find it fascinating that the witness chair matches the spell you just cast.”