by T. M. Cromer
“You don’t need to take my magic, Baz.”
He jerked. The clarity in her blue eyes surprised him. While the innocence remained, there was knowledge, too. As if she saw something he didn’t.
“Mack, do you see the future?”
“Sometimes.”
He closed his eyes, not daring to hope. “Have you seen anything recently?”
“I saw you and Cousin Alastair. You were both sad. Not as sad as you were when I came in here.” She patted his chest directly over his heart. “You don’t need to take my magic,” she said again.
His hope fled. He was being ridiculous to believe she could, in any way, see the future still. Taking her hand in his, he toyed with her slender fingers, absently noting the dirt under her nails. Although an air elemental, she loved to dig in the soil with Spring.
Mackenzie didn’t allow him to touch her more than a minute before she removed her hand from his and started the process of plaiting her hair over again.
“Mack, sometimes, when someone is very young, they don’t know how to deal with all the world’s problems. There is a need for the adults in their life to remove the temptation for them to strike back if something hurts or angers them. Do you understand?”
She shook her head, and a stubborn expression hardened her lovely features to stone. “No, Baz. If you take my magic, I’ll be mad at you. Because then I can’t make flowers dance with Spring or play dragons with Sabrina.”
His heart lurched. All she wanted was the simple, fun things to amuse her. “I can do that for you.”
Large eyes wide and fearful, she shook her head.
“Mack, I’m trying to help you, love.”
“No!”
“Listen to me now—”
Before he could finish his sentence, she teleported.
In stunned disbelief, Sebastian stared at the empty spot where she’d been.
Goddess! There was no telling where she’d gone! He jumped to his feet, yanked open the door, and came to an abrupt halt.
She stood on the other side, grinning.
The relief he felt was immeasurable.
“Don’t do that again, Mack! You—”
She was gone in a blink.
“Bloody hell!”
“You shouldn’t swear, Baz. It isn’t nice,” she scolded in a sing-song voice.
He spun to see her on the seat he’d vacated. “This isn’t funny, Mackenzie.”
A mischievous grin lit her face, and she touched a finger to her lips.
For a brief second, she was his Mack. The one tempting him into trouble. The one he would follow to the ends of the earth for just one kiss.
But she wasn’t that Mack, not really.
The constant conflict of memories and reality would break his heart over and over again on a daily basis. He quickly realized he wasn’t emotionally equipped to handle it. Maybe it was selfish on his part, but he understood what he needed to do for his own peace of mind.
“I have to send you to live with your family, love. You’re going to live with Alastair in his beautiful house.”
Her face fell, and tears pooled in her eyes, spilling over her cheeks. “I won’t be bad again. I promise.”
* * *
Mackenzie didn’t know what she’d done that was so terrible, but it hurt to see Baz mad. She was willing to do anything to be close to him. To see the incredible light surrounding him. Because even if it was dim right now, it was still brighter than anyone else’s, and it attracted her like the beautiful butterflies flitting around the flowers.
“Please, Baz. Don’t make me go away.” She was sure she’d die if he did. “You can take my magic.”
“Come here, Mack.”
She stepped into his tender embrace and felt a smidgeon of her fear melt away—until he spoke again.
“Alastair’s home is the safest place for you. You can see Spring more often, and she’ll make the flowers dance for you.”
Biting her lip, she closed her eyes. She heard his heart pick up its pace, and she wanted to bury herself in his hug forever. “I don’t want to leave you, Baz. You’re my forever friend.”
He sucked in a deep breath, and the movement felt nice against her cheek. It didn’t take away her budding heartache, though.
“I’ll always be your forever friend, love. Always.”
“Please let me stay.” Her tears dampened his shirt, and she hoped he wouldn’t get angry again. “I’ll be good. I promise.”
“Mack, it isn’t about you being good or bad.” He set her away from him and cupped her jaw. “You don’t belong here anymore.”
He didn’t want her. Just like her father hadn’t wanted her. It pounded through her brain and into her heart, making it speed up faster than his had been a second ago.
She knew something terrible had happened in the weeks before she woke up, but no one would tell her what she didn’t remember. They talked in hushed tones when she was near, and they gave her pitying looks. Sebastian’s sister couldn’t stand to look at her.
But the worst was the haunting look in Sebastian’s eyes. It never seemed to go away when he looked at her. Maybe that’s why she wanted to stay, because her vision of the future could chase away his sorrow.
“If you make me go, you’ll always be sad,” she whispered, trying one last time to change his mind.
“If you stay, it will be much worse,” he whispered back.
She dropped her eyes to the ground, unable to look at him another second without sobbing. “You don’t like me to teleport, but I’d like to go to my room now.”
“I’ll walk you.”
“I don’t want you to.” Tears poured from her eyes, and she glared at him. “I don’t want you to because you’re mean, and if you send me away, you’ll never give me the rose in the maze.”
He frowned. “Mack, what are you saying? Are you talking about a future event?”
Mackenzie ran. She couldn’t answer his questions, because this terrible ache in her chest was too great. Her head hurt, and her brain felt like it was being crushed. As soon as she turned the corner, she visualized a place in her mind. Her cells heated to the burning point, and when she opened her eyes, she was in a strange place. Not the one she’d envisioned.
“Hello, Mack.”
Chapter 30
Damian had been on the terrace when Mackenzie and Spring were playing tag with his daughter. The doors to Sebastian’s study had been open, and he’d heard every word of Sebastian and Alastair’s conversation. Every unspoken thought.
A miracle.
It just so happened, Damian knew someone who could make one happen. He strode to Sabrina’s hiding spot—the large oak Sebastian had toppled in his anger the first day Damian and his daughter had met Mackenzie.
“Beastie, we need to talk.”
Her eyes lost their joy. Resignation took its place. “I have to give her back, don’t I?”
“Give her back?”
“To Cousin Baz.”
“Did you take her away?”
Sabrina’s eyes welled with tears, and she nodded. “Don’t be mad at me. She said she wanted to play with me.”
He squatted next to her and tugged a curl. “When did she say that, my love?”
“In the Otherworld. I said she’ll live here and play with me, and she said she’d love nothing more.”
Damian sighed. Of course, a six-year-old child would take Mackenzie’s words at face value. “So when you helped me to revive her after her cousin healed her body, you did this? You made her your same age inside her mind?”
She nodded, a hopeful expression forming on her tiny pixie features. “Then we could be the same.”
“But you’re not the same, Sabrina. Mackenzie is a grown woman. You can’t put a child’s mind inside a grown woman. It causes her loved ones heartache.”
“I know.” Her voice was small and woeful. “I just wanted her to always be my friend.”
“She will always be your friend.” He tugged her into his
arms and stood up. “But we have to fix what you’ve done.”
“Because Cousin Baz is going to send her away?”
“You saw it, too?”
She nodded, and her lower lip quivered. “I don’t want her to go away.”
“Let’s go make sure she won’t.”
Sabrina’s happy smile filled Damian’s heart to full. He hated to squash it, but she needed to understand she couldn’t mess with people’s lives or alter their path.
“Beastie, when Mack’s mind is restored, you will tell her and Sebastian what you’ve done. You owe them an apology.”
“Okay.”
“They may be very upset with you and not want to see you for a while. You understand that could happen, don’t you?”
Her arms tightened around his neck, and she buried her face against the side of his throat. “I’m sorry, Papa.”
Her choked sob killed him. Damian had to struggle to keep it together in the face of his daughter’s pain. He cleared his throat. “We’ll make it right, my love. And I bet you, Mack is the forgiving sort.”
Damian saw confusion flare in Mackenzie’s face when she arrived in the Garden of Death. Fear quickly followed.
“This is the bad place.” The wobble in her voice reminded him of Sabrina whenever she was scared.
“Not anymore, Mack. See?” He pointed to Sabrina by the fountain. “We’ve made it safe.”
“The Enchantress?”
“Is gone.” He felt a pang as he remembered the message Sabrina had relayed from his mother. “She won’t ever hurt anyone again.”
“I’m going away,” she whispered. “That hurts.”
“It’s why I brought you here.” He gave her a direct look, tempering it with a gentle smile. “Sabrina and I want to make sure that doesn’t happen and that you stay where you belong.”
Mackenzie lifted hopeful eyes his way. “I can stay? Here? With Baz?”
“I promise.”
“Oh, thank you!” She flung her arms around his waist and held tight. “Thank you, Damian. Thank you!”
As he returned her hug, he looked over her head at Sabrina. His daughter played with the hem of her dress, her head hung in shame. Their strong emotions warred with one another. Sabrina was heartbroken at the potential loss of her friend, and Mackenzie was elated at the possibility of remaining at the Drake estate. What did it say about Damian when he was tempted to let his daughter have her friend? He knew the loneliness associated with growing up different. He’d been much older than the children born to Nathanial and Evie after their marriage.
But right was right, and he had to fix what wasn’t meant to be wrong in the first place. “Come, Mack. We need to have a small ceremony.”
She pulled back, and her face showed her budding distrust. “What ceremony? Do you want to take my magic, too? I told Baz he could have it if I can stay.”
Her words caused Damian’s stomach to knot. Were they wrong to believe the Evil had been defeated? “Baz wants your magic?”
“He said I could hurt someone if he didn’t take it away.”
Torn with indecision, he looked back toward Sebastian’s house.
“It’s okay, Papa.”
Damian turned his head sharply and stared down at Sabrina. He hadn’t heard her approach. “What’s okay, beastie?”
“The Darkness is gone. It’s not in Baz.”
“You’re positive?”
“Yes.” The certainty was clear in her dark gaze.
“Okay, then. Let’s restore Mackenzie’s mind.”
“Can I lift the stones, Papa? Please?”
He grinned at her eagerness. “Do you think you’re powerful enough?”
“I had no idea you had standing stones here, Dethridge. You were positively fascinated with mine.”
Damian whipped around at the sound of Alastair’s dry tone. At first he didn’t see him, but movement on the wall by the tree drew his notice. Alastair’s arms were crossed, supporting his weight atop the ledge. He looked as if he were being neighborly and ready to have a casual conversation with a friend. If he hadn’t been eight feet in the air, Damian might have believed he stumbled across them. “Al.”
“Damian.” Alastair’s tone held an amused note, but he didn’t crack so much as a small smile.
“Don’t tell me. You happened to scry for Mackenzie’s whereabouts and decided to lay in wait, like a spider in its web, to see what I intended to do about Sebastian’s little problem.” The suddenness of Alastair’s grin made Damian laugh. “You old fox! Did you guess what had happened, or did you know all along?”
“I saw you on the terrace earlier. You looked like you’d been hit with a hammer, and I decided to find out what had caused you to react that way.”
“Hmm. Clever.”
“No, I’d say you were, to figure out what Sabrina had done. The rest of us would never have known.”
Damian smiled in acknowledgment of Alastair’s praise. “Why don’t you inform Drake his wife will be home in time for supper? Sabrina and I have this handled.”
All humor faded from Alastair’s countenance. “Thank you, my friend, for what you’re about to do.”
His gratitude pulsed in the air between them and made Damian feel terrible for not uncovering Sabrina’s act weeks ago. “It’s the least I can do. Oh, and regarding these stones, no one knows of their existence except the three of us. The last time I had access to them, I was a small boy.”
“Ah, right. Because Isolde was buried here, you couldn’t access them without giving her their power source.”
“Yes. As it was, it created that bloody evil rosebush.”
Alastair chuckled and disappeared, presumably to let Sebastian know all would be well soon. Or to torture him. One never knew with Alastair Thorne.
Bit by bit, Mackenzie felt the neurotransmitters inside her brain knit and spark to life. Her head ached from the force of the Aether’s and Sabrina’s combined power as they healed her. Right when she was sure she couldn’t take another second of the restoration ceremony, it stopped.
Although her eyes were closed, she heard the footfalls of another person.
“Is she all right?”
Spring. She must’ve discovered where they’d gone.
“She is,” Damian said.
“When will she wake up?”
“In another few hours or so. Her body and mind need rest. A hard reset, if you will.”
“You used the reverse transmutation spell.” Spring didn’t ask, she stated. If Mackenzie could’ve laughed, she would’ve. Her cousin had total recall of anything she’d ever read or seen. If she said this was from the scroll Set had given her, Mackenzie would believe it.
“We did,” Damian confirmed. “When we initially brought her back from the Otherworld, Sabrina split her mind in two halves, leaving Mack in a child-like state. Apparently, she wanted a playmate.”
“All this time, she could’ve been her normal self?”
“Yes.”
Mackenzie heard a small sniffle, and she wanted to reach out to pull Sabrina close. Although she couldn’t move or speak, she could feel, and so she thought hard of forgiveness and love with the hope Damian or his daughter would understand she had no ill will for either of them.
A small hand clutched hers, and Mackenzie sensed she’d gotten through to the child.
Spring wasn’t done asking questions by a long shot and peppered Damian with questions about how the processes worked to put Mackenzie’s mind back together.
He sounded more than happy to discuss the details. “By using the reverse transmutation spell, we were able to fuse the two halves together again to make her whole.”
“Well done.” Her cousin’s light laugh washed over Mackenzie and brought relief. Spring’s approval meant it was the perfect spell to use in this instance.
Mackenzie listened to them deepen the discussion to various incantations and charms they’d come across over the years, each warming to the subject. She must’ve dozed off, be
cause when she again became aware of her surroundings, she registered the softness of a mattress beneath her.
The next thing she recognized was Sebastian’s scent. He’d always smelled like sunlight and warm maple syrup on pancakes. She needed to remember to ask if anyone else had likened his personal essence to breakfast food in the past. A smile tugged at her lips.
“Are you back with me, Mack?” he asked in a low voice.
“Mmm. Almost.”
“Almost?”
“I’m still groggy and suffering from a magical Aether hangover.”
He chuckled, and it was the sweetest sound she’d ever remembered hearing.
His skillful fingers stroked back the hair from her face and created a wonderful sense of being treasured. Like the first time they’d met and touched, she was bombarded with a kaleidoscope of images. These weren’t dark or ugly, the way the others had been. These made her happy, and she was inspired by the vision of their future.
He shifted to lift up on his elbow. She could feel his stare.
“What is it, love? What did you see?”
She blinked up at him. “How did you… never mind. Of course you’d know.”
“A premonition?”
“The promise of our lovely future.”
“Mmm. I like the sound of that.”
For what felt like the longest time, they locked gazes. Mackenzie had no doubt they both understood the import of her words. She was fully healed, and theirs would be a bright, happy life.
“What time is it, Baz?”
“Midnight.”
Her eyes flew wide. “Midnight! It was still morning when we were in the garden.”
“Are you going to complain about a twelve-hour nap, love, or are you going to wake up and let me kiss the hell out of you? Because I’ve missed you, Mack.” His voice cracked as he leaned over her. His eyes were dark haunted pools filled with a budding hope. “Goddess, how I’ve missed you. I never thought we’d have this again.”
She trailed her fingertips over his brow, down his cheek, and across his lower lip. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. None of this was your doing. It’s my family who needs to seek your forgiveness.”