Spellbound Falls [5] For the Love of Magic (12 page)

“I’m the artist who made the turtle.”

Henry’s jaw slackened and he turned away to look at the turtle again, but not quickly enough to hide the two flags of red on his cheeks. “It’s beautiful.”

She crouched down beside him. “It’s the saddest-looking turtle I’ve ever seen, and making it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever attempted. But Zachary Latimer, the young man who’s teaching me how to cut and hammer and weld steel, apparently has the patience of a saint. This was his grandfather’s house,” she continued, waving at her crooked hovel, “and Averill Latimer was a metalworking genius.” She stood up, pulling Henry with her. “I can drive you to the parking lot and you can probably catch one of the resort shuttles up the mountain.”

“Or maybe Mum is still at Inglenook,” he said, pulling out his cell phone. “I’ll see if she can come pick me up.”

“No, let me drive you to Inglenook,” Rana offered, only to then remain silent while he spoke to Olivia.

“Mum was just leaving, so she’ll wait for us at the turnoff,” he said, walking around the front of Rana’s truck and opening the passenger door. “You left the key in the ignition,” he said as Rana climbed in behind the wheel. “Sweet Zeus, you left your purse in here, too,” he growled, picking up her small tote off the floor.

Rana grabbed her purse from him and set it on the floor of the backseat. “It’s more convenient to keep the key in the truck than having to hunt through my tote for it.”

“This isn’t Nova Mare, Gram. There’s no security down here. Anyone could steal your truck and get the added bonus of a wallet full of cash to pay for their getaway.” He pulled the key from the ignition just as she was reaching for it, then fiddled with the key chain. “If you’re determined to leave your belongings in here, at least keep the fob in your pocket and lock the doors. And get in the habit of putting the key in this cubby,” he went on, tapping one of the cubbyholes in the dash, “so anyone looking through the window won’t see it.”

Rana sat with her hands folded on her lap as Henry slid the naked key back in the ignition, and wondered when she’d traded places with her grandson. She knew children grew up and started parenting their parents—such as Maximilian giving his father a hard time for racing down to rescue her and Peg last week—but she hadn’t expected Henry to start bossing her around at the advanced age of ten.

And really, it wasn’t as if she had one foot in the grave already.

A heavy sigh broke the silence. “I’m sorry, Gram. I had no business speaking to you like that.”

“I am aware of how hard it is for you, your father and grandfather, and even Nicholas, to see me living down here on my own,” she said gently, still looking out the windshield, “where you don’t have complete control of my safety.” She looked over at him and smiled sadly. “But loving someone who doesn’t behave the way you think they should
is
hard.” She reached out and rested her hand on his arm. “And loving them anyway is . . . well, if we don’t ever leave our comfort zones, Henry, we might as well not even bother getting out of bed in the morning.” She looked out the windshield again. “I was fifteen when I married Titus and went from my father’s house to my husband’s. Can you imagine spending your entire life having someone provide you with shelter, food, money, and safety, and always trying to fulfill your every wish? Do you think that would be wonderful?”

“No. It would become stifling.”

She nodded. “I love Titus with all my heart. And he is letting me do this because he loves me with all of
his
big immortal heart. And someday, Henry, you’re going to love someone, too; so much that it’s going to hurt every time you have to stand aside and watch them leave their comfort zone.”

“I already do,” he whispered.

“Trust me,” she said with a laugh, “it will be a whole different kind of hurt when the person behaving badly is your wife.” She fastened her seat belt and started the truck, turned to put her hand on his seat to back up, and shot him a wink. “But just know that I intend to have a long chat with that lucky lady
before
she pledges her troth to you to make sure she understands what loving an Oceanus means.”

His eyes widened, even as they took on an Oceanus twinkle. “Is that a promise or a threat?”

“Definitely a threat,” she said, checking for traffic before backing into the road, then heading toward town as if she’d been driving all her life. “So just remember that every time you start getting overprotective of me, my chat with your intended will get ten minutes longer.”

“Did you have a chat with Mum before she pledged her troth to Dad?”

“Your father got married without telling us. He didn’t tell Olivia, either, until after the fact.” She shot him a glare. “But I’m a lot older and wiser now, so don’t think I won’t be watching you more closely.”

“Did you even hear the part where I said I loved you?”

“I love you, too.”

“Blackmailing me into not being overprotective is a moot point, anyway,” he said, sounding way too smug as he gestured at all the pickups parked in Vanetta’s driveway as they passed by. “Or it will be when Niall MacKeage gets back from Pine Creek.”

Rana frowned out the windshield, utterly confused. “What’s Niall got to do with my blackmailing you? And I thought Duncan hired him over a week ago?”

“He did. But he thought a twelfth-century highlander might need a crash course in modern law enforcement, so he’s making Niall ride around with Jack Stone. It’s worked out well, actually, because Duncan said it’s going to take his crew all this week to remodel Miss Vanetta’s bunkhouse into an apartment for Niall.”

Rana stopped at the main road and looked over in surprise. “Niall’s going to be living at the women’s crisis shelter?”

Henry nodded. “Dad said Miss Vanetta approached them at the Drunken Moose and suggested Niall could live in the bunkhouse in exchange for keeping an eye out for angry husbands and boyfriends.”

Rana pulled onto the main road toward Inglenook. “Why am I not surprised she came up with that idea? It’s brilliant.”

“Granddad thought so, too, right before saying that Grampy Sam was an idiot to let her get away.”

“Sam’s loss was Everest Thurber’s gain,” Rana said dryly. “You heard Everest and Vanetta got married a couple of weeks ago?”

“I heard. There’s Mum,” he said, unfastening his seat belt when Rana turned into the Inglenook road.

She stopped the truck, then grabbed Henry’s arm when he opened his door. “Wait. I’m still confused. Why is your being overprotective a moot point now?”

He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Because you’re about to get an equally protective highland warrior for a neighbor,” he said, an eerily familiar chuckle trailing behind him as he escaped.

Rana sat in her idling truck at the end of her camp road, undecided whether to turn right toward Nova Mare or left toward town. But wanting to think she was smart enough to take her own advice about people needing to venture outside their comfort zones, she absolutely was
not
turning around and going home. Because staring up at the ceiling rafters last night, once again finding it hard to fall asleep without a strong heartbeat in her ear, Rana had realized she hadn’t been stretching the truth three days ago when she told Henry she had spent her entire life being taken care of. And this morning she had awakened to the disheartening realization that she was a coward.

All these years of feeling strong and brave and at times even invincible had been nothing but an illusion, a trick she’d played on herself by thinking she was as powerful as her mighty, magical husband. But apparently the best cure for arrogance was a healthy dose of reality, especially when it carried the bitter taste of defeat. Sweet Athena, she couldn’t even drive to Turtleback Station for fear of being stopped by that mob of people protesting the colonists. And she
had
been postponing going to Nova Mare; not because she didn’t want to run into Titus, but because she was afraid of driving up that steep, winding mountain road.

Even having several strong, independent, twenty-first-century women for role models didn’t appear to be enough to bolster her courage. How had Peg, widowed at the tender age of twenty-six, managed to raise four children all by herself? And how had Olivia dared to risk her heart again and fall in love with Maximilian despite knowing
what
he was? And Vanetta, who had suffered at the hands of a violently abusive husband; where had she found the courage to marry again? And Julia had knowingly married an ancient mythical warrior. Even Carolina, born of a time when women expected they would be fed and sheltered and protected, had fought for and was now embracing her independence—having settled for nothing less than falling in love with a man who admired her for it.

Rana looked over at the lupine eyes staring at her from the passenger seat and released a heavy sigh. Forget underestimating her ability to battle Titus; she was having a hard time doing something as simple as taking care of herself. Heck, even Kitalanta’s courage to ride in a truck only served as another reminder of her cowardice.

Rana flinched and Kit gave a startled yip when a horn sounded behind them. “I’m sorry,” she said into her rearview mirror, raising her hand to wave at the man in the pickup behind them as she quickly checked for traffic and turned toward town.

“We’re going to Turtleback,” she told Kit with a decisive nod—aimed more at herself than him. “And if those protestors jump in front of us, you have my permission to growl at them. Zack’s not coming this afternoon,” she continued conversationally, finding that talking—albeit to a wolf—was calming. “He has to study for an important test, because he said if he doesn’t pass chemistry with at least an A, he could lose his slot in the pre-med program he signed up for. I think it’s wonderful he’s going to train to be a doctor, don’t you? Although I believe he’s doing it more to please his parents than for himself. Personally, I think Zack would prefer a career in metalwork, but as an artist rather than welding truck frames and logging chains.”

Having made it through town without running over any bun-stealing grange ladies, Rana picked up speed. She touched a button on her door handle to lower the passenger window, smiling when her panting passenger immediately stuck his head into the breeze. “There, I bet that feels better. You’re so brave, Kitalanta. Not only have you left the safety of the sea to keep me company, you jumped in a vehicle with only a little cajoling and now you’re going nearly fifty miles an hour,” she said, trying to sound excited. “And if your pod mates don’t believe you when you tell them, you just send them to me and I will set them straight.”

Rana fell silent when Kit rested his head out the window and closed his eyes against the drool blowing off his lolling tongue. She could do this, she told herself firmly. She would go to the furniture store she had noticed the day she’d driven to Turtleback with Peg and Charlie
and Titus
, and buy something for her new home—even though she wouldn’t be living in it three months from now. But maybe the people she sold the house to would appreciate having a couch that didn’t bite them on the ass every time they sat down.

Rana stiffened when she rounded a curve and saw several cars in the distance, along with a mob of people gathered in a tight group near the road leading down to the colony. She lowered her speed to thirty, figuring that was slow enough to be safe but too fast for anyone to jump out in front of her. “It’s okay, Kit,” she said, worried the wolf sensed her tension when he sat up with a whine.

“It’s okay,” she repeated as she drew nearer, noticing Kit’s gaze was locked on the gathering. She frowned, also noticing that none of the protestors were carrying signs or even looking her way, but rather seemed focused on a small, battered-looking car stopped in the colony entrance. “Oh, no!” she cried, slamming on her brakes when she saw the obviously frightened woman struggling to pull her driver’s door closed as the mob surrounded her car.

Rana shoved her truck into park and got out. “Come, Kit,” she said, breaking into a run when she realized one of the men was trying to drag the woman out of the car. “Get away from her!” she shouted, pushing through the crowd. “Let her go! Now!”

Although their attention had remained focused on the car, it quickly changed when Kit charged past her, his loud, guttural snarls effectively scattering everyone except for the man still tugging on the woman. Rana grabbed his arm and gave him a vicious yank. “Back off,” she snapped when he spun toward her.

She didn’t know if it was the threat in her voice or his finally noticing Kit that made the man step away, but Rana immediately moved to stand in the open door with her back to the woman. “Keep your distance or risk getting bitten,” she said when Kit moved in front of her, his hackles raised and his lips rolled to expose his teeth.

“You back off, lady. You got no call to come charging in here and threaten to sic your dog on us.”

“I have more right than you have to be terrorizing this poor woman.”

He pointed at the car. “She belongs to that devil-worshipping cult.”

“We’re trying to save her,” one of the women in the crowd said.

Several people nodded and crowded closer, but immediately scurried back when Kitalanta gave another deep growl.

“That dog bites any of us,” a different man said as he pointed at Kit, “and we’re pressing charges.”

“You’ll have to get in line, because I’ll already be there pressing charges against
you
. Keep guard, Kitalanta,” she said, finally turning to the car, only to ball her hands into fists when she saw the frightened, tear-filled eyes of a young lady barely into her twenties. “You’re okay now, honey,” Rana said, crouching down to touch her trembling shoulder. “No one is going to hurt you. Do you want me to drive you home?”

“Th-The car stalled,” the young woman whispered as she groped for Rana’s hand and then held it in a death grip. “Please don’t leave me. Can you give me a ride to town?” She dropped her head, her tears spilling onto their clasped hands. “I-I can’t go back there.”

Rana stood but stayed bent over when the woman’s grip tightened. “I won’t leave you, I promise. I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

The girl finally released her, but fell back with a gasp when she got caught on the steering wheel as she tried to get out of the car. Barely stifling a gasp of her own when she realized the young woman was pregnant, Rana helped her out and immediately tucked her up against her side. “We’re leaving now,” she said to the mob, stepping around the door and heading for her truck. “And I suggest you all go home before the sheriff responds to the emergency call I made when I saw what you were doing,” she continued while looking straight ahead, knowing Kitalanta had her back. “What’s your name, honey?” she asked, giving the girl a squeeze when she felt her trembling.

“M-Macie.”

“What a beautiful name. So, Macie,” she said casually as she continued to the passenger side of her truck. “Is there someplace in particular you would like me to take you? To your family or maybe a friend?”

“I don’t know anyone.” Macie hesitated when Rana opened the door, and after a nervous glance at the people silently rushing to their vehicles as Kit watched from the front bumper, she turned her still-frightened, hazel-gold eyes on Rana. “This is only the second time I’ve left the settlement since I arrived. I don’t know anyone.”

Rana helped her climb in, then held out her hand. “Yes, you do. You know me. Rana Oceanus.”

The girl took her hand with a shy smile. “Macie Atwater.”

“Well, Macie Atwater, now that we’re friends,” Rana said soothingly as she handed Macie her seat belt, “I know exactly where to—”

A blaring horn sounded, and Rana looked up to see a large truck loaded with logs struggling to slow down as it rounded the curve behind them. She closed Macie’s door with a muttered curse and rushed around the front of her SUV. “Come on, Kit,” she said on her way by, waving at him to jump in through the door she’d left open. She shoved the wolf over the console into the backseat as she scrambled behind the steering wheel, closed her door, then immediately yanked down the shifting lever and kicked her truck into a gallop.

She didn’t slow down until she had a safe distance between themselves and the logging truck, then finally fastened her own seat belt and shot Macie a wink. “I forgot I’m not supposed to stop in the middle of the road. So,” she went on, watching for a place to turn around, “if you don’t know anyone in town, what was your plan?”

Macie took a shuddering breath. “I didn’t think beyond getting out of there and making it someplace safe. The settlement members wouldn’t dare drag me back in front of townspeople.”

Rana glanced over, specifically down at the soft bulge spilling over the seat belt beneath the girl’s loose-fitting tunic. “Is there a particular reason you decided to leave today, Macie?” she asked gently. “Is your being pregnant a problem for the col—the settlement members?”

“I kept it hidden as long as I could,” Macie whispered, “while I tried to figure out what to do. I didn’t know how they’d react, because two other women who got pregnant left with their husbands shortly after everyone found out. And those who already had kids left this past January.” She looked out the side window. “But two days ago, Sebastian—he’s the high priest—walked in the women’s bathhouse just as I was stepping out of the shower.” Rana saw Macie hug herself. “I grabbed a towel, but he dragged me to the main house without even letting me get dressed, then locked me in one of the back rooms.”

“You said two days ago. Did you only just escape today?”

Macie nodded. “A new guy joined the settlement earlier this week, and he . . . Men are allowed access to all the buildings, and he snuck me in some clothes the first night, but told me not to put them on or let anyone see them until he came for me. And that I should act submissive to Sebastian until then.”

Spotting a dirt road ahead, Rana checked her rearview mirror, then slowed down and pulled into the road, glancing over her shoulder just as the logging truck went zooming past with another blare of his horn. She looked for other traffic, backed into the main road so she was facing Spellbound Falls, then started off again. “But what were you doing out here in the middle of the day?” she continued. “I would have thought the man would help you escape at night, when you had the cover of darkness.”

Macie smiled slightly. “He said the guards are more alert at night, and that it would actually be easier if I just walked across the yard during the day like I was supposed to be there and climbed in one of the cars and casually drove away. He came in and unlocked my door just before lunch today and told me to get dressed. He said when I heard a commotion in the dining hall, it was my cue to leave.” Her smile disappeared. “I thought I was home free, but those people jumped in front of the car when I reached the main road, and the engine stalled and I couldn’t restart it. Do you know why they were there? I saw them carrying signs that said
devil-worshippers
, and they kept shouting something about cults and . . . and evil,” she ended on a whisper, hugging herself.

“They’re nothing more than uninformed, overzealous protestors,” Rana said with a dismissive wave, deciding to direct the conversation back to Macie’s escape. “Where were you planning to go if your car hadn’t stalled?”

“The man who helped me said to drive to Spellbound Falls, but to keep going another nine miles until I came to a sign that said Nova Mare. Then I was supposed to drive up that road another mile until I came to the guard booth and ask the guard to contact someone named Julia Salohcin.” Rana looked over to see Macie staring down at her hands. “I might have worked up the nerve to steal one of the cars,” the girl said, shaking her head, “but there’s no way I could drive into some fancy resort.” Rana heard her take another shuddering breath. “I guess I’m not as brave as you are.”