Spellbound Falls (35 page)

“Dammit, I tried moving heaven and earth to come back for her, but I
couldn’t
. So I did everything in my power to keep her safe instead.” He snorted. “Hell, I even hijacked one of our military satellites about three years ago to search for those idiot campers everyone claimed she lost.”

Which told Mac two things about Sam Waters: the man was an entirely new breed of warrior, and he apparently had access to more than just an amazing network of information. “Is there anything else I should know?”

“Yeah; you break my little girl’s heart or let any harm come to her or Sophie on
your watch
, I’ll kill you.”

“You’ll be too late. The only way any harm will come to them is if I’m already dead.” He stepped closer. “And now I have a warning for you. You think long and hard and be very sure before you tell Olivia who you are. Because if you come into her life only to abandon her again, I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth and make you wish your enemies had found you first.”

“Fair enough,” Sam said with a nod just before heading down the path, his limp more pronounced though his steps remained silent.

“Henry! Dammit, Henry, get back here!” Carolina shouted, the sound of her voice moving closer. “Mac! I’ve lost him!”

Sam stepped off the path and disappeared into the shadows with a wave over his shoulder just as Mac folded his arms across his chest and went very still. And despite being furious, he couldn’t help but also be proud. Instead of charging headlong into trouble, Henry was sneaking back parallel to the path like a stalking tiger.

And Sam, thank the gods, continued on to the bunkhouse—probably having had enough of the Oceanuses for one night in favor of protecting his abused injury.

“Sweet Athena!” Caro said as she ran up, bending over to set her hands on her knees as she fought for breath. “The little brat ran off just as we reached the cabin, saying something about needing to guard your back.” She straightened, sucking in heaving breaths. “I wasn’t ten steps behind him
when he suddenly just
vanished
.” She turned in a circle, trying to pierce the forest before looking at Mac in horror. “He doesn’t have any powers, does he?” she whispered, clutching her throat. “Henry can’t actually shape-shift or anything, can he?”

“Not successfully,” Mac said, listening to the distressed breathing coming from the bushes ten paces away, where the boy had stopped. “So now what is your plan, little man?” Mac said in a normal tone. “Exactly how are you going to guard my back with no hands to hold a weapon, as I don’t believe those claws will inflict more than a scratch.”

“He turned into an animal?” Caro whispered on an indrawn breath.

“A tiger cub,” Mac drawled. “Henry, come out here. Now.”

“I—I don’t want to,” a tiny voice said from the bushes. “I’m stuck. I—I don’t know what happened but I can’t… I don’t want to come out right now.”

“He shouldn’t know how to change into anything,” Caro hissed.

“He doesn’t,” Mac assured her. “It was an accident.” He chuckled softly, keeping his voice low. “I scared the hell out of myself and Mama when she was teaching me Sanskrit when I was four. Wanting to be anyplace but in the classroom, I started imagining myself swimming with my friends in the ocean, and all off a sudden I was flopping around on the floor as a young shark.” He shook his head. “I remember Mama screaming and running out of the room, and Father coming in and sitting down in her chair, where he just watched me gasping for breath.” Mac unfolded his arms and lifted Carolina’s mouth closed with his finger. “And that, baby sister, was my first lesson on being careful what I wished for.”

She made a disgusted sound, her hands balling into fists at her side. “I hate that you got all the neat powers. That is so unfair.”

“Apparently only
males
need them, seeing how we’re the weaker sex. Henry, come out here.”

“Are you going to punish me?”

“Yes.”

“But I didn’t
mean
to.”

“Now, Henry.”

A small, scruffy tiger cub stumbled out of the bushes onto the path, its head hung low as it approached. Stifling a smile, Mac turned him back into a little boy—though he was naked—by the time Henry reached them. Mac then slipped his sword sheath off his back and handed it to Carolina, and dropped to his knees. He shed his shirt and wrapped it around his trembling son, then held the boy’s pale face in his hands and used his thumbs to brush the tears off his cheeks.

“I’m not going to punish you for shape-shifting, Henry, but for disobeying me. If I had been battling an enemy and realized you had come back here, I would have been distracted by fearing for your safety. And that would have put me in a defensive position instead of remaining on the offense. Do you understand?”

Henry nodded, his eyes so full of shame and a good deal of terror it was all Mac could do not to hug him. Sweet Prometheus, he’d been dreading this day. And for the first time in his life Mac realized that the true curse of fatherhood was having to punish someone whom he loved more than life itself.

“You will spend the next three days in your room, and be served nothing but bread and water,” he said, shooting Carolina a warning glare when she gasped. He tilted the boy’s head to bring Henry’s eyes to his. “And during that time you will contemplate the danger you put us all in tonight by disobeying my order to stay with Carolina. And you will also consider the fright you just gave your aunt, and apologize to her.”

Henry tried to turn to her, but Mac held the boy looking at him. “Just saying you’re sorry is not enough, considering you put her life in jeopardy as well as yours and mine. So not only will you give Carolina your apology in three days, you will spend the following week serving her every need.”

“Mac,” Caro whispered.

He shot her another warning glare before turning it on Henry. “And the next time you disobey me, you will feel the full force of my wrath. Understand?”

His eyes wide with renewed terror, Henry nodded. Mac stood up and swept the boy into his arms, and started for the cabin. Carolina followed in silence, giving an occasional grunt as she carried his sword.

“Just leave it on the side of the path,” Mac told her. “I’ll get it later when I come back for Henry’s clothes and sword. Henry, did you have a conversation with Olivia today that I should know about?”

“I—I don’t know,” he whispered, looking away.

Mac gave him a squeeze. “I’ve had enough evasiveness for one night. And one cold shoulder too many this evening has pushed my patience dangerously close to the edge,” he said in Caro’s direction. He went back to addressing Henry. “What was your conversation with Olivia about?”

“I asked if she thought I should sleep in pajamas,” Henry said, still facing away—which told Mac that far more than nightclothes were discussed. “And I might have said something about sword lessons to her. But I quickly said I meant
music
lessons,” he added in a rush.

“What else?” Mac snapped, giving him another squeeze. “Something upset Olivia, and I need to know exactly what you said to her.”

Henry glanced at him, his eyes swimming in guilt, but quickly looked away again. “I asked if she might want to fall in love with you and marry us, and move to Midnight Bay,” he whispered, only to suddenly throw his arms around Mac’s neck. “I’m sorry, Daddy,” he sobbed. “But I really like Miss Olivia, and I told her she’d make a really good theurgist’s wife because she always knows just the right thing to say.”

Mac stopped walking. “Did you use that exact term? Did you tell Olivia she’d make a good
theurgist’s
wife?”

Henry nodded against him, his tears burning Mac’s neck like flaming embers. “And what did Olivia say?” he asked softly.

“She… she said… she promised me she wouldn’t let you marry any woman who didn’t love me as much as you love me,” he said, his tiny body shuddering with sobs. “And that you’d know if the woman was only pretending, and… and that you’re big and strong and brave enough not to let Grampy make you marry Gadzalina.”

Mac started walking again, rubbing Henry’s back as the three of them made the rest of the trip in silence. When they reached the cabin he set Henry on his bed without saying a word, said nothing to Carolina standing in the middle of the main room glaring at him, and walked back outside.

Only instead of going after his and Henry’s swords, Mac headed to the main lodge and let himself in the front door. He silently walked through the darkened kitchen to the window, and saw Olivia sitting in front of the dying fire with her daughter on her lap, the two of them snuggled up in a blanket, softly chatting and occasionally giggling.

Mac soaked in the domestic scene for several minutes before walking back into the main room of the lodge to stand in front of the floor-to-ceiling map of Maine.

The question wasn’t if Olivia was strong enough to weather the coming storm, Mac realized, but if
he
was. He ran a finger over the map from Midnight Bay to Spellbound Falls. Because once he set things in motion there’d be no turning back, as the energy he was about to unleash was going to do far more than alter the fabric of life for everyone in the vicinity; it could very well start a battle between him and his father that would make the wars of the gods seem like minor skirmishes.

Yet it would be nothing compared to the battle Mac knew he would face when he finally told Olivia why he called her
marita
.

Olivia was just cracking her third egg into the frying pan when Carolina came barreling into the lodge kitchen and ran up and grabbed her arm. “You have to help me,” she said, darting a frantic glance over her shoulder. “You have to stop Mac from punishing Henry.”

Olivia dropped the egg in the pan, shell and all, and headed for the door. “Where are they? I swear if that man touches one hair on that boy’s head, I’m going to run him through with a
real
sword.”

Carolina pulled her to a stop. “No! Mac’s not
physically
punishing him. He’s making Henry stay in his room.”

Olivia took a calming breath. And then she smiled, patting Carolina’s hand still clutching her arm. “That’s a perfectly acceptable punishment,” she assured the frantic woman. “I send Sophie to her room all the time to mull over what she did wrong.”

“For three days? Giving her nothing but bread and water?”

“Three
days
?” Olivia shook her head. “Three hours is too long for a six-year-old. What did Henry do, kill someone?” She pulled away and flung open the door to go save
the poor child from his ogre of a father, only she ran into Mac’s chest as he strode through the door—obviously in pursuit of his tattletale sister.

Ignoring Olivia’s yelp of surprise, he quickly set her aside as he continued after Carolina—who had run to the opposite end of the island. “I swear by all that’s holy that I’ll lock
you
in your room for the next three days. You do not run out in the middle of an argument to go after reinforcements.”

Olivia scrambled around Mac to put herself between him and his sister, and then had to brace her hand on his big broad chest to get him to stop. “Give it a rest already!” she snapped as he came to an abrupt halt, his eyes widening in surprise. “What in hell sort of crime could Henry have committed that warrants
three days
of being locked in his room?” She gave his big broad chest a poke. “The kid’s
six
. And at that age three days is three
years
.”

“You will stay out of this.”

“No, I won’t. You’re paying a fortune to be here, and if you don’t like what we teach then you’re free to pack up and leave.”

He folded his arms over his chest. “At a full refund?”

Damn, she hated it when people called her bluff. “What did Henry do, Mac?” Olivia suddenly gasped. “This better not be about my conversation with him yesterday,” she said, raising her hand to poke him again. “Because that was between him and
me
.”