The crowd had grown by at least a hundred bodies since dinner, most of whom swung giant mugs of ale back and forth in front of them, sloshing the frothy liquid over the sides. The few people not holding mugs held each other and… Are they really having sex in public? I had to tear my eyes away from the carnage.
Across the expansive room, a few members of the clan surrounded Liam. I had no way of hearing their conversation, but the tense set of his jaw told me he wasn’t happy with the direction it had taken. One thing I knew for certain: he wasn’t keeping his mother occupied as we’d discussed.
My breath rushed past my lips in shallow puffs as the first wave of panic set in. I rose up on my tiptoes to search for Marion in the crowd but didn’t see her. Our hastily thrown-together plan shook at its foundation.
I glanced behind me to where Jack stood like a statue, taking in the room with wide eyes. My fingers itched to grasp onto him, desperate to keep him close, but I knew better.
“I was afraid you weren’t coming,” Marion cooed from in front of me, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
Had she seen Jack? Would she even recognize him if she did? As I turned back around, my heart hammered so loud I could almost taste it.
Marion’s eyes narrowed, sending a chill skipping down my spine as she took in my disheveled appearance. “What happened to your dress?”
The gears in my brain whirred as I tried to come up with an answer that would satisfy her. My mouth fell open, and a single word tumbled out. “H-Hugs?”
“Hugs?” she snapped. “What on earth does that mean?”
“Too many hugs.” Once verbal diarrhea started, I couldn’t turn it off. “Liam hugged me, then Dad hugged me, then Mom had to hug me. I was just one big hugging machine. You may as well hug me too. I’m very huggable today.” I opened my arms, but she didn’t take the invitation.
“You’re a mess. Your hair, your makeup. You look like you’ve been crying.” Her delicate features twisted into an ugly scowl as she ran her eyes over me. Then she reached out like a cobra’s strike, grabbing my left hand and yanking me off balance. She stared at my bare finger for a nanosecond before she let loose the mother of all shrieks. “Where’s your ring?”
Everything in the room stopped: the music, the laughter, the swinging mugs of ale. Every head in the room turned toward me, waiting for my reply as Marion stared me down with blue flames dancing in her eyes.
Behind me, Jack gasped then went still. I didn’t need to see him to know his muscles had coiled, ready to act. Like everyone else, he waited for my cue. But unlike everyone else, he knew exactly where my ring had gone.
“L-Liam?”
“What about Liam? Oh, for heaven’s sake, child, spit it out!”
“Mother, wait.” Liam pushed his way through the crowd, and I heaved in a much-needed breath. “Ivie gave me the ring to hold onto while she got ready, and I forgot to give it back to her.”
Marion released my hand and held hers out to her son. “Give it to me.”
“I don’t have it.” Liam’s features smoothed into an impressive poker face.
Marion whipped her head around, mouth gaping. “What do you mean, you don’t have it? Where is it?”
“Sorry, Mum.” Liam shrugged as if his mother wasn’t completely losing it right beside him. “With all the excitement, I left it in the room. I can go get it if you like.”
The walls in the massive ballroom seemed to close in around me as I waited for Marion to respond. Go get the ring, Go get the ring, Go get the ring, repeated in my head like a chant.
Marion’s eyes settled on something behind me. “Send Callum.”
My hopes fell like a water balloon from the third-story balcony and went splat.
Liam directed a terse nod at his mother then turned and mouthed something as he passed by me, but I couldn’t read his lips. I screamed in my head for him to turn around and tell me again but gave up when I remembered he’d lifted the spell that connected us. Callum shot a look in our direction, scowling at me before leaving the ballroom.
The moment the door closed behind Callum, the room erupted in activity again. The pipes started up where they’d left off, and the merriment resumed as if there hadn’t been a break in the festivities at all. Near me, Jack cleared his throat, and I whipped around to see what he wanted and came face to face with Marion again.
“As soon as Callum returns with the ring, we’ll get started,” Marion said when Liam had returned to her side. Her gaze wandered toward Jack, but Liam cleared his throat to get her attention again.
“Mum, do you think I could speak with you for a moment?” He scratched his head and slid his eyes in my direction. Whatever he tried to convey to me wasn’t getting through.
Marion checked the time on her diamond-studded watch. “Can’t it wait?”
“No, it really can’t.”
With one last look at her watch, Marion huffed out an exaggerated breath. “Fine. But we’ll need to hurry.”
As soon as the two of them stepped out of earshot, Jack grabbed my elbow and led me away from the crowd. “Can you do it now?”
“Now?” I didn’t recognize the squeak that came out of me.
“This may be our last chance.” He spoke through clenched teeth, his eyes darting around the room as he walked us backward toward the rear wall.
Following the path of his gaze, I counted twelve guards around the perimeter of the room, all of them with their eyes locked on me. I stumbled over the stupid train on my dress, and Jack caught me before I hit the floor. “They’re watching me.”
“I know.” Jack angled his body in front of me, protecting me, but the action seemed to attract more attention from the guards.
Two of the men from the back of the room inched forward, and I noticed blue sparks emanating from their fingertips. The larger of the two, a ginger-haired giant, who looked like a slightly larger, less friendly version of Redbeard, smirked at me as he approached.
“Jack?”
“I see it.” He reached his hand back and took mine. The muscles in his back strained as he edged me farther away from the approaching guards. “Can you get us out of here?”
Liam’s instructions ran through my head like pages blowing in the wind. Concentrate on a destination, and know you’ll arrive. Block all other thoughts from your mind, and just go…
“Ivie?”
Jack’s voice broke my concentration, and my eyes snapped open to see two more guards approaching from either end of the room. They were slowly flanking us as what sounded like the battle music from Braveheart played in the background.
“Okay, sweetheart.” He squeezed my hand. “Now would be good.”
A bubble of panic rose up and spilled over, sending tremors down my arms and legs. “I can’t do it. I can’t clear my mind!”
“Yes you can,” Jack said in a calm voice. “Don’t think about anything but Chloe’s living room.”
With a nod, I squeezed my eyes shut. Chloe’s living room. Chloe’s living room. Chloe’s—
“Hey!”
My eyes flew open just as the ginger guard poked Jack in the chest with his blue-light special.
“What’re you doing here?” His accent was as thick as molasses on a cold day.
I peeked around Jack to give the giant a timid glare. “He’s taking my father’s place at the ceremony?”
“Well, that’s not how it works, lassie.” Beneath his bushy red beard, he grinned. “This here’s the McDougall clan, and we don’t take kindly to outsiders in our midst.”
“I’m an outsider.”
“You won’t be for long.” He reached around Jack, wrapping his giant paw around my arm and giving it a yank.
“Let. Her. Go.” Jack laid both hands on the guard’s chest and shoved.<
br />
Other than the ripple of muscles down his chest where Jack had pushed, the guy didn’t budge. He blinked at us in turn as if we were a pair of ants at a picnic. Then he tossed his head back and let loose with a roar of laughter.
This time, not only did every head turn in our direction, but they made a hasty path toward us until a glowing circle of blue surrounded us.
My fingers clung to Jack’s as I made another attempt to wipe everything from my brain but Chloe’s living room. But when the red-haired guard grabbed onto Jack with both hands, lifting him high above his head, ready to toss him like a caber in the Highland Games, I lost my temper.
“Put. Him. Down.” An unintelligible string of obscenities ripped through my thoughts, and prickles of intense heat danced over my skin. I didn’t waste a single second contemplating my options as I lifted my blue-sparking finger and pointed it at the man.
He dropped Jack to the floor with a sickening thud, and a thick red haze clouded my vision. With one last flick of my finger, his kilt exploded into a million red and green tartan pieces.
“I did it.” My lips curved up at the corners as I stared down at his beady black eyes and white-striped tail.
Another of the guards surged forward, and I zapped him too. And the one after that. The space around us filled with tartan confetti, until I stood surrounded by a small army of pissed-off skunks, and the rest of the crowd had sufficiently backed away.
At my feet, Jack groaned, and I bent down, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his unsteady feet. “Are you okay?”
Before Jack could answer, Callum reentered the ballroom. He did a double take at the scene in front of us before locking his furious stare on us.
“I’d be a lot better if we were somewhere else. Anywhere else.” Jack pulled me behind him again, slipping his fingers between mine and squeezing. “I don’t even care where you take us, but please, get us out of here. Now.”
This time when I closed my eyes, I saw a blackened circle in the middle of the woods. I concentrated on that spot until I smelled the charred remnants of a fire long since burned out. As the sensation of being rolled into a tight ball and turned completely inside out hit me, I heard Marion’s shrill scream in the back of my head, but it was too late. We’d already landed in the middle of the woods in the exact spot where Jack first kissed me all those months ago. We didn’t make it to Chloe’s living room, but we were safe.
Chapter 25
I stood in front of the full-length mirror in what used to be one of the old Maxwell farm stables. Six months after the renovation, I could still smell the hay and oats lingering in the air—and a trace of something a little less appealing.
Until yesterday, I’d had no idea this part of the farm existed. I didn’t even know the Maxwell farm did weddings, not that I’d spent much time on the farm if I could avoid it.
If anyone had told me back in October that I’d be getting married just yards from where a goat had tried to accost me, I would have said they were crazy. And yet, there I stood, adjusting the bodice of my Goodwill wedding gown—a purchase that’d brought Chloe to tears, and not happy ones—waiting to marry the love of my life.
“Hold still,” Chloe said through gritted teeth as she pinned a line of loose fabric at my waist. She secured the last one and let out a long sigh. “I can’t believe after everything we’ve been through, you still ended up wearing off the rack. And from Goodwill!”
I caught her eyes in the mirror. “After everything we’ve been through, what I’m wearing doesn’t really seem to matter much, does it? I’m marrying Jack.”
“Of course. You’re right.” She shook her head and flashed me a watery smile then stared out the window as she dabbed at her eyes with a wadded-up tissue.
I placed my hands on her shoulders and peered around her. Caterers hustled back and forth, rolling carts across the gravel parking lot toward the big white tent behind the barn.
How Chloe’d managed to pull together an actual wedding in a day, I had no idea. Maybe she had a bit of sorceress in her too.
I rested my chin on top of my hand. “Have you seen my dad?”
She slid her eyes toward me and shook her head before looking out the window again. “Jon drove by the house again to see if he’d gone home.”
“And…?” Hope colored my voice. Just once, I wished my dad would come through the way he’d promised.
Chloe’s face fell. “Nothing.”
I dragged myself away from the window and went back to the mirror to fiddle with my hair.
She watched my reflection with a wistful sigh. “You’re going to ruin all my hard work if you don’t leave it alone.”
I let a loose curl slip through my fingers. “Where is he?”
Chloe faced me. “Sweetie, this is your dad we’re talking about. Who the hell knows where he might be?”
With a halfhearted nod, I perched on the edge of a black velvet wingback chair, careful not to pull out the pins after Chloe’d painstakingly secured the back of my dress. “He’ll be here.” I hope. “He promised.”
Someone knocked on the door then pushed it open without waiting.
“Jon!” Chloe rushed over and covered his eyes.
He swatted her hands away, laughing. “What? It’s not like she’s naked.”
She growled and stamped her foot like a pissed-off toddler. “No one’s supposed to see the bride before the wedding!”
Jon wrapped his arms around his wife, lifting her off the floor. He gave her a big smacking kiss on the lips before setting her on her feet again. “I’m pretty sure that rule only applies to my brother.”
“Did you find my dad?” My pulse thrummed with a dangling thread of hope.
“Yep.” Jon beamed, and I jumped up to hug him.
“Thank you.” I rested my cheek against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart until he pulled away with a crooked grin.
“No thanks needed.” He fell into the wingback chair I’d vacated. “I gave up looking and found him right here in the parking lot. Funny, right?”
“Sounds like my dad.” I laughed as a huge block of weight lifted off my shoulders. With everyone accounted for, the wedding could finally go off without a hitch. “Okay, Chloe, what’s our status?”
She checked the screen on her iPhone. “T-minus thirty-four and a half minutes. We’re waiting for everyone to settle in.”
“Knock, knock.” My dad poked his head into the tiny room, doing a quick search until his eyes landed on me. “Oh, good. Everyone’s decent.”
Jon coughed up a laugh. “Guess that’s my cue to leave.”
I pulled Jon into another hug, jumping up to wrap my arms around his neck. “Thank you so much for coming.”
“What?” He grinned down at me. “Did you really think you could’ve kept me away? I thrive on danger!”
“You thrive on cheeseburgers and imported beer.” Chloe swatted him away with a big smile on her face. “Now get out of here, and make sure your brother makes it to the altar, would you?”
He shot her a salute on his way out.
“He didn’t have to leave on my account.” Dad squeezed into the room, dragging a huge black garment bag behind him.
Chloe and I looked at each other. “What’s in the bag?” we asked at the same time.
Dad hung the bag on a hook then turned and took both of my hands in his. I’d never seen him look quite so serious. “I owe you an apology, twelve years’ worth of apologies, if I’m being honest, but at the very least, I owe you the most spectacular wedding a girl could imagine.” He scrunched up his face as he surveyed the room. “One that doesn’t take place in a dusty old barn.”
“Daddy…” I squeezed his hands.
“No, hear me out. I should have been honest with you the moment Liam arrived, but I wasn�
�t. And because I wasn’t, I almost cost you the man you love. And since we didn’t have time to plan the elaborate wedding you deserve, your mother and I bought you a gift, a little token of our affection.” He dropped my hands and turned to tug down the zipper. “I hope your mum got your size right.”
The instant he’d peeled back the top corner of the bag, I recognized the buttery silk of my dream gown.
“Oh, my God, Ivie. It’s the dress. It’s really your dress!” Chloe flew to his side and helped my dad ease the gown out of the bag as if it were made of spun gold.
“Dad…” At a loss for words, I ran my fingers over the bodice then whipped my head around to gape at him. “Where did you get this? Because if this is another one of your spells, I don’t—”
He stilled my hands. “It’s not a spell. Your mother insisted on paying for it the day you tried it on. But with everything going on, she’d completely forgotten about it hanging in the back of the closet.”
“But where’d you get the money? Do you have any idea how much this gown cost?” Despite my reservations, I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
His eyes sparkled with amusement. “As I understand it, the store heavily discounted it because of a bit of water damage. But I suspect a thorough cleaning was all it needed.” He winked, and I took that as my cue to drop the subject.
After all, I could forgive one little magical cleaning, couldn’t I?
Chloe hung the Colette Original on the hook beside the mirror and wasted no time unpinning the back of my dress. “Let’s get you out of this so you can wear that.”
Dad averted his eyes and headed for the exit. “I’ll just wait outside then.”
Before the door had closed behind him, a pile of Goodwill satin lay in a heap beside me, and Chloe had me stepping into the Colette gown.
Suddenly Spellbound Page 23
