Spellbound Falls [5] For the Love of Magic

by Janet Chapman

  He immediately turned into the wind, nearly stalling as he changed tack before his mainsail and jib snapped taut and he surged forward again. “You’re not going to win by daydreaming,” he shouted as he cut across her bow, this time looking over his sail as the pontoon he was now standing on rose out of the water.

  Rana also stood and ran forward to get a better look at the harness he was wearing. There appeared to be a cable running from high up on the mast down to his waist, allowing him to brace his feet on the flying pontoon and use his body as ballast to stop the boat from capsizing. Which made sense, she realized as she took a bite of peach, since there wasn’t a weighted keel to offset the push of the wind.

  Oh, she really needed to sail that catamaran.

  And then she needed to find a way to steal it for her fleet.

  “Sweet Zeus, woman, tack!” Titus shouted, the pontoon he was standing on dropping like a stone when he released his mainsail, making him have to scramble onto the trampoline to keep from falling in the water and getting dragged by the harness.

  Rana snapped her head around and saw she was closing in on one of the small ledges. Clamping the peach in her teeth, she broke the line on the jib and scrambled back to the helm, unlocked and spun the wheel and locked it again, ducked the boom as it swung from starboard to port, then ran forward and hauled in the line to retighten the jib. And then she ran back and flopped down behind the wheel, pulled the peach from her mouth, and huffed and puffed to catch her breath.

  Wow, why was she winded?

  Oh, that’s right; she was lugging around ten extra pounds.

  “Are the peaches making you homesick?” Titus asked, his sharp green eyes studying her face as he returned to keeping pace beside her again. “Near as I can tell, you’ve spent the last hour daydreaming.”

  She tucked some escaping hair inside her hat and relaxed back against the stern. “They’re not making me homesick, exactly.” She shot him a lopsided smile. “I was just remembering how you charmed my mother into persuading my father to let you marry his little girl.”

  “You’re thinking of your parents?” he said in surprise, his eyes darkening with an old, familiar pain. “Why, Stasia?”

  “No, not in a sad way,” she quickly assured him. “I was thinking about something Mom said when she was persuading me to marry you.”

  He edged his boat dangerously closer. “What did Annabelle say?”

  Rana stood up at the wheel and shot him another smile—this one smug. “The answer will cost you one catamaran,” she said, turning the sloop tighter to the wind and surging away to his booming laughter.

  They spent the morning tacking back and forth down Bottomless like two drunken sailors, all while avoiding a seemingly suicidal old whale and frisky pod of orcas—Kitalanta at the front—bravely running interference in an attempt to level the playing field for their queen. Her only real worry was for the fishermen who thought they were safely trolling open water only to find themselves on a collision course with a fast-moving catamaran. Apparently unaware of how agile a cat could be, she would watch in dismay as the shouting fishermen quickly reeled in their lines and sped away.

  Rana was the first to round the southernmost island, but only because she had very unsportingly sailed past her capsized husband—twice!

  Hey, she had waved.

  She’d also thrown the peach pit at him. She had good aim, too, and had hit him right on his regal head of wet white hair just as he was struggling to pull the catamaran back upright.

  But was it her fault he was making her feel fifteen years old again?

  “I wish to call a time-out!” Titus shouted as he raced past her starboard side. “I need a nap.”

  “Oh, thank the gods,” Rana whispered, turning into the wind to stall the sloop. Not that she was about to admit to him that she’d spent the last hour fighting to keep her eyes open. It must be the extra pounds making her tired and not the fact that her muscles certainly didn’t feel fifteen years old.

  “Drop your anchor and loosen your sails,” he said as he approached her port side and released his own sails. “I’ll come aboard and let the cat drift off your stern.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, brushing down the front of her spray-drenched jacket, “but I don’t allow no-good-rotten cheaters on my boat.”

  He grabbed the sloop to hold them drifting together. “I come bearing gifts.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve gotten my fill of peaches.”

  “Are you over your fondness for figs, too?”

  She snapped her gaze up to see him pull a small burlap sack from the dry bag lashed to his trampoline. “You brought some of Mathew’s figs?” she asked.

  “Mind telling me what you were thinking to give Olivia our royal gardener? The boy he left in charge had already eaten half our crop.”

  “I couldn’t very well move Maude here and not her husband.” She stepped up to the rail. “If I let you come aboard, do you promise to behave?”

  He set the figs on the pontoon precariously close to the edge and reached in the bag again. “I also raided our wine cellar,” he said, pulling out a bottle and not answering her question, she couldn’t help but notice. He tucked the wine between his legs and, while still holding on to her boat, reached in the bag again. “Your goat herd is exploding with new kids this spring,” he continued, pulling out a small container of what she knew for a fact was the most delicious goat cheese on the planet.

  Rana lifted onto her toes to lean over the rail. “Did you happen to stop by the kitchen and steal some of Michelin’s bread before you left?”

  “At great risk to life and limb,” he said with a chuckle as he set down the cheese and pulled a cotton bread sack out of the dry bag. “Our staff has been eating better than we have.” He glanced up—his gaze lingering on her hips and even longer on her bosom before lifting to her face—and chuckled again. “I imagine you and I alone are keeping the Drunken Moose solvent.”

  Rana dropped to her heels with a gasp. “You brought back healthy foods because you think I’m getting fat.”

  “What? No.” He grabbed the cheese and held it up with the bread. “All of this has been your diet for centuries.”

  She leaned over the rail and snatched the two items out of his hand before he could pull them away. “Go find your own island to nap behind. This one is taken.”

  “Ah, wife,” he said with a laugh as he picked up the sack of figs and gently tossed it onto her deck, “but you do please—”

  What felt like a solid wall of wind suddenly caught the sails of both vessels, forcing Titus to let go of her boat in order to keep the light catamaran from capsizing, and making Rana scramble after the line of her flapping mainsail.

  “Leviathan!” Titus roared over the howl of the wind, the urgency in his voice making Rana stop in mid-hoist. “Come to me now!”

  She started to glance around to see what had him worried, but instead lunged toward the mast when the sea began to froth like a cauldron of boiling water, making the sloop heave wildly as bursting bubbles filled the air with a musty smell she couldn’t identify. Clinging to the mast, she finally looked at where Titus was looking to see dark, roiling thunderclouds sweeping toward them from the south.

  “Rana! Do not lash yourself to the mast!” her husband shouted as a driving rain engulfed them—her last sight being of Titus standing on his trampoline as he studied the churning water beneath him and then roared Leviathan’s name again.

  “No magic!” Rana yelled. “Titus! Don’t use your magic on me!”

  Something rammed the sloop with enough force to make her fall to her knees, and she stayed kneeling on the wildly heaving deck as she continued to hug the mast, sighing in relief that Leviathan was here—only to scream when she realized the dark shadow rising out of the frothing water was not a whale.

  Her second scream was drowned out by a loud crack followed by the sound of wood splintering, and Rana pushed away from the vibrating mast just as the top half of it crashed t
o the deck and trapped her in a tangle of ropes and rain-soaked canvas.

  “I have you,” Titus said as she felt his strong hands encircle her. “Close your eyes, little one.”

  “No,” Rana rushed out, clasping his face just as she felt the sloop begin to tilt. “Please, Titus, you can’t use your magic on me.”

  His arms tightened around her. “I must!”

  “No. You can’t. It will—” There was a loud groan of splintering wood and the sloop gave another violent shudder. The deck tilted sharply, the shifting mast and sail dragging them both into the frigid water. Titus pulled her even deeper to get away from the snare of ropes and canvas, and Rana thought her lungs would burst before he suddenly shot upward.

  “You’ll drown if I don’t,” he snapped the moment they surfaced into the churning waves and driving rain. “Or freeze to death first!”

  “No magic!” she cried again when she felt him tensing in preparation. “It might kill our baby.”

  His grip on her momentarily slackened before he growled a curse and suddenly hauled her back underwater just as she heard a deep groan and felt something brush against her. The sloop was sinking, she realized, clinging to Titus as he kicked away before it sucked them down with it. He pushed her to the surface again then held her steady in the churning waves as she gasped and sputtered trying to catch her breath—until she stopped breathing altogether when she realized they’d surfaced right in the middle of a fierce battle.

  “No, don’t look,” he said roughly, pressing her face against his shoulder as he turned and started swimming away.

  Although the storm was making it nearly as dark as night, the flashes of lightning had allowed her to catch a glimpse of the huge shadow she’d seen earlier, which now appeared to be fending off repeated attacks from what she had recognized were several demons. Rana kept her eyes closed as her husband’s powerful legs carried them away from the horrible battle, but she couldn’t close her ears to the blood-curdling screams of the demons and the gut-wrenching roars coming from the shadow.

  Titus stopped swimming and pressed his mouth to her cheek. “You’re not going to make it to shore,” he said, his lips feeling like burning embers against her cold skin. “I need to get you to safety.”

  “I-I can make it,” she whispered, shivering uncontrollably. “P-Please don’t—”

  “I will not lose you!” he growled as she felt the telltale sign of him tensing.

  She dug her fingers into his shoulders. “You don’t n-need the magic, Titus. You’re powerful enough t-to save me and our child without it.”

  His grip tightened as he hesitated for several pounding heartbeats before he turned with another curse and started swimming again. Too lethargic to cling to him anymore, Rana closed her eyes on a shiver, knowing she couldn’t be in safer hands. She did give a weak scream when something bumped her leg, however, and tried to kick it away.

  “That was Leviathan,” Titus said, shifting his hold on her without slowing. “He’s guiding us to the closest land.”

  “K-Kit?”

  “The orcas are guarding our backs. Conserve your strength.”

  She could still hear the screams of the demons and terrified roars of whatever they were fighting mixed with nearly continuous thunder and the howling wind, but she could tell Titus was quickly putting distance between them and the battle.

  Was the shadow another new god or goddess trying to come forth like the one that had run into Peg’s truck last week? Had the demons been sent to stop this one before it fully manifested? Because she couldn’t imagine many of the established gods would be too overjoyed to have new competition.

  Unlike her husband, apparently.

  She really didn’t know why Titus seemed unconcerned about what the colonists were doing. Even though he’d sent Nicholas and Dante to spy on them, she suspected that was more to see if the other gods intended to interfere rather than become involved himself. Had Dante told Titus and Maximilian what Macie had told her, which was that the colony was trying to use the magic for the good of mankind?

  She smiled, thinking she wouldn’t mind having another god in their corner, only to gasp when Titus suddenly stood up and swept her into his arms.

  And then she flinched when he muttered another curse and scaled the rocky shoreline. “You’ve stopped shivering,” he said roughly, running into the forest.

  She was pretty sure that should alarm her, but she really couldn’t remember why. Because honestly? She didn’t feel cold anymore. She tried to tell him that she actually felt wonderful, but her voice didn’t seem to want to work. So she tried patting his shoulder to let him know how proud she was of him for saving her without the magic, except her arm kept flapping down his back like it belonged on a ragdoll. And then she felt herself falling, but quickly realized he was setting her down on soggy moss, just before she was engulfed in an equally wet but familiar-smelling jacket that covered even her head from the driving rain.

  “I’ll be back shortly,” her life-saving husband said as he rolled her onto her side, folded her knees up to her chest, and tucked the jacket around her. “Don’t move.”

  She probably should promise she wouldn’t move an inch, but she was too busy forming an apology for throwing that peach pit at him, considering how he had gallantly saved her life. Yeah, just as soon as he got back, she would tell him what a brave and powerful husband he was even without the magic.

  • • •

  Titus couldn’t remember ever being so scared in his life. No, that wasn’t true; he had been all but paralyzed with fear when Rana had lain dying in their bed after giving birth to Carolina. He had, in fact, threatened Providence that he would personally destroy every damn last Tree of Life if he lost her.

  “Leviathan!” he shouted when he reached the water, squinting into the driving rain at the battle still going on—not that he had any trouble hearing it. He walked into the waves up to his waist. “Kitalanta! Come!”

  The old whale surfaced nearby. “Bring me my boat,” Titus instructed. “Kit,” he said the moment the orca appeared, “bring one of your warriors to land and set the others on patrol just offshore.”

  His orders given, Titus tensed against the assault he knew was coming and began pulling the energy of the inland sea into his body, then stretched his hands to the wind-whipped waves and called forth the great whites. “Send those demon bastards scurrying for their lives,” he instructed when a dozen dorsal fins began circling, one of the larger sharks coming close enough to brush his leg. “And leave the new entity untouched. By the gods, Leviathan!” he shouted when he saw his capsized catamaran floundering in the waves. “Hurry the hell up before your queen dies!”

  Titus glanced over his shoulder in the direction of Rana, but decided he didn’t dare summon more of the energy for fear of killing her himself. Even whole and hearty, her mortal body could withstand only small doses of the magic.

  The catamaran slammed onto the rocks, shattering one of the pontoons and snapping the mast like a twig. He waded over and ripped off the mainsail and ropes, tore the dry bag off the twisted trampoline, then took off the jib.

  “Leviathan!” he called out after climbing to shore with the gear balled up in his arms. “Go alert Maximilian and Nicholas to what is going on.” He hesitated, then said, “Tell them we are safe, but do not tell them where we are. I will let you know when we’re ready to go home. Assuming we go home at all,” he muttered as he turned and ran back into the forest.

  For in truth, if his wife did not leave here alive, neither would he.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Rana woke to the sound of gentle rain hitting some sort of material and the feel of heat from a crackling fire on her face, but it was the strong, steady heartbeat inside the warm, naked chest she was lying on that made her sigh in relief that she was alive and well and exactly where she belonged.

  She assumed her sigh is what made the arms around her tighten, and she in turn melted into her husband’s life-saving embrace. �
�I love you,” she said without opening her eyes, even as she wondered why she sounded hoarse. Oh, that’s right; she’d nearly drowned. “I love you,” she repeated a bit louder when he didn’t respond, thinking he might not have heard her.

  She sighed again when he stopped her from tilting her head to look at him, and instead smiled at the brightly burning fire when she realized he was angry. Not at her directly, but rather at her almost dying. Yes, her big strong magical husband didn’t like being reminded he was in love with a mortal woman, especially one who couldn’t even travel through time with him without throwing up. Add to that the shock of having just learned he was going to be a father again, and . . . well, she really hadn’t intended to shout her news at him, especially not in the middle of a horrible battle and definitely not while he was busy saving her life.

  Come to think of it, she was rather angry herself. Those vile demons had ruined her plan to cook Titus a wonderful meal in her new home, after which they would stroll hand-in-hand down to her beachfront and sit in front of a wonderful bonfire, where she would gently tell him that their deep and abiding love had created another wonderful new life. Only she hadn’t intended for that to happen for two or three months, because she’d wanted a little more time not being smothered by his concern and treated like an invalid, considering how badly he’d been fussing over her ever since she had nearly died giving birth to Carolina.

  Titus was still the handsome, charming, and tender man she’d married forty years ago, and she loved him dearly, but she was also very much aware to what lengths he would go in order to protect her. For hadn’t he made a pact with his enemies to keep Carolina safe until she could marry an intelligent mortal brave enough to love her? And hadn’t he shown no mercy to Henry’s uncles when they had tried to kill Maximilian in order to keep control of their magical nephew? But like all the men in her family, Rana also felt honor-bound to ensure mankind’s continued existence, which could be in jeopardy if her husband decided to . . . well, she really didn’t want to think about what he might do to keep her safe. Oh, yeah; her mother had been right about what sort of man her love would make Titus, and the responsibility that came with his loving her could at times be overwhelming.