Spellbound Falls

by Janet Chapman

  She started trembling again. “Oh, Mac, what have you done?”

  “I’ve handed you my heart, Olivia.”

  “But I’m nobody!”

  A chuckle escaped the tight fist squeezing his chest. “By the gods, there will be days you’ll wish you were nobody if you accept our marriage.” He smoothed down her hair, only to notice that his hand was shaking almost as much as she was. “Please be brave enough to love me, Olivia. Ask me to be your husband. I promise I’ll say yes.”

  She leaned away to blink up at him. “Now? I have to decide right now?”

  Not able to handle her looking at him, Mac sat on the ground and settled her in front of him facing Bottomless. “We walk down this mountain as husband and wife, or you walk down alone,” he told her. “But if you do, we will never see each other again.”

  She said nothing, though he felt her give a small shudder.

  “I prefer that you have your conversations out loud, wife,” he whispered. “Tell me your thoughts.”

  She started running her fingers over his nearly once-again-human arm. “I’m just wondering why you couldn’t have just asked.” She waved toward Bottomless again. “Why all the… drama?” Only before he could answer she turned with a gasp, her beautiful cinnamon eyes locking on his for several pounding heartbeats. And then she just as suddenly melted against him, but not quickly enough to hide her smile.

  “Will you marry me, Mac?”

  He took hold of her chin to make her to look at him again. “Do you understand what you’re agreeing to, Olivia? That it’s forever?”

  The woman actually shrugged. “I’m game for forever if you are.”

  “Why?” he blurted before he could stop himself. Mac closed his eyes to block the light shining from hers. “Why would you bind yourself to a man—no, to a beast of a man—who doesn’t even have the courage to ask you to be his wife?”

  He snapped open his eyes when she pressed her hands to his ugly face. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to be around a perfectly handsome, confident, sexy-as-hell man?” She patted his ugly cheek. “Maximilian the beast is way easier to love, because… well, honestly? I find the real you far less intimidating.”

  She snuggled back against him with a sigh. “And I probably shouldn’t tell you this because it will probably go straight to your already oversized head, but I really do have a thing for masculine strength.” She folded his arms under her breasts and glanced up with a brilliant smile. “And if you made my palms sweat and my heart race before, there’s a very good chance I really will faint the next time we get naked together, now that I know the real you.” She turned to face forward again. “If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to hold it against me?”

  “My word of honor,” he whispered. “You can always tell me anything.”

  “I flat-out lied when I promised never to fall in love with you, because it was already too late.” Mac felt her take a shuddering breath. “I’m pretty sure I fell in love with you the moment you swept me off my feet the day you saved me from Mark, only it took my brain a while to realize what my heart knew instantly.” And then Mac felt a tear fall onto his arm. “I don’t need you to say the words,” she whispered thickly. “I’ll just look up at the mountains when I need a reminder. I only wish there were some grand and dramatic way for me to show you how passionately I love you.”

  “Ah, Olivia,” he said on a sigh, pulling her more tightly to him. “You did that when you hugged the beast.” He kissed her cheek. “Which again leads me to ask why you decided so quickly not to reject me as your husband?”

  She actually chuckled. “Because I suddenly realized how scared you are.”

  Mac stiffened. “Excuse me?”

  “Oh, come on,” she scoffed, waving toward Bottomless. “You weren’t trying to impress me by moving heaven and earth and a few little mountains; you were making sure I was so overwhelmed by your gesture that I wouldn’t notice how desperate you were.” She craned her head around to raise a brow at him. “And that, husband, is why I don’t need you to say the words. Only a deeply-in-love man who’s obviously afraid of being rejected would set such a diabolical trap,” she said, turning to face the lake again.

  But not quickly enough to hide her smug smile.

  “I am not afraid. I simply decided that if I have to live up here in the mountains, then I would bring the ocean to me.”

  She scrambled off his lap so fast that Mac barely had time to protect his groin, and he hadn’t even made it to his feet before she gave him a sharp poke in the chest.

  “If you have to live up here?” she repeated ever so softly. “Are you implying that I’m forcing you to stay here?”

  He pulled her against him with a laugh. “Sheathe your claws, little tigress, and tell me again that you accept our marriage.”

  She stared at his fully human chest. “If I do, will you put all the lakes and mountains back the way they were?”

  Mac stiffened. “I can’t, Olivia. I just used up the last of my powers making all this happen. And Henry and I really do need to be near the ocean to survive.”

  “Are you serious? Mac! You destroyed Bottomless!” She grabbed his hand and started leading him off the ledge. “By God, if you can’t fix this then your father sure as hell better be able to.”

  “Olivia.”

  “You can’t just go around moving mountains simply because you want to go swimming in salt water. People’s livelihoods depend on this lake.” She came to an abrupt halt when he refused to follow, and spun around with a glare fierce enough to stop a bear in its tracks.

  Mac swept her off her feet and, ignoring her gasp of outrage, carried her back onto the precipice and sat down. She immediately stopped struggling and clung to him when he let his feet dangle over the edge, and then he had to pry her arms from around his neck in order to settle her facing forward on his lap.

  “Look, Olivia. Does Bottomless appear destroyed to you?”

  “It… it’s…” She blew out a heavy sigh. “Okay, it looks pretty much like it did before, except for that new channel carved between those two mountains,” she said, pointing to the north. She turned to look up at him. “But it’s salt water.”

  He nudged her back around and tightened his embrace. “And what do you think will happen to Turtleback Station and Spellbound Falls,” he asked, “when word gets out that there’s a beautiful inland sea tucked up here in the mountains?”

  Mac felt her breath catch. “We… we’ll become a tourist destination. Ohmigod,” she whispered, leaning away to look at him. “We’ll be swarmed by tourists from all over the world. But that’s even worse! People from away are going to buy up all the land around Bottomless and start building fancy vacation houses all over the place. Property values are going to skyrocket and the locals are going to be taxed out of their homes!”

  “No, they won’t, because I’m not going to let that happen.” He waved toward the mountains. “Right after I purchased Inglenook, I also bought most of the timberland surrounding Bottomless all the way to the Canadian border. Except for the resort you’re going to build over there,” he explained, pointing to one of the mountains, “all of the land will remain wilderness.”

  She leaned away again, only this time to gape at him.

  “It will no longer be Inglenook, Olivia, but the resort will be yours.”

  “But—”

  He gave her a gentle squeeze. “All my resources are at your disposal, wife, be they money or magic. Whatever you need to make your resort successful you will have, including my support.”

  “But I don’t want a fancy resort; I want a camp for families.”

  “Then build both. Design a resort that will cater to all lifestyles, from a spa-type retreat for couples to an intimate camp for families to wilderness camping for hikers. You have the land to create whatever you want, limited only by your imagination.”

  “But I don’t know anything about building that kind of resort much less running it.”

 
; He smiled. “Then hire someone who does. Or if you wish, I happen to know someone who’s quite skilled in building a microcommunity. And I’m sure if you ask for his help, my father would be happy to advise you.”

  “Y-your father?” she squeaked.

  Mac tightened his hold on her, afraid she was about to gasp so hard she’d fall off the ledge. “Who better to ask than the man who created Atlantis?”

  Only she gasped hard enough that he nearly fell off the ledge. “As in the lost continent of Atlantis?”

  He nodded.

  “But that’s a myth.”

  He shrugged. “Then I guess I must also be a myth, since I was born there.”

  “But—”

  He pressed a finger to her lips. “A long, long time ago,” he began quietly, “when the gods were so busy trying to wrestle control of the world from each other that they were nearly destroying it, Titus Oceanus stepped forward to champion mankind.” Mac settled his once-again-gaping wife back against his chest and stared over her head at his new home. “And so he built the beautiful island of Atlantis on which to plant a very special grove of Trees. He then chose a handful of trustworthy mortals to train as drùidhs, and charged them with protecting the Trees.”

  “What was so special about them?”

  “The Trees of Life hold all the knowledge of the universe. Only when the gods realized what my father was doing, Titus was forced to sink Atlantis to keep it hidden. But before sinking it he scattered his small army of drùidhs—each of them carrying one of his Trees—all over the world.” He dropped his head beside hers. “As a matter of fact, there’s a Tree of Life growing right here in Maine. Matt and Winter Gregor are two powerful drùidhs who live on Bear Mountain at the southeastern end of Pine Lake, and their combined energies are responsible for an entirely new species of Tree that will ensure mankind’s survival for many millennia.”

  “You realize what you’re saying is flat-out fantastical, don’t you?” she whispered. “Forget that you claim Atlantis exists; you also expect me to believe there are drùidhs living not a hundred miles from here? And that they’re protecting some magical Tree of Knowledge from mythological gods?”

  Mac kissed her cheek. “Actually, the only thing I need is for you to love me,” he said against her flushed skin. “Everything else pales in comparison to the power of love, Olivia.” He moved his mouth next to her ear. “And the true magic that happened here today, as far as I’m concerned, is that we’ll be walking down this mountain together as husband and wife.”

  Her grip on his arms tightened. “Yeah, about that. Do you think we could have an actual ceremony, preferably in a church with an actual minister, and a best man and maid of honor, and guests and a reception and everything? Because I really need for Sophie and Henry to see us get married. And so does everyone in town.”

  “You have one week to plan your wedding,” he said even as he tightened his embrace. “And maybe this time your father will have the honor of walking you down the aisle.”

  “Oh God,” she sobbed, burying her face in her hands. “What am I supposed to do about Sam?”

  “I would suggest you ask yourself what lengths you would go to in order to protect Sophie if you found yourself in the position Sam was in twenty-eight years ago. Would you risk your daughter’s life to be with her, Olivia? Or would you give her up to the only people in the world you trusted to keep her safe?”

  She dropped her hands to stare out at Bottomless again. “You expect me to just pretend I didn’t wait years for him to come for me?”

  “I don’t expect anything from you, Olivia, as this particular matter is between you and your father. I’m merely suggesting that you might try to put yourself in Sam’s place long enough to hear what your heart has to say.”

  She turned to bury her face in his chest. “He broke my heart twenty-eight years ago,” she sobbed.

  “I know he did,” Mac whispered, smoothing down her hair. “But only because he loved you enough to walk away.”

  “But it’s so unfair.”

  “Life is neither fair nor unfair, Olivia; it merely is. In fact, it’s completely neutral. But,” he said, giving her a gentle squeeze, “we are all free to choose how we deal with our trials and tribulations as well as our joys.” He lifted her chin to look at him, and used his thumb to brush a tear off her cheek. “Sam chose not to come back for you, but please don’t mistake that for abandonment. If you but ask him, I believe you’ll discover he knows more about you than most fathers know about their children.”

  “But why couldn’t Ezra and Doris tell me who they were? Why all those years of lying to me, when I could have known them as grandparents? And now it’s too late. Doris is gone, and I never once got to call her G-Grammy.”

  “And would you have loved her any more if you had known?”

  “Of course not.”

  Mac kissed her forehead. “And do you love Ezra any less now?”

  She stilled, and her eyes widened. “No.”

  Mac pulled her to him. “I didn’t think so. Which means the only question is, can you find room in your heart for your father?” He gave her a gentle squeeze. “Assuming it’s not already filled to capacity with your love for me and our two children.”

  She blinked in surprise. “Ohmigod, we’re a family now.” She pressed her hands to his very human face and gave him a rather noisy kiss on his lips—only to suddenly scramble off his lap before he realized what she was doing.

  “Be careful,” he yelped when she not only nearly unmanned him but nearly made them both fall off the cliff.

  “Come on, we have to go tell Henry and Sophie,” she said, dragging him to his feet. She stopped and pivoted toward him. “Only we’re not telling anyone anything until you tell Henry that you love him. Got that?” she said, poking him in the chest even as she smiled smugly. “And the moment you do, you may consider yourself officially graduated from Inglenook.”

  He grabbed her poking hand and started leading her down the mountain again.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked when he chuckled.

  “Oh, I was just wondering if you’re going to keep encouraging Henry to question authority, now that you will be on the receiving end of his whining and pouting.”

  Olivia didn’t chuckle, she snickered. “I figure I can’t do any worse than you’re going to when Sophie starts batting her big long eyelashes at you.” She pulled him to a stop. “How about we make a deal? I’ll handle Henry’s whining and you handle Sophie’s pouting? And just when the little manipulators think they’ve got us wrapped around their little fingers, we’ll switch.”

  He started walking again. “I have a better idea. How about we simply send them both off to visit Grampy Titus and Grammy Rana for a couple of weeks three or four times a year?”

  She pulled him to a stop. “To Atlantis?”

  Mac sighed, and started walking again. “You realize that if we don’t send their grandbabies to them, they’ll keep coming to visit, don’t you?” He snorted. “Hell, you might as well build them a permanent wing on your resort, seeing how I unconsciously built a fiord deep enough to hide my father’s ship.”

  She stopped again, and Mac figured that at the rate they were going, Henry and Sophie would be adults before they made it back. Only when he looked at her it was to find that the woman was smiling.

  “You mean they can sail here like normal people instead of arriving on a sonic boom or in a blizzard?”

  “Well, they can now that I opened up a saltwater channel. Only it’s not a sailing ship; it’s a submarine.”

  “Please don’t tell me it’s yellow,” she muttered, heading down the mountain again. She slipped her hand into his when he fell into step beside her. “Are you seriously going to build a resort here?”

  “I’m serious about you building a resort.” He grinned over at her. “At least one of us has to earn an honest living.” She tried to stop again, but Mac pulled her along when he finally realized why she was stalling. “It will
be okay, Olivia. I will be at your side as you deal with all that is waiting for you back at the lodge.” Only this time he stopped them and grasped her shoulders to steady her for one last bit of news. “But I would warn you that young Riley is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, and that Sophie is a perfect match.”

  “Ohmigod, no!” she cried. “Is that why Eileen brought him here? Mac, I can’t put Sophie through something like that.”

  “So you would deny your daughter the right to save her brother’s life?” He pulled her into his arms. “Sophie is a strong, wise young woman just like her mother, Olivia, who will embrace this chance to be a hero. And you should also know,” he whispered, “the procedure will be successful, and little Riley will live a full and exciting life thanks to his very brave sister.”