Someone had to end up with the short straw.

Chapter 29

Darcinda sat across from Roderick and McHenry at the cabin’s small table. The three of them stared at the two remaining magic bags in the middle of the table.

“Can we make a new bag?” Roderick asked.

Darcinda shook her head. “No. Even with the herbs you found here, there are several missing ingredients.”

“So one of us will be stuck here,” McHenry said.

Darcinda’s heart thudded. Before she could answer, Roderick spoke.

“I’ll stay. If I remain here, it could mean the curse would stay with me, right? If your version is true, someone has pushed my powers into Selina. If I’m not there, she’s safe, as is everyone else.”

McHenry leaned forward. “You have to go back and take care of your daughter and figure out who cast the spell. Selina won’t be safe until you figure out who that is. I’ll stay.”

“No!” Darcinda had to swallow before she could say more. “You can’t stay here.”

“Well you sure in the hells aren’t stayin’ here,” McHenry growled.

“I believe that if you both are able to escape, the curse will be broken. If that’s the case, then I would be released as well.”

“But you don’t know that for sure.”

No, she didn’t.

“What if we take the two remaining bags and take a third out of each to make a third bag. They would each have the same amount in them. Two-thirds in each bag should get us home, right?” Roderick said.

She didn’t know if that would work either, but she couldn’t imagine leaving one of them behind. “I think that’s the best option.” She looked over at McHenry.

He hesitated for a moment before responding. “Aye.”

“We’ll have to figure out how to split the bags up evenly.”

“My grandfather left me a small scale that I use to measure precious metals. I saw it in the lean-to. I’ll go split them up.”

He scooped up the bags and walked out of the cabin. Right away the cabin felt bigger. His presence—physical and emotional—took up a lot of space. But Darcinda found comfort in it, because, while the cabin felt bigger, it also felt empty, even with Roderick staring at her.

“What?”

“Go talk to the grumpy demon. You know you want to.”

Darcinda chuckled. “You’re actually a nice person now that I know you aren’t evil.”

Roderick laughed. “Who says I’m not evil?”

“I’ve seen how much you love your daughter. There is nothing remotely evil about that.”

Roderick’s eyes looked suspiciously moist, and he nodded at her once before clearing his throat. “Go on.”

Darcinda headed outside and across the packed earth to the lean-to. McHenry stood at a table with shelves at the back, facing away from her.

“Have you come to check up on me, faerie?”

“No. I’ve come to check on you.”

He turned to face her. “Healer’s prerogative?”

“Yes.”

He crossed his arms. “Was it healer’s prerogative that made you risk your life to come here?”

“Yes.” But it was more than that. Something he wasn’t ready to hear, based on his body language. Heck, she wasn’t sure she was ready to admit it either. Not now. Not when they had less than thirty minutes to try this spell again.

She took a step closer and his eyes flared slightly. She prayed it was attraction and not the anger and frustration she had felt pulsing off him. Not that she could blame him. To be trapped for decades…

He frowned. “Don’t, lass.”

“Don’t what?”

“Pity me.”

She took another step toward him. “There are a lot of things I feel about you, but pity isn’t one of them.” Okay, maybe she was going to go there now. She reached up and rested her hand on his cheek, his beard tickling her palm. “You are a good male, McHenry.”

“I’m sorry for before.”

“Before?”

“When we kissed and I pushed you away. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

She pressed her fingers over his lips to stop him. “It’s okay. I understand. You’ve been under a faerie curse your whole life. How exactly would I fit into the equation?”

He encircled her hand with his and pulled it away. “I wouldn’t expect any female to stay with me. My mother lived in Scotland with her first husband and had my sister. After she lost her first love, her true love, she met my father, and he talked her into movin’ to America. My father forbade her to leave the property and she was miserable. But when she realized he was cursed and couldn’t leave, she escaped with my sister and went back to Scotland. It was there she found out she was pregnant with me.

“I was born in Scotland, and we stayed there happily for years—until my father paid someone to kidnap me.”

Darcinda swallowed her gasp. She didn’t want to stop his story. He needed to get it out, and she was there to listen.

“My mother came back to America because she couldn’t bear the idea of me bein’ here alone with my father.” He sighed. “And my sister ran off and married young so she could escape our prison. Her husband left her and the boys without a backward glance. I’m not the only one who’s suffered because of this curse.”

“When we get out of this, McHenry, I think the curse will be lifted. Which means you’ll be free, and you can travel to Scotland and visit your family.”

His eyes tightened on her. “I don’t know what bein’ free means.”

“Let me show you.”

She stood up on tiptoes and rested her lips oh so lightly on his. Then she did it again. A low growl rumbled in his chest before he reached for her.

Yes!

He pulled her to him and deepened the kiss. She had been immersed in magic her whole life, but this kiss…it took magical to a whole new level.

After a few seconds, minutes, hours…he finally released her.

He cleared his throat. “That was…”

She grinned. “Yes, it was.”

His mouth quirked up. “Okay, lass. It’s time for you to head back into the cabin so I can work on the magic bags. You’re distractin’ me.”

She nodded before heading back to the cabin. Her heart was lighter than it had been in a long time, even though they were still trapped in a curse dimension.

Roderick sat at the table staring at the journal.

“What is it?”

He frowned. “New pages have appeared. I think we should wait for McHenry.”

A few minutes later, McHenry came inside and placed the two bags on the table.

“Where’s the third one?” Darcinda asked.

McHenry reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a bag to show her before dropping it back inside.

“There’s some new writing in the journal for you to read,” Roderick said.

“You didn’t read it?” McHenry asked.

“It’s your grandfather’s journal. It’s yours.”

McHenry turned the book toward him. He took a slow, deep breath.

Darcinda walked up to him and laid her hand on his arm. “What is it?”

He picked up the book and started to read.

Anna came to the cabin today, riding the beautiful sable horse. She took my breath away as she slid off onto the mounting block and looked around. I walked out of the lean-to and Anna greeted me with a hug.

Roderick came out of the house and asked what Anna and I were doing. He called her by name. He knew her!

I looked down at her, and she went over and hugged Roderick as well.

I couldn’t breathe.

The story came out. She had been spending time with both of us, and she liked us both. Roderick and I demanded that she make a choice. But she shook her head and said she wouldn’t come between us. She had recently realized that we were friends, and she believes our friendship is more important than she is.

But that wasn’t the right answer. She needed to choose, and we both told her so.

She was crying when she jumped onto her horse and rode away, leaving us standing in the dust.

How did this happen? How could we both be seeing her? Roderick must have seen me with her. He was competitive, always had been. I confronted him, and he insisted he didn’t know, but then he turned the tables on me and insisted I had taken her from him.

What am I going to do now?

McHenry looked up for a moment before turning the page. As he scanned the writing, his face went pale.

Roderick and I argued into the night, and Roderick stalked out of the cabin and slept in the lean-to. The next morning, we had both decided to go to the Faerie Kingdom and confront Anna. Is this a game to her? But I couldn’t allow myself to believe she would do such a thing, or I wouldn’t survive.

As we prepared our horses, a flash of light streaked across the sky, and a female appeared in front of us. Power seethed from her, as did despair and anger. Sparks of color lifted her hair and she screamed.

Roderick and I dropped to our knees.

“My daughter is dead. She was thrown from her horse and died. But not before she told me what you did. You should have treasured her. Instead you treated her as a competition, as men do.”

She pointed her finger at me, and then Roderick. “I curse you. I can see what you value in your hearts. That is all you will ever have. You will never feel true love.”

He paused for a moment.

My Annalinda will be avenged.

Darcinda gasped.

“What is it?”

“Annalinda was the heir apparent. She was killed when she was thrown off her horse, but no one knew how it happened. Holy Fates, your grandfathers were cursed by the faerie queen.”

“The female currently at my house?” McHenry said.

“No. Belinda took over after the previous queen, who was never the same after Annalinda died. Belinda was her niece.”

Roderick stood. “Do you think Belinda is responsible for what happened to Selina?”

Darcinda frowned. “She would be the only one who might know about the curse besides you two. I will definitely ask her when we see her again.”

“Get in line behind me,” Roderick growled.

Darcinda nodded before she looked into McHenry’s eyes. “Is there anything else in the journal?”

McHenry flipped the pages and read to them. The words were angry and twisted. His grandfather kicked Roderick off the land and immersed himself in his blacksmithing. He declared he would build a reputation and a grand house on this land. He didn’t need anyone.

Roderick stole Anna from me. Roderick is dead to me.

Darcinda shook her head. “Instead of them each taking responsibility, they blamed each other.”

“And perpetuated the hate through subsequent generations,” McHenry said before glancing at Roderick. The demon nodded back at him.

“Now we know the truth, we’ll do better,” Roderick said.

The ground shook slightly.

“It’s time,” Darcinda said.

She and Roderick picked up the magic bags, and the three of them walked into the meadow the few steps they could. McHenry pulled the bag out of his pocket and they stood in a circle.

Darcinda recited the spell and the ground bucked. Heat ran up her palm into her arm, and this time the heat surged into her chest and through her limbs. Her skin tingled and lightened as she started to fade away.

“It’s working!” Roderick shouted as he disappeared.

Darcinda turned to McHenry, but he stood solidly in front of her. Why isn’t he fading?

He opened his palm and looked down at the bag. “Tell the boys I love them.”

Oh Fates! The selfless, stupid demon hadn’t separated the bags.

“No!” She reached for him, but her hand passed through his arm, and the world went gray.