Defending Destiny (The Warrior Chronicles) (24 page)

“May I have milady’s permission to speak.” It wasn’t a question. It was a demand.

No.

“Of course.”

The room grew quiet. Daisy scanned it quickly. Every exit was blocked by a formidable male she didn’t want to barge through. If it came to that, she’d barge Shay’s way. The energy radiating from Magnus was way too hot and far too dangerous for her to risk running there.

“I want children,” Magnus said. Three little words that hung in the air.

Daisy couldn’t swallow. The air around her was suddenly too heavy for that.

“We can start right now if you’d like.”

“I…I…”
Apparently can’t speak.

Magnus cut her off. “Lots of them, but two will do. If we can’t have children of our own, then we’ll adopt.” His smile turned lecherous. “But that won’t stop me from trying to make it happen naturally. Several times a day.”

“Magnus, you’re embarrassing the poor girl,” Mari said.

Magnus didn’t even look at his mother as he stalked closer to Daisy, so close she could feel his breath on her skin. “Is that true, lass? I thought we were sharing our intentions with my parents. I’m just following your lead.” His voice was a raspy whisper now, his breath damp on her cheek. “I love you. I’ve loved you far longer than I wanted to admit, even to myself. I have no intention of being without you ever again.
You
are my family.
And
I want children.”

Daisy’s chin shot up as she finally found her backbone. She poked him in the chest as she spoke. He didn’t budge. “Oh yeah? And what if I
don’t
want children? What if I’m all you get, Gus?”

Magnus beamed down at her, then picked her up and twirled her around. He squeezed her so hard he literally squeezed the breath out of her. When he set her back on her feet in front of his parents, there was love in his eyes and happiness written in every line of his face. She didn’t understand this man and he wasn’t sure she ever would.

He answered her question. “Well then lass, I guess I’ll have to settle for just you.”

Daisy felt his unsaid word reverberate through her mind:
Gotcha.

And he had.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

After he left Daisy to get dressed, Magnus went in search of his parents. It was time for a private talk and time to send them on their merry way. No matter how bravely Daisy stood her ground,
his parent’s presence rocked her at a time when their relationship was just beginning to grow into what he wanted it to be. He didn’t need his parents adding pressure to a fragile situation.

Magnus found Shay pacing the kitchen, a mug of tea in his hand—earl grey that, from the scent of it, had been steeping far too long. Just like his father.

Magnus first met his father as an adult. He’d been seeking connections to where he came from when he showed up on Shay’s door unannounced. Shay had no idea that he had a son until he came face to face with the man his son had become. Magnus had to hand it to him, though—Shannon O’Shay wasted no time making him feel welcome. He’d opened his heart and his home to Magnus, and Magnus loved him for it. He liked him too. That was easy. His father was incredibly likeable, when he wasn’t pissed.

In all the years since that initial meeting, Magnus had never seen his father lose his temper. Not once. He’d seen him walk away. He’d seen him raw and close to bleeding when Shay pleaded with Mari to stay with him. He’d seen him openly vulnerable every time he asked Mari to marry him, and resigned, but not defeated, every time his mother turned him down. But most of the time, Shay hid his quick wit behind an affability so charismatic that women of all ages were drawn to him. It wasn’t just the women, though—when Shannon O’Shay smiled, he made everyone around him want to smile with him.

Shay wasn’t smiling.

Magnus sighed. Shay stopped his pacing and stared at him. This was not going to go well for either of them. Resigned to the potential of locking horns with his father, Magnus walked to the counter, poured boiling water into a mug from the hot kettle, and added his own teabag. He chose gunpowder tea. Like testosterone, there was enough oil of bergamot scenting the air.

Magnus sat at the kitchen table with his tea.

Shay stood.

“Where’s Mom?”

Shay’s shoulders slumped and he took the seat opposite his son at the table. “She went to that teashop across the street in search of some breakfast to bring back. She’ll be gone a bit, I suspect.”

Magnus took that as his cue to say what he needed to say. He was glad that his mother wasn’t there. He needed his father’s advice. Sometimes a man needed to discuss things with his father that he didn’t want his mother to hear.

Magnus fished the teabag out of his mug with his fingers and placed it on the small plate next to Shay. Two slices of burnt toast sat on the plate, abandoned. Obviously his father had been preoccupied when he tried to use the toaster. Magnus looked into eyes so like his own. “Why are you here, Da’?”

Shay was startled a bit at Magnus’ use of the word “Da’”—generally Magnus called his father by his first name. After the millisecond of surprise, Shay settled back in his chair and raised an eyebrow. He was skeptical of Magnus’ motives, as well he should have been. There wasn’t much Magnus wouldn’t do to secure Daisy’s love.

Shay looked at Magnus with serious gray eyes. “Taryn asked us to come. She thinks she’s figured out a clue that will help Daisy find what she’s searching for. Taryn had Mari craft a pendant for Daisy that I guess is a map of sorts. It doesn’t make sense to me, but it was important enough to Taryn to have it hand-delivered. She didn’t trust the phone and she didn’t want anything written down for someone else to find.” Shay shrugged. “It seemed like overkill to me, but it gave your mother and me an excuse to see you and Daisy.”

Shay let that hang in the air before continuing. “The last time Taryn felt this strongly about an artifact, it nearly got her killed.” Shay’s jaw popped and his voice turned to steel. “I don’t want to see Daisy get hurt. By anyone. Most especially, not by you. Not again.”

The air around them was charged with challenge, yet there was kindness in Shay’s eyes too. Magnus knew his father loved Daisy. He was the one who named her, if his version of events was to be believed. She was his best friend’s daughter, and he, like Lauren, considered her more daughter than adoptive “niece.”

His father loved him too, and this had to be killing him. Shay didn’t want his child, or the child of his heart, hurt.

“I’ve got no intention of hurting Daisy, but I’m afraid I will. Sooner or later I’m going to do something to piss her off, and as much as that will hurt her, I’m sure she’ll make sure it hurt
s me even more.” The look on Shay’s face said Magnus wasn’t doing himself or his cause any favors, so he dialed down the honesty a notch and tried again.

“I love her, Da’. I’ll be spending the rest of my life loving her,
preferably
with her at my side.” Shay’s look softened. Seeing it, Magnus pressed on. “I fucked up the first time. Something I know you can relate to. I don’t want to fuck up again. I want to marry her. I want her to want that too. Help me convince her that being married to me is a good idea.” Magnus gave a self-deprecating laugh
.
“She’s currently a wee bit skeptical.”

Shay snorted.

Magnus didn’t take offense. His father knew well the pain of rejection. In his case, it had grown into a communal joke at Potters Woods. “If I can’t convince your mother to marry me, how do you think I can help convince another pigheaded woman I love that marriage to my son is a good idea?”

Shay ran the palm of one hand over his buzzed head, now spotted with gray. Despite the grey, his father was still a vital and handsome man. Hopefully Shay knew how Mari’s eyes lit up every time she looked at him. Mari loved his father deeply, and everyone knew it. That was why they found her refusal to marry odd. It just didn’t make sense to anyone who knew his parents.

“I’m sorry, son. I wish I could help.” Shay laughed, and it sounded like it hurt. “What I can do is grab your mother and get out of here. I don’t want to make your job any harder than it already is.” The sadness in his father’s voice when he continued tore at Magnus and gave him a glimpse of his own future. “You’ll have to decide, like I had to, whether it’s worth letting a small piece of you die every day to be with the woman you love, sharing her life, when she doesn’t love or trust you enough to commit to you, or if your pride and sense of self-preservation is stronger than your need to be at her side. I don’t envy you having to choose. It’s a choice I make every day. May the gods be with you, lad.”

…

Neither man saw Mari from her position in the hall, close enough to hear every word yet hidden from view. Tears she couldn’t contain ran freely down her not-so-blushing-bride cheeks. She’d hurt Shay far more than she intended with her constant refusals. Far more, she suspected, than he’d hurt her with his absence all those years. She’d long since forgiven him, yet she stubbornly refused to trust. Shay was right. She was pigheaded. And now, that pigheadedness was hurting Shay and their son. That she couldn’t abide.

Mari couldn’t make up for all the time she’d lost with Shay.

She could do everything in her power to ensure their son didn’t suffer the same fate as his father.

It was time to have that talk Daisy initiated when she was twelve. She’d announced her intention to marry Magnus to Mari then, and had asked for Mari’s permission. It was well past time to give it. Then she’d do a little asking of her own. It was well past time for that too.

As luck would have it, Mari ran into Daisy on the stairs. She moved to the bottom stair and blocked Daisy’s path. Daisy cocked her head at her quizzically.
Here it goes, Goddess help me.

“Do you love my son?”

Surprised flashed in Daisy’s eyes. “Yes.”

“Do you plan on marrying him?”

Daisy scrunched up her face, then smiled. “I’ll marry Magnus just as soon as you marry Uncle Shay.”

Up until a few seconds ago, that statement would have meant anything from “never” to “when it snows in Hades.” Now it meant “bloody quickly, mate,” but Daisy didn’t know that.

“Promise?” Mari asked.

Daisy’s smile turned beatific. “Of course.”

“I’ll be holdin’ ya to that, lass,” Mari said, stepping aside.

Daisy kissed her cheek and laughed as she breezed by. “No more than I’ll be holding you. I am a woman of my word.”

Mari raised her head to the sky and gave thanks to the universe for its patience and its enduring gifts of love. She then headed to the kitchen to share the brown bag take-out breakfast with her soon-to-be husband and son. She smiled to herself. She had weddings to plan, and, Goddess willing, grandchildren to anticipate.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Magnus stepped out of the bathroom and ran straight into Gerry as the man came out of the kitchen. He had a massive pastry of some kind on a plate in one hand and a mug of steaming coffee in the other. Magnus counted himself lucky the lech wasn’t completely naked. In a nod to the fact that there were other men in the house, Butler had managed to take the time to put on a thin pair of lounging pants. Gerry reared away from Magnus, making his body concave with the effort not to crash into Magnus. He did it without spilling a drop of coffee or dislodging his pastry.

“Tell me you didn’t go out to get that pastry dressed like that.”

Gerry looked down, not even cracking a smile. “You think I’m over-dressed for a trip to the museum coffee shop?”

Magnus took a step back, crossing his arms across his chest. Where had Butler been the last day and a half, and why the sudden reappearance? “I think you’re perfectly dressed for a trip to North Africa or perhaps the Congo. If you need to relax, I hear Madagascar is nice this time of year. Since you don’t have much clothing to pack, you should be able to charter a plane”—he looked at his watch—“in the next hour or so.”

“And here I thought we were finally bonding, Alexander. I even put on pants for the occasion.” He shrugged. The gesture didn’t rock the liquid in his mug at all. “No such luck if you were hoping to change my current destination.” Gerry paused, his eyes flashed serious for a split second and made Magnus pinprick aware that there was more to Gerry than his Hugh Hefner routine would suggest. “My course has been mapped for me.”

Then, as quickly as the threat spread across Gerry’s face, it was gone. “Lauren isn’t finished with my services quite yet.” He grinned and had the audacity to wink. “Plus, I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to Daisy. The two of us have just started our bonding.”

Two days ago Magnus would have hit him, even with his hands full. Now that Daisy had taken him into her body, if not her heart, he controlled the impulse. Daisy wasn’t one to sleep around, even if Magnus didn’t quite yet hold her unadulterated loyalty. On second thought, maybe he should hit the pretty boy. No sense taking unnecessary risks.

Gerry must have read his mind, because he chuckled. “Hitting a man with his hands full might not be seen by our fair flower as très gallant.”