Spellbound Falls [5] For the Love of Magic (22 page)

Titus stared up at the ceiling not three feet above his head as he listened to Rana moving around in the kitchen below, and found himself rethinking this whole mortal business. Poseidon’s teeth, his head hurt; the problem being he’d never experienced a headache before, or anything even resembling a hangover, for that matter.

It wasn’t that immortals didn’t feel pain; battle was just as bloody and gruesome for gods and demons as it was for humans. And taking a bad fall off a horse sure as hell hurt, as did a poke in the eye or stubbing a toe. But the pain lasted only until he got his bearings again, unlike the incessant hammer pounding his skull hard enough to make his teeth ache. Granted, he would always have command of the magic, but he figured using it to cure a hangover sort of defeated the whole purpose of
being mortal
.

He closed his eyes with a muttered curse, guessing he was in for a long day.

And come to think of it, what in Hades was he supposed to
do
all day once he fully retired? He’d never fostered any hobbies, what with being so busy saving mankind from itself. And he didn’t believe there were many positions he could apply for in this century when his only marketable skills were winning wars, ruling kingdoms, and nudging humans—sometimes with a hammer to the head—into smartening up. Although he had done a pretty good job of cultivating the Trees of Life, and he did happen to be living in the middle of a vast forest, so maybe he could become a logger. Then again, his talent lent itself to
growing
trees, not cutting them down, and Mother Nature already seemed to be doing a good job of that around here.

Titus lifted his hands to his throbbing head and carefully scrubbed his face with a groan. He then carefully rolled out of bed and slowly straightened—in the middle of the room—with a sigh. Maybe he could purchase an RV bus like Rana suggested and take her on a cross-country camping trip like Maximilian had taken Olivia on for their honeymoon four years ago.

But then he sighed again, figuring that would only use up six months or at best a year of their time before they ran out of wondrous sights to see. So then what? And anyway, he doubted Rana would leave her new grandbabies even for a month.

He swiped his pants off the chair and slipped them on, only to brighten when he remembered he had a house to build. And by
not
involving the magic and considering he sure as Hades wasn’t building a tiny hovel, construction should take at least two years, with landscaping and building a barn and outbuildings taking another.

He eyed the bed built for a gnome as he shrugged on his shirt and buttoned it up, then studied the ceiling above it. He would never survive long enough to move into their new house if he had to sleep in that bed two more years, so maybe he should do a little remodeling here first—including straightening the roof.

Swiping his socks off the bureau, he rushed toward the stairs to tell Rana about his plan, only to stagger to a halt and grab his throbbing head. “Slowly,” he muttered, holding the ironwork banister as he carefully descended.

He not so carefully stubbed his toe on the leg of a table at the end of the couch, then banged his throbbing head on a bookcase crowded against the opposite wall when he bent to rub his toe. He cursed again when he had to catch several falling books before they landed on his other bare foot, only to straighten to see his terrible wife standing in the kitchen doorway holding her hands to her mouth. Stifling her laughter, however, did nothing to disguise the amusement in her eyes.

“Yes. Well,” she said, tugging down the front of her blouse, “now that I have a big strong man around to lift the heavy stuff, I guess I can start thinning this place out.”

Titus turned to scan the crowded living area—noting with satisfaction the plant in full bloom—then turned back and smiled tightly. “Today?”

“Oh, no. I have too much to do today,” she said, disappearing into the kitchen. “Are you hungry?”

He limped into the kitchen to find her standing at the gnome-height counter as she wrote on a pad of paper. “What are you doing today?” he asked, going to the small table crammed between the door and fridge and sitting down to put on his socks—only to discover he was missing one. He leaned over to see it on the floor next to the toe-stubbing table and stood back up with a sigh. “Because I would like to go get some of my clothes and belongings first,” he said as he headed after his wayward sock.

“Oh, sure,” she called over her shoulder to him. “You can take my truck and I’ll use the cart to do my errands in town first, and save my trip to Turtleback for after my lesson with Zack this afternoon. Or I can drive you to the marina to pick up whatever vehicle you drove there the day of our race.”

He hobbled back into the kitchen and sat down again. “What time is Zack coming? Maybe we can get all our errands done before he arrives.”

She stopped writing and slowly turned to him. “We?”

He stilled with one sock half on. “I thought I would accompany you on your errands, since I have nothing else to do today except get my clothes.”

“Or,” she said very softly, “you could visit with your new grandson, since Carolina and Alec will be staying in our cottage at Nova Mare for the next couple of weeks.” She turned back to the counter. “By that time I’ll be done with my errands and welding lesson and can meet you there. Then we can have dinner at Aeolus’s Whisper and follow each other back down the mountain.”

Titus finished putting on his socks. “I’ll buy a change of clothes at the Trading Post and get my belongings tomorrow instead,” he decided out loud. “If they’re using our cottage, I imagine both Carolina and Alec would rather spend the day sleeping than visiting. So,” he said, standing up and walking to the counter to read over her shoulder. “After Ezra’s store, what’s our first errand?”

She stopped writing again and stared down at the counter, saying nothing for several heartbeats before he heard her sigh. “I was going to a furniture store in Turtleback to get a small crib to have here for when Carolina comes to visit. I was also going to stock my cupboards, take some food items to Roger’s cabin at Inglenook, run up and see Carolina, run back down for my lesson with Zack, then cook you dinner.”

Okay, then; apparently being mortal meant he might be a little slower on the uptake, as it was just dawning on him that she had planned on doing her errands
alone
.

Then what in Hades was he supposed to do all day?

“Could you not postpone your trip to Turtleback until later in the week?” he asked, partly because he didn’t want her going alone and partly because he had no idea where they were going to put a crib in this overcrowded . . . house. “Just until we have a better idea of what the new god is about. And also until Niall has had a chance to deal with the protestors,” he added for good measure. “And if you’re going to go see Carolina anyway, I could meet our new young highlander and grab a few of my clothes,” he continued, mostly because he didn’t want to do
his
errands alone.

She ripped the top sheet off the pad. “I’ll meet you in the truck in ten minutes,” she said, heading back toward the living room.

“Wait. Do you have any . . . aspirin? I believe that’s what mortals use for headaches,” he said when she stopped in the doorway. “If you don’t, I can pick some up at Ezra’s,” he quickly added, not liking the smile she suddenly gave him.

“You men do a little too much celebrating last night?” she asked way too sweetly as she walked back into the kitchen. She turned on a burner under a kettle. “I have just the thing for a hangover,” she continued, getting a cup from the cupboard. “Ginger tea.”

“I thought you said it was nasty?”

“But very soothing to beer-soaked stomachs.”

“It’s my head that hurts.”

“Ginger is good for just about any ailment,” she said, dropping a spoonful of loose tea into a screened ball and setting it in the cup. She then walked into the bathroom and opened a closet door. “And a hot compress will loosen your— Oh, Titus? Can you unlock this panel for me?” she asked, stepping back to look at him. She waved at the closet. “Zack told me there’s a small chamber under the stairs, but he doesn’t know what’s inside. Apparently his grandfather put a puzzle lock on the access panel several years ago when he replaced all the floor stringers with steel beams.”

“Gene Latimer sold you his father’s house without knowing if he was leaving anything valuable behind?” he said, walking in the bathroom and crouching onto his heels when Rana sat down on the toilet to watch.

“Gene, his wife, and their two children all went through the house and cleaned out Averill’s personal belongings and took anything that was dear to them. But when Gene told me they couldn’t get into one of the cupboards or the shed, I promised I would show him anything I found. But apparently Zack forgot all about the chamber and Gene obviously didn’t know about it, or they probably would have cut it open.”

“Which cupboard?” Titus asked, glancing back toward the kitchen.

“The end one on the peninsula,” she said with a laugh. “Our little princess had it opened in under a minute.”

He turned, still crouched. “You weren’t worried her magic might harm your babe?”

She gave a dismissive wave. “Ella didn’t need to use her magic, only her brilliant young mind.”

Titus looked back at the panel. “Did she try opening this puzzle lock?”

“I didn’t dare ask her to, because I wasn’t sure what we’d find inside. Zack had told me the peninsula cupboard was where Pops kept his liquor.”

“Pops?” he murmured, reaching in and slowly running his hand around the panel’s perimeter.

“Everyone in town called Averill
Pops
, apparently. Um, Titus?” she asked softly, drawing his attention again. “Will you still be able to work the magic after you turn your energy over to Maximilian?”

“Yes,” he said, feeling along the panel again, “as I’m only giving him my authority.”

“Will you be just as powerful now that you’re mortal?”

He stopped and looked at her, then nodded. “Once something is learned to the point it becomes inherent, it can’t be unlearned. I was born out of the imaginations of men and spent the last several millennia
becoming
the magic. The same way it could be for you,” he said gently, “as I have told you repeatedly these last forty years. You’re no less powerful than I am, Stasia.” He turned to the closet to hide his grin. “You’re merely lazy.”

“What? You’ve never said
that
in the last forty years.”

He began running his hand over the right edge of the panel. “You consider me old-fashioned and set in my ways, yet I can’t help but notice you’ve remained content to let me do all the hard work. Like with this panel,” he said, straightening to his feet and stepping back as he gestured at the closet. “Why don’t
you
simply open it?”

“Because I’m a dumb mortal,” she snapped, also standing up and pushing past him when the kettle started to whistle.

He caught her arm and turned her to face the closet. “I’ll make the tea while you open the panel,” he said, walking into the kitchen.

“I can’t,” she growled over the blaring whistle.

“
Try
,” he growled back, shutting off the burner. He grinned again when she turned her glare on the closet, and lost whatever she softly muttered to the slowing whistle of the kettle. “What does it say about
my
intelligence,” he asked as he poured water into the cup, “to have fallen in love with a dumb mortal?”

“It says you’re dumber than I am,” she quickly returned, despite her attention being on the panel more than on him.

“I would rest easier,” he said, moving to the bathroom doorway, “knowing that if I should die first, you will at least be able to handle small matters like this one.”

She shot him a grin and went back to staring inside the closet. “I believe that’s what grandchildren are for.”

“So it truly is your way of controlling us,” he said quietly.

That got her full attention, her face paling but for two telltale flags of red. “What do you mean?”

He smiled warmly and pressed a finger to her lips. “What began as a young maiden’s only defense against her powerful husband had become a habit by the time she’d learned to trust him.”

“I trusted you enough to marry you,” she whispered behind his finger.

“Not completely and definitely not in the beginning,” he gently contradicted, moving her to kneel facing the closet as he crouched behind her. “I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing since you left, especially since that day you asked me what I thought your life might have been like if you had taken a different path. But it wasn’t until I looked back over our marriage that I realized you’ve been defending yourself against me for so long that you don’t even realize you’re doing it.” He wrapped her up in his arms as he spread his knees, then pulled her back against him when he felt her begin to tremble. “You wouldn’t have died in a crooked hovel giving birth to a toothless bastard’s child,” he continued softly, “partly because neither of your parents would have allowed it, but more importantly because you knew your own self-worth. Which, I believe, explains how you had the courage to marry a god.” He chuckled. “You also had the intelligence to realize you needed to control me. You began by making me vow never to use my magic on you, and then proceeded to make exceptions whenever it suited your purpose.”