your sleep, I suppose maybe then we could … you and I

could … that we might …”

He grabbed his crutches with a soft laugh and hobbled

toward the bathroom. “I agree; maybe we should see how

the next few days go before ye finish that thought. Sleep

wel , lass.”

Peg stood in the middle of her once again large

bedroom staring at the closed bathroom door and worried

that that had been way too easy. She turned and slowly

walked out of the room, a little bummed that he hadn’t even

tried to steal a kiss.

Duncan stood in Peg’s utterly feminine bathroom, his hands

splayed on the counter as he stared into the sink wondering

how he was going to explain the magic to her if he

couldn’t even get it to cooperate with him. He’d told Alec

what he’d found on his mountain during their ride to the

hospital. The ride to Inglenook to shave and get cleaned up

was a bit blurry, and he couldn’t even remember the ride

from Inglenook to Peg’s. Alec had suggested that he and

Robbie go with him to the cave once he healed and help

him find whatever in hel he was looking for.

Today was Monday, and his parents were coming Friday

afternoon to spend the weekend—he hoped like hel the

camp trailers waiting to be delivered were in place by then

—so he figured he’d better be healed by Thursday night.

Too bad he couldn’t just go spend a week on the mountain

to heal and come back tomorrow morning.

Come to think of it, he seemed to recal making that very

suggestion to Alec on the ride back from the hospital. Alec

had laughed and said that would ruin their plan of letting

Peg fawn al over him—just before his nephew had gotten

serious and said that they weren’t going back to that

mountain without Robbie, since their clan Guardian knew

more about the magic than either of them did.

Duncan sighed and turned on the faucet and splashed

water on his face, trying to wash away the fuzzy sensation

the pain meds were causing. He stared at himself in the

mirror and frowned, remembering Alec tel ing him about

Peg’s van just before she’d met them at her new house.

Land-raping bitch some bastard had spray-painted. Hel ,

he didn’t blame her for deep-sixing the van, but he stil

couldn’t get past the horror of her pushing it into a flooded

old slate quarry al by herself, then walking out a muddy

road in a cold, pouring rain and hitching a ride to Inglenook.

Forget contrary; Peg Thompson needed a goddamned

keeper.

And why in hel did the woman sleep in a twin bed?

Chapter Seventeen

Duncan expel ed al the air in his lungs to unwedge himself

from the narrow cave and then ran the beam of his flashlight

over the rock above it, looking for signs of weakness in the

granite. “Dynamite would probably work.” He grinned over

at Alec. “So I take back every disparaging thing I said

about your going into military demolition. If I get some

dynamite off the blasting contractor I hired for the road, can

you get me in there,” he asked, waving the flashlight at the

hole, “without bringing the mountain down on top of us?”

“You can’t be serious,” Robbie said before Alec could

respond. “Are ye insane, Duncan? You detonate even a

smal charge inside this mountain and you’re going to wipe

northern Maine and half of Quebec off the map. Can ye not

feel the strength of the energy pulsing through the rock?”

Duncan sat down and stretched out his throbbing right

leg as he leaned against the granite, rubbing his face with a

muttered curse. They were so goddamned close. It had

taken most of the night to get past the chasm, and then al

day to explore the labyrinth of tunnels on the other side

before they found what Duncan hoped like hel was the

instrument of his power. Only they couldn’t reach it because

they were al too broad-shouldered to fit through the

remaining twenty feet of cave. And they couldn’t actual y

see what they were trying to reach because the tunnel

started curving sharply to the right just five feet in.

Something was in there, though, because al three of

them could feel it.

“I knew we should have brought the pup,” Duncan

muttered. “He’d fit in there.”

“And once he did, then what?” Robbie asked, sitting

down across from him. “Are ye forgetting the other part of

Mac’s suggestion, that you bring along someone with

smal er hands?” He gave a derisive snort. “I’m guessing

whoever goes in there wil need opposable thumbs. Ye

might as wel accept the obvious: Mac’s determined that

you involve Peg in the acquisition of your power.”

“But why? Then I’l have to admit I’m a hel of a lot more

than just charmed, and the rule is we don’t expose the

magic to anyone other than our spouses. And I don’t need

that bastard choosing who I marry, or even that I marry at

al . He’s supposed to be protecting our free wil , and yet

he’s hel -bent on not giving me any choice whatsoever.”

“Mac has no say about our mates,” Robbie said, shaking

his head. “Only Providence does, and then only to make

sure the paths of two people destined to be together

eventual y cross. It’s up to us to recognize the gift we’re

being given.” He grinned. “But our resident wizard does

have access to the knowledge contained in the Trees of

Life, so he must have discovered that Peg and you are

meant for each other and he’s merely trying to … help.”

Duncan hung his head in his hands even as he wondered

why he wasn’t more disturbed by the notion it had been

written in the stars that Peg would be his. Because despite

having a hard time picturing himself as some poor

woman’s husband, marrying this particular one meant he

also became an instant father. He snorted. “So what in hel

do you suppose Peg and her kids did to deserve me?” he

muttered to no one in particular. “I’m the last per—”

The ground beneath them suddenly heaved in a rippling

shrug just as a distant rumbling came from deep below. “I

don’t know about you guys,” Alec said, scrambling to his

feet with a laugh, “but I’m thinking we’ve overstayed our

welcome.”

“We’re right behind you,” Robbie shouted as the rumbling

grew louder.

Duncan scrambled to his feet, but stopped to take one

last glance at the end of the cave. “I’l be back you contrary

bastard, and ye better be on your best behavior for my

woman,” he growled, turning away from the blinding light

that suddenly shot from the narrow passage, the sound of

raucous laughter pursuing him up the tunnel.

The three of them reached the chasm and gingerly

scrambled across the bridge they’d built out of smal logs

that morning, and they didn’t stop running until they stepped

out under a nighttime sky that was actual y darker than the

cave had been.

“Do ye smel that?” Robbie asked, looking around.

“That’s smoke.”

Duncan also looked around from the vantage point of

their being three-quarters of the way up the mountain. “But

it’s not a campfire.”

“There,” Alec said, pointing. “Down across the fiord, do

ye see that faint glow?”

“Christ, that’s the pit!” Duncan snarled, already making

his way into the trees. “They must have torched our

equipment.”

“Nay, that’s not diesel fuel,” Robbie said from right

behind him. “That’s the smel of a structure fire.”

A chil unlike any he’d ever experienced ran up the length