Do you think I’m a complete fool? Marcus sounded like he was having a cup of tea mid-battlefield, his feet dancing gracefully out of Kevin’s way. Lizzie would never forgive me if her saber broke.
That was amazingly insightful thinking from the man who had taken two years to realize she might even want one.
Sophie focused on Marcus again. Sword calm, quiet, and deadly. Or it could have been, if he weren’t carefully schooling Kevin in some arcane form of dance.
Pfft. It’s called fencing. A long and illustrious sport that a goodly number of the denizens of Realm would do well to study. Marcus rolled his sword under Kevin’s, stopping just short of disarming him. I captained my college team.
Kevin blinked-and settled his saber back in his hands, much quieter this time.
Sophie watched as their bookworm witchling mirrored Marcus’s footsteps, learning the strange and ancient dance of swords. And grinned as Kevin’s sudden lunge nearly sent Marcus into the moat.
Hmmph. Marcus sounded disgusted, mostly with himself. He’s got some potential, this one. And I’m a lot older than I used to be.
Lizzie yelled something unintelligible and fierce as she dove under Marcus’s sword hand, aiming for Sean’s knees. Sean spun in frustration, still tangled in his own cape-
And froze.
Ear-piercing klaxons blared through Realm, loud enough to wake the dead.
Morgan.
Sophie bolted for the ramparts and realized Marcus was four steps ahead of her, long legs flying over rough cobblestone. She slowed down-a healer with a concussion wasn’t going to help anyone-and then remembered she was in Realm. Two quick finger taps later, she’d ported both herself and Marcus to Morgan’s side.
The wailing Morgan’s side.
Marcus swung a hand around, flinging power at invisible enemies. He grabbed Morgan roughly-a move that did nothing to diminish her howling-and screamed commands at the tablet on his waist. Voice-activated spells flung in all directions. Warding. Seeking. Hunting the terror that stalked his baby girl.
Sophie had seen ravaging mama grizzlies that looked less fierce.
And none of it was necessary. The kicking, screaming, pink, warm Morgan was very much present.
It was Moira who silenced the alarms.
And Moira who reached out to touch Marcus’s hand as Morgan’s cries finally penetrated.
The edges of insanity leaked out of his eyes, and he looked down at his baby girl. Really looked, his hands gentling as he touched her cheeks. Her toes. Caught her waving hand and squeezed it, soothing her cries down to nothing.
And when he finally spoke, to his tiny audience of one, it was a decent approximation of Marcus Buchanan. “We might have won without the interruption, you know.”
Lizzie giggled. “Maybe she’s mad you were using her sword.”
He looked up, eyes taking in the concern on the assembled faces. And for the first time that Sophie could ever remember, walked toward a crowd. Carrying the baby girl they all wanted to see.
Nell was one of the few not watching Marcus.
She was watching her brother and her healer daughter, standing nose to nose over one of the funky new Realm tablets. She edged carefully through the crowd. What’s up?
Dunno yet. Jamie’s mental voice sounded distracted. We’re still trying to figure out which warding spell got activated.
Two more blonde heads reached him before Nell managed to squeeze through the last of the witch bystanders. Good. Mia was a hotshot hacker, and Shay was their most surefooted debugger.
Best ten-year-old online security team on the planet.
And it made her proud that they were looking for the breach while most people were just happy to see Morgan safe.
“There.” Ginia stabbed a finger at a corner of her tablet. “That’s the trigger.”
Jamie grunted and moved his nose in closer. “What spell is that?”
“One of the old ones.” Mia’s fingers moved at light speed, scrolling lines of code. “Ginnie, you’ve got it labeled as ‘shiny rocks’?” She looked up, puzzled. “What’s that mean?”
“It’s the one Moira asked for.” Ginia frowned. “It’s a really old ‘stay put’ blessing. Kind of like a stasis field, but way older. It reacts if anything tries to touch all the shiny rocks she put in Morgan’s garden.”
Nell blinked. She was at least ten pages of code behind on this one. “What rocks?”
“She had us move in boatloads of shiny beach pebbles.” Jamie nodded in the direction of the moats and gardens below. “See how it glints down there?”
“Wait.” Nell was still trying to catch up. “So something magical tried to touch the rocks and set off a warding spell?” She frowned. In a game world full of witches, that could mean any number of things.
False alarm, maybe? sent Jamie quietly.
Perhaps. Or an errant game spell-the old magics weren’t used to virtual shenanigans. Whatever it was, it wasn’t headed at Morgan. At least not directly.
Hmmm.
Nell could feel Jamie’s head ratcheting down from red alert. Her daughters were a different story.
“Here!” Mia stabbed at lines of code, her sisters hanging over her shoulders. “And whatever it was tried twice.”
“Didn’t make it through. Won’t next time, either.” Ginia’s voice had Nell glancing up in surprise.
Jamie frowned over his niece’s head. She’s taking this really personally. I helped with the wards, but they’re mostly her work.
Nell nodded slowly. Message heard, loud and clear. She was insanely proud of her girls, especially of their instincts to love and protect and nourish the people around them. But whether or not today had been a real threat, Morgan was a traveler-the odds on her reaching her first birthday were terrifyingly low. And guilt could cripple even really healthy, happy girls.
Time to take some weight off ten-year-old shoulders.
Nell leaned in, a hand on Ginia’s arm. “Moira says you’re doing some weaving that looks a little like spellcasting. Want to show me what you’ve done?”
She read welcome in her daughter’s mind.
And relief.
Chapter 16
Jamie walked into the Witches’ Lounge, Kenna in one arm, a bag of guy food in the other. He grinned at the assembled guys and babies. The Fairy Godfathers, reunited. “Who called the meeting?”
“I did,” said a dry voice from behind him.
Daniel came over to grab the bag of food and waved at Morgan, riding kangaroo-style in Marcus’s pouch. “Traced back my hack, did you? It was a fairly sloppy one.”
“Wasn’t necessary.” Marcus’s lips quirked. “I don’t know all that many men capable of creating a baby dressing flow chart.”
Mike grinned at Jamie-that one had been their little contribution.
Aaron looked up, his daughter a tiny, curled puddle on his chest. “How’d the bath thing go?”
Marcus snorted. “She’s clean. Let’s just leave it at that.”
Yeah. Kenna’s short life had been full of a lot of overly exciting moments, but by far the worst had been the first time Jamie had tried to give her a bath. He had no freaking clue how fathers without teleporting skills managed it.
Mike sniffed at the air. “Anything good in that bag? Starving.”
“Sorry.” Aaron shifted slightly, freeing up an arm. “Steaks require more than ten minutes of warning.”
Doritos didn’t. “You’ll just have to clog your arteries along with the rest of us this time.” Jamie tossed over a bag, wincing as it almost dinged Aislin in the head. His porting reflexes were toast after the sword fight. Keeping Lizzie out of the moat had been a full-time job, and Aervyn had been too busy waving his arms at imaginary dragons to be much help.