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David briefly looked up from the Christmas gifts he was wrapping when Fox returned. “Did he suspect anything?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s hardly unusual for Lexington to babysit him.” Not that they called it that in Alex’ earshot. Their little boy was very insistent that he wasn’t a baby and didn’t need to be watched. Unfortunately for him, they all knew that while he was pretty safe here at the castle, leaving him unsupervised was likely to lead to schemes and pranks. David could well remember the look on Detective Maza’s face at the realization, torn between resignation at another source of schemes and glee at him and Fox having to deal with it and to try and reign him in. “Have you finished wrapping his gifts?”
“Almost. Pop sent his unwrapped.” He rolled his eyes. “I told him he could give them to Alex himself when we come to Bar Habor but he insisted.”
“He’s still pissed that we won’t make it to Bar Harbour until the 26th then?”
He didn’t reply. Planning how and where to spend Christmas had been more difficult this year, thanks to his Pop’s invitation. He was pleased that his relationship with his father had improved to the point that Petros had invited them to Bar Harbour for Christmas, but he did not want it to come at the expense of his partners. Petros probably hadn’t thought about it when he’d asked what else they wanted to do but he knew Fox was still struggling with Halcyon’s death, with the reminder that there would be no more holidays she could spend with her own father, no chance for Alex to get to truly know his grandfather.
Spending Christmas morning in Bar Harbour would also mean not spending Christmas morning in bed together as a family, since they’d have to be discreet regarding their relationship with Owen. At best, he’d stay in the guest room, at worst in a hotel. He was certainly not staying behind in New York this time, not for the holidays. They had not decided yet if they would come out to Petros, either during this visit or at some point in the future, in part because he wasn’t sure how he would react. Petros had accepted it well enough that he was bi but they had never talked about his being polyamorous.
She sat down across from him at the table and picked up the tape. “Let me give you a hand. The sooner they’re all wrapped, the sooner we can try and figure out a good place to hide them.” She grinned. “And I’m curious to see what Petros has picked out for Alex.”
He returned the grin and pulled the paper aside again for a moment to let her take a look. No matter how much Petros had harped on him for his decision to move to New York and become a businessman instead of following in his footsteps and working as a fisherman in Bar Habor, he seemed to enjoy spoiling his grandson. “Do you have a hiding place in mind already?”
She shook her head. As she placed the colourful strips of tape, she replied: “No, not yet. We know that our bedroom and our offices aren’t enough to keep them out of Alex’ hands. He certainly found last year’s presents and his birthday presents quickly enough there. I could take them to my office at Cyberbiotics? I don’t take him along when I have to go there.”
“At least with his birthday presents, he placed the toys back inside the boxes after he tried them out.”
“There was no replacing the head of that chocolate Santa last Christmas.” She frowned. “At least not at his current level of training and patience, I guess.” Considering all they’d seen magic do, it seemed unlikely that magic couldn’t be used to repair or replace part of a chocolate figurine.
“Not without guidance.” They both looked to the door. They’d hadn’t heard Owen come in, but he was standing just inside the door, surveying the already wrapped presents, the one they were working on and the scraps laying around with a raised eyebrow. “Did you want me to arrange for clean-up, Sir?”
“I believe we’ll manage, Owen. But perhaps you have some suggestions for where to put these.” He gestured at the wrapped presents. “Preferably somewhere Alex won’t find them too easily.”
He joined them at the table. “It is less a matter of where to put them as what to put them in. We need something that will block his magic.”
“He’s using his magic to find them?” Fox asked.
Owen nodded. “He is still physically searching for them but letting his magic guide him on where to look. I realized it when he found his birthday presents.”
“Then how do we hide them from him? How do we keep his magic from finding them?” Fox asked.
“You said what to put them in. You mean something like an iron box?” David asked. It would make sense, considering Alex’ magic came from the fay blood he’d inherited from Fox.
“Just so.” He paused and looked thoughtful. “Perhaps with additional spells or wards on the box. His human blood makes him less vulnerable to iron.”
“That still leaves the question of where to put the box,” Fox said. “If he sees it, he’ll guess what it’s for.”
“The living quarters in the castle are out,” David agreed. It was far too likely that Alex would stumble across it there and get curious. He also worried that one of the other two might accidentally get hurt by the iron of the box. Better to place it out of the way where they didn’t go often. “Perhaps in the lower levels of the castle, with the Iron Clan.”
Owen nodded. “It will seem less out of place there.”
“I’ll take Alex’ presents with me to Cyberbiotics tomorrow to hide them there until you figure out the box.” Fox shook her head. “Perhaps this year, we’ll manage to keep his presents hidden until Christmas.”