Page 23 of Christmas Eve with Krampus

“But she’s gone.”

“Broken.”

“Hehe. Bye bye.”

Oh God. Oh God.

Nicklaus has a put-upon expression on his face, but pure pleasure—and pride—in his eyes.

“Mortals can be breakable. If they don’t choose to stay… it wasn’t my fault. And, see, I’ve been blessed with a new bride.”

Oh, no, the fuck he hasn’t.

I don’t care if they try to stop me. If I stay, I’m dead. If I try to push my way through the elves, I might die, but I at least have to try.

Two steps. I make it two steps before his powerful hand lashes around my upper arm.

Another jolt. It’s way more painful then when Ruprecht touched me, but the way he squeezes then throws me away from him hurts me even more.

I rock on my heels, trying to catch myself before I fall.

By the time I have, the elves have vanished, leaving Nicklaus and me alone as he circles me with a vicious expression.

“Ho,” he bites out. “Ho.” His eyes are impossibly black. “Hoe.”

Uh-oh.

Nicklaus stabs a finger at me. “You let him touch you.”

He must be talking about Ruprecht, but I’m not going to be the one to confirm that.

“He had to have known you were meant for me.” Nicklaus takes a deep breath before cupping his mouth and shouting. “Ruprecht! Explain yourself!”

Seconds. That’s how long it takes. Mere seconds before the door comes flying in. Good things the elves already scampered because, with the force of his hit, the door would’ve either sent them flying or squashed them.

His gleaming red eyes are only for me. Disregarding Nicklaus entirely, he grabs my arm, tucking me against his chest, holding me close.

“Josie. As soon as I saw you were gone, I was already coming for you. But Nicklaus threw up a ward?—”

“And I dropped it so that you can explain why you’ve claimed my bride.”

He did what?

Ruprecht releases me from his embrace, moving me behind him so that he can assume a protective stance.

Feeling a lot bolder now that my giant demon is here, I poke my head around him.

Claim… “Not that it’s any of your business, but we didn’t sleep together.”

Well, no. We did, and if you count oral, we definitely had sex. But we never had the chance to have penetrative sex because I was stolen right out of bed before we could.

“Not that that changes anything,” he says, a voice full of jolly. “You know how the lore works. She’s my bride, Ruprecht. You know she was meant for me. That the council chose her for me.” Nicklaus strokes his white beard. “But if you take her now, it’ll be like I did without having to touch her. I’ll touch myself instead, and then the bond will be yours. I’ll find a new bride and you… you will have the first merry Christmas you’ve ever had, brother.”

Nicklaus… he really thinks I’m supposed to be his? Forget everything else he said… how could I be ‘fated’ to him when Ruprecht said…

I poke him in the back. “You said I was meant to find you.”

Ruprecht turns to look at me, “You were. You are. But, I told you before… sometimes the tethers get crossed, even in Blackmoor. We’re both halves of the same soul. If you were meant for me?—”

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