Page 37 of Mistletoe and Magic

The warmth in her voice seeped into him, thawing the cold fingers of doubt that had been clutching at his heart. She was here with him now, real and vibrant and utterly captivating. Jace scooped another handful of snow, anticipation tingling in his veins.

"Come on, Felicity," he coaxed, his voice low and playful. "Show me what you've got."

Her cheeks flushed pink with the cold and the thrill of the chase, and she bent down, gathering her own ammunition. The snowball whizzed past him, close enough for him to feel its icy breath as he ducked. He chuckled, dodging and weaving, the world reduced to this enchanting dance between them.

But beneath the laughter, an undercurrent of turmoil churned. Felicity's normally happy gaze held a flicker of something else—conflict, fear. It was there in the slight tremor of her hands, the way her smile didn't quite reach her eyes. And Jace felt it, too—the weight of unspoken words, the gravity of emotions yet to be laid bare.

"Gotcha!" Felicity's triumphant cry pulled him back as a snowball hit its mark, dampness seeping through his flannel shirt.

"Fair shot," Jace conceded, brushing off the snow. His heart ached to bridge the distance that loomed between them, to understand the depths of whatever her struggle might be. He wanted to wrap her in his arms, promise her that whatever haunted her thoughts, didn’t have the power to beat them. They were a team, and he would be of as much support to her as she had been to him.

"Jace..." Her voice trailed off, laden with a thousand unsaid things. The earnestness in her eyes pierced through him, a silent plea for... what? Understanding? Patience?

"Hey, it's okay," he soothed, stepping closer, his voice barely above a whisper. "I’m not hurt.”

“We need to talk…” she started as a shiver ran through her that he sensed wasn't from the cold, and she looked away, the stark contrast between whatever inner chaos was plaguing her and the serene snowfall around them not lost on Jace. He reached out, hesitant, his fingers hovering just shy of her arm.

"Whatever it is, we'll figure it out," he murmured, the words more a vow to himself than to her. He needed her to believe it, too—that in the labyrinth of their tangled emotions, they would figure out and put right whatever was wrong.

Jace followed Felicity up the narrow staircase leading to her flat, the warmth from their playful skirmish still tingling in his veins. He watched the gentle sway of her hips and felt an urge to touch them, to drag her into bed the moment he got her behind closed doors. The intimacy of the moment swelled within him, a delicate dance of proximity and the promise of what they seemed to be building.

"Make yourself comfortable," Felicity said, pushing open the door as she shrugged off her coat, revealing the curve of her shoulders draped in her oversized sweater that whispered of many evenings spent reading in her comfy chair by the window.

For some reason, the atmosphere hummed with an unspoken tension, a prelude to conversation Jace was beginning to dread.

Felicity hesitated, her silhouette framed by the twinkling lights that hung about her window. "Jace, there's something I need to tell you," she began, fingers nervously tucking a stray curl behind her ear. "It's going to sound unbelievable."

"Try me." His chuckle was light, but it masked a roiling curiosity. "I've heard some pretty wild tales in my time."

She took a deep breath, the blue of her eyes darkening like a stormy sea. "I'm not from here. Not from this... reality."

The laughter that burst from Jace was spontaneous, a reflex born of disbelief. "What is this? I thought you wanted to write romance novels, not time travel or science fiction." He expected her to laugh or smile and then reveal the joke.

But Felicity stood motionless, her gaze earnest and unwavering. "No, Jace. This isn't fiction. It's the truth. I come from an alternate reality."

His mirth faded, the lingering echo of his laughter suddenly hollow in the quiet room. He searched her face for any sign of deceit, for the familiar crinkle of humor around her eyes, but found none. "You're serious?"

"Completely." Her voice was a whisper, yet it carried the weight of galaxies, of possibilities that tore at the fabric of everything he knew.

Reality tilted, and Jace felt as if the ground beneath him had turned to glass, fragile and translucent, ready to shatter with the slightest misstep. In the span of a heartbeat, the woman before him was transformed from a kindred spirit to a mystery as vast as the night sky.

"Alternate reality..." The words tasted strange on his tongue, an exotic flavor that he wasn't sure he liked. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to anchor himself to something tangible. "Seriously?” She nodded. “But how? Why are you here?"

Felicity moved closer, her presence a beacon in the disorienting revelation. "It's a long story, one that involves more than just me. In my reality, I’m a novelist. I fell asleep one night at my computer, and when I woke up, I was here in Christmas Valley—the setting for my debut novel. And then I met you, and everything became so real and so much more than I ever imagined. And now, I might have to leave to save what I've found."

"Save?" Jace repeated, his thoughts spinning. "Felicity, this is... I don't even know where to begin with this."

"Neither did I," she admitted, her vulnerability laid bare, "but I had to tell you. Because whatever happens next, whatever choice I make—it affects you, too."

In the silence that followed, Jace realized as she told him everything that the impossible had unfolded before him, not through tales told under starlit skies, but in the quiet confession of a woman whose heart held worlds he had never imagined.And as the magnitude of her revelation settled over him, the once-sturdy walls of his reality crumbled, leaving him standing on the brink of the unknown.

Jace's fingers traced the frost that clung to the windowpane, his gaze lost in the swirling snowflakes outside. The flakes danced like restless spirits against the glass, a crisp reminder of the chilling possibility that Felicity might be telling the truth and would somehow vanish into some other reality.

"You don’t have to leave. We’ll find another way," he said, turning away from the cold and back toward the warmth of her presence. His voice was gravel, imbued with a quiet plea. "You can't just... disappear on me."

Felicity looked up from where she sat, her eyes reflecting the twilight. "Jace, I wish it were that simple." Her voice trembled like a leaf clinging to a branch in autumn, ready to fall at the slightest gust of wind. "There's a balance, a delicate thread that is holding the two realities together. If I stay, it could spell disaster for you and everyone else."

He knelt before her, taking her hands in his, their touch sparking a current that always felt both exhilarating and grounding. "Tell me, then," he urged gently, "what do you need to do? How do we keep you here without tearing apart your... your other reality? Do you even know if it still exists?"

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