Page 15 of Hostile Holiday

“I have a few friends that my family would not dare challenge, but regular work friends are left at the bus stop or waved off after work.”

His thumb stroked her cheek, and she leaned into it. “What do your powerful friends do?”

“Nothing. I have told them I am cursed and to stay out of it. It doesn’t do me harm unless I get elevated beyond a subsistence position.” His hand was warm, and the fur was soft. She wanted desperately to burrow against him, but it wasn’t appropriate.

“Well, the curse is broken, and your lineage is not what you thought. Your mother is your mother, but your father is of a different family. That is strange, but... when is your birthday?”

“Why?”

He removed his touch, and she felt the loss. “Humour me.”

“Mabon.”

He nodded. “And you are thirty-one?”

“Yes.”

Hunter walked to the wall and selected a book, carrying it to the table, setting it next to her, and flipping to pages with family crests on it. “The Yule gathering thirty-two years ago was treated to a meteor shower. It was considered auspicious, so the gathering exchanged partners as the mood struck them.”

Orla looked at him, and he flipped the pages. “What are you saying?”

“It was the darkest night of the year, and they played at concealment, moving from partner to partner with energy tracking only. This is your mother’s family.” He tapped a crestwith a soft bunny on it. “And this is the other crest that showed in the bloodline spell.”

“That isn’t my family crest.”

“No, but the male of the Brenethki Clan who was at that party... it’s his crest.”

“So, my family isn’t my family, the curse is gone, my magic is mine, and my mother is dead. So... I am free?”

He paused. “Not exactly, but more than you were.”

“Why not exactly?”

He held her hand up and showed her the ring. “I can’t remove this.”

“Why not?” She was parroting herself.

He shrugged. “I don’t want to. It will let me find you and keep you safe.”

“How? You will be here, and I will be there.”

“I do live in the mortal realm. I only send folk here who need to become more. Those you fought against were pulled here out of time to do what they could to better themselves in harsh conditions.”

“Oh. So, why don’t you want to?”

“I don’t know. Well, I didn’t know; now I do know.”

She scowled. “What?”

“You are the winter star.”

“What?”

“You were conceived on the longest night of the year, under a spectacular meteor shower, and appeared during the harvest festival.” He chuckled. “Even a blind man could find the significance in that.”

“I am missing things.” She ran through the spells in her mind and held her hand up. A book flew, and she caught it.

She opened the book and flipped, looking for the information she was seeking in theDiary of the Stars.

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