Page 10 of Christmas Wishes
He’d figure out what was going on later. In the morning. Sometime tomorrow…
* * * * *
Rand bolted upright. “What the…?” He usually woke slowly, lounged in bed for a while before shoving himself out its warmth, but that was when he was home. This. Wasn’t. Home. “Where in the hell am I? And how in the hell did I get here?”
“I brought you here.”
Rand whipped his head around at the voice coming from behind him, then wished he hadn’t. The room spun wildly out of control and it took several minutes for it to right itself. Tomas sat in an overstuffed chair in the corner of a large room in a… “Who’s cabin are we in?” he asked, swinging his feet to the floor. It was cold, but nothing that he wasn’t used to. At least, he thought he was used to it. This cold on the floor and the chill in the room was different than what he was used to. “What’s going on, Tomas?”
“We’re at your new…” His friend’s words trailed off.
“My new what?” Rand looked around again. They weren’t in the North Pole anymore. “He cast me out, didn’t he? I’ve been banished.”
“Cast you out, yes. Banished you? Sort of.”
“What does that even mean?” He agreed to give me twenty-four hours to decide.”
“That was a trick question. You shouldn’t have needed twenty-four hours. You shouldn’t have needed twenty-four seconds, Rand.”
“So, he booted me out? In the middle of the night? His magic did it, right? Don’t bother answering. Of course it did. You wouldn’t have been able to get me out otherwise. Was it the cocoa? The drink I had at the bar? Don’t bother answering that one, either.” Rand stood. “You’re a son of a bitch, Tomas.”
“And you’re a hot head. An ungrateful, unappreciative one, too. You have the world at your feet and you thumb your nose at it. You have the power to change things, to make good things happen.”
Rand snorted. “Leave it to you to use the good words, even here when no one’s listening. I can’t believe after all these years, you’re still towing the line. You never question or doubt? At all? If not what we do, then the people we do it all for? Why not? Why don’t you ever challenge the status quo?”
“Because I’m not like you. Because I happen to believe in the very best of people.
“You’re also married to a human.”
“I’ve been down there, Rand. And if you had, too, you wouldn’t be feeling this way.”
Tomas was right about that. Rand hadn’t set foot down in the human populated parts of the world. He’d flown on Christmas Eve, but what Tomas was talking about were field trips to different parts of the globe that some of the shifters were allowed to make.
He’d never been allowed to travel the way Tomas and others had. Being the heir of Santa Claus took on a certain security risk. He wasn’t immortal. He could live thousands of years at the North Pole, beneath the magical shield and within the border of the mountains and forest. But he could die by the hand of a human.
It took certain magic to hide in plain sight and certain magic to keep the secrets of who they were and where they came from. It took magic that he was going to lose now.
“And for the record, Rand? Someone is always listening. Someone always knows the desires of your heart.”
Rand winced. “That’s never been comforting.”
“Well, no one’s listeningthen. I just… You know what I mean.”
Rand did know. He’d always known. He sighed, ran a hand over his face and through his hair.
Tomas looked uncomfortable and Rand wanted to feel bad about it. He wanted to feel bad that Tomas had to be in the middle of it all, but he didn’t. If Tomas felt it was the right decision, he’d have been in Rand’s face just like he had been yesterday. But right now, he just looked uncomfortable.
“Did you even try to stand up for me when he made the decision?”
“That’s not fair.”
“And this is?” Rand shouted. “Get out, Tomas,” he said, his voice softer this time. “Just get out.”
“You don’t understand. It’s bigger than just you. Everything is bigger than you. If it got out that Santa’s son doubted, that Santa’s son no longer believed in the magic of Christmas…? Do you know what that would do? What would happen?”
Unfortunately, he was afraid he did know. Still, it didn’t help his current situation. “I understand perfectly. I’ve got this. Get out.”
At the door, Tomas turned back. “There’s a basket of food stuff and essentials on the kitchen counter. Blix wouldn’t let me leave without promising I’d bring it with me.”
