Page 31 of Winter Unleashed

“Astrid?” I muttered while trying to get my bearings. I felt like I’d traveled back in time to the Middle Ages.

“Yes, my child.” She studied me for a long while. I could feel her in my mind, shuffling thorough my memories like cards in a Rolodex. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but I knew it was necessary so I stood as still and as quiet as I could. “Have a seat,” she said after a few minutes.

The tone of her voice had me swallowing hard. “Is something wrong?” I asked, lowering myself onto a wooden dining chair.

“Not wrong or right. It’s not bad or good. It simply is what it is.” She moved around her small space gathering ingredients and trinkets and placing them on the dining table.

“Um, can Liam be here?”

She stopped what she was doing to look at me. “Well, this is promising, isn’t it?”

“I’m sorry? What’s promising?”

“I didn’t bring him through because I thought you might not want him here. But here you are asking for him.” Her lips pulled into a beaming smile.

“After Celeste’s last visit I’ve realized she’s doing something to me. She’s doing a piss-poor job of it, but she’s messing with my head. I realized there’s something there… with Liam. Something big. What I feel for him isn’t a lie, so everything everyone is telling me must be true.”

She clapped her hands together. “Oh, this is good news! It gives me hope you will restore the bond.” She clapped her hands again and wiggled her behind a little. She was over six feet tall with wide hips and a full bust, but her excitement made her childlike and a smile pulled at my lips.

Without me realizing anything had happened, Liam was standing behind my chair, his hands on my shoulders offering silent comfort.

“She asked for you,” Astrid said, grinning ear to ear. “I didn’t want to bring you through unless she wanted you here.”

“I understand, Asti, it’s okay,” Liam said with a smile.

She nodded and turned back to whatever she was doing at the table. “Okay, talk amongst yourselves. I have some things to finish before I can really delve into your mind.”

“Can we wait outside?” It was stuffy in the small area and the fire made it hotter than hell.

“Sure, just don’t stray too far.” She flicked her hand at the front door, and it shivered on its hinges. “All set.”

Chapter Nine

Liam took my hand in his and led me through the door. We stepped outside into the most bizarre setting I could imagine. I spun in a circle taking in as much of the scenery as I could. Nothing made sense. Thousands of tiny trees bordered oversized shrubbery and gigantic mushrooms, but Astrid’s house was a hollowed-out tree stump so big it could hold a skyscraper inside. Flowers were three times my size but any animals or insects we saw were so small it was hard to tell what they were.

“We really fell through the looking glass, didn’t we?” I stopped to examine an enormous sunflower covered in what looked like tiny blue butterflies. “Do you think we’ll run into the Cheshire Cat? Oooh! Or maybe the Mad Hatter. I hope it’s the Johnny Depp version.”

Liam laughed and slid his arms around my waist. “The Fae like to play tricks on people. This is Astrid’s way of showing you how ridiculous some stories about fairies are. Tiny flying beings with sparkling dust,” he said, pointing to a dragonfly-sized glimmer on my right.

I moved closer to examine a tiny woman with wings. She sneered then blew a raspberry before flying away. “Wow. This is all so surreal.”

“Asti is the biggest prankster.”

“Asti. I wouldn’t have thought of that as a nickname for Astrid.”

“When I was learning to talk, I couldn’t say Astrid. It always came out Asti, so it stuck.”

“That’s adorable,” I said, smiling up at him. “But I think your prank loving Asti may have slipped us somemagicshrooms.”

The sound of his laugh made my heart flutter. When his lips touched mine, I fell into the kiss, clinging to him tightly in case he floated away in this strange Fae world. His lips were soft against mine, but the kiss was so full of desperation, it had tears burning my eyes.

“Red, if she can’t fix this—”

“Shh. Let’s not talk about that right now. Let’s wait to see what she says.”

A small noise had us turning back to Astrid’s house. She stood in her doorway watching us with a small smile. “I’m ready,” she said waving us inside.

We linked hands and followed her into her house, which was now bright, modern, and twice the size. I shook my head and stifled my laugh, but she caught me.

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