Page 28 of Witch's Bells and Mistletoe

I come down slowly from the height, my muscles feeling like jelly, and a sigh of pleasure escapes me. The smell of scorched material fills my nose, and I turn my head just enough to notice that the blankets are a little blackened around where we’re lying, but no further damage seems to have been done to the bed. Thank the gods. Another fee racked up, but the damage isn’t as bad as it could have been.

More than anything, I can’t wait to get my dragon home. We will have to reinforce a few things, but I’m eager to have him in my own bed as soon as possible.

I close my eyes contently, enjoying the feeling of my mate’s big body slumped over me. He rumbles softly, purring like a machine, and then finally slides to the side, taking me with him so that his wing can fold lovingly around me. I sink blissfully into sleep in my mate’s arms. Tomorrow we will do what needs to be done, and then I can focus on enjoying having my mate all to myself.

Chapter 21

ADEON

Katherine has been busy for much of the day. We all have been. As predicted, the morning dawned with clear skies, allowing the townspeople to go back down into town since the plow had come and gone sometime in the early hours of the morning. They’ve been trickling back in for the last few hours, many of them beginning to show signs of bruises from strange attacks that they hadn’t seen coming. Some never made it back up the mountain, and we’ve been given reports of illness that struck quickly among the townspeople. Those who do return bring whatever they could find that might be suitable. In result, the kitchen’s walk-in fridge has been filling up rapidly with milk and cream. Any butter they can find is added to an enormous, covered bowl that sits on one shelf.

The corners of my mouth lift as I peer up the hill at my mate. She is busy supervising the clearing of the snow in front of what is left of the hawthorn grove. There is a large stone block there that has apparently been neglected to such an extent that it’s overgrown and thoroughly covered in snow. Those who are not shoveling away the snow have pruning shears and are helping Katherine attack the brambles that have encroached over the top of the altar. At her instruction, they are only trimmed back far enough to make the altar accessible. Nothing more is to be removed, and she was very clear about that in her instructions as she cautioned the workers assisting her.

Me… I have guard duty. Standing at a short distance away, I’m continuously surveying the area and keeping watch for any sign of impending attack from the fairies. It’s a miserable job because it demands that I be farther than I like from my mate, but someone must do it and it is sensible that this duty be given to Elis and me. My cousin stands at the southern approach to the grove near the hot springs while I take the northern approach so that I remain within line of sight of my mate. Every now and then, Katherine peers over in my direction as if she too is unsettled at the distance between us and instinctively reassures herself that I’m there. I understand this feeling well, and it’s the reason why, between my gravitation to my mate and my duty to watch the activity around the grove, I have my back to the road approaching the hotel.

I think nothing of the road or the soft crunch of snow of vehicles traveling up and down the cleared road. It doesn’t concern me. My ears prick, however, when I hear the rhythmic crunch of footsteps headed toward me. Growling under my breath as I curse whoever has decided that today is a day to distract me when I’m anxious enough about my mate being so close to the fairies’ grove without me, I turn to face the intruder with a scowl firmly fixed to my face.

The tall woman walking toward me wrapped in a long black wool coat is about as personable as the icy snow. She peers at the grove on the hillside expressionlessly as she approaches, but when she turns her head toward me, she is respectful as she pulls off her shades and gives me a polite smile.

“Good afternoon. Do you suppose you can point the way to where I can find Archie Williams?”

I grunt irritably and tip my head toward the hotel. “He’s in his office, I suspect. He seems determined to hide in there until we are ready to begin.”

Her head cocks as she regards me, her eyes sliding from the top of my horn down to my tail. “So, I’ve arrived right on time then. Excellent.”

I frown at that. “Right on time for what? If you have debts to settle with Mr. Williams, it will have to wait until we get what we need from him. If you’re looking for a room, I doubt there is any to be had at this moment since the hotel is without power. Try again tomorrow,” I grumble as I turn back toward my mate and the snow laden trees.

The woman laughs softly behind me, but I choose to ignore her.

“Unfortunately, my business is the sort that will need to be settled first. Truthfully, depending on the anger of the fairies, anyone who’s looking to resolve any debts ought to get what they can from him while they can.”

I glance sharply back at her and narrow my eyes. “Who did you say you are?”

“I didn’t,” she replies with a coy smile that I have no patience for. “I am Wilhelmina Williams Van Burke, and I do believe that my brother specifically invited me.” She rubs her gloved hands and glances around. “It’s fortunate that I’ve have a winter home here not too far from here and that it’s the skiing season or I might have missed this.”

“It would be a pity, I’m sure,” I respond, biting out the words. I have no interest in human games, and this entire conversation reeks of a ploy.

She shrugs casually as she continues to scan the grounds. “It was bound to happen sooner or later. Grandma knew it, and it’s why she was determined to change her will. This could have all been avoided so easily.” She shakes her head.

She’s not wrong, but it is strange how she seems to know exactly what’s going on. I doubt that Mr. Williams volunteered that information. Not when his fallback plan was to get whatever he could from his sister for the cursed property. “What exactly do you think has happened?”

She chuckles, but there is no humor in the sound. “Let’s just say I’ve been expecting it ever since he took over this summer. I’ve been kept in the loop, so to speak, by someone I grew up with who lives in town.”

I grunt in reply, displeased. If she had someone keeping her updated, she should have known what was happening long before it went as far as it did and handled the situation appropriately. She is just as much to blame for the current situation, though I don’t entirely understand why she didn’t intervene. When I offer her no more conversation, she sighs and folds her arms over her chest as she resumes watching my mate with the crew.

“Since I’m quite certain that Archie won’t tell me, I’ll just go ahead and put this out there—assume the preparations are nearly done?” Furious, I give a mute nod, and she makes a sound of frustration. “Look, I know this looks bad on my part to be showing up at the eleventh hour, but I couldn’t do anything until my brother accepted my offer to buy him out. If I hadn’t forced his hand, nothing would have changed.”

I give her a severe look. “Two girls wouldn’t have gone missing. That is change enough. These people wouldn’t be hurting and falling ill. That is change enough too. You are just as greedy as your brother.”

Her lips curve in a brittle smile. “I may be business-minded, dragon, but I’m not without at heart. Believe it or not, I do care what happens to the people here but anything that I’d done wouldn’t have solved the problem for the long-term and would have eventually made everything worse. Correcting one offense against the fairies is far better than trying to negotiate several offenses. If I had to let it come to these straits in order to secure the hotel from my brother, then that is what is necessary.”

I hate that what she says makes some sense. It doesn’t make it right, but I do understand her reasoning even if it disgusts me. The fairies would only be appeased so many times before the situation was beyond salvaging. Still, her words about her brother and people needing to collect their debt sit oddly within my gut, and I have a feeling that for Archie Williams it could very well be beyond that point.

“Well, I think I’ll go up and see Archie then,” she says and from the corner of my eye I watch as she puts her shades back on and walks back to her SUV. “Let’s see about getting this done within the hour, I think,” she shouts over her shoulder. “Grandma always did say it was a bad idea to approach the grove once the sun begins to go down.”

Though she is too far to hear me—and I couldn’t care less whether she does or not—I rumble quietly in agreement. The shadows within the grove are already starting to grow longer. The winter days leading up to the solstice are far too short, and I am eager to get this done as quickly as possible.

I exhale slowly in relief as I hear the SUV blow past me, kicking up snow as it heads toward the hotel. Though I’m grateful to be rid of the female, that’s not the source of my relief. It is the sight of my mate turning toward me with a gleeful smile as she waves her arms, signaling to me as she begins to head my way.

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