The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,15

she required.”

Bels just stared at him. “You’re a marshmallow brained half cup of cocoa,” he told the furry dressed Ded, like that was a grievous insult.

Ded gasped as if it indeed was, hurt flashing across his expressive brown eyes. “You take that back,” he sputtered.

Bels snorted. “No.” The Elf straightened. “And quit messing with the maiden.”

“I’m not a maiden,” I blurted. My throat worked convulsively. Bile filled the inside of my mouth.

“Course you are, m’dear.” The sound of rustling reached my ears as Elf boy made a clicking sound with his mouth. “Oh,” he said as his hand flicked and I watched one of my credit cards flutter to the ground. “Now that is interesting…”

“What?” Ded asked, standing so I was just staring at their feet as they conversed over the top of me like I wasn’t there.

Reserving my energy, realizing fighting right now was useless, I slumped against the padding beneath me.

“She was born under the winter solstice,” Bels murmured, a curious note in his voice. “You don’t think… No.”

“What? Don’t think what?” Ded demanded.

“Could be, but maybe not…” I could make out my driver’s license as the Elf began tapping the laminated card in his hand.

“What?!” Ded barked.

“The Mrs had a sister who went missing several revolutions ago, at least a thousand, give or take a few hundred turns. It was thought Alfka’d been taken by a Krampus or run off with a Baumbel, but... If she’d taken refuge in the human realm, it stands to reason she could have chosen to stay in this crumbling ruin of earthen crust, given up her immortality, accepted the courtship of a human, and procreated.”

“But why would she do that when she could stay in Hinter?” Ded mumbled, like that was the craziest thing he’d ever heard.

Bels made a noise that gave me the impression he could name a few reasons but held his tongue.

“That’s not her, Bels.” Ded let out a long sigh. “She’d be old and dead by now. Humans don’t live that long.” The duh hung heavy in the air.

“Not that this was her, you popcorn headed, candy cane powder snorting nutcracker, that she was a descendant of Lady Lyddie’s lost kin. Ugh.”

“Ohhh. That makes much more sense,” Ded replied softly.

Bels snorted. “Well- ahem, yes, but enough about that.” Clearing his throat, he went on, “I was merely stating if it were true, her birth date added to her heritage would explain why our glamour doesn’t work on her, and why she’s desensitized to the dust the way she is.”

“A Hinter with a human… Is that even possible?” The hope in Ded’s voice had my body locking up, it was tensed so tight.

“If I’m right and she’s here, I think the answer is obvious enough,” Bels put in mildly. Turning, circling the sex bench his idiot helper thought had something to do with taking a shit, his toe began to tap, sending the jingling bell at the end of the pointed tip tinkling. “I don’t think that stool is necessarily for strict pooping purposes,” Bels said with a funny sound in his voice.

Ded sighed heavily, like Bels was a trial to be around. “What else would it be for, then?”

Bels said nothing, to which I was eternally grateful for considering the furry’s penchant for popping one at a moment’s notice. I had no intention of being the one he tried the bench out with.

“Bels?” Ded mumbled quizzically.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Bels said suddenly, and then he was moving, lighter steps crunching through the snow. “We should really be going now. Time’s-a-wasting.”

Ded grunted. “Won’t be long now and the veil will thicken again as daylight takes over.”

“Best be off, then.” Jingle shoes were once more in my field of vision. So intent on trying to focus on the conversation, while my heart still pounded wildly, I was feeling more in my head than I had since they’d drugged me. “Are you to come willingly, Lumi-maiden, or are we to… persuade you to come along… quietly?”

I didn’t need to think about this, whatever these two crazy creeps were up to, whatever they were intending my part to be, if I had any chance of getting out of this, I was better off alert and present.

“I’ll- I’ll come willingly,” I managed to croak out. My voice was hoarse, a soft whisper.

“Oo- I’ll carry her!” Ded called jovially, like that was a jolly good idea, to my and Bels’ jointly barked, “No.”

Ded grumbled something under his breath as a beat passed,