The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,17

the scowl on his face turned to shocked surprise.

“Well I’ll be gingerbreaded,” Bels murmured, his gingery eyebrows threatening to kiss his hairline.

“What?” I blurted, my tied hands fluttering about my face. “What’s wrong with me?”

Bels blinked, dragging his gaze from my eyes to take note of the panicked look on my face. “They’re blue,” he said finally, then glanced away and trudged back behind me to resume his post prodding the human cattle.

“They’re beautiful,” Ded said suddenly, causing me to jolt. He was so close I could smell the fresh oatmeal cookie scent that seemed to linger on his person.

After all this walking and dragging me around, the thought of anything sweet in this moment made me want to gag. With oatmeal cookie Elkfen at the front and cinnamon roll stinkin’ Elf at my back, I was one deep sniff away from tossing my cake and chicken dinner from last night.

Leaning away from Ded as the male leaned in closer, his chest doing that weird rattling thing that made me cringe, he went to reach out towards my face. His hand paused as I went to jerk back.

The hopeful look on his face fell and he pulled back to turn and continue walking. Ded’s face was looking funny, not quite pale but not the same rich colored browns lining his features as there had been before. Were they changing from this place too?

Glancing over my shoulder to find Bels staring after his friend with a concerned look on his thin face, it looked as if the Elf had noticed the difference in Ded as well.

Should I be worried, I wondered. Or, could this work to my advantage..?

“So… what’s a Snowmaiden, why am I one? What’s with the eye changing thing?” My eyes were brown, plain ol’ regular brown, like my natural, slowly going grey, hair color—though I was sporting a vibrant blue dye job at the moment that made me think You’re a mermaid, Lumi, go sing the siren song of your people and drag a few men below the depths. Uhm, or something like that.

“You ask a lot of questions,” Bels muttered from behind me. “I think I liked you better when you were screaming.”

“I don’t.” Ded’s free hand went to that twitching Elk looking furry ear on the side of his head and he gently cupped it. “It makes my heart hurt.”

Brown doe eyes met mine and he smiled. “I like the brown, but the blue is pretty, too, like the lakes in the village. Clear, bright, with little glittery pieces shining like silver dust.”

Not quite knowing what to say to that, or if I really should, my parted lips slowly clamped shut and I blanked my expression.

With a sheepish smile, he dropped his hand and shrugged. “You’re going to help Shnikel. That’s what the maiden does.”

“Right… but what exactly, are you expecting me to do?” I wondered aloud.

Ded’s face screwed up as he looked my way once more, almost knocking an antler on the big tree with branches overburdened by candy canes growing right from it we passed under. Come spring time, this place was probably a melty, sticky wasteland. “I don’t…” he glanced to Bels for help over my shoulder, “rightly know…”

“Wait. So you’re saying you’ve drugged me-”

“Dusted,” Bels corrected—though, really, was there a damned difference?

“Tied me to a sex chair-” I went on, ticking these things off on my fingers.

A gasp left Ded. “That wasn’t a defecating stool?!” he squawked.

Bels snapped his fingers from behind me. “I was so close,” he opined.

“You all need to get out more,” I commented with a deadened tone. But went on anyway, because why the hell not? “Dragged me out into the middle of nowhere, straight on through to Candy Cane Lane on the other side in some alternate realm, reality, I don’t even know-”

“Hinterlands. More of another dimension, really, a different plane. It borders on yours,” Bels offered helpfully, thank you very much, jingle toes!

“On the off chance the first random stranger you meet, me, might be some Snowmaiden person descendant of your Hinter whatever, hoping I might maybe but you’re not entirely sure how, help your friend, Shniky-”

“Shnikel,” Ded said quickly.

“Whatever,” I clipped out, tossing my tied hands up, jerking on my ropes. “The point is, this is crazy, you both are crazy, and apparently I am, too, to be even discussing this and not losing my shit freaking out,” I finished on a huff. It was hard to breathe. Working up a steam in this cold