“I’ll make tea,” Emberlin called.
“Oh yes, please!”
Emberlin loved tea, and her favorite was made from the fireblossom plant that had been cultivated from a plant her mother had kept on her kitchen windowsill for years.Emberlin had made it the first plant in her tea garden and loved to pluck the purple leaves and dry them for tea.She filled a kettle with water and placed it on the stove, then opened the metal tin of dried leaves and inhaled slowly over the opening.The sweet, warm scent reminded her of happier times and her mom’s warm hugs.
By the time the kettle whistled and the tea leaves had steeped in the large mugs, Talia was in the kitchen wearing fleece pajamas and a thick robe, her cheeks pink from the hot bath.
“Just wait until Frost hits us with his magic on the first day of winter,” Emberlin said.She might not feel as bothered by the cold as her sister because of her fire magic, but she could still get cold.The twenty-first was a week away, and the evil, magic wielding warlock who controlled winter liked to focus his energy on their part of the world because he was an asshat and liked to mess with good magic wielders.It was well known that if a coven lived in a certain area, they would often be targeted for harsh winters.
“Ugh, don’t remind me.I wish I wasn’t single.”
“What?”Emberlin asked, setting a plate of banana walnut muffins on the small kitchen table between them and taking a seat.
“You know, so I could have a guy to snuggle up with?One of those big, burly lumberjack types would be great.He could keep me warmallwinter.”
“The walls aren’t that thick in our house,” Emberlin reminded her.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get you some noise canceling headphones.Maybe this coming year will be the year I find my truemate.And you too.”
“I’m not looking.”
“That’s when love hits you, or so I’ve heard.”
“So you’renotgoing to find your forever guy because you’re looking?”
“Ah, damn it.”
They both laughed and picked up their mugs, clinking them together in a toast as they always did, before taking a sip of the sweet, hot brew.
“We need to check in with Mother Nature now that you’re all thawed out,” Emberlin said.
“Yep and then head up to Northernmost to replenish our magic.”
They’d made an appointment to replenish their magic before dinner and then were intending to head to New Orleans through the Portal to grab dinner before returning home.
“Do you feel like something is going to happen?”Emberlin asked as she picked up a muffin and peeled off the paper wrapper.
“You mean replenishing our magic or me finding my forever guy?”
Emberlin chuckled.“I don’t know.I just kind of feel like a change is coming.”
“A good one, I hope.”
“I hope so too.”Witches weren’t prophetic, so whatever weirdness was plaguing her had come on suddenly and given her some strange vibes about the future.Maybe it was Talia’s mention of finding her Mr.Right and how that would change things between them, or maybe it was feeling so close to her mom as she’d healed the waterfall that had made her nostalgic.
Whatever was going on, she felt like this wasn’t just any old day in December but a day that might change them both forever.
Wolf shifter Sebastian strode through the underground halls at the top of the world as he made his way to the dining hall before his evening shift.His cousin Gabriel was already there, having just finished his shift as one of nine Yuletide Guardians who helped Santa keep the world’s magic safe.The Well of Magic was inside a protected magical perimeter and the inhabitants of the town of Northernmost were nearly entirely elf, save for Santa, who was the most powerful warlock in the world, and the Guardians, who were all shifters.
He and his two cousins—including Declan, who was mated to Winterlyn, a non-shifting arctic fox—were the only wolves in the Guardians.There were three polar bears and three snow leopards as well.Their groups had their own living quarters underground, apartments that were connected with a shared living area, where Sebastian and his cousins watched football in the fall and the occasional movie.
When he reached the dining hall, Gabriel waved at him from a table and he nodded at him, picking up a tray and heading for the food line where elves provided three meals a day for the workers in Northernmost.
“Well, hi there,” a feminine voice said.
He smiled at Bethany, one of the cafeteria workers.She was sweet and always flirted with him, but he knew she wasn’t his truemate and he wasn’t interested in starting something just for fun when his truemate was out there somewhere.
“Hi yourself,” he said.“How’ve you been?”
