Emberlin sat next to her.“I’m sorry.I’m sorry that I couldn’t keep you safe, and I’m sorry that you were taken.”
“It’s not your fault.I might have been upset about the turn of events, but we were both at fault for not replenishing our magic before the waterfall healing, and I’m just as at fault as you in the whole scenario.You could have died out there.I could have been turned to evil or killed.We’re both alive, and I think that I’ll be okay, but I’m not going to talk to any warlocks anytime soon.”
Santa cleared his throat.
“Present company excluded.”
Emberlin and Talia hugged and talked for a few minutes while they waited for Mother Nature to appear, who’d been called to get Talia and take her back to the coven.After hearing what had happened, Mother Nature said, “I’m going to have to reinforce our own magical barriers, damn that evil male!”
“Would you lend your magic to our perimeter as well?”Santa asked.“With Emberlin’s fire magic and your power as North Corner, it would make it a very powerful perimeter.”
“I’d be happy to,” Mother Nature said.
The three of them stood at the perimeter and pooled their magic.Emberlin could see the magical shield turn a dull gold color as it was enhanced with not only Santa’s warlock magic but Mother Nature’s earth magic and Emberlin’s phoenix magic.
“Powerful indeed,” Mother Nature said.“Now I’m off to reinforce my boundaries.”
“Do you need me to help?”Emberlin offered.
“The Corners will help me, but thank you, dear.Come along, Talia.I’m going to make you a magical ward so you recognize Jack Frost if he ever comes to see you again.”
Talia hugged Emberlin.“Thanks for saving my butt.”
“Anytime.”
“I’ll come to the pack on Christmas Day.I want to celebrate my big sister finding her mate.”
Emberlin smiled.“Love you.”
“Love you more.”
When the two were through the Portal, Emberlin turned to her mate and said, “This was a freaking exciting first shift.”
“Let’s not have any more exciting shifts, okay?”
She took his hand and grinned.“Spoilsport.”
Monday night, as their shift plodded along, Sebastian and Emberlin circuited the perimeter for the umpteenth time.He was thankful they weren’t seeing anything out of the ordinary and was glad to be spending time with Emberlin, although neither of them talked much during their rounds.
They were both too focused on the darkness outside of Northernmost.
The Solstice, when Frost would leave his lair and spread winter around the world, was just a handful of days away.When he returned, he’d be at his weakest level of the year, which was why he always had a cadre of magical people stashed in his cells to take their magic.He’d been known to replenish his magic on the fly as he moved around the world too.Abducting magical people and siphoning their magic to fuel his own, often killing them but sometimes leaving them human, like he’d done with Talia.
Of course that had all been part of a master plan that no one had seen coming.
He’d kept her human so she could go back to the coven, and then he’d used her to try to alter the protective magic around Northernmost.
Frost was a master at the long game.
Sebastian realized that Emberlin had stopped as they’d been walking, and he turned and joined her.
“That was where you found me?”she asked.“Out there?”
“Yeah,” he said.“Why?”
“I don’t know.I was just thinking about how close I came to dying that night.Every time I pass by this section of the perimeter, I think about it.”
“You didn’t die though.”
