Liam wanted to answer, but he couldn’t get his mouth to work properly. He tried again. “Wo-wo—” He swallowed hard and forced his tongue to obey him. “A woman. There’s a… a woman out here.”
“Who? Is there a logo on her suit? Not that Russian scientist again.”
“No suit. She’s barefoot… in a fucking dress,” he forced out. He blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
“If there was a woman out there in nothing but a dress right now, she’d be frozen solid,” Noah said. “Check your oxygen. Your stats look fine from here, but something must be going on.”
What was going on was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen was walking toward him, barefoot in a white dress that hugged her figure, her loose blond waves blowing back from her face in the mounting storm. The only thing stranger than the fact she didn’t look cold were the two massive, feathery wings rising over her shoulders and the glow she was putting off, which set off a blaring rendition of Aerosmith’s “Angel” in his brain.
She was an angel—he was sure of it—but he couldn’t say the word. To say it out loud to Noah would mean he believed it, and he hadn’t believed in angels since he was a child. He glanced down at his monitor to check his vitals. Oxygen fine. Breathing and pulse fast but steady. Temperature normal. He blinked twice before turning his gaze toward her again. And finding her standing right in front of him.
She placed her hands on either side of his helmet. Her mouth moved, but he couldn’t make out what she was saying through the visor. He tapped against the side of the helmet over his ear, trying to make her understand. Her hands gripped his upper arms and shook. Looking directly through his visor with piercing blue eyes, she said, I need your help! At least he thought that’s what she said based on reading her lips.
He nodded immediately. Of course he would help this lovely creature who should not exist and was probably a figment of his oxygen-deprived imagination. Or maybe, he thought chillingly, he was already dead, and this angel was here to take him to the beyond. Shit luck if that was the case. He didn’t think he’d be going to the good place considering he hadn’t set foot in a church in years.
He drew a deep breath and wiggled his fingers. He didn’t feel dead. In fact, his heart was beating so hard it pounded in his ears like a bass drum.
The woman distracted him again with a smile that lit up the night. He’d made her happy, although he wasn’t sure how. For some reason that meant the world to him. Pivoting, she slashed a hand through the night, drawing a symbol with the strange light that surrounded her. His breath hitched as the darkness seemed to curl away like the edges of burnt parchment. She hooked her arm into his and tugged him forward. One giant step to catch his balance… and he was standing inside a symbol on the floor of an entirely black room. The North Pole was gone, and he was… He was…
Suddenly unable to breathe and feeling like he was going to be sick, he frantically grasped at the seal to his helmet, managing to pry it off his head just in time. He bent over at the waist, emptying the contents of his stomach on the shiny black floor.
“…entirely normal,” he heard a woman say from behind him, but when he tried to turn to look at her, the room tilted and the floor rose up and bit him in the head.
“Ow,” he said under his breath.
“Oh!” he heard the woman yell as she rushed to his side. Her stunningly beautiful face was the last thing he saw before the darkness closed in around him.
Chapter
Four
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Charlie checked to make sure the demigod was still breathing before cleaning the sick off the floor of her ritual room. She hadn’t expected him to react to dimension hopping as he had. It was normal to feel woozy after crossing time and space, but she’d assumed the magical being would have a stronger constitution. But when he’d removed his head covering, she’d realized that perhaps the differences between their worlds were more than she’d accounted for.
“Eww.” She ditched the rags into her cauldron, and with a snap of her fingers and a spoken incantation, they burst into flames. Mercifully, the man hadn’t gotten any on himself, but his skin was covered in a sheen of sweat. Then again, maybe that wasn’t from the hop. After inspecting the padded red suit he was in, she decided it must be designed for the frigid weather where he was from. She had to get him out of it so he could cool off and she could make sure he was okay.
Thank goodness supernatural strength was one of her gifts because he was enormous. With some effort, she rolled him onto his side and released the strange clasps holding the thick material together. Once it was open, she slid him out of the awkward outfit and took her first look at the being the humans called Santa Claus.
He wasn’t what she’d been expecting.
Saint Nick was built like a dragon, although perhaps slightly smaller than her uncles. Nonetheless, he was tall and broad, as big as a Darnuthian mountain bear with arms as thickly corded as her uncle Colin’s, which was saying something considering he was the Master of the Guard. She could see his muscles clearly thanks to the strange, stretchy red fabric shirt and tights he wore. Other parts of his anatomy were equally visible and just as well developed. The sight made her throat feel thick, and she cleared it before wrestling her gaze back up to his face.
The magic man wasn’t just as big as a bear, he also looked like a bear with a thick, dark wild beard that matched scraggly, overgrown hair. She wrinkled her nose. Such an odd, untamed appearance.
Why was he still unconscious? His powers must truly be limited to gifts and teleportation for the dimension walk to affect him like this. Perhaps he hadn’t realized his agreement to help her came with interdimensional travel. Stupid, Charlie! You didn’t explain it clearly enough to him. Could he even hear you inside that suit?
What if he woke up angry at her? Chewing her lip, she twisted a strand of her hair around her finger, pulling it tight until the tip turned white. This was, perhaps, not the smartest thing she’d ever done. When she’d asked him for help, he’d nodded eagerly, but it was possible he hadn’t understood what she had in mind.
With a sigh, she brushed the thought aside. Worrying about it wouldn’t solve anything, and he wouldn’t thank her for leaving him on the floor. Bending her knees, she scooped him into her arms and carried him into her bedroom, arranging him in the bed and covering him with a sheet. At least now he’d be comfortable when he woke, and then they could discuss her plan—celestial being to celestial being.
A few seconds later, he shifted his head on the pillow and she breathed a sigh of relief. If he’d stayed under much longer, she’d have no choice but to fetch the healer, and the last thing she wanted to do was explain this to Maiara. She leaned over him, studying his gruff, oversized exterior and hoping that when he did open his eyes, he’d forgive her for the rough journey. His lids fluttered open, and the immediate scowl on his face had her taking a step back.
“Who the fuck are you, and what have you done to me?”
Liam took a deep breath, his lids feeling heavy as he awaited an answer. When he’d first woken up, the warm air and cool sheets told him he must be in the medical bay of the research station. He was convinced the entire thing was a nightmare. Noah was going to give him so much shit for whatever mistake he’d made that had led to the hallucinations.
But when he’d forced his eyes open, expecting to see fluorescent lights and gray medical cabinets, he’d found himself again staring into the face of an angel. The same winged woman he’d seen walking barefoot across the ice stood over him now, looking deeply concerned. He’d asked who she was, his heart racing as he started fully awake, then slid into the headboard, sitting up to put space between them.
She squinted at him as if he was the strangest thing in this room, as if the wings and the abrupt change in scenery required no explanation. How long had he been out? She must have hit him over the head and airlifted him out of there. He glanced at the window. It was possible he was in Norway.
