Chapter 19 Bloodlines
Bloodlines
Istared at Lumi, my apparent childhood best friend. The wine suddenly tasted like battery acid in my mouth, but I took another sip anyway, needing something to calm me.
“Please, someone explain.” My voice came out brittle, threatening to shatter with the slightest pressure.
Lumi’s animated features softened. She took the stool Vix vacated, sliding onto it with a grace that seemed both familiar and alien. Her pointed ear peeked through her auburn curls again as she leaned forward, lowering her voice. “You really don’t remember any of it? Your parents never told you?”
I gripped my mug tighter. “Told me what, exactly? That I’m Santa’s daughter? That elves are real? That I spent my childhood in the North freaking Pole instead of in Los Angeles like I thought?”
The men around me shifted uncomfortably. Vix, apparently no longer concerned about whatever sculpture drama he’d been hiding from, studied my face with unusual intensity. “They couldn’t tell her, Lumi. She’s just now remembering who she is.”
Lumi’s brow furrowed. “The distance and time…” She then snorted. “Los Angeles is the most boring cover story ever.”
“Focus, Lumi.” Pierce rubbed small reassuring circles on my back.
She straightened. “Right. So, the thing is, you’re... special. Even by North Pole standards.”
“I’m getting that impression.” I thought of all the wintry tricks I’d done so far without even trying.
“You have North Pole magic in your blood. Like, serious amounts. Not just from your father, who, yes, is Santa, but from your mother too.” Lumi paused, watching me carefully. “Your mom is an elf.”
The mug slipped from my fingers, but Don caught it with impossible reflexes before it could spill.
“I’m half-elf?” My words were hollow and distant. I didn’t quite know how to feel about that. “Or wait, is my dad an elf too?”
Blitz rubbed my arm. “He is a chosen human who was gifted the magic of the North Pole.”
Lumi looked around as if checking to make sure no one who shouldn’t be listening could hear. “Your mother is one of the most powerful elves in the North Pole, and you inherited both bloodlines, plus the North Pole gifted you even more magic. It’s a lot of power for one person.”
I reached for one of my ears, wondering if I’d soon be growing points. “Power?”
“They were training you to control it, but when we were fifteen...” She glanced at Don, who gave an almost imperceptible nod.
“What?” It wasn’t the first time someone had alluded to my lack of control. “What happened when I was fifteen?”
Lumi took a deep breath. “Your magic erupted. A complete loss of control. It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. Ice and snow exploded everywhere. Time kept freezing and unfreezing. Joy turned to fear and back again in waves. The main workshop was damaged, the reindeer barn nearly collapsed, and—” She swallowed hard.
“Several people were hurt. No one died,” she added quickly, seeing my expression.
The room tilted. I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself. “What did my parents do?”
“They made the choice to remove you from the North Pole. To protect you.” Lumi’s voice was barely above a whisper, and she didn’t have to say they also removed me to protect everyone else. She took my hand and squeezed.
“What caused the eruption?”
Lumi shrugged. “No one knows for sure. You were angry one moment, and then everything went sideways the next.”
The implications crashed down on me like an avalanche. My throat constricted, making it hard to breathe. My whole life had been a lie, and not just a cute “your dad’s Santa” lie, but a “you’re a magical time bomb who almost killed people” lie.
“That’s not...” I shook my head. “That can’t be.”
But even as I denied it, I felt something unspooling inside me, a thread of ice-cold power stretching outward. My emotions spiraled, and with them, reality itself wavered.
The clinking of glasses at the bar slowed. The crackling of the fire stretched into long, languid pops. Lumi’s hair swayed in slow motion as she shifted in her seat. The sound of laughter from across the room deepened, stretching like taffy.
Time itself was bending around me.
Don’s large hand settled on my arm, warm and grounding. “Breathe, Neve,” he murmured, his voice somehow clear while everything else blurred.
I inhaled shakily, and the world snapped back to normal speed. Glasses clinked normally, the fire crackled at its regular pace, and conversation resumed.
Pierce stared at his hands. Blitz studied the ceiling as if it contained the secrets of the universe. Vix’s expression was carefully blank. Lumi lowered her gaze to the floor.
They were giving me a moment when what they should have done was tackle me to the ground and lock me away. The kindness made my eyes burn.
But beneath that kindness, I recognized something else in the way their bodies had tensed, in how carefully they watched me from the corners of their eyes.
They were afraid.
Of me.
The realization settled into my bones with a terrible, hollow certainty. I hadn’t just been sent away from the North Pole; I had been exiled. Contained. I was the nuclear reactor they’d had to decommission, too unstable to remain operational.
My entire identity crisis seemed laughably small. I’d been angry about being lied to, but the truth was so much worse. I was a danger.
I shoved back from the bar. “I’d like to go back to the cabin now.”
No one argued. No one even asked if I was okay, which I appreciated because the answer was a resounding no.
Lumi stood with me, wrapping me in another hug that felt both strange and achingly familiar. “I’ll come visit tomorrow, if that’s okay?”
I nodded against her shoulder, not trusting my voice. The idea that I had a friend who knew the real me was both terrifying and desperately needed.
As we pulled apart, Lumi’s gaze slid to Vix, who was very interested in the pattern of the wooden floorboards. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “And you. If you break that ice sculpture of the North Star I spent three weeks on, I will slice off an antler the next time you shift.”
A surprised laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “Lumi, you know better than to threaten their antlers.”
Vix’s hand flew to his heart in mock offense. “I would never.”
“You’ve done it twice already!”
“That was years ago!”
Pierce guided me toward the door with a gentle hand on my lower back. “Perhaps save the grudge match for another time?”
As we headed back to the barn, we skirted the edge of the village. The snow crunched beneath our boots, and I tried to focus on that rather than the fact that I was apparently half-elf, magically volatile, and potentially dangerous to everyone around me.
The sleigh was waiting where we left it, and I climbed aboard mechanically. The men exchanged glances before shifting into their reindeer forms. I didn’t even have the energy to marvel at the transformation this time.
Pierce nudged my hand with his antlered head before moving into position. The touch almost broke me. How could they still be so gentle knowing what I was capable of?
The sleigh glided out of the barn and up the path. After a few minutes, Don veered right, leading us into a clearing in the trees. He stopped, and the men shifted back to human form.
I remained seated, staring at nothing.
Blitz approached, offering his hand. “Come on.”
I stared at his outstretched palm without moving. “Why are we stopping?”
“Because you look like you’re about to implode.” He wiggled his fingers. “And we’d rather you didn’t.”
I didn’t take his hand. “Shouldn’t you be keeping your distance? What if I...” I swallowed hard. “What if I lose control?”
Don moved closer, his massive frame blocking the sky. “You won’t.”
“How can you possibly know that?” I crossed my arms. “I almost destroyed the North Pole.”
Pierce stepped forward. “And yet here we are, standing before you unafraid.”
“That’s because you’re idiots.”
Vix snorted, kicking at the snow. “Well, she’s got us there.”
Despite everything, my mouth twitched. I pressed my lips together to stop the smile from forming and took Blitz’s hand. “I was exiled for being too dangerous.”
Blitz’s expression softened as he pulled me to my feet. “You weren’t exiled. If you were, your magic wouldn’t have returned after being gone for so long, and we wouldn’t have been called to you.”
My eyebrows nearly shot off my forehead. “You were called to me?”
Pierce moved closer, his fingers tucking hair behind my ear. “In September, we started to feel a gentle tug that we needed to find something.”
Don took my free hand. “We followed it, and it led us to you.”
My throat tightened. “But… why?”
“You don’t feel it?” Vix’s head tilted, his eyes searching mine as he came to stand in front of me. I was now surrounded by four reindeer men who were staring at me with an intensity that made my knees wobble.
Did I feel it? The pull toward them? The inexplicable possessiveness? The bone-deep desire to make them all mine?
“I do feel something.” I stepped out of their circle, overwhelmed. “Does my dad know his reindeer went on a mission to find his daughter?”
Pierce lifted his chin in defiance. “We’re not the lead reindeer herd. At least not yet.”
I was about to ask him to clarify the reindeer hierarchy when a snowball hit Pierce in the face with no warning. I froze, watching snow drip down his stunned face, tiny crystals clinging to his dark lashes as he blinked in disbelief.
Vix doubled over, cackling so hard he nearly collapsed. “Your face! Holy shit, your face!”
Pierce slowly wiped the slush from his cheek, his eyes narrowing dangerously as he looked between the three other men. “Who threw that?”
Don, stone-faced as ever, casually bent down and gathered a handful of snow, packing it in a way that led me to believe he was an expert at it.
“Don’t you dare!” Pierce backed up, one hand raised defensively. “You know how much I hate—”
The snowball hit him square in the chest with such force he stumbled backward.