Darla looked a little nervous as she stood on my doorstep, chewing on her lower lip and fiddling with something between her fingers.

  “Heya, doll,” she said in her somewhat nasally voice, smiling brightly. “Merry Christmas.”

  I blinked, trying to understand why Darla was standing on my doorstep and wishing me Merry Christmas when it was December second. Darla was nice enough, but her slang was almost a century out of date and made understanding her a touch difficult.

  “Merry Christmas, Darla. What’s up?”

  She looked nervous again. “I didn’t want to impose, but I was wondering… I mean, if you’re okay with it…” She swallowed, looking like she was losing her courage. “I heard that your folks were visitin’ an’ you know how if I hear somethin’ then I ain’t the only one…”

  That’s when I realized what it was she was twisting around in her hands. It was a man’s ring. Bulky, heavy, too big for her small fingers.

  Cain’s ring.

  It hit me like a solid punch in the gut, hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs. For a second, I couldn’t breathe, and there was the hot press of tears at the corner of my eyes.

  She’d brought my brother home to see his parents.

  I swallowed hard, trying to keep my emotions in check. I couldn’t really explain to anyone inside, but Cain could be here, with us, in spirit if not in body.

  I opened the door wider. “I’d love it if you could join us,” I said, smile a little wobbly, but sincere.

  Darla grinned. “That’d be swell. Thanks, Taliyah. You’re a real Sheba.”

  I had no idea what that meant, but I was pretty sure it was a compliment so I just let it go like most things Darla said. Furthermore, I appreciated the fact that she’d shown up here for Cain—that she’d put herself into a potentially uncomfortable situation so my brother could visit with his family. I’d always known Darla meant well but now, I had a new sense of appreciation for her.

  I did take a suspicious look around the empty street after she’d stepped inside and started taking off her coat. There was no one outside, and no telltale flash of auburn hair that might hint at a certain prince who I was more than sure was furious with me. Not that I cared. Even so, I still couldn’t shake the feeling he was close by.

  I tugged the door shut, maybe a little too firmly, and made sure it was locked before I followed Darla back down the hall to the family room.

  ***

  After an early dinner, Marty, Poppy, and Finn headed out. Darla was soon to follow and fairly soon, I had the house back to myself, the boys and my parents again. I was fairly sure my parents had no idea why Darla had dropped by, but they were happy to have someone else to help fill the dinner table and they were definitely intrigued by her strange way of speaking.

  And maybe, just maybe, they could feel their son’s presence, even if they couldn’t see him.

  Mom and Dad had taken the boys out for some early evening caroling—apparently the high school choir had put together the event, inviting any residents who wanted to join in the fun. So, now I found myself alone and started picking up the last of the wrapping paper debris, before making sure the dishwasher was loaded properly, when my phone rang.

  Maybe it had been a mistake to turn it back on again (Fox had been relentless with his texts and calls—I still had no idea how he’d gotten my number), but I didn’t like the idea of my parents not being able to reach me while they were out with the boys. I didn’t think they’d run into trouble, but Haven Hollow wasn’t the sleepy, safe little town it might have appeared to be on the surface. There were monsters here, even if most of them were nicer than you’d expect.

  I glanced at my phone, noticing the caller ID came up as an unknown name and number. I frowned and debated just letting it go to voicemail on principle. But there was a chance it was a legitimate call, and when you were the Chief of Police, you couldn’t really be unreachable, even if you were being stalked by the Fae Prince of Autumn.

  So, I slid my thumb across the screen to accept, and bit out a terse, “Chief Morgan,” in place of a friendlier greeting. I wouldn’t want anyone to get the idea that I was happy to be disturbed.

  “Wow, real friendly, Taliyah.”

  Jonathon.

  My skin went cold. And that wasn’t just a euphemism. The second I heard his condescending, oily voice on the other line, it was like a shockwave of winter tore through the house, coating everything in frost.

  The only saving grace was that my parents were out with the boys. They didn’t know about any of this magical garbage that was going on, and I didn’t want them getting dragged into it. With any luck, they’d be out long enough for me to figure out how to un-freeze my house so I didn’t have to come up with some kind of explanation. Could a malfunctioning air conditioner even do something like that?

  It was lucky they were out for other reasons, too. They didn’t like Jonathon at all, for the way he’d treated me when we were married. And the last thing I needed was Dad trying to shout down a lawyer over the phone. With the luck I’d been having lately, Jonathon would record the call and use it for a defamation case or something similar.

  I couldn’t keep the frost out of my tone when I spoke, and I didn’t bother to try. “What do you want, Jonathon?”

  He gave a nasty little laugh. “I’m coming into town. I’ve got some documents for you to sign.”

  “What documents?” I’d already gone through three mountains of paperwork already. What else could there possibly be? The boys were out of the question because I’d adopted them after we’d already divorced, so there wasn’t any custody to work out.

  “Financial. We’ve got a few more things to separate. Unless you want me to be able to access your pension?” he asked slyly.

  Which meant he also wanted me off his retirement accounts. There was no way Jonathon would be helpful, forthcoming, and amicable unless he was looking out for himself first and foremost.

  Whatever. I didn’t want his money. I just wanted him gone.

  “Fine.” I bit the word off. I just wanted the conversation done, to put the whole mess of our bad marriage behind me. Even so, my stomach turned at the idea of Jonathon coming to Haven Hollow—it was almost like he’d foul it with his presence. “When and where are we meeting?”

  No way was I letting him come to my house.

  “After the new year,” he said absently, like the conversation wasn’t entertaining enough to hold his attention any longer. “I have things to do until then.”

  I snorted. “I’ll bet that’s code for sleeping with another secretary.”

  Jonathon let out a cruel laugh that echoed down the line. “It’s an exotic dancer this time, but of course, I have a new woman. You know how women flock to me. And when I come to your postage stamp of a town, she’ll be staying at that little bed and breakfast, waiting for me while I work out the details with you. That’s not a problem, is it, Taliyah?”

  Honestly, by this point, I just wanted to hang up. “Your love life is of zero interest to me,” I told him. “And I think it’s sad that you’re trying to rub my nose in details I don’t care about.”

  “We both know that’s a lie.”

  I laughed then and it was an acidic sound. “It’s pretty pathetic that you’re still this sore that I served you with divorce papers and not the other way around. Well, the joke’s on you, Jonathon. You can bring your girlfriend, I really don’t care. And, hey, maybe you’ll get the chance to meet my husband.”

  Yes, it was petty and yes, I shouldn’t have brought Maverick up. But I just couldn’t seem to stop the words from falling off my tongue. It was like they were going to come out whether I wanted them to or not. I was disappointed in myself because Maverick wasn’t a prop to throw in my ex’s face. It was just that Jonathon had a way of bringing out the absolute worst in me. It was one of the reasons I’d decided to leave him. That, and the fact that I could list his conquests by reading out the phone directory.

  “You’re lying.” Jonathon’s voice was tight and ugly. “You’re not married, you’re just saying that to try and get under my skin. Who’s the pathetic one now, Taliyah?”

  My temper snapped its leash, and with a roar of bitter wind, snow blasted all throughout my home. I gripped my phone so hard, I heard the plastic casing crack as I snarled down the line. “That’s Mrs. Depraysie to you,” I snarled, all the while wishing I wasn’t playing into his game. But something was exploding inside me and I couldn’t seem to stop myself. I had a feeling the explosion wasn’t entirely owing to Jonathon’s call either. It was more along the lines of a release from everything that had been building up inside me—everything I’d been holding in for way too long. “Maverick is twice the man you are—he’s got a huge heart, he’s caring and he’s had my back from the moment I met him. He’s also gorgeous, and he’s got six inches on you,” I added snottily. “And I’m not just talking height.”

  Then I stabbed the ‘end call’ button with my finger, my breath coming out in heaves like I’d been running a marathon. It was only luck that I didn’t manage to break my screen protector. I sank down on my knees in the middle of the snowdrift that had once been my living room, hoping it would help to cool the fury that was bubbling through my veins.

  I was so angry I was shaking with it and I wasn’t just angry with Jonathon—I was angry with myself for throwing Maverick in his face. It wasn’t fair to Maverick and I should have been the bigger person. I shouldn’t have allowed Jonathon to get under my skin. So why had I? Why hadn’t I just hung up the phone and been done with him? I wasn’t sure why. Jonathon had always brought out big emotions in me, for better or worse, but for the last few years, it had been nothing but worse.

  It took a few minutes, sitting there in the snow, and practicing the breathing exercises that Bea had taught me before I could wrench my temper back into its cage. Then exactly what I’d half-shouted over the phone with Jonathon came slamming home, and I swore, burying my face in my hands.

  I felt like I’d been slapped. I had to admit, having a screaming fight with my ex-husband was not the way I’d imagined realizing that I actually cared a lot more for Maverick than I’d admitted to myself, but with the way my life had been going lately, it actually seemed pretty par for the course.

  I’d always known I was attracted to Maverick. He was objectively handsome; it wasn’t a difficult thing to understand. But there were a lot of men in Haven Hollow that were of above average levels of handsomeness, and I sure didn’t feel the same way about them. There were a few that I wouldn’t even want to have a conversation with, much less kiss. Hell, even Fox was inhumanly gorgeous, and I had less than zero interest in him, mainly because he was a raging asshole.

  Sitting here now though, in the pile of snow I’d reduced my house to, I had to come to the very uncomfortable realization that there were definite romantic feelings associated when I thought of Maverick, and they might have gone deeper than I was willing to admit. And that, quite frankly, scared the crap out of me.

  Why? Because I was still dealing with the repercussions of my last relationship. And now, with Jonathon coming to town, I was going to have to face those feelings, at least a little. Worse, I was going to have to admit to some of them in order to get Maverick to play along, because I was damned if I was going to let Jonathon know we’d gotten married for the supernatural equivalent of a green card.

  But all that would have to wait, because eventually, my family was going to come home. And if I didn’t get this mess of snow sorted, they were going to have some pretty uncomfortable questions for me.

  Once my breathing evened out again, and I wasn’t at risk of unleashing another blizzard out of sheer rage, I took a dismayed look around.

  Snow.

  Snow everywhere.

  My entire house was buried in three feet of the stuff. With a deep sigh, I scrubbed my hands over my face and picked up my miraculously un-smashed phone to call Bea.

  Chapter Six

  About a half an hour later, Bea, a Spring Fae and my magical tutor, made a house call.

  Bea was small, barely coming up to my chin. She was also bundled up to her eyeballs in a puffy coat, multiple scarves, and a wool hat that was pulled down over her little cap of blond curls. Somewhere under the layers of coat and sweaters, I knew she was hiding a pair of delicate dragonfly wings. She was a creature of spring, and she wasn’t built for the cold weather I’d dragged her into.

  The guilt of it nipped at me. I hated needing to pull her into my mess. Heck, I hated needing help at all. If I was really Fae royalty, shouldn’t all this magic crap have been instinctual? But no, I had all the power of a faerie royal, and absolutely none of the skill. So, there was Bea, yet again, jerked out of her own life so she could tutor me in remedial magic, 101. I’d need to get her a really nice Christmas gift.

  I let her in and closed the door behind her more out of habit than any real hope of keeping the wind out. Bea started to unzip her parka, and then registered exactly how cold it was inside, and zipped it up to her chin again. Her breath fogged on the air in dense clouds.

  I winced. “Bea, I’m so sorry to drag you over here on such short notice.”

  She waved off my apology with a mitten covered hand. Above her lilac and pink scarf, her eyes crinkled up in a way that told me she was smiling. “Don’t worry about it. When I’d said I’d mentor you months ago, I knew what I was agreeing to. I really am happy to help.”

  Bea took a few steps further into the house, and the snow rolled almost halfway up her thighs. “Wow.”

  “Yeah,” I answered as I looked around myself and then sighed.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “I lost my temper,” I answered on a shrug.

  “Yikes.”

  Against all rational thought, her comment made blood flood into my cheeks. There hadn’t been any kind of judgement in the word, and to be fair, it wasn’t the first time Bea had needed to come over to help me with a sudden blizzard related incident. This was actually nothing compared to what I’d done the first morning after the seal on my powers had broken. The boys were having a blast making snow tunnels and tobogganing down the stairs before I’d sent them over to the neighbor’s. Luckily, the boys hadn’t asked too many questions and neither had the neighbors, for that matter.

  Bea tugged her scarf down far enough that I could see the rest of her cherubic face. “Alright, let’s get started.”

  Even though she was a Spring Fae, I had to admit that Bea was a really good tutor. She never got frustrated, or too mumbo jumbo with her magic talk. Instead, she managed to keep an easy, sunny disposition. With her there to talk me through it, I managed to evaporate a big chunk of the snow I’d blasted the house with.

  I concentrated on the parts of the house where the snow was going to ruin the carpet, while Bea cheerfully melted the stuff in the kitchen and then just mopped up the remaining water off the tiles. Luckily, the water didn’t freeze again before she had time to wipe it up.

  Finally, the house returned to a temperature that allowed Bea to shed her outer layers and stretch her wings out. The delicate membranes of her dragonfly wings caught the overhead light and sent little rainbows dancing across the kitchen tiles. She tended toward light, summer dresses, though I noticed that she’d added some warm tights in deference to the season. While she got settled at the kitchen table, I made us some coffee.

  By the time the coffee was done, Bea had produced a chunk of what she called ‘Christmas Fudge’, that seemed to be made entirely out of sugar and crushed up candy canes, so I grabbed a couple of plates too.

  I’d never really been into sugary things before, but ever since the seal had partially broken, my sweet tooth had skyrocketed. Apparently, it was a Fae thing. I tried not to be resentful as I munched my way through an admittedly delicious bit of fudge—as far as I could tell, gaining weight wasn’t a Fae thing so I figured I was fine in eating as much of the stuff as I wanted to. I crossed my fingers that not getting cavities was a Fae thing, too.

  “There we go,” Bea said with a smile, cradling her coffee cup close to her chest like she could absorb the heat out of it. “Everything’s put to rights again. No worries.”

  Only pride kept me from slouching like a sullen teenager. “I’m not much of a Winter Fae if I can’t even control my powers,” I grumbled. “Any time I get really annoyed, or angry, or upset, boom. Instant winter wonderland.”

  It was hard enough trying to keep calm at work, with all the madness of both natural and supernatural crime to deal with. But then lump all my personal troubles on top of that, and I was asking for a deep freeze. If Jonathon actually turned up in Haven Hollow (and I half wondered if he’d been bluffing over the phone—just to tick me off), I might end up freezing the entire town like some crappy villain from a comic book.

  Bea laughed and popped a little bit of fudge into her mouth. “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she said after she swallowed. “You’re really expecting too much, Taliyah. It’s only been a few months since you learned who and what you are and got a portion of your powers back. And it’s only been a day since you married Prince Reynard and broke the charm completely.” I felt my expression drop at that but said nothing so Bea continued. “You’re basically a child fumbling with a new gift. It can take decades to gain the control you have already. So, don’t worry. You’ll learn, and grow, and become a brilliant Winter Queen.”

  And just like that, the conversation took a hard swerve into awkward territory.

  I winced, trying not to squirm. I knew this whole thing was going to be difficult, but Bea had helped me out a lot, and I wasn’t comfortable lying to her, even by omission. Besides, it wasn’t like I’d be able to hide the truth for long. That wasn’t the point, anyway. I wanted people to know I was firmly off the market.