Page 37 of Blood and Bells

“Plans,” I say, scrambling to give my brain time to keep up. “The next step is planning. Huge, firm plans. Ronan and Crinkshaw will bring the coven up to speed while you and I have dinner.”

“We will?” Ronan asks.

“How does dinner help us?” Holly squints at me.

“Can’t plan on an empty stomach. Napoleon swore by it.” I lean in, lowering my voice. “Close friend, in case you were wondering. Terrible height. Threw excellent parties.”

“Fine,” she says, staring grimly out the window. “We’ll get a quick bite at the diner.” She swallows. “Then we plan.”

I sputter out a half-hearted protest, once again thrown off course by Holly’s inexhaustible ability to befuddle me. In the back seat, Ronan nudges Crinkshaw, and I glare daggers at both of them. As they get out of the car, I take the snow globe from my pocket and toss it to Ronan.

After they leave, Holly drives us to town. The diner is once again full, and we once again retreat to the cubicle in the back that I’m coming to think of as ‘our’ booth. The young server—Tessa—is still there, and she giggles at me while Holly studies the menu. I’m strangely piqued that her attention has drifted away from me. I defeated a gingerbread dragon for her, and I expected her to be at least a third of the way to fawning.

“I’ll have steak,” I say. “Blood rare with cinnamon butter on top, just to keep it festive.”

“Bold choice,” Tessa giggles. “And you?”

“Caesar salad.” Holly shuts the menu, and I raise my eyebrows at her. She exhales sharply. “Fine. With cranberries on the side. Good enough?”

We sit in silence, each lost in our own thoughts. The snow is falling yet again, and Holly’s face looks lost and desolate in the reflection of the glass. There’s nothing of me to see because I don’t cast a reflection, and that makes me think about how different she and I are.

Not as much as she thinks, and more than I’d like.

“We should call Frank,” Holly says. Her shoulders are hunched, and she’s chewing on her bottom lip. I’m shocked to see a hint of moisture in her eyes. “I don’t think I can do this. Maybe he can magic up another tree. This is obviously too much for me. He never should have trusted me with this.”

“Hey,” I reach across the table and rest my hand on hers. She looks up, her big eyes shining at me. “You’re doing great, okay? Willow Creek still looks wonderful, and that’s in huge part thanks to you. Even if we don’t get the tree, we can find another, and there’s still enough going on to make the gala special. You still have Meribel and the Christmas Carol Choir, don’t you?”

“Yuh,” she sniffles.

“And the eggnog river with the marshmallow waterfall is still running?”

“It is.” She sits up a bit straighter.

“And the chocolate maze is open for business?”

“You know a lot about the Winter Wonderland Festival.”

I offer her a warm smile. “I fear cars, not Google.”

She laughs and wipes her eyes, digging into her purse for a tissue. I’m surprised to realize that what I want more than anything isn’t to solve this for her, but to give her as much support as possible so she can solve this. I know she can do this. She can do anything she wants to. She’s that kind of woman.

Why can’t I just tell her that?

“You’ve got this,” I stumble on my words, tongue-tied for the first time in centuries.

“We’ve got this,” she says, emphasizing the ‘we’. Our gazes dance together for a single beat before she coughs, seemingly embarrassed, and pulls her hand away.

The moment breaks, and just like that, we’re back to business.

“Okay, think, Draven,” she says. “What clues do we have? We know the crooked crown person is behind the rogue elves. We know they left a tacky ornament behind. Think. There must be something we can use in that.”

“It’s not enough.” I tap my fingers on the table. “I’ve got fragments of clues, at best. There’s something there, but I can’t quite place it.”

“Can we go back to Mímir?”

“Not for a week. He’s full after a reading and it’ll be some time before he wakes up.”

“What if we shake the snow globe? Or we could take it apart and see if there’s something inside it we can use?”