Page 70 of His Winter Wonderland

“I’ve been asleep for three months. I want to hold my mate for a moment before we return to the chaos of reality.”

Winter pinched Rhen’s arm.

“Ouch.”

“Let’s go.”

“Hey, goddess of war, you were the one who wanted to come and find Sin.”

“And now I’m saying let’s go.”

“I take it, she’s the one who shaved your head?” Kaede asked.

Winter nodded. “He deserved it.”

“I believe you.”

“Hey, drampire, talk to your own mate. Leave mine alone.”

Winter gripped Rhen’s hand. “I am not yours.” Under her breath, she muttered, “We haven’t told Sin yet, remember?” Winter faced Sin. “You two, hurry. They will come to the compound once they realize I am not in my home. Your people are in grave danger.”

“We’re coming,” Sin told her.

With a nod, Winter whispered a spell, then she and Rhen disappeared. The spell was supposed to take them to the village outside the compound. The spell was specific. Winter knew she’d said it right. It was a spell she’d used before. She came up with it after the night she’d first met Rhen.

It was a spell that always took her to Silvia’s home. This time, it took her to a clearing in the Frozen Forest. And hanging from the icy tree limbs, were the bodies of many of the villagers. Winter stared around her in disgust. Rhen gripped her hand and pulled her behind him. His growling caused her to look over his shoulder.

Standing on the top of the hill were the three Goddesses of the Apocalypse and next to them were their ferocious familiars. The spell had worked. It had taken her to Silvia. But was Silvia dead or alive?

***

Rhen

“Who the fuck is that?” He asked his mate.

Both of their gazes were fixed on the women standing on the top of the hill.

“The one in the middle, that’s Slith. You know her as Jenn.”

Jenn? She looked nothing like Jenn. Her long blonde hair dropped down to her ankles. And standing on one side of her was an Asian looking woman. But what shocked him was the woman on the other side of her. A black woman who looked exactly like Winter.

“You’ve got a twin?”

“Something like that. We were created together. I guess we’re what you would call twins. Her name is Ember. And she hates me.”

“Then she’ll be the one I kill first.”

His mate grabbed his arm. “Look around you. Aren’t these the villagers from Kaede’s compound?”

Indeed, they were. He even caught the scent of a few vampires. His brethren. Through clenched teeth, he told his mate, “Don’t think about that right now. Let’s focus on them. The Deciders.”

“I’ll say a spell to get us out of here.”

The three women smiled down at them. Rhen wanted to get his mate as far away from them as possible.

“Hurry,” he told her.

His mate began the spell, once she was finished, he waited for the swirl that accompanied them last time to start. Nothing happened. They didn’t disappear and reappear anywhere. They remained where they were.