A Midwinter Fantasy (32 page)

“You did well, daughter.” Troy brushed his knuckles across her cheek with a smile. “Take good care of your crystal dagger. It will focus your power whenever you need it.”

His gaze settled on Vidar. He touched his fingers to his brow in some kind of a salute. “There’s nothing holding you here now,” he said.

Vidar returned the gesture. The two men stared at each other candidly, their eyes intense with unspoken acknowledgment of past friendship, shared pain, new beginnings. Then Vidar gave Sonja a cautious smile. “We’ll go somewhere warm. Perhaps I’ll visit my
mother
’s family.”

“The Folletti,” Troy said, his gaze drifting thoughtfully into the distance. “Italy will be a fine place to continue Sonja’s education.”

Did that mean he was coming with them? She exchanged a glance with Vidar. Much as she wanted to get to know her father and discover how to use her power, she wanted time alone with Vidar. In some ways she knew him so well, but in other ways they had a lot of catching up to do.

“Go on ahead,” Troy said with a glance over his shoulder. Odin had stood and was shuffling toward the door in the back wall. “I’ll find you after I’ve tidied up here.”

Two weeks later, Sonja flew from London to Italy to meet Vidar. She waited impatiently for her bags before hurrying out to find him. Even in the middle of the bustling crowd he stood out, looking very Italian in his dark glasses with the collar turned up on his leather jacket.

She abandoned her luggage cart to throw herself into his open arms. While they’d been apart, she’d only had to think of him for his presence to fill her mind, but she’d missed seeing him, touching him, making love with him.

She wormed her fingers inside his jacket while he kissed her. “Did you miss me?” she asked breathlessly when they came up for air.

He grinned. “Always,
elskan mií
.”

“Shouldn’t you call me something Italian now, like
bella?
.”

“Angling for compliments?”

She grinned back at him. “Always, my love.”

Vidar loaded her bags in a black BMW before driving her along the Amalfi coast. The serpentine road followed a fairytale route around sparkling blue bays and through quaint villages of tiny whitewashed houses stacked up the steep coastal cliffs. Sonja finally relaxed, releasing the last few stressful weeks in London, moving her few belongings out of her aunt’s house into storage and sorting out her affairs. Her aunt hadn’t been her aunt at all, but a Valkyrie tasked with guarding her. Saying good-bye to someone she’d known all her life but
never really known at all had been as surreal as everything else that had happened to her recently. Vidar had spent the time initiating the sale of Santa’s Magical Wonderland to a Norwegian company, and she sensed he would miss the place. He’d told her that throwing himself into developing a business in the human realm had been the only thing that had kept him sane over the last few years. As for the rest of his life, he’d mentioned some years spent with her father when they were young men, and a devastating war between the light elves and the dark elves that had lasted for centuries. Now she and Vidar would have time to talk, she hoped to discover everything he’d done over the last two thousand years.

The car slowed as they approached Positano. “That’s the ancestral home of the Folletti,” Vidar said, pointing. “They’re still a small fairy troop, although there are too many for the house now and some of them have dwellings in the surrounding hills.”

Sonja stared out the car window at the white villa on the cliffs, entranced by the labyrinth of tiny balconies and narrow stone staircases. Green shutters, bright ceramic pots overflowing with huge red poinsettia blooms, and terracotta tiles provided a patchwork of color.

Vidar maneuvered the car into a garage that was little more than a cave beneath the house, and she followed him up a stone staircase hewn into the rock to an entrance hall full of darkly polished wood and colorful ceramic tiles. “The place has changed a lot since I left.” He sounded upbeat, but she caught a hint of wistfulness in his tone. His mother had died centuries ago, so returning must be a bittersweet experience.

Leaving her luggage in a corner, Vidar led her through a comfortable sitting room to a glass door. White pillars circled with vines marked the corners of a covered terrace furnished with an ornate metal table and chairs.

He offered her a plate of biscotti and poured from a pot of tea left on the table by a maid. “I thought you might be hungry.”

Sonja stood at the balcony rail, munching the crunchy almond cookie while watching a fleet of brightly colored fishing boats bobbing far below on the blue sea. Vidar wrapped an arm around her waist. She leaned her head against his shoulder.

“The speed at which my life’s changed is bizarre,” she murmured. “Speaking of the bizarre, is my father here yet?”

Vidar cleared his throat. “There’s something I need to tell y—”

“Ah, you’re here.” A delicately beautiful woman with long black hair and blue eyes glided out to greet them. An ivory silk wrap encased her slender body, but she was obviously naked underneath the fine fabric. She embraced Vidar before casting an assessing gaze over Sonja. “
Buon giorno
, Sonja. You have your father’s beauty.”

“Sonja, meet Arminia, she’s the reigning queen of the Folletti and a very distant niece of mine.”

“
Buon giorno
,” Sonja replied.

A moment later Troy came out, and Sonja blinked in amazement. Each time she’d seen him he was impeccably dressed. Even after the conflict with Odin, he’d hardly had a hair out of place. Now his feet were bare, the top button on his trousers was undone, and he was shirtless.

“Sonja, child.” He touched her cheek. “Have you practiced walking unseen?”

She tried not to stare at the amazing pearly skin of her father’s naked chest. “I’ve been too busy.”

“I’ll practice with you later and help you to master your other skills.”

“We’ll leave you to show Sonja around,” Arminia said to Vidar. “We’ll meet you for dinner.” Then, with a seductive sideways glance at Troy, she turned and flitted back inside.

Troy watched her go before returning his attention to Sonja. “We’ll talk when you’re rested.” He followed Arminia.

“My having a rest is
not
what’s on his mind,” Sonja exclaimed as soon as he was out of sight.

“Sorry I didn’t get a chance to warn you your father’s here,” Vidar said. “I get the impression Arminia has been seeing him for a while, but she’ll never get him to commit to her. He has a bit of a reputation for fighting hard and playing hard.”

“Oh my god, he
doesn’t
.” She turned to Vidar with an embarrassed laugh.

He gave her a wry grin. “Look on the bright side. It means that you likely have a few siblings. If we find out who they are, we can visit them.”

“Gosh.” She leaned against Vidar, suddenly feeling as if the earth were shifting beneath her feet again. Meeting her father had been a revelation, but to think she had brothers and sisters somewhere . . . She’d gone from having no one except her reluctant pseudo aunt to having a lover, a family, the whole world at her fingertips. This Christmas all her childhood dreams were coming true. It made up for all the years when she’d missed out on Christmas gifts. When she’d set out for Santa’s Magical Wonderland, had she known deep inside that she’d find her
guardian angel
there?

Vidar hugged her to him. “I have a surprise for you.”

She turned in his arms and speared her fingers through his hair to pull his head down. “I hope it’s a huge king-size bed with silk sheets.” Pressing her lips to his, she melted into his embrace.

He eased back and stroked wisps of hair away from her face. “You’ll love our bedroom. But first I want to take you somewhere else.”

“Not another Yule Fest, please. I can only cope with one of those a year.” He gave her a mysterious smile, then led her along a warren of staircases and tiny corridors, through ancient warped doors and under low stone arches where he had to duck. They emerged in a garden of tiny linked terraces literally hanging on the edge of the cliff. Hidden among the greenery was a stone bench in an alcove set with shells. Sonja inhaled the scent of mild salty air as the sea lapped against the rocks below them.

Vidar stepped forward to gaze down at the water. “Years and years ago, I used to come here to think.” His leather jacket outlined the masculine width of his shoulders, tapering to his narrow waist. Itching to touch him, Sonja followed him and laced her fingers with his.

“It’s good to be home,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “The only thing I’ll miss about Iceland is Gleda.

“When my father summoned me all those centuries ago, I dashed off proud to be the son of a god, eager for adventure and excitement. I had no idea I would never see my mother again. But if I hadn’t gone to Asgard, I wouldn’t have been there to save your life, and I wouldn’t have bonded myself with you. Chances are we’d never have met.” He turned and buried his face against her neck. She stroked his hair, trying to imagine what her childhood would have been like without his loving presence in her mind.

They clung together for long silent minutes, Sonja lost in thoughts of what had happened, and what might have been. “Can’t change anything,” she said softly.

“Wouldn’t want to,” Vidar replied, his breath warm against her ear. “I saved your life, but you saved mine as well. I don’t
think I’d have survived two thousand years trapped in my father’s service if not for the bond I had with you. Even when you were just a babe in the Crystal Crib I always sensed the warmth of your spirit on the edge of my consciousness like the distant promise of spring in the middle of a cold, harsh winter.” He pulled three linked red crystal rings from his pocket and said, “I want to give you my Magic Knot to complete our bond.”

Entranced by the fire dancing inside the stones, Sonja reached to touch. Vidar closed his fingers around the rings, his expression serious.

“Before you accept, you need to understand that in our culture exchanging Magic Knots is equivalent to becoming engaged. Only, it’s irrevocable.” He met her gaze. “It means forever, Sonja. For people like us, forever’s a long time.”

Sonja’s heart raced, and she sucked in a steadying breath. She still couldn’t comprehend the concept that she would never die. “I want to spend my life with you,” she said softly.

She unfastened the chain holding her own Magic Knot around her neck. Vidar swapped her stones for his and helped her put the gold chain back on. The three red rings gleamed supernaturally bright against her powder blue sweater.

She reached to touch them, but he caught her hand.

“Wait a moment.” He pressed his lips to her three crystal rings before tucking them into a small silk bag he pulled from his pocket; then he guided her to the stone bench and they sat down. “Now put my stones against your skin.”

She dropped the ruby rings inside her sweater where they nestled on the end of the chain between her breasts. Heat blossomed inside her. The familiar feeling of Vidar intensified, gained clarity, expanded within her so that she lost track of where she was, her senses overwhelmed. She clung to him, and he wrapped his arms around her.

“All right
, ástin mín?”

She was about to answer when she realised he hadn’t spoken aloud.

His thoughts brushed her mind: naked skin, heat, pleasure. Her eyelids fell. Desire pulsed through her. “Vidar . . .”

“Yes,” he said in a dark velvet whisper.

Her hand flattened on his thigh. “Take me to our bedroom quickly, you tease. I want to give you your Christmas gift.”

He pulled her onto his lap with a chuckle and reached in his pocket. “Close your eyes.” She obeyed and felt him pin something to her sweater.

“Is this my Christmas gift?”

“Not exactly, but you’ve definitely earned it.”

She opened her eyes and looked down to find a shiny red and white button from the resort. “Live your dreams this Christmas,” Vidar whispered.

They did.