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Santa’s worried gaze snapped to hers. “Damn it.”
“What does that mean?” True asked.
“I don’t know,” Santa said. “I think Frost implanted dread magic inside the ice spell. It’s spreading from his heart.” He called for Ana, who tried to pull the dread magic from the spell with her slumber magic.
The icy frost continued to move over Winter, stronger and darker.
Ana staggered back with a gasp. “It’s too deep and covered with the ice magic. I can’t remove it.”
True could hardly feel their connection as mates.
“I never told him I loved him, I thought I had time,” True said in a whisper.
Her owl stirred inside her, hooting in worry as Winter seemed to slip farther away from her as their connection faded swiftly.
A sharp instinct rose inside her, urgent and undeniable. Her owl hooted in her mind again. Her wings burst from her back and she shed the parka to let them free, startling those closest to her. Without thinking, she drew one of her wings forward and pulled out a feather.
“What are you doing?” Emberlin asked.
“I don’t know,” True said, clutching the feather in shaking fingers. “But my owl wanted me to do it.”
True leaned over her mate and placed the feather over his heart.
For a moment, nothing happened.
“Come back to me,” True whispered. “I love you, Winter.”
Then the feather began to glow.
Soft silver light flowed from it, spreading across Winter’s chest, and the frost covering his skin hissed as if something hot were touching it. Ana stepped forward again, her golden magic joining the glow of the feather as Emberlin added a thread of fire magic and Santa brought his own warlock magic.
The room filled with light – gold, silver, and fire-red warmth.
“Seth!” Santa called.
The warlock joined them, adding his own golden magic to the battle against Frost’s dark, dread magic.
The frost surged, seeming to come alive on Winter’s skin, and then the feather turned bright silver and the frost over Winter’s heart split apart with a loud crack. Purple smoke burst from his chest and dissolved in the air as Ana’s magic tore it apart, and the ice on Winter’s skin shattered like glass.
Winter gasped.
The room went still, waiting.
His chest rose and fell, and his bear let out a growling rumble as his eyes opened. “True?”
A sob tore from her throat as she threw her arms around him. “I thought I lost you!”
He wrapped his arms around her. “I almost died, but I wasn’t leaving this world before telling you I love you.”
She cupped his face and kissed him. “I love you too.”
Winter sat up and held her close. “Thank you. All of you. You saved my life.”
“It was True’s feather that brought it all together,” Santa said. “It focused our magic where it needed to go, fueled by the most powerful emotion of all: love.”
“Oh, look,” True said, pointing to Winter’s chest. There, over his heart, was a faint silver outline of her feather etched into his skin.
“Now that’s a freaking cool souvenir,” Seth said.
