Nuss had been the stalwart captain all this time, my hero from minute one. His reticence was new to me. I wished I understood him better. Land of Snowflakes, I was coming for you next because I'll be damned if I'd allow him to feel anything less than as strong and powerful as the Nutcracker Captain I know he'd trained to be.
I walked back to the sleigh and took his hand. "Believe, captain. Believe in me, believe in us, believe in the magic. Everything will be okay."
A spark of my magic zipped from my hand to his and the soldier who'd come for me under the Christmas tree was back in his eyes. "You might be the only thing I believe in, Princess Clara."
He jumped from the sleigh and the two of us joined the rest of my guard. The four of them formed a box around me, Tau and Nuss in front, Zucker and Leb at my back. We moved forward as a unit and into the entrance of the cave.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, because it was both dark, and brilliantly lit from the spirit light of the broken crown... or should I say, crowns. I could see now that there were two lights, one lined in green, the other laced with purple. But they weren't two separate lights, all three colors were intertwined.
I blinked a few times, and the rest of the cave came into focus. Like the sugar cave we were in before there were giant crystals all along the walls, but where those ones had been clear and white, these were every color of the rainbow. "Whoa, no wonder the Vivandiere chose this place to hide the crowns. The atmosphere around is befitting their magic."
"I've been to this cave before," Tau said, as much wonder in his voice as I felt. "It didn't look like this at all. Come on let's go in deeper to where the flowers grow."
"Underground flowers? How do they grow with no light?"
Tau laughed. "Wait until you see this. The sugar crystals reflect light down into the cavern below. Right where our two land's border there is an underground grotto, filled with the most beautiful flora and fauna."
"How many times have you been here?" Zucker asked Tau. It is a bit of edge to his voice that I hadn't heard between them before. I didn't like that. The sooner we found the crowns the better.
"Only once in my youth. It's forbidden for all but the royal DewDrop Court. And even then, only on incredibly special occasions. My father brought me the night before my archer's test. He said he wanted to show me what we fought for."
"If we had met serving in the nutcracker guard, what do you have fought me for this treasure?"
Tau froze in his tracks. He turned and grabbed the back of Zucker's neck in the same way I'd seen Zucker do to him. "I think once you'll see it, you'll understand. I've never been able to get this place out of my mind, and it is the reason, along with the prophecy and the princess, that I did join the nutcracker guard. Places like this shouldn't be only for the privileged. I want this to be for the whole realm."
The connection between the two of them zipped through me as well. This time the magic was not just all awe-inspiring, but sensual. Those zings went down my spine and settled between my legs. The love between them made me want them even more.
Leb leaned down and whispered in my ear. "You will be the stuff of my pure fantasies when you bond with the two of them. I can hardly wait."
I'd never been anyone's fantasy before. It seemed silly but those naughty words gave me even more confidence than Leb's warrior magic or feeling like a warrior woman myself. Perhaps because I could see myself commanding troops if I had to. Even under Fritz's thumb, I'd always done what I had to do to keep our family going.
I'd never seen myself as a sexual being. Not until last night when he and I consummated our bond. But that experience was so new and unique that I hadn't thought about what it would feel like to do it all over again with each of my men. Of course, I knew I'd bond with each of them, and consummating that bond meant sex, but I guess I hadn't actually thought about it in that way. I'd been so focused on showing their world how to love again, I forgot, I was the one who would be falling in love.
Somehow... that also meant falling in love with myself. As a warrior woman, as a princess, as a dancer, and as a lover— a sexual being in my own right.
I felt the heat of a blush creep up my cheeks before I even said what I was thinking to Leb, but I said it anyway. "I can hardly wait for you to watch."
I refused to think I was weird for liking it when Nuss watched, and I would enjoy it just as much when Leb did too. Although now I was wondering what it would be like when none of them were watching, and we were all entangled together.
Leb kissed me on the top of my head and then gave me a swat on the butt, moving us along the path. The deeper we went into the cavern, the warmer it got. For being the Winter Realm, it was downright tropical in this cave. I pulled at the tight bodice on the ballerina's costume I still wore and longed a tank top and shorts.
Tau and Zucker rushed ahead and the three of us simply followed the path that was indeed lit up by the reflection from crystal to crystal. Interestingly, the spirit light from the crowns didn't bounce off the chunks of sugar in the walls. It wasn't really light then, was it? Another kind of magic, I supposed.
While I'd learned so much about the magic inside of me, I wondered if there would ever be anyone from the Land of Spirit and Magic who could teach me about my innate abilities like there had been someone for each of my men.
When I caught up to Zucker and Tau, they were standing together, hand in hand looking out over an underground oasis. Colorful crystals hung not only from the walls, but from vines, trees, and flowers. Bees and butterflies flew from bud to bud, and the air sparkled with a hundred thousand fireflies.
I came up beside them and found what they were staring at. In the center of the pool, there was a small grassy island and growing straight up from the center of it was an enormous dewdrop flower, with its pastel green and violet petals open wide. While the giant flower was spectacular, it was the fact that the stem was wrapped in a vine of candy canes. The two were so intertwined that every inch of the flower itself sparkled with fine sugar crystals. At the tip of each of the thin filaments of the stamen, instead of a typical anther pod, I could swear was a sugar plum sweet.
I turned around and faced my two Fae princes and touched my palms to each of their cheeks. "That's where we'll find the broken pieces of the crowns, from both the Sweet and Flower Fae lands."
Leb clapped them both on the back. "As it should be, lads. Now let's go get it. Anyone know how to swim?"
Oh. Ha. I hadn't thought of that. I didn't suppose there was a whole lot of swimming in a land where everything was ice and snow. "I can."
I hated to get my clothes wet if we were going back out into the frosty winter. I guess I'd have to take them off. But I hadn't even put them on myself. I wasn't sure I could get out of them on my own. I undid the ribbons on the shoes and slipped them off, but I'd need help with everything else.
"Can you help me get out of this bodice? I don't want to swim in this outfit and get my clothes wet." Tau, Zucker, and Leb all reached for me with a sparkle in their eyes, but Nuss batted their hands away.
