Now it was going to get fun. For me anyway. Not so much for Fritz. "Here's what going to happen, brother. You're going to ride down the mountain with us, and you're not going to say a word the whole way. When we get back to the Christmas tree for us you can either go home through the portal, and mind your own business, or you can come with us to the next land and maybe learn how you've chosen the wrong side."
Nuss drew his sword, Tau notched an arrow, Zucker twirled a dagger in his hand, and Leb laughed. It was the last that scared Fritz the most. He hated to be laughed at.
"You have no idea who I am here in your precious Winter Realm." He directed his ire at Leb, but I full-well knew that was a proxy for me.
I did wonder how long or how often he'd been here. Nuss implied the portal only opened to come here at midnight on Christmas morning, but that didn't explain how he'd gotten into the human realm before it opened. That was a question for later. "Doesn't matter, because I know who I am here."
I wasn't his doormat any longer. I had a mission to spread love, find those broken pieces of the seven crowns, and help my true people prepare to fight alongside the Vivandiere to defeat the Mouse Queen. Who apparently was Fritz's new special friend.
Gross.
Since he was my brother, I felt responsible for making sure he didn't make things worse here like he did at home. "We've got places to go, and I don't have time for your shenanigans. Fall in line. Now."
Ooh. I sounded so warrior woman.
"Now can I chop of his head with my axe, lass?" I felt Leb reaching for the axe on his back.
Fritz glared at me, dragging me into an old-fashioned stare down to see who would blink first. "I'm getting closer to saying yes."
"In the meantime, might I suggest we tie him up and make him walk?" Nuss nodded to Zucker and Tau and faster than I could say Christmas tree, the three of them had him surrounded, off his horse, hogtied, and gagged.
"Whoa." Seeing them so easily take Fritz down was exhilarating. "I was being a word warrior there for a minute, but you guys are like a coordinated troop of soldiers."
"Sweetheart," Zucker patted my thigh. "The warrior magic of the Gingerbread Kingdom was flowing through you straight to us. We were merely tapping into your power."
Fritz struggled and rolled around, but it did nothing but get him a face full of snow. Ha.
I turned in the saddle just enough to be able to see Leb better. "When we bonded, I thought we were awakening my magic, but you were giving me some of yours, weren't you?"
"I was in such a hurry to fuck you, we didn't even think about how little you know about how life in the realm works. But you've got the gist of it."
Fritz made some talking sounds that absolutely were slurs at me. I gave him the stink eye and Nuss stepped on his back, smashing him deeper into the snow. "This is part of why the four of us decided to stop competing against each other for who would be your consort."
"Only part?" I'd meant that to be a little joke knowing that they were each as anxious as I was to find the other pieces of the crown that belong to their lands so we could consummate our bonds.
Nuss's eyes went dark, and I got the warm and fuzzies in my lower belly. That was the same look as when he was watching us from his throne in the corner of the room. It took me a really long minute to tear my eyes... and thoughts away.
Tau looked between us and grinned. "Yes, my flower, only part. But we did hope that combining what's in our souls with your magic would strengthen you, and thus all of the lands."
Zucker snickered. "Yeah, that's the part I was thinking about last night. Not the part where your--"
"Zzz. Pssst. Shh. That's enough of that kind of talk in front of my brother." I pretended to smooth my hair just to cover the way I knew my cheeks were lighting like bright red balloons. It wasn't that I was embarrassed or shameful about what we'd done. Just that it was meant to be between us.
And well, yes. I could do without Fritz's judgmental glares.
Zucker gave me a long, heated look and shoved Fritz's face deeper into the snow. "I'll hold my tongue now, if you'll hold it in your cunt later."
"Ahem. Yes, umm. Let's be on our way. Can we drop him off in the Christmas Tree Forest and shove him through the portal before our next destination?"
Nuss grabbed the back of Fritz's jacket and pulled him up to his knees. "I think we'd better bring him back up the mountain to Mother Gingerbread. She'll get a good kick out of interrogating him, and we might learn how the Mouse Queen got to him."
"I'll never talk." Fritz spit snow from his mouth, sputtering at being manhandled. "Your mommy doesn't scare me."
Leb laughed that big hearty chuckle. "You should be ready to pee your pants, small boy. She scares the rest of us. But if you aren't that attached to your bollocks, feel free to tell her that yourself."
"I will." Fritz squirmed in Nuss's hold but didn't get anywhere.
"Let's bring him to the Land of Sweets. A good vat of boiling sugar poured over his cock should get him talking."
