I looked at Tau and Nuss, both of whom shrugged. Tau shook his head. "My people can't do much more than whip him with some violets. Maybe the Snowflake nuns can guilt it out of him."
"Okay, Land of Sweets it is then." Nuss shoved Fritz toward his horse and tied him to the reins so that he'd have to walk behind.
Hmm. There was a story there and I wanted to hear it before we got to Nuss's land of Snowflakes. I hadn't even realized the Winter Realm had religion. I'm not sure why I assumed it didn't, really. Organized religion often came with the trappings of purity culture. That had to have something to do with why he didn't join in with us last night.
Could it be possible that my handsome and sexy Captain of the Nutcracker guard was a virgin?
"Come on now." Leb gave our horse a nudge with his feet. "Let's get a move on. It's already the second day of Christmas and we've got more crowns to find."
I had two already. The one from the Land of Spirit and Magic that my mother left me. Ha, take that Fritz. And the one from the Gingerbread Kingdom. But I only had three more princes to bond with.
But I'd kissed another.
WHERE IS THE VIVANDIERE?
CLARA
Iglanced up along the path we'd come down and scowled. Nothing moved, yet something was out there. I don't know how I knew, but I felt the presence of the Dark Warrior, Konig, the Mouse Prince of the Land of Animals. Was he following us, watching? Had he watched us last night?
A messenger angel streaked down the mountain toward us and Nuss caught her on the elbow of his still broken arm. He flicked open the roll of paper and flashed us a warning look. "They've started their attack, Leb."
"Shite. Get that dickhead back on that horse and let's go. The mountain's defenses are set to trigger an avalanche. Let's go, go go." Leb snapped his reigns and took the lead down the rocky path.
"An avalanche? Sweet baby Jesus." I quickly checked that everyone was with us. I'd already been through losing them in the last battle. I didn't want to go through that again.
Nuss tossed Fritz up across the back of the horse like a trussed-up animal, and all three of them jumped onto their own rides. Leb gave us a hee-ya command and the six of us went barreling down the tiny path at a breakneck speed.
The mountain behind us rumbled and the spikes of anticipation already pumping from my heart screaming at me to run, went into flat out we're-all-going-to-die mode. A mountain of snow and rock and trees were in pursuit and catching us up fast.
"Nuss, we aren't going to make it. You got a plan?" Leb shouted, and I hoped someone had an idea. The snow was already flying around us and while Leb could probably survive an apocalypse, the rest of us were vulnerable.
"Fuck it. This was supposed to be a last resort." He pushed his horse to put on a burst of speed and rode up next to me. He kicked one leg over the horse, standing in one stirrup, hanging onto the reins with one arm like a fancy Lipizzaner rider doing tricks.
What the hell was he doing? Leb held me tight around the waist, as Nuss leaned in and going at lightning speed across jagged terrain with a fucking avalanche bearing down on us, he kissed me. Not just any kiss, either. Nuss sucked my bottom lip into his mouth and bit me.
I don't know how, but when he did that, he took some magic from me. The tingles of my newfound powers shimmered through my vision like snowflakes, over to Nuss. I yanked my mouth away and touched my lips. My fingers came away with a touch of blood.
Granted it would be hard to be gentle while galloping through an avalanche, but he'd done that on purpose. There had to be a reason. Nuss would never hurt me. What was going on?
He licked his own lips and then flipped backwards on his horse, pulled out his sword and aimed it at the snow.
What in the holy Christmas Star was going on? The snow coming toward us split, like a forked tongue, but only enough to save us for the next few minutes.
"Damn it. It isn't enough." Nuss cursed and pointed toward Zucker and Tau. "You keep her safe, you hear me. Even without the Land of Snowflakes power, she will still be strong enough to overcome the Mouse Queen."
Oh, no. I didn't like where that was going. "Don't you even think about sacrificing yourself for me again. I need you, I need all of you here with me."
Nuss ignored me and jumped up on his horse's back, much wobblier than I liked. His balance was off without the use of both of his arms. I shouted to Zucker and Nuss. "Help him. Don't let him fall."
They both sped up and put themselves on either side of Nuss's horse so even if he fell, they could catch him. Their support didn't help even a little. Nuss jumped from his horse to the one carrying Fritz laid out across its back. If he was going to save the Fritz over himself, I was going to find a way to bring him back to life and then kill him.
But Nuss used his sword to nick the back of my brother's neck. Fritz squealed and I wanted to scream at him to shut up. The same shimmers of magic that had flowed from me, went up and along Nuss's sword. He once again pointed the tip at the snow and this time, it rumbled and tumbled and changed its path completely. The mass of it went around us, leaving the trail in front of us mostly debris free and safe.
It only took us a few more minutes to make it down to the edge of the Christmas tree forest where we could stop and look back at the destruction we'd avoided. I slipped down out of Leb's lap, and marched over to Nuss, yanking him down by the pantleg. "What the hell was that?"
Nuss hopped down and stepped away from me, looking down into the snow. "I told you it was a last resort."
Zucker and Tau joined us, boxing Nuss in. Zucker poked him in the chest. "You drained magic from the Prince and Princess of the Land of Spirit and Magic to use for yourself. How, why?"
