Toni heard a grunt in her ear as she slammed into a drift of snow with a bone-crunching smack.
“Ugh!” Nina yelped, keeping her arm securely around Toni’s waist and rolling with her down a bumpy hill. They tumbled and sputtered like a half-human, half-undead snowball, kicking up snow and dead leaves in their path until they came to a full stop.
Toni groaned, flopping to her right side, forcing air into her lungs with loud rasps.
There was the thunderous sound of Dannan’s footsteps and the cries of Wanda and Marty off in the distance, but she was too dizzy to lift her head. Instead, she let it loll to the side, ignoring the brittle, wet snow.
“What the fuck just happened?” Nina muttered, pushing the soaking-wet hair from Toni’s forehead.
Nina’s hands were oddly soothing as she ran them over Toni’s shoulders and face, checking her eyes and nose, her cheekbones and arms. “Jesus and a snow cone, why the hell did you wander off?”
“Starbucks,” she muttered. It was all she was capable of saying.
Nina bracketed Toni’s head with her hands and stared down at her, sunglasses concealing her eyes. “Really, Looney-Tunes? Are there barista’s aplenty out here in One Hundred Acre Woods?”
She didn’t have time to answer as Jon plowed through the snow and dropped down beside her, pulling her from Nina’s gentle hands and lifting her in his arms. “My lady, you’re freezing. We must warm you or you’ll catch your death.”
Maybe on the outside she was freezing, but her insides would beg to differ as Jon carried her, tucked to his wide chest, toward the very tree that had started all her trouble.
His chest heaved against her left breast as he huffed for breath, creating all sorts of imagery in her head—images she had no business dreaming up when she was in such a pickle. Still, they assaulted her, making her skin tingle and her heart race, and if she had an ounce of energy left, she’d wrap her arm around his shoulders just to see what it felt like. But she was depleted.
“Dannan,” he barked, “a blanket for the lady, please. You’ll find one in my pack atop Oliver.”
Marty and Wanda rushed up to her as Dannan spread a rough blanket on the ground and Jon set her on it like a helpless child. He leaned down as he settled her, their lips inches apart.
As her eyes began to gain better focus, all she could see was his luscious mouth and the hear the erratic crash of her heart trying its best to get out of her chest—and the shafts of light over his head while a distant harp plucked a soft tune.
Aw, for the love of Cheetos. Enough already!
But then she realized—Jon saw something, too. In that brief, sweet moment, everything stopped. Their eyes met and held, their breath mingled, the cold air turned balmy.
“Milady?” he husked out, but she didn’t have the chance to explore what had just passed between them because Wanda shoved him out of the way.
Both Marty and Wanda were on their knees in front of her in seconds, their big hairdos flopping to either side of their heads, their dresses torn from climbing the tree.
Wanda reached for her first, grabbing her hand. “Toni! Are you all right? We tried to help but our powers are weaker today than they were just last night. Poor Marty couldn’t even totally shift. What were you doing up there? You could have been killed!”
Toni stared up at the two women who’d been so nice to her and shrugged her shoulders. “Good point. And I can’t explain what was going on. First, my feet got all tingly and warm. Then my mind was telling me I was just shy of certifiable to get on that dragon’s back, but my body wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Marty peered into her eyes, the intensity of the stare almost frightening. “What? Did you hit your head? She hit her head on impact, didn’t she?” she asked Nina, who’d followed them toward the tree.
Carl nuzzled Toni’s cheek, pressing as close to her as he could without spiking her clean through with his fuzzy antlers. She lifted a weak hand and rubbed his muzzle with a smile.
“I didn’t hit my head when we landed. I can’t explain what just happened because I’m still wrapping my brain around the word ‘dragon’. I was on the back of a dragon. A dragon. You know, wings and fire—so much fire—forked-tongues and scales?”
The three women nodded their heads, but again, no one batted an eye. Not even a twitch.
Toni’s mouth fell open. “Aw, c’mon. You guys have seen dragons?”
“I’d show you pictures of a baby dragon, but I don’t have my damn phone.” Nina grinned then, and with that, everything about her changed. Her face was no longer pinched and scowling, it was alight and beautiful with something that was obviously near and dear to her heart.
This gruff, foul-mouthed woman likely loved as hard as she fought. And that struck Toni somewhere far deeper than she was willing to go. For right now, there was the issue of a baby dragon.