Spotlight
Christmas is hotter than ever: the Elemental Viking brothers are back!
Over a thousand years ago, four Viking brothers led by their tyrannical father invaded lands under the protection of a powerful witch. Cursed for their crimes, the brothers suffered for their wrongdoing for over a thousand years. With the help of the women they loved, they became worthy of redemption and broke their curses. Now it's Christmas, and--with the help of a little magic--the entire family is reunited to celebrate. But when the yuletide spell bringing them together also summons their bloodthirsty father back from the veil, the boys and their lovers must band together to save the holidays. This festive novella for adults features holiday spell work, naughty gifts, and a winter wonderland you'll never see coming. This STANDALONE novella is part of the "Her Elemental Viking" series and features characters from throughout the series. There are no cliffhangers, and each short ends as it should: happily ever after. |
Excerpt
Audrey placed a comforting hand on Bram’s shoulder. “I have something to tell you, love. Your brothers are alive. All of them.”
“They’re what?” Bram’s voice echoed off the tinsel-decorated walls of AUDREY’S bar. He could barely believe it. “But, that witch, she--”
“You weren’t the only one she cursed.” Audrey stroked the taut muscles in shoulder. “And yours wasn’t the only curse that broke.”
Bram’s heart raced with joy. This is perfect! he thought. Bram had been cursed to live as a disembodied puddle in a Scottish loch for a thousand years until Audrey freed him. Of course he hadn’t been the only one the witch cursed. Now that his brothers were free, they could all be together again.
Bram’s smile stretched past what he thought his face would allow. Christmas hadn’t been a holiday back when he was pillaging villages with his Viking raiding party, but so far it was proving to be a time for miracles.
“They’re uncursed, alive, out and about.” Audrey smiled. “Lola said so.”
“That’s incredible!” Bram lifted Audrey by the waist and swung her around in a circle, grinning at her. “How does she even know?” he asked as he set Audrey back down on the stained hardwood floor of her bar. “Because, Lola,” they said together with a laugh.
The last time Bram saw Lola, the bar’s most infamous bartender had been bench pressing a minotaur. The surly, surprised look on the minotaur’s face as the small brunette with the purple eyes lifted him over and over again had been utterly priceless.
“How are they? I mean, back in the old days, my brothers were a bit--” He tried to find the right word. “Murdery.”
“Lola says your brothers have become much better people since then. Like you, their curses changed them.” Audrey snapped her fingers and a few pint glasses floated out of the soapy depths of the sink and began to shake themselves off like wet dogs. “Lola told me, ‘They’re as normal as that weirdo boyfriend of yours’,” She nudged him with his elbow, the glint in her emerald eyes dancing with so much love he couldn’t help smiling back.
“High praise from Lola,” he said.
Audrey pulled Bram towards her for a quick kiss, and Bram didn’t want to let her go. After so many years alone in a loch atoning for his mistakes, having Audrey as the light of his life felt wondrous. With her, he could start a new life free of his haunted past. He ran his fingers through her hair, wondering at its softness. The first step towards his new life was to marry the woman who rescued him. He just had to ask her in the right way, and knowing his brothers were alive gave him an idea.
“Audrey, I think we’re running out of cherries.” He gestured at the plastic containers of garnishes on the bar. Her eyebrows raised at his abrupt change of topic, but eyed the empty slot for cherries and nodded. “You’re right. I’ll go grab some from the basement.”
Audrey twisted a bottle of whiskey on the wall and the entire display of top-shelf liquor swung open to reveal a staircase going down into the basement. “Why don’t you just magic yourself downstairs like you do at home?” Bram asked. He’d gotten so used to seeing her zap around that seeing her actually walking down the stairs was like watching a bird hop rather than fly.
“This place has got a mind of its own,” she said. “The last time I got lazy and tried to zap myself up to the attic, I ended up in the boiler room and nearly roasted.”
Bram looked around, feeling slightly concerned.
“Are you saying this place is alive?”
Audrey laughed. “In a matter of speaking. Do you think I decorated this place?” Audrey gestured around the bar at the lights, garlands, and an aggressive amount of mistletoe. “AUDREY’S just decks itself out every Christmas Eve.” She waved her hand and a stack of limes began to cut themselves into cocktail-sized wedges on the counter. “I’m still finding hidden rooms and secret passageways, and I practically grew up here.” She started to descend the staircase, her voice becoming softer as she went below. “Sometimes I think this place has my grandmother’s sense of humor. It’s the sort of shit she loved to pull.”
Bram maintained his innocent expression until he could hear Audrey’s footsteps fade away.
He raced to Audrey’s supply closet upstairs. If I’m going to pull off the perfect Christmas, I need to do it now, he thought. The small room was lined with shelves of spell books and exotic components for complex witchcraft. The ingredients were mostly feathers or hair harmlessly removed from exotic creatures, but some of them spun and shook in their clear glass jars with eerily lifelike motions. Even living with a witch, the jars freaked Bram out a little.
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