Page 107 of Run, Run Rudolph
Make a wish.
I felt my spirit deflate. What other choice did we have? We didn’t understand what was going on, and we didn’t know how to get out of this mess. We needed someone on the inside. We needed a fairy godmother. My fairy godmother.
The only issue was that Mrs. Claus liked to brutally banish Estelle whenever she showed her face. But what had Sparkles, the fixer elf, told me about banishments? If I made a wish, Mrs. Claus couldn’t banish Estelle if she was helping me? But Estelle could banish Mrs. Claus….
And start a war.
“Fine. I have assigned you the goat,” Mrs. Claus stated, turning her head to one of the previously empty tables where an overweight grey and white goat appeared.
“Joulupukki? The Christmas goat?” I gasped.
Haden clutched me tighter, and I could tell that he knew the creature from Finnish folklore.
The goat was casually chewing its cud, looking bored and more like a barnyard animal than a lawyer about to extract us from this sticky mess. My excitement waned. He made me think of the Three Billy Goats Gruff from a storybook I’d read as a kid.
Didn’t one of the goats headbutt the troll at the end of the story?
Maybe the goat would make a good lawyer.
Having the goat as our lawyer was not good. I wasn’t sure how the legal system worked in the magical world, but if it was anything like ours, we were in a hot mess. The goat seemed infinitely more interested in gnawing on the table than helping us.
“Ask her what evidence she has of our intent,” I shout-whispered to the goat across the space that separated us. He stared at me, mindlessly chewing. “Well? Ask her!”
“Her mind is already made up. Make peace with it,” he suggested.
“But this is unfair!”
“Life is unfair,” Mrs. Claus growled at me, her eyes flaring red.
I straightened my spine. “And it’s doubly unfair that you’re keeping Haden here. I asked him to help me. He would have had nothing to do with this situation, otherwise. He’s innocent, and I take all the blame.”
“Tamara! What are you doing?” he whispered hoarsely, gripping my arm and pulling me back as I tried to step forward, my voice trembling.
“Trust me,” I said, shaking him off. I couldn’t stop, or I’d chicken out, the way I had been doing all night. It was time to end this, even if it wasn’t in the way I’d hoped. Even if it meant giving up my own happily ever after.
“You need to let him go,” I said firmly. “He’s innocent.”
“I chose to help her. I’m a veterinarian.”
“He only came to help because I begged him to,” I said, the bitter wind almost stealing the words from my mouth.
“I had a choice,” Haden protested.
“I left him several panicked voicemails.”
“I could have ignored them.”
“I brought him into this, knowing I shouldn’t let him see Rudolph or the others. I knew what I was doing when I breached your rules.”
“Yes, that is a problem,” Mrs. Claus said mildly. She was staring at Haden as though mulling over the pros and cons of keeping him as a slave, or possibly feeding him to some beast such as a dragon.
I tried to keep my spine straight, to prove I was strong enough to take the punishment for both of us. That I was the one worthy of her rage. The wind howled, numbing my ears, my chin, my hands. My cheeks ached from the buffeting blasts of stinging snow crystals and, unable to help it, I hunched into myself, teeth chattering.
Haden gathered me into his arms, hugging me tight, his flannel shirt against my cheek as he wrapped himself around me like a shelter. I leaned into him, feeling his reassuring solid weight press back.
“I’m so sorry I got you into all of this,” I whispered with a shudder. Haden didn’t deserve this. He was a good man in every way, and I’d never forgive myself if he lost out on a single thing because of what I’d pulled him into tonight.
“Nah,” Haden said casually, “this has been fun.”
