Page 89 of Run, Run Rudolph
“Rules, Estelle,” she said coldly.
“But this is unprecedented, and there are severe consequences for both worlds if we continue to allow this to unravel.”
The head fairy had lowered her elbows to her desk and had propped her temples between her fingertips. She was rubbing slow circles like she had a headache. “There are consequences to everything we do. Christmas isn’t our domain, and with our clients refusing to make wishes, it means our hands are quite tied.”
We were quiet for a moment, and I took a second to mentally check in on Tamara, to tune into her frequency. I sucked in a slow breath, gathering a quick picture of the current state of affairs. A lot had happened over the past several hours.
“Santa’s hurt.”
“What!” Gram-Gram crept closer, as though I was a crystal ball she could look into. “When did that happen? Haven’t you been checking in on her?”
“Yes! I mean, not all the time. I’m trying to respect her privacy. Maybe it happened when I was in Mexico. It looks like the reindeer went and got him so he could come help Rudy, and they crashed.” I added in a small voice, “Still drunk.”
The room felt frozen for a moment. Then the head fairy’s voice turned to ice as she spat out, “They did what?”
“I know. Please, can’t we just?—”
“Where is Mrs. Claus?” Gram-Gram was near frantic. “Can you see her?”
“No.” I’d only be able to see her if she was with one of my clients. It was a stopgap to prevent fairies from spying on other beings with our fairy vision.
“She’s not there.” My voice trembled, and I sucked in a steadying breath. “But it seems as though they’ve summoned her, ma’am.”
And that was the first time I ever heard the head fairy curse.
She began shoving me toward the door, across the pink bullpen where the trainee cubicles were laid out in a grid. Then over to Paxi’s office again, her hands insistent bites at my back as she urged me forward with a “Go, go, go!”
Chapter 25
~ Tamara ~
Hugo fed Rudolph the bowl of goopy, brown disgustingness that had set Haden back around three hundred dollars, and made Jannifer that much richer. For the sake of Christmas, I hoped the elf’s homemade concoction worked. I also hoped that Blitzen didn’t spill it, as he’d convinced himself Rudolph was getting a ‘wobbly pop,’ which was what he called my cooler of yukaflux. He kept trying to stick his head in Rudolph’s bowl, their antlers knocking each other about, the liquid sloshing precariously close to the rim.
“Boys!” I scolded, giving Rudolph the opportunity to successfully lick up the last bit of the elf’s potion.
I froze, swearing I’d heard sleigh bells.
“Is that Mrs. Claus?” I asked.
I heard the bells again. Unable to contain my excitement, even though I knew she was supposedly some sort of angry black witch, I grabbed Haden’s hand.
“Mrs. Claus is here! She’s here!” I dragged him toward the barn doors, not pausing to grab our coats first.
Outside, a woman in a svelte red outfit, with white fur trim, was standing, feet wide apart, arms crossed as she glowered at the smashed sleigh parked beside the barn. Snow swirled around her under the yard light. Her white hair was done in stylish short spikes, emphasizing her striking, high cheekbones.
“I hear my husband has run into trouble,” she said in a low, cold tone as I came to a halt just outside the barn doors. Haden bumped into me from behind, his right arm circling my middle as he clutched me against him to prevent us from tumbling to the ground.
Mrs. Claus, in all of her very tall glory, marched toward us. There didn’t seem to be a speck of her that resembled the image I was expecting to see. She was slim, younger than Santa, and scary. She pointed a gloved finger in my face like it was a magic wand.
“You? You’re the one who started all of this?”
I nodded mutely, my eyes crossing as I focused on her fingertip, worried it might start glowing with pent-up black magic.
She pointed to Haden, who was still behind me, arms slung around my middle. “And you can both see and hear everything that’s going on?”
I felt him nod, his warm exhale creating a cloud in the frigid night air.
Mrs. Claus’s lips pursed and her eyes narrowed. “We’ll deal with that later.”
