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Chapter 14

Santa waited at the perimeter of Northernmost. Sound carried very well up at the top of the world, and he could hear the fighting in the darkness beyond, his people against his brother's. He rubbed the space over his heart.

There had been so much death and destruction. So many lives lost.

His wife. Jack's wife. Elves who'd once been his friends now serving his brother and filled with dark magic.

Jack would continue to come for him with the intention of killing him to take over the Well. It was something that Santa couldn't allow. If Jack got control of the Well, life as they knew it would be over. Dark magic would rule.

Not only Jack and his followers, but Nightmare and his dark dream walkers and Grim and his dark Reapers. Well, Grim wasn't dark, he was neutral, but he was friends with Jack and had a group of dark reapers who enjoyed wreaking havoc for evil's sake. Their counterparts—Sandman and Mother Nature—did the best they could to keep the evil at bay, but it was a constant struggle. One that Santa knew very well.

Good magic kept the world in balance. Jack didn't like balance, he liked evil and darkness.

His heart panged as he saw a purple glow in the distance that was drawing closer.

Oh, no. Frost had taken Ivy's magic.

The process wasn't fast, it took quite a while to drain an elf or other magical person of their good magic and replace it with his own. Once they were turned, they couldn't be unturned, lost forever to the darkness that corrupted them from the inside out. No longer the friend and loved one they'd been, but a new creature loyal only to Jack and his darkness.

As Knox raced toward Northernmost with Ivy in his arms, Santa prepared to tell the male the bad news.

It was perhaps too late for his beloved mate.

It had taken them less than an hour to get to Frost's lair in the first place, but now Knox was running as fast as he could. He was exhausted, but he wasn't about to stop moving. Ivy was limp in his arms, still glowing with purple and smelling of sulfur and fire.

"Santa! Santa, please!" he yelled.

Next to him Alder and Marcus ran, never stopping or speaking, a steady presence that he desperately needed. If he fell, he knew they'd carry her forward, but he wasn't about to let that happen.

"Damn it, no!" Marcus yelled.

"What?" Knox asked, his footsteps faltering for a heartbeat before he kept going.

"Followers!" Alder shouted, veering to the right. "We'll take care of them. Get her to Santa!"

Knox doubled down, his feet numb in his boots and his face chapped from the cold wind.

Santa was standing near the perimeter. Behind him, Knox heard the sounds of fighting, but he didn't stop. He reached the perimeter, but when he hit the barrier, he bounced back, landing hard on his ass.

"What the hell!" he yelled. He cradled Ivy in his arms and struggled to his feet.

"Dark magic can't pass," Santa said.

Shit.

He laid his precious mate on the ground and brushed her hair from her face. The purple glow hadn't moved any farther down her chest, but she looked drawn, her cheeks sunken and a strange ashy color seeping through the purple.

"She's not evil," he said. "She's still there, I can feel it. Help her, damn it!"

He pressed his fingers to her neck, to the place where he'd bit her. Her pulse beat against his fingers, strong and steady.

Santa moved past the magical perimeter and put his hand on Knox's shoulder. "Son."

"No. Fucking no!" he yelled, tears blurring his vision. "You have to save her."

"Give me room and watch my back."

Santa laid his hands on top of Ivy's head and inhaled slowly. At first, nothing happened.

Knox silently pleaded for his mate to come back. He linked his fingers with hers and pressed the top of her hand to his lips.

"Ivy, please don't leave me."

A golden glow emanated from Santa's hands. Above them, the Northern Lights swirled and danced in the sky, seeming even brighter with Santa accessing his magic. The golden glow grew so bright that Knox had to turn his head and shield his eyes.

The glow ended abruptly, and Santa grunted.

Knox blinked the brightness from his eyes and looked at his mate.

She was no longer covered with purple or smelling of sulfur and burning wood. Santa was on his butt next to them, his eyes dull and his cheeks hollow.

"Is she?" Knox asked, scrubbing at his cheeks.

"Get her to the Well," Santa croaked, his voice sounding like he'd been downing whiskey by the barrel for decades. "She's free of the dark magic, but she's not going to make it without being replenished."

Knox didn't waste a moment and hauled Ivy up from the ground and raced through the perimeter to the Well. He'd seen magical people replenish themselves at the Well a thousand times over the years, but he'd never had to do it himself. Dropping to his knees, he grasped her wrists and pushed her hands over the edge of the well and into the swirling magic.

Golden magic moved up her fingers and sank into her skin, lighting a path he could see through her clothes all the way to her heart, up her neck and down her chest, spreading through all the parts of her body.

She let out a deep sigh and collapsed against him as her whole body glowed bright gold and then faded.

He sank down onto the cold ground and held her close, pressing a kiss to her lips.

"Ivy?"

She blinked, her eyes bright gold for a moment before turning to brilliant blue. "Knox?"

Then she closed her eyes and relaxed once more, a soft snore escaping her lips.

He stared at her.

She was asleep?

And snoring.

Holy crap.

But she was alive and safe.

A shadow passed over him and he looked up to see Santa, Alder, Marcus, and the rest of the Guardians and security team smiling at him.

"I thought you couldn't unturn a magical person once Frost took their magic?" Maverick asked.

"I can't," Santa said. "Frost had only started to take her magic, he hadn't yet replaced it with his own dark magic. I was able to reverse the process because you all got to her in time."

Knox squeezed her against him and rose to his feet, Maverick and Chase helping him to rise. "How long will she sleep?"

"A day perhaps," Santa said. "It will give time for her foot to heal too. Make sure that you check her for a magical tracker from Frost. We don't want a repeat of what happened with Storm and Seren. It will be a cold spot on her skin and look like a snowflake."

"I'll check. Thank you. Thank you all for helping me get my mate back."

Knox carried Ivy, flanked by her family, plus Maverick and Chase, into the barracks, infinitely grateful to have her back and safe.

Ivy woke suddenly, scared out of her mind and frantically searching for Knox.

"Ivy, I'm here, you're safe!"

Her eyes had been squeezed shut and she opened them, aware that she'd been having a nightmare. She looked around the room and found Knox next to her on her bed.

She wasn't in the cell anymore.

She looked down at her hands, remembering hurting Azure to get free. Then Jack caught her and…

Hugging Knox tightly, she trembled as she realized just how close she'd come to losing everything, even herself.

"What happened?" she asked.

"How much do you remember?" he asked. He leaned away from her and smoothed the hair from her face.

She told him what she recalled, then said, "Is Zara okay?"

"She's all healed now. You've been asleep for a day, healing from what happened. It was close, baby. Fucking close." He scrubbed a hand over his face and filled in the blanks to her memory loss.

Once Jack had started to drain her magic, she'd lost consciousness.

She put her hands on his face. He hadn't shaved so his cheeks were scratchy with stubble and his eyes were ringed with dark circles.

"Have you slept at all?" she asked.

"Not really. I dozed a few times, but I couldn't rest until you woke."

"Aw." She kissed him. It was a brush of her lips over his at first, and then he growled softly and pushed her back down to the bed. He leaned over her, his eyes flashing to the amber of his leopard.

"Sweetheart."

He was so warm she could feel the heat of his body even though they weren't touching. Her heart swelled as she stared into the eyes of the male who'd run across the frozen terrain to get to her, had battled followers and faced off against Jack Frost himself, the most powerful dark warlock in the world.

So very much could have gone wrong.

But they were safe and together, not only her and Knox, but also her brother and dad, and the other Guardians and security team members. They hadn't lost anyone.

She frowned. "Is Bruce okay?"

"Bruce?"

"One of the elves. He was near the portal when Zara and I were coming back."

"I… have no idea."

He brushed his lips over hers again then sat up and reached for his phone.

It buzzed just as he lifted it from the side table.

"Knox," he said when he answered by pressing the speaker button.

"Is Ivy awake?" Maverick asked.

"Yeah, just now. Why?"

"We need you to come up to the security office. Immediately. If she wasn't awake, I would have sent her brother to hang out with her until you got back."

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"No. We've got a problem."

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