A Wizard for Christmas by Dorothy McFalls Read Free Book Online Page B

power to protect this particular New One. He broke no laws.”
    “He killed Justin!” someone shouted. Hadrian couldn’t see who.
    “We’re all targets now,” Stone said. “Regardless of what happened last night, we cannot change the danger we are facing today. Like it or not, we need Holly. She’s the key to stopping the beast.”
    “Key, my ass,” Kara scoffed.
    “Key?” Holly paled several shades. “I-I don’t understand any of this. Kara is right about one thing. I can’t stop that thing. Even if I wanted to I wouldn’t know what to do. You have to be mistaken. And what a grave mistake, too. I’m not the one you’re looking for.”
    She weaved on her feet. Hadrian caught her as her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed.
     
    * * * *
     
    “The beast has weakened her,” Holly heard someone say in a hushed voice. She peeled open her eyes. The room was dark. The shades had been pulled, and she’d been undressed and put in a comfortable bed. It took a while to figure out where she was. Her suitcase was propped up against the wall. That’s what had finally clued her in. Someone had brought her to the apartment above the café. “Feel her aura. She’s so weak. Has she been drinking the tea?”
    “Yes, but I’ll have some more brought up as soon as she wakes.” Hadrian wasn’t whispering, so his voice wasn’t as hard to recognize as the man speaking in a hushed tone.
    “Frank was right to bring her in.” The man sucked in a long breath through his nose. “She smells like an old one. That’s why the soul eater wants her. She’s a rarity. Her powers, if they ever emerge, will tap into the elementals of the universe. We could do so many wonderful things with her, but the timing is bad. I wish we had more time, but the soul eater won’t wait.”
    “How are we going to train her?” Hadrian asked “It takes years to master some of the most rudimentary skills, and you’re talking about sending her into battle as soon as she’s strong enough?”
    “We don’t train her,” the man said.
    “Then we’re sending her to die.” Holly didn’t like how that sounded.
    “Would it matter that much if she was sacrificed to save the rest of us? She’s not even a member of our community.”
    “Not yet,” Hadrian pointed out. “But she is one of us.”
    “A New One. We don’t know if she would ever fit in.”
    “She would. Stone and I have been watching her. And she’s strong. She didn’t break right away. Even with all that negative energy flooding toward her downstairs, she didn’t break.”
    “You have feelings for her,” the man said.
    Holly held her breath waiting to hear Hadrian’s answer. None came.
    “You can’t let your feelings blind you.” If he hadn’t been talking about her life—or rather, death—she probably would have thought it funny that the man with a hushed voice sounded like a bad actor in a corny sci-fi movie. “Her soul’s been too badly damaged. It may never heal. Let her go. There will be others for you to save.”

Chapter Five
     
    Holly spent hours staring at the ceiling in that apartment above the café while replaying the conversation she was beginning to wish she hadn’t overheard. Every couple of hours Jake would check on her. He always brought the same special tea Hadrian had made for her right after the attack. Sometimes he had a snack or meal with him, too. Hadrian had been right; the chocolate croissants were really very good.
    Jake tried to be friendly. He stayed with her while she ate, doing his best to keep her company. But still, there was a grim mood hanging in the room. She had a feeling that if she tried to leave, she’d be stopped. Two days passed with no sign of Hadrian. She was beginning to think he’d taken the other man’s advice and given up on her.
    On the morning of Christmas Eve, she was still locked in the one-room apartment. What a banner Christmas Eve day this one was turning into.
    She was the sacrificial lamb being