Wicked Wonderland by Lisa Whitefern Read Free Book Online

die?”
    Nick shook his head. “Fairies can die, but they don’t die of old age like mortals. We…they can potentially live forever, providing they avoid certain things. As for us half fae, it comes down to the luck of genetics, I guess. Some are more like the fae and never seem to age once they get to about thirty. Others die very human deaths. The offspring of humans mating with fae have a wide range of different abilities, a whole spectrum. As I said, it’s all down to genetics whether you’re mortal or immortal and what powers you have.”
    “What do fae die of?”
    “Oh, a number of things, depending on what type of fae they are. Most fae avoid cold iron. Half-fae men who take the path of iron and fight with iron swords lose their magical ability.”
    And I’ve avoided iron as much as I could all my life. I thought it was a quirky phobia.
    Surely that doesn’t mean …
    Nick laid his hand on her shoulder, and she jumped. “Are you okay?”
    Lilly nodded. “It’s a lot to absorb, that’s all.”
    Nick gave her a gentle smile. “Of course it is.”
    Kris was still feeding the reindeer, but he called to Nick over his shoulder. “Hey, Nick, I was right! Lilly can see the sleigh, so that means…”
    But Nick shot Kris a fierce look that made the younger man fall silent.
    Lilly wasn’t going to let it slide. Nick might be a natural Dom, but that didn’t mean he could always get his way. “That means what, Kris? What does my seeing the sleigh mean?”
    He looked distinctly uncomfortable, his gaze flicking back and forth between her and Nick. “Well, you know… That you’re not one hundred percent human.”
    Not one hundred percent human! What kind of insult is that? Is it an insult?
    “Hey, Kris.” Nick’s tone was dark but smooth. “I think Lilly’s been through enough for one night without having to think about that. She must be freezing. Climb in, Lilly.”
    Lilly glared at Nick. “I want to know what he has to say.”
    He sighed. “You can see the sleigh. That means you must have some fae blood in you. Like we both do.”
    Kris continued, “When we heard the rumors about you being found in a Dumpster as a baby… Well, it did occur to us that maybe your birth mother might have noticed your fae qualities and feared her newborn was a changeling child.”
    Lilly’s head snapped back as it would from a blow; her cheeks heated with flame. She wasn’t used to anyone mentioning where she’d been found, apart from her stalker in his vicious messages.
    Kris made gentle eye contact with her, walked away from the reindeer and came to stand beside her. He reached out and took a strand of her hair in his hand, stroking the curls lightly. The soft empathy in his expression as he looked down at her worked to calm her nerves. “You were only a little baby. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
    She looked down at her hands and played with her ring. “My mother dumped me in the trash when I was born. Of course I’m ashamed.” Lilly wasn’t going to mention how much more ashamed her stalker had made her over the years than she might otherwise have been, with his nasty notes and letters. The vandalism he’d done to her property so many times, the words Trashwhore written in lipstick on her dressing table mirror, on the outside walls of her mother’s townhouse. Even across the frame of her music degree when he’d somehow managed to break into their home.
    Over time, she’d learned not to talk to most people about her stalker, because most people thought it was weird and decided she was somehow weird by association. Some of the people in her life ignored her if she mentioned it. Others saw it as an exaggerated drama of her own making.
    Kris moved closer to her, and the scent of his cedar-wood cologne surrounded her. She remembered Kris had always smelled like a man who’d just had a bath, fresh and clean and yet male. The heat of him fogged her brain.
    “Come on,” he said. “Your legs are turning