A Solstice Journey Read Online Free PDF Page A

his arms around me and then laid his head on my shoulder. It should have felt weird or pushy, but I just leaned into him, wanting his touch, because he saved my life, because he felt warm and supportive. “Truly, you are safe now.”
    “Other people?” I asked, my voice rough and hoarse.
    “None of the other patrols found anyone,” Llinos said softly. “We usually don’t, no matter what the day.”
    “What were you thinking of?” Celyn asked softly. “When we found you.”
    After hesitating for a moment, I said, “Home. Home and the first Christmas that we all saw snow. Most of the time, we were someplace warm for the winter. Or it was one of those years that it was cold and rainy, never snow for Christmas.”
    “How old were you?” Llinos asked.
    “Eighteen,” I said. “My birthday’s at the end of October. I came home from university at the break. I was always teased by my friends for being so uncool because instead of partying with them, I wanted to be with my parents at Christmas. Because I always wanted to be there for the whole holiday, as soon as exams were over. This is the first Christmas that I haven’t been home. It’s stupid. I’m thirty-three, and I’ve never been alone for Christmas before. I told my mother that I was all right with it, but I hate it, because it doesn’t feel like Christmas since I’m not home with them.”
    “You are overtired,” Llinos said in a comforting tone. “Lie down.”
    And I did, because she had that mothering tone that made me want to do what she told me to. I didn’t miss that it was Celyn who drew a quilt over me and smoothed down my hair, kissing me gently on the forehead before I closed my eyes and the world drifted away.
     
     
    I DON ’ T know how much later it was when I woke up. I felt much better. Celyn was sitting beside the bed, reading a scroll.
    When I shifted, he looked over at me with a smile. “It hasn’t been long,” he said. “No more than a candle width.”
    “What?”
    “The candles mark the hours,” he explained patiently. “And you have only been asleep for one.” He stood up and stretched. “Idris wishes to see you.”
    “Who?”
    I wondered if he thought I was an idiot. All I could get out were one-syllable words. I wasn’t one slow to wake up. I usually jumped out of bed in the morning with a lot of energy.
    “Idris is my king,” Celyn said. “He is curious about the Álfr that we found in the snow and would like to speak to you.”
    “I’m not an elf,” I repeated, sitting up. “I think that my parents would have told me that. They did tell me I was adopted.”
    I rolled out of bed, standing up and stretching, feeling much better after my little nap. I didn’t miss the fact that Celyn was openly staring at me. Not quite ogling, but not hiding the fact he liked looking at me. But getting laid wasn’t on my agenda for now. I wanted to get home—or at least wanted to wake up, because this was something out of a dream. A hot guy wanted me in some sort of strange fantasy setting? Conan the Barbarian, I was not. I wasn’t going to get the guy, because I wasn’t good-looking enough for him.
    “They did?” Celyn asked.
    I nodded, vaguely remembering even though I had been so young. “It wasn’t something that they couldn’t not tell me. I figured it out, kind of, because I didn’t look like them, and everyone we met had to point it out to us, like my parents hadn’t figured it out before.”
    Celyn laughed and I joined him after a second. He had a nice laugh, one that made me want to laugh too. I had sounded… not annoyed, but perplexed by the stupidity and nosiness of people in general.
    “They look like you,” I said.
    He laughed some more. It wasn’t at me. He just found that statement funny. But one didn’t look at me and think I was Icelandic.
    “Blond,” I elaborated. “Blue-eyed, and tall. My sisters said that I was really their brother because I had blue eyes like them. And I’m tall too,