“Clumsy Trite,” Zane muttered with a grin. “How have you survived all these quarters without me?”

There he was by the field’s edge. Zane slid to his own knees and glided over to scoop me up, abandoning his Patrol staff into the drifts. I hugged around his neck, tears flooding my treacherous eyes. It felt like a dream, but I knew it was real because his heart hammered against mine. Zane wound his arms around my waist and held me there, his breath shuddering as we squeezed each other half to death. I felt his warm tear fall on my neck.

When we finally pulled apart, I huffed a laugh at his moisture-filled, flickering eyes that couldn’t settle on one colour.

“Ragnashuck,” he whispered, his hands sliding up to either side of my face.

“Ragnashuck,” I agreed.

“You look terrible.” He grinned, taking a lap of my tangled hair and lifting it between two fingers.

I grunted and lobbed a handful of snow onto his head. He bit his lips together as I patted it down, his gaze sparkling.

“If I didn’t miss you so much, I’d toss you into a bank of flakes,” he said, but his smile faded. He studied my face, my eyes, the rest of me. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, brows tugging together. “You look like you’ve battled the icewinds.”

“That’s a rude thing to say after you haven’t seen me all year,” I said, but I was still beaming, even as my hand came up to smooth down my unruly locks.

“Huh.” His gaze followed my hand motions. “Anyway, there’s no time to waste, Trite. We’ve got a sleigh to catch.” He sprang back to his feet, pulling me up with him.

“A sleigh?”

“I raced Wanda here. She’s snuffed I beat her, so I gave her a head start for the race back. But I can’t let her win, or she’ll never stop nattering about it.” He extended a hand.

I looked at it. At him.

“Well. I’d hate for you to stop being the most over-glorified Patrolman there ever was,” I said and took his hand.

“Trite,” he warned, tugging me against him with a dangerous grin. “Careful.”

“Zane,” I said, and he paused.

My Patrolman bit his lip through a grin and brushed the tangles of hair from my face. “I know, Trite. I missed you too.”

I closed my mouth, smile returning.

I grabbed my leather bag as he took off over the field and my stomach dropped. It took only minutes for us to catch up, and I nearly choked at the sight of the bell-decorated horses hauling a red sleigh full of Patrolmen.

Wanda slapped the reins as soon as she spotted us. I recognized Kilen and Mirkra in the back—Mirkra grinned and opened his arms wide, and I had a sinking feeling I knew what he wanted. Sure enough, Zane chucked me toward the sleigh, and Mirkra caught me, mid-gasp. The Patrolman set me on the bench beside Kilen, who rested an arm along the backrest and double-hopped his eyebrows in greeting.