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delusions.
    “I’ll make sure no one knows I saw you,” Marshall said to Delbert. “I promise.”
    “You don’t have to promise him anything,” Julka said. “He screwed up. He shouldn’t have gotten out of the sleigh.”
    Then she clapped both hands over her mouth as Delbert slapped her arm.
    “I didn’t say that,” he said. “I didn’t. If they blame me for that, I’m going to give you up. I mean it, along with all that weird behavior. And fraternizing . You shouldn’t fraternize. I told you nothing good would come of it.”
    Fraternize. Apparently he meant with Marshall. Apparently, these two weren’t even allowed to talk to people.
    Marshall let out a small sigh. A perfect capper to a perfectly bad week. He leaned back, shut off the snow blower, and tucked the key in his pocket. Then he almost put his hands up again. That robbing metaphor stuck with him, probably because he felt like he’d been robbed.
    “Look, you guys are clearly far from home, and in a strange place and I’m sure that’s not comfortable….”
    Lord, he was babbling. Julka was staring at Marshall with such disappointment that he felt worse than he had a moment ago. He stopped talking altogether.
    He had encountered yet another situation that he didn’t know how to handle. He had no idea how many more of them he could take.

 
     
     
     
     
    9
     
     
    JULKA’S BREATH CAUGHT. Marshall thought she was crazy. She had been warned about this reaction in all of her Greater World classes. If she talked too much about the North Pole or exhibited too much magical behavior, the people of the Greater World would dismiss her as a crazy person.
    But she didn’t want Marshall to think her crazy. She had liked the way he looked at her before, the interest in his eyes, the way that he smiled at her, the touch of his hand on hers. She had liked that a lot. More than a lot, actually. She had been looking forward to coffee and conversation, and stretching those 35 houses into five days worth of work, and getting to know Marshall and maybe putting in a request to meet the folks who ran the New England advance team—the entire team, not just the Entry Access Quality Control section. Maybe she could be assigned here permanently. She liked the snow, after all.
    She hadn’t realized all of those dreams had been in her mind just since lunch until Marshall looked at her like she wasn’t right in the head. If she could righteously punch Delbert right now, she would. But he had just been trying to save her from herself.
    And failing.
    But he was correct: it was her fault. She had wanted a bunch of things that were forbidden to her. And she was going to get into trouble for it.
    Then she frowned.
    She was going to get into trouble for it . Anyway . That’s the word she was missing. She was going to get in trouble anyway , so why not go for broke?
    It was better than finding an S-Elf who would make Marshall forget he even met her. She had momentarily been willing to follow that rule, and the pain in her chest—in her heart—had been severe.
    She liked this man. She more than liked this man. This man felt—she didn’t even have the word. More appropriate? Better? Right? He felt right for her.
    So she was going to go for broke. And if they decided to punish her at the North Pole, so be it. Nothing could feel worse than that moment when she had asked Delbert to make Marshall forget him. Her. Them.
    Make Marshall forget them.
    She shoved the invisibility shield at Delbert, and hit him with it in the stomach. She liked to think that was an accident, but it probably wasn’t.
    He caught it and his hands immediately disappeared. Hers didn’t when she held the dang thing, but Delbert’s did. Of course, someone who didn’t even believe in magic probably wouldn’t notice the difference.
    She extended her hand to Marshall. “Come with me.”
    He looked at her cautiously, that what’s-she-going-to-do-now look in his eye, the one that people got when she