"Dad!" Darra rubbed his neck, clearly embarrassed. "You're back."

"I warned you Darra, I do not want you taking hussies into the house."

Kyra's mouth fell open, what did he just call her? Angry she stepped forward. It was then that she realised Mr. Blackwell hadn't recognised her, because as soon as he did, his face went pale.

"Miss Glen, what a, what a nice s- surprise."

She raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in demeanour and looked at Darra, who merely hunched his shoulders.

Before any of them could say an other word, a door a little further down the hallway opened and showed a very disgruntled Mrs. Blackwell.

"What is going on here?"

Quickly her husband raised his hands and said: "Nothing dear, sorry to have woken you. Darra was just saying goodnight to his friend, wasn't he?"

The warning tone in his voice was directed at his son, who nodded with a sheepish expression. Without any more words, he proceeded to open Imogen's door and Kyra walked inside. She smiled at Darra, nodded at his parents and closed the door.

For a moment she stood very still. She heard the door next to her close and footsteps walk passed, until another door closed as well. Muffled voices were heard in the distance and she gathered Darra's parents discussed the recent turn of events. She could only hope Darra wouldn't get into any trouble over this.

Just when she was about to open her suitcase to change for the night, a rip appeared, with Darra jumping through.

She almost squealed. "Darra, what are you doing here? I could have been in my underwear."

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'm sorry my dad ... well, I don't, I mean, what he said, about ... hussies. I'm not like that. And I'm sorry my dad called you that."

Kyra sighed. "It's alright, he clearly didn't mean to call me that." Her forehead wrinkled. "They both seem to be afraid of me, why?"

With a huff, Darra sat down on the foot of his sisters bed. "It's because of your power, and because of what he and Orla did. They fear you'll take revenge. Which is ridiculous and I've been trying to tell them that, but they won't listen."

She moved to sit beside him and he made room. Padding his hand, she said: "Don't worry, it'll pass. After a while they'll all have forgotten about the whole thing and they'll be back to their old selves."

"That's what I'm afraid off." Darra turned his hand, so their fingers entwined.

"Afraid? Why?"

"Because right now, you can do no wrong in their eyes. They won't mind me being with you. But when things go back to normal, they'll try to keep me away from you. I fear they will take me away from Professor Maxwell's school."

"Can they do that?"

"Sure, I'm not eighteen yet.

"Well", Kyra straightened her back, "we can't let fear rule our intentions. Let's go to sleep and tomorrow it's a new day. For now I'm here and until Christmas I don't have to be anywhere else."

"You won't be here for Christmas?" His face fell.

"I can't. I promised my dad I'll be back by then and I don't want him to have to spend the holiday alone."

When Darra pouted, she pressed a quick kiss on his cheek. "Now go, you need to sleep and I'm going to change. No more jumping into my room at night, you hear me?"

Obediently he nodded and then made a rip back into his room.

She waited a little while to see if he would do as he was told, and then took out her pyjamas from her suitcase. In the little en-suite bathroom she changed and brushed her teeth and then she lay down under the warm doona. After the events of the day it was impossible to fall asleep right away. She was hungry and not nearly tired enough, but she was also not willing to accidentally run into Mr. or Mrs. Blackwell, while roaming through the house, looking for the kitchen. So she heaved a deep sigh, closed her eyes and wished for the best.

She was woken by sunlight shining through the window and birds singing on the branches of the frosty tree that stood outside. She felt rested and happy and incredibly hungry, so she jumped out of bed and quickly changed. Would Darra be awake yet?

Deliberating with herself weather she would knock on his door, she ultimately decided to do what he had done and jump.

He was still asleep and she had to stifle a laugh with her hands when she saw the way he was laying. One arm was hanging over the edge of the bed and one foot, still clad in a red sock had escaped his doona on the opposite corner. He was on his belly and his unruly hair covered his eyes. A light snore proved he was still sound asleep and she tiptoed over to take a closer look. Normally she wouldn't use a word like adorable for the tall, handsome elf, but this time there was no other word more appropriate.

When she kneeled down next to his head and softly moved his hair aside, he woke up.

It took him a moment to fully register his surroundings, but then he gave her a lopsided grin.

"Good morning sleepyhead, are you ready for a new day? I'm really hungry, but I don't want to face your parents alone."

He grumbled a 'morning' and got up, to which Kyra quickly looked away, because he wasn't wearing a shirt.

After a few uncomfortable seconds, kneeling on the floor, she heard Darra ask: "Did you sleep?"

Looking over her shoulder and seeing how he was partly dressed this time, she turned back and answered: "Yeah, I did. And the sunshine woke me, so I'm feeling great."

He gave her a sweet smile and walked into his own bathroom. After a while, that she spend looking over his things, he emerged fully clothed and washed. He was his normal, gorgeous self again and Kyra felt her cheeks heat up when he winked at her.

"Come, we'll get you something to eat. I'm sure Poppy has already made a huge breakfast."

That sounded like music to her ears, now if only his parents would remain in bed until they were done eating, the world would be perfect.

But of course she wasn't that lucky.

"Good morning mother, good morning father", Darra said, as he walked into the kitchen ahead of her. Kyra mumbled a good morning as well and got a semi sincere reply. She feared she wouldn't be able to enjoy the wonderful smelling breakfast at all when she had to sit across from Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell. But luckily they seemed to feel the same way, because with something like a smile, they took their coffees into the living room, leaving the two to themselves.

She had no idea what a traditional Austrian breakfast looked like, but the many different buns and bread rolls smelled amazing and there was cheese, honey and jam next to creamy butter to choose from. Hot chocolate and coffee was being held warm on a stove and some fruits provided colour to the set table.

"I think I'm going to eat everything, this smells so good." Kyra took a freshly baked bun and held it up against her nose.

"Be my guest, there's plenty more where this came from." Darra buttered a piece of bread and bit into it.

Quickly Kyra followed his example and for a while all that was heard was the sound of chewing.

When she finally had the idea she couldn't eat another bite, Darra asked: "So, what do you want to do today? I was thinking we could go up the mountain, I could teach you a bit of snowboarding?"

"Don't you have to be here to welcome the guests?"

He smirked. "My parents would want me to, but they are their guests, let them deal with them. I have a guest of my own to entertain."

She giggled and leaned back. "I would like to, but right now I feel like I couldn't walk an inch, let alone climb a mountain."

"Who said anything about climbing?" Darra stood up, grabbed her hand and pulled her with him out of the kitchen. His parents were sitting in the living room. Kyra didn't miss the pinching of Mrs. Blackwell's lips when her eye caught their clasped hands.

"We're going up the mountain to snowboard. Don't count on us for lunch." Darra cheerfully announced.

"But the Van Peltens are coming, you need to be here."

"No I don't. We'll be back before dinner, I'll greet them then."

"At least tell me where you're going, so Olivia can join you when she arrives."

Kyra saw how Mrs. Blackwell's face turned hopefull when she mentioned the girl she had obvious intended for her son. Darra clearly didn't appreciate that. Yet he still answered: "We'll be on the regular slope."

With a satisfied nod, his mother allowed them to leave.

They got changed into snow suits and Darra carried two snowboards under his arm. He motioned for her to hold onto him and then ripped the two of them away.

The place where they ended up was beautiful. It was just as secluded as the beach had been, not a soul was in sight. Kyra couldn't believe this was a regular slope.

"Why is there no one here? Is it still too early? I don't see a chair lift."

"That's because there isn't any. No human ever comes here. Don't worry, Olivia won't be able to find us even if she searched all day."

She bit her lip and almost felt bad for the girl. Perhaps she was being forced on Darra as well. But then she remembered Darra's description of her and shook the notion away. She didn't want to share her time with Darra with anyone, least of all with some girl demanding his attention all the time.

"Come, I know a great place where we can sit for a while. Are you warm enough?"

Kyra felt like she was wrapped in tinfoil. With the sun blazing on her head it was almost too hot in the suit. "Yeah, I'm good."

She followed him to a ledge where he put the snowboard down for them to sit on. From this point of view they could overlook an entire valley. It was magnificent. Darra sat down close next to her and put an arm around her back. For a time they just sat there, enjoying the surroundings.

After a while Kyra was up for some exercise and so they spend a wonderful few hours snowboarding. At least, Darra was doing it, she was failing and mostly falling face down into the pristine snow.

"You may be good at basketball, this clearly is beyond your abilities", Darra quipped.

"I'm just getting warmed up, you just wait, by the end of the week I'll beat you."

He laughed at her. "Just admit it, I'm better at this."

"For now", she answered, not yet ready to admit defeat.

***

Darra took her to a lovely little restaurant to have lunch and after that they walked around the town of Kaprun that was nowhere near the cottage. After a few minutes he took her hand in his. It didn't feel very intimate, because of the gloves, but she still liked it.

"I would ask you to go to a movie later tonight, but I'm afraid all the movies here are in German. Some in weird dialects, but I don't know any of them. We could jump somewhere where we can understand them, but then the time won't be right. Or I've never been there so I don't know how to get there."

Kyra laughed. "That's alright, I don't need to see a movie here. We can just ... see the sunset, roast marshmallows, look at the stars?"

"Sounds good to me." He gave her a wide smile and swung their arms back and forth. "By the way, how did you know where our cottage was? Did you ask Imogen?"

Kyra shook her head and answered: "Not really. I didn't want her to know I was going to visit you. I'm not sure she agrees with ... us. But", she hastily added, before Darra could comment, "I did ask her about a good place to ski and she said your cottage was in Zell am See. So I looked that up and after Ruksy gave the address, I had a pretty good visual to make a rip and jump."

"You just made a rip based on an image?" Darra's face showed one big frown that made her wonder if something was wrong.

"Yeah, why?"

"Kyra, that is incredibly difficult. I thought she had brought you here and jumped right back. It's almost impossible for someone who is untrained like you, to make a rip to a place you've never been before."

"It didn't seem so hard. I looked it up in the library and it just said to imagine the place you wanted to jump to."

Darra huffed. "I can assure you, that was no beginners textbook."

They had slowed down to a halt and Kyra wondered out loud: "Do you suppose it was because of my orb-magic?"

"It might", Darra responded with a serious expression. "There is still so much we don't know about that. It's possible it enhances your regular magic, giving you the ability to do stuff like this."

"Hmm", Kyra happily smiled, "another thing I'm better at."