Sam didn’t take my news well. “What do you mean you have another family emergency? You told me you didn’t have family!”
“More like I have a long-not-so-lost family,” I replied. “I keep hoping I’ll lose them, but they keep on showing up again.”
“Clio,” Sam groaned. “You know I need you to work today.”
“I know,” I replied. “And I really am sorry. I love this job so much, and I don’t want to lose it. I promise, things will be better once I’ve sorted this family stuff out.”
Sam let out a begrudging sigh. “Fine. But I’m taking you off the roster for the entire week. I can’t keep calling people in for shifts an hour before they need to start.”
I grinned brightly and leaned over the bar to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Sam. You’re not going to regret this!” I said before rushing back toward the door.
“I already do!” he called after me. I could hear the smile in his voice, so I knew he didn’t mean it.
“When are you going to give up on the whole job thing?” Alfie asked, popping into existence at my side as I exited the pub and made my way onto the street. “I’ve seen you ditch it more often than you’ve actually worked lately.”
“I’ve had a lot going on lately,” I replied. “And speaking of ditching, where have you been? Since we last spoke, I’ve gone undercover to a krampus bar, freed a group of krampus captives, summoned a bus, and dodged death by flamethrower.”
Alfie’s eyes widened. “It’s been one day, Clio. One. Day.”
I shrugged and continued down the sidewalk toward the car Dash had kept idling on the street.
“I can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?” Alfie said.
“Probably not,” I agreed. “Oh, I also got a new roommate.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re moving in with the shifter…”
“Ew, no!” I replied though the thought wasn’t nearly as repulsive as I let on. My mind was immediately drawn to the memory of Dash walking around his cabin in a towel, and I quite liked the thought of a half-naked Dash roaming around my house. Not that I wanted him that way. I just wanted to have something pretty to look at on my days off.
“She’s a claus,” I said, getting back on track. “Her name’s Melody. She’s shy, but I think you’re really going to like her.”
“And what does Tomi think of his new roommate?”
“Er, I haven’t quite told him yet. But I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“Have you met your tomten?” Alfie asked. “He doesn’t do fine.”
“Well, he’ll survive.”
I reached the car and turned to Alfie. “Anyway, I’ve got to go. I’m off to a prison to see a dangerous prophet about an evil krampus called Crow.”
Alfie shook his head at me. “I’m terrified to even begin wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
I grinned, but then my face fell as I recalled our last conversation. “Hey, Alf, I’m sorry for getting angry at you yesterday.”
“And I’m sorry for upsetting you,” he replied. “I just want you to be happy.”
“I know,” I said with a smile.
“Hi, Alfie,” Dash called out through the open window of the car as he leaned over the center console. For a second, I was excited at the thought that Dash could see my friend. But when I saw the direction the shifter was looking in, I knew he was just using his powers of deduction rather than magical eyesight.
“You’re not even close to looking in the right direction,” I said with as much disapproval as I could muster.
“And you look like a crazy cat lady,” he replied. “Talking to yourself as you walk down the street is the first sign you need help.”
I looked over my shoulder as Alfie laughed. “You don’t even like cats,” he said.
“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t make a great cat lady,” I replied. “And on that note, I better get going. Don’t be a stranger!”
“Don’t get involved in any more trouble!” he said back to me.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I grinned and winked at him before hopping in the car.
“Do I even want to know what you wouldn’t dream of?” Dash asked as he pulled out of the parking space and I waved at my best friend through the window.
“Probably not,” I replied.
He chuckled deeply, and the sound hit me in the stomach, making it flutter. Apparently, I didn’t even need to look at the guy for him to affect me now. I blamed my stupid teenage hormones. Only one more year until I was twenty, and hopefully, I would be done with them.
“So, where are we meeting the others?” I asked.
“Same sleigh point we used when we returned from the Northern Realm,” Dash replied.
“Isn’t the barn a bit far from Coop’s farmhouse?” We’d driven for over an hour to get from the shifters’ safe house to The Rusty Gate. Bramblewood was hardly the most convenient spot for the rest of the group to meet.
“Someone insisted that they need to stop in at work,” he replied, giving me a piercing look. “So, the others are meeting us here.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Oh, indeed.” He let out a pained breath before he continued. “I’m not sure why you couldn’t have called your boss on the phone like most humans do.”
I didn’t miss the jab he was giving me. “I wanted to tell him in person,” I replied. “And besides, Tomi stole my phone.”
“Then use your magic and summon yourself a new one.”
“It’s not the same.”
Dash laughed at me. “You’re ridiculous, you know that, right?”
It was meant to be an insult, but it somehow sounded endearing coming from him.
“Whatever,” I replied. “Like I said, even if I’d had my phone, I needed to speak to Sam in person. I don’t think he would have responded well to a call. As it was, I nearly lost my job.”
“Sure, you did,” Dash replied, like he wasn’t convinced.
He pulled over to the side of the road as we neared the barn that housed the sleigh point. I couldn’t see any other cars on the road, so I knew we must have been the first to arrive.
“What time are the others meeting us?” I asked.
“In about ten minutes,” he replied. “I figured you’d need a little longer to convince your boss. Apparently, I was wrong.”
“Ah, you underestimated my negotiating skills,” I said with a knowing nod.
“Or I underestimated your boss’s resistance to your charms.”
“You calling me charming?” I asked.
He laughed at me though. “Perhaps to a human.”
I poked my tongue out at him, which only made him continue to chuckle.
We walked along the hedge-lined lane before turning onto the dirt track that led to the barn. The weather was cold today, which wasn’t exactly unusual for England, and I could feel droplets of water from the light drizzling rain attaching themselves to my hair. I was okay with the cold, but I couldn’t stand the rain.
When we entered the barn, I made myself at home, sitting on a bundle of hay, as we waited for the others to arrive. Dash didn’t sit, deciding to pace the length of the stables instead.
I knew he was nervous about meeting the nameless one, but it was only now that we’d reached the sleigh point that I was really beginning to see it in his eyes.
“What are you so worried about?” I asked.
Dash paused his pacing and glanced up at me, tucking his hands into his pockets as he considered my question. “I just don’t want any trouble,” he said. “I don’t like putting my herd in danger, but that’s exactly what I’m about to do.”
“I know you want to protect them,” I said. “But your herd are all grown-ups and have a choice in this too. They know the risks, and they’re willing to accept them because we need the answers the nameless one can give us.
“We can’t afford to wait for Crow’s next move when he’s using his persuasion over Christmas elves to kill magical beings. We
especially can’t wait to see what he does with a Christmas star. It’s too dangerous. Going to Incarceror is the right thing to do.”
“I know,” Dash agreed. “It still doesn’t mean I have to like it though.”
We both fell silent as the sound of voices reached our ears from outside.
“That’s the others,” Dash said, heading back toward the open barn door to greet them. I slowly followed him but paused by the entrance, happy to remain under the dry shelter the barn provided. The rain was coming in more heavily now, and I could hear the distinct patter of the water hitting the roof. This was how I preferred my rain—it outside while I remained dry and protected.
Vixen appeared in the barn first, not bothered at all by her saturated hair, followed by Coop and Blitz. As soon as Blitz entered the barn, he shook his shaggy hair, spraying water everywhere. He managed to flick a whole heap of it in my direction, and I yelped, taking several steps back from him. He grinned when he saw my reaction.
“Not a fan of the rain, claus?” he asked.
“I don’t mind the rain,” I replied. “It’s the getting wet I’m not so big on.”
Blitz’s smile grew distinctly bigger and I had a bad feeling he was coming up with a devious plan. Thankfully, Dash stepped in.
“Whatever you’re thinking, Blitz, stop. We don’t have time for your foolishness right now.”
“Aw, but it will only take a second,” he replied, his eyes dancing with mischief.
Dash gave him a look that told him not to dare before heading back toward the middle of the barn.
“Spoilsport,” Blitz grumbled, but he gave me a wink that made me feel like perhaps he hadn’t given up on his ambitions to torment me.
Melody was the last one into the building, and I walked by her side as we joined the others.
“How was your drive here?” I asked. Her pale skin had lost all its color, and she was almost looking a little green. “Let me guess. Vixen was behind the wheel?”
Melody nodded. “Please don’t ever put me in the car with her again.”
I had to stifle a laugh. “Trust me, I’m totally on board with that. I feel exactly the same.”
Vixen shot me an annoyed look but didn’t say anything. I was guessing she was still nervous about our trip to Incarceror.
I felt the tingle of magic across my skin the moment I entered the sleigh point. It buzzed down my arms like static electricity, and the cool whiff of peppermint invaded my nostrils. Melody walked to the center of the sleigh point, and we all crowded in around her, each of us placing a hand on her shoulders.
Melody looked a little worried as she stared at the group of us surrounding her. She’d seemed confident she could transport us all last night, but it wasn’t an easy task. She had to focus both on the destination and on the five beings connected to her. The physical touch helped, but it still required a lot of concentration to make sure you brought everyone with you when undertaking a multi-being journey on a sleigh line.
She took a deep breath in. “Everyone ready?” she asked.
Murmurs of agreement rattled around the group.
“Okay,” Melody replied, closing her eyes. “Going in three, two, one…”
Chapter Thirteen
I staggered forward as we arrived at our destination, swaying slightly from the rough journey. There had been no finesse to the way Melody navigated the sleigh line, and we’d come into our end point at full speed. It was much quicker than I was used to, and I was reeling as I settled on the foreign ground. I bent over and rested my hands on my knees for a moment as I allowed my stomach to settle. I felt like I’d just been on a rollercoaster ride.
When I finally righted myself, my jaw slackened as I saw where Melody had brought us. Huge cliffs of blackened earth rose up around us, climbing in tiers like they’d been violently cut from the ground by machines rather than any kind of natural process. We were standing on a heap of black rubble in the center of the excavation, and if it weren’t for the blue sky overhead, I would have been convinced we’d landed somewhere other than the Human Realm. The place was drained of life, and I couldn’t see an ounce of greenery anywhere. The air was dry, and already I could feel my clothes absorbing the searing heat of the sun. I immediately began to remove my jacket.
“The prison is in a coal mine?” Coop asked.
“Yes,” Melody replied.
As I scanned the surroundings, I noticed train tracks that led into a tunnel in the side of one of the cliff faces. There were huge metal structures set up around the opening that looked rusted with age, and the entrance to the tunnel was partially collapsed. If this was a coal mine, it had been abandoned a long time ago.
I let out a breath and turned to the others. “Well, I guess it goes to show bad boys and girls really do end up with coal for Christmas,” I said. “Please don’t tell me we have to go in that tunnel to reach the prison.”
Melody shook her head. “No, it’s this way,” she said, starting up one of the gradual slopes that led to the top of the cliff.
Hiking up a hill was not appealing to me at all, but I started after her, knowing I didn’t have much of a choice. I had no idea what lay ahead of us, but from what I’d seen so far, I knew it couldn’t be good.
“Why would they have chosen a coal mine of all places for a prison?” I asked as we walked. “Isn’t coal a dampener on our powers?” I didn’t know for sure, but I vaguely remembered my mother telling me something along those lines. I had also sensed a feeling of heaviness weighing down on my chest ever since we’d arrived in the mine. I could still detect my magic thrumming through me, but it didn’t seem as lively as normal.
“It is,” Coop agreed. “And that’s the perfect reason to have the prison here. If the creators of this place were able to flood it with high enough concentrations of coal, they could potentially leave the prisoners powerless.”
“So, you think we’ll be powerless in the prison?” I asked.
“It’s a possibility,” Coop replied.
I really hoped he was wrong.
“Can we do less talking about coal and losing our powers and more walking?” Vixen asked. “Some of us would really like to get this over with.”
We all fell silent at her request. It was clear how uncomfortable Vixen was with visiting the prison, and speaking about losing our powers in front of her wasn’t helping. I imagined it wasn’t easy for the shifters. Not only could the coal inhibit their ability to shift into their reindeer form, but it could also affect the incredible strength and agility they were empowered with. The thought of losing my powers had put me on edge too though, and unlike the shifters, it wasn’t something I experienced for half of every year.
The pathway became steeper as we neared the top of the slope. From where we now stood, I could see the layout of the mine more clearly. There were five levels of rock that plunged down into the center of the mine one by one. From the bottom level, the black rock and dirt that covered the mine had been suffocating, but from higher up, where more of the bright blue sky was visible, I could see a harsh kind of beauty to the place. Given the intense heat that engulfed us, I felt like we had to be somewhere in the desert.
The group slowed when a huge golden arch came into view at the top of the slope. It overlooked the entire mine, and the sun reflected brightly off the shiny metal making it stand out like a beacon that was signaling us from above. Through the gap beneath the arch, I could see more of the black dirt that surrounded us. There was no sign of the prison, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
We had almost reached the arch when a man appeared in front of it in a swirl of golden magic. He looked to be middle-aged though his hair was as white as snow, and there was a sparkle to his ice-blue eyes as he waved to us in greeting.
“Hello, hello!” he called out. His tone was so chipper that I struggled not to laugh. Who was he, and why was he so enthusiastic to be in such a dire place? “Welcome, my friends,” the man said as we drew closer.
His fea
tures weren’t distinct enough to indicate what kind of being he was. His body wasn’t long and lithe like an elf’s, and he wasn’t bulky like a shifter either. His eyes were too big and his chin too pointed for him to be a claus, and he certainly wasn’t tiny enough to pass as a tomten or fairy. When I breathed in, I couldn’t get a read on his magic either. It was a strange scent that reminded me of the smell you got when you opened an old book. His smell didn’t have the same intensity that came from most Christmas creatures, but for some reason, it sent a shiver down my back, and I suddenly felt cold.
“Who are you?” Dash asked, striding forward so he stood at the front of our small group.
“The gatekeeper, of course,” the man said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
As he spoke, I noticed an icy vapor came from his mouth with every breath. His lips themselves had a blue tinge to them that I hadn’t spotted from afar. I got the feeling the being before us wasn’t just a gatekeeper. There was something more to him though I couldn’t be sure what it was.
“What are you, and do you have a name?” I asked, earning the gatekeeper’s focus.
He gave me a knowing look, a clever smile lighting his lips as he took me in. “Hello, young one,” he replied. “It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasurable company of one such as yourself.”
My brows furrowed together, and I glanced toward Melody, who gave me a shrug. She was a claus too, so I wasn’t sure what he was getting at. He continued before I could question him further.
“And yes, I have a name. I am a frost, and my name is Jack. I am at your service today, and every day, to help you enjoy the great delights of Incarceror.” He gave a flourish as he bowed, and a wicked grin was lighting his features when he stood tall.
“The Jack Frost?” Coop asked.
Christmas Magic Page 15
