Christmas Magic

by Alexandra Moody

  “The one and only” came Jack’s reply. “Though the stories never do give my great tales of conquer and triumph justice.”

  “You turned the Northern Realm into a snow dome,” Vixen accused.

  “I know,” Jack said with a pleased shrug. “It was one of my better works.”

  A low growl escaped Vixen’s lips. She clearly didn’t agree. Blitz had to hold her back as she tried to lunge forward, but I had no idea what she was planning to do to a frost, of all beings. I’d never met one of the creatures before, let alone the infamous Jack. They were rare and elusive creatures that some said no longer existed. It seemed they were wrong because Jack was very much alive.

  We all knew the story about how Jack entrapped our realm in ice and snow. It had been that way for hundreds of years, which could only mean the creature before us was far, far older than he looked.

  “Why do you guard the gates of Incarceror?” I asked.

  “A punishment for my crimes, apparently,” he replied. “Where better to put a being of ice than in the fiery hell of a desert for all eternity?”

  “Seems fitting,” Vixen said between her teeth.

  “I actually kind of like it,” Jack replied. “I mean, have you seen my tan these days?” He held out his pale arms, grinning down at them like they were an achievement.

  “Anyway,” Dash said. “We need to visit the nameless one.”

  Jack’s eyes darted up to meet Dash’s. He stared into them for a long moment before he started jumping up and down, giddily clapping his hands like we’d just made his day. The sun might not have given Jack a tan, but it certainly seemed to have gone to his head after all this time. “That’s great to hear,” Jack said. “Now, you’ll all need to listen to the rules. Let’s see if I can remember them…” His voice trailed off before his eyes lit up once more, and he cleared his throat.

  “Rule number one: you will each receive an enchanted bracelet, which enables you to walk through the entrance gate. It is your only way in and out of Incarceror, so do not lose it. The inmates cannot harm you whilst you are wearing the bracelet, but if you take it off voluntarily, you’ll have no protection from them and will be as trapped in the prison as they are.”

  He started tapping his bottom lip as if he was trying to recall what came next. “Rule number two: do not linger for more than twenty-four hours—”

  “Why?” Coop asked, interrupting him.

  “Because Incarceror warps the mind. After twenty-four hours, you’ll start to forget things, and it only becomes worse the longer you are there.”

  “Well, doesn’t that sound dandy,” I grumbled.

  “And the third and final rule: do not eat or drink anything within.”

  “Poison?” Dash guessed.

  “Something like that,” Jack replied with a shrug. “Now, that’s all the rules, who wants their bracelet first?” He grinned at all of us, like he was giving out candy not prison bracelets.

  Dash walked forward, and Jack clamped a hand around his wrist. When the frost removed his hand, a gold band, the same gilded hue as the arch before us, was coiled around Dash’s wrist. Dash nodded and started toward the gate.

  One by one, we all stepped up to Jack to receive our bracelet. I was the last person in the line, but Jack hesitated before placing his hand around my wrist.

  “Are you sure you want to go in there, young one?” he asked. “Incarceror isn’t the best place for one like you.”

  I tilted my head, looking at him strangely. From this close, I could see that his eyelashes were as white as his hair, and blue veins could be seen running under his pale skin. Why was such an ancient creature so concerned with me?

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “You don’t belong in there,” he replied, delivering another vague warning. Vixen looked over her shoulder at me, lifting an eyebrow as if she was wondering what was taking so long.

  “I’m sure it’s fine,” I quickly replied. The last thing I needed was to stir more suspicion from the shifters. “I’m going in there and helping my friends.”

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Jack added with a shrug. He gripped his hand around my wrist, and I gasped at the coldness of his grasp. It was as if his skin were made from ice. His magic swirled with the same intense golden hue as the gates, and the bracelet began to appear. I sensed a strange disconnect between the magic and the man before me, and I realized he wasn’t using his own magic but channeling the magic from the prison.

  When he removed his hand, I looked down and found a gold cuff circling my wrist, just like the others had. I could feel the unique magic of the prison on the object, and it tickled my skin. I was surprised to find I didn’t mind the sensation. It was different from any other magic I’d ever encountered, but something about it also seemed strangely familiar.

  “Thanks,” I murmured before following my friends, who were waiting for me by the gate.

  “Good luck, kids,” Jack called. “And remember the rules,” he added before disappearing in a burst of golden magic.

  “That has to be the strangest man I’ve ever met,” I said as I joined the others.

  “I liked him,” Blitz replied with a smile.

  Vixen rolled her eyes at him. “You would. Never mind that he destroyed our entire realm.”

  “I happen to like the snow.” Blitz gave her shrug. “And just because you don’t, doesn’t mean you need to hold a grudge. You’ve really gotta get over it. It happened way before you were even born.”

  Vixen had barely opened her mouth to respond when Dash cut in. “Come on, we don’t have time for this.” He turned and took a deep breath before walking through the archway.

  The air crackled around Dash with the same rich golden magic that Jack had used, and when he passed through the gateway, he completely disappeared. All I could see through the arch was the continuation of the same blackened earth that had been there before.

  “Well, that’s disconcerting,” Coop said, edging closer to the entrance to get a better look. No matter which angle you looked at it though, there was no sign of Dash.

  I let out an irritated breath and stepped to the front of the group. “Well, disconcerting or not, we can’t just leave him in there alone.” Before I could reconsider what I was doing, I stepped through the archway, following Dash.

  Magic sparked down my skin as I walked through the gateway. It tingled for the most part, but I also experienced the odd sharp, electric snap. I could hear a low, deep hum as energy whirred through the air, and my bracelet grew hot against my skin as I continued through the entrance.

  It only took a couple of steps to get from one side of the entranceway to the other, but when I finally arrived in Incarceror, and the crackle of magic stopped rubbing against my skin, I felt like I’d entered a different world.

  Dash was standing right by the entrance, but I ignored him as I stumbled forward to take in the prison. An open wasteland of deadened trees and ugly blood-red sand stretched out before me. The sky was dark, and thunder rumbled across the plain, shaking the very earth beneath my feet. A tall mountain peak loomed a short distance away, its black craggy rocks jutting harshly into the sky.

  The air around me was humid and suffocating, and the place had an acrid ashy smell about it. There was no life or sign of any prisoners, and the coal mine we had just left behind was beginning to look quite appealing right now. I felt like we’d just arrived in hell.

  I turned back toward the golden arch, which still retained the same golden hue it had shone with on the other side of the entrance. Dash was looking back through the gateway as well. We couldn’t see the coal mine beyond, only more of the red dirt spanning as far as the eye could see. There was no sign of the rest of our group either though I hoped they would be coming through right after me.

  “The others can’t see us through the gate,” I said, walking to stand at Dash’s side. “And they’re all currently being indecisive about coming through.”

  He nodded
and relaxed a little. “They’ll come,” he said.

  The words were barely out of his mouth when Blitz appeared.

  “Well, isn’t this place cheery,” Blitz said as he scanned the surroundings. “Dash, why didn’t we know this was here? We could have been visiting every year on holiday instead of sleighing in to the Maldives.”

  Dash ignored him, but Blitz kept going. “I mean, think of all the pros. It’s got the searing heat, there’s not too many tourists, and there’s the soothing sounds of thunder to put you to sleep at night.”

  “Ah, but Blitz, where would you swim?” I asked.

  Blitz pointed to what looked like a pool of tar, simmering in the distance. Large bubbles kept popping on the surface, making it distinctly uninviting. “I always preferred a mud bath anyway,” he replied.

  I laughed and shook my head at him. Trust Blitz to make light of the fact we’d just wound up in the world’s most inhospitable environment.

  It didn’t take long for the others to come through the archway. Now that several of us had tested it, they seemed more confident to enter.

  “So, where’s the nameless one?” Vixen asked, turning away from the landscape to look at us all. “I don’t exactly see any prison cells.”

  “They must be kept in the mountain,” I said. The rest of the wasteland was nothing but red sand stretching to the horizon in every direction. The mountain was the only thing out there. The lightning kept striking its peak, as though it was marking the way for us.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Coop said.

  Everyone looked to Dash to see his response. He turned to Melody though. “Did your father ever say anything about this place?” he asked.

  Melody gave a small, nervous shake of her head. “Nothing that can help us find the nameless one,” she replied softly. “He only ever returned from Incarceror cursing about how hot it was.”

  Dash nodded and looked back to Coop and me. “Well, the mountain is probably the best place to start. We don’t want to waste time, so let’s get moving.”

  Dash set off ahead of us and we silently started to follow him. The trek across the dark and eerie plain toward the mountain looked uninviting, but I had a feeling there were far worse things awaiting us in the prison itself.

  The others had told me the nameless one was dangerous, but after seeing the prison that contained him, I had a feeling they’d all underestimated him. And with each step toward the mountain, I worried we were only drawing closer to disaster.

  Chapter Fourteen

  By the time we reached the base of the mountain, the intense heat of the air around us was getting to me. My throat was dry and my mouth felt like sandpaper. I tried to summon myself a drink of water, but my magic didn’t appear to work.

  “Anyone else struggling to use their magic?” I asked.

  Melody held out her hand, and she nodded at me when no color sparked from her fingers. Looks of concern also flickered across the shifters’ faces.

  “I can’t shift,” Dash said. Mutters of agreement echoed from the others.

  “We knew this was a possibility,” Coop said.

  “A possibility, yes, but not a certainty. And it’s not a great feeling,” Vixen said. “Not only are we in a prison, we’re in a prison with no magic.”

  “Let’s just get this over with as quickly as possible,” Dash said. “Jack told us the prisoners weren’t a threat as long as we wear the bracelets, so we’ll be fine.”

  I glanced up at the mountain that loomed over us, not feeling as convinced as Dash. “What if there are dangers other than the prisoners?” I asked. “And none of us have food or water with us.”

  “Speak for yourself; I brought snacks,” Blitz said, pulling out three bars of chocolate from his back pocket. Everyone looked at him with disbelief.

  “You brought snacks to visit a prison?” Coop asked.

  “What?” Blitz replied. “I get hungry.”

  “Look, three bars of chocolate aren’t going to last us very long,” Dash said. “If anything feels off, we’ll head back. But, until then, let’s just stay focused on why we came here. We need to get to the nameless one and find out where Crow is. Okay?”

  Everyone nodded, but I could tell from the looks in their eyes that they were having second thoughts about our decision to come to Incarceror. Blitz also kept glancing at his chocolate bars, like the worst thing that could possibly happen was the prospect he’d have to share them.

  I turned to face the mountain once more and let out a tired breath. A lack of magic wasn’t our only problem now. The sharp rocky incline before us looked treacherous and I couldn’t see any sign of where the prisoners were being kept. Our only choice was to start climbing.

  Melody came to stand at my side, and her face blanched as she considered the next part of our journey. The long trek across the wasteland looked like a walk in the park compared with clambering over the jagged rocks that ran up the mountain face.

  “There,” Melody said, pointing partway up the mountain, just a short distance above us.

  “There’s what?” Coop asked, standing on Melody’s other side.

  “I can see an opening in the rock face, up there on that ledge.”

  As I looked in the direction she was pointing, I started nodding. “You’re right, I can see it now. It’s hard to make out, but it’s definitely there. Do you think that’s what we’re after?”

  “It better be,” Vixen grumbled, walking past me to start the hike up to the opening. “Because you better believe I’m not traipsing around here searching for hours.”

  The others started after her, but I hung back and fell into step beside Dash as we started the climb. “Is Vixen always so…”

  “Difficult?” he asked.

  “I could think of several other terms I might use, but yeah, sure, we’ll go with difficult,” I said, giving him a smile.

  Dash chuckled under his breath. “Vixen can be pretty tough, but she’s a good person underneath all of those prickles,” he said. “Plus, she was my father’s only daughter and the youngest in our family—she was rather indulged as a child.”

  “So, you have other brothers?” I asked.

  “One older brother,” he replied, but he didn’t volunteer any information about him.

  “Why hasn’t he been helping you with the dark elf problem?” I asked.

  Dash shrugged. “He’s following in my father’s footsteps and far too busy helping him run his herd to consider hunting down a group of dark elves.” I could hear the bitterness in his voice and decided not to ask him anything else about his brother or his father. From the troubled look in Dash’s eyes, I got the impression he held some animosity toward his family.

  The small stretch of mountain we had to climb was steep. The black rocks beneath us were sharp, and loose pebbles frequently slipped underfoot. There were no clear pathways up the slope, so our journey was mostly scrambling from one rock to the next.

  Vixen was the first to reach the opening in the mountainside. I swear the woman was part reindeer, part mountain goat, because she’d practically sprung her way up the cliff.

  “Keep on coming,” she called down to us. “It looks like you were right.” She turned and stepped toward the entrance, disappearing.

  One by one, the shifters reached the ledge, and I was puffing by the time I made it to where they were waiting. Exercise wasn’t exactly my forte these days. Needed a friend to go to the pub with? I was your girl. Wanted to go to the gym? You needed to look somewhere else.

  Melody had also struggled with the hike. I turned to check on her progress and saw she was a little way behind me. A flicker of guilt ran through me as I watched her struggle her way up the rocks. We should have left her outside the prison. It wasn’t fair to be dragging her along with us when she was still so weak after her time as Crow’s prisoner. She needed to be resting, not climbing up a mountain.

  When she finally reached me, I turned to the others, ready to continue. They were standing by
a dark cave entrance that was carved out of the blackened rock of the mountain face. Looking at it sent a chill racing through me. All I could see beyond the opening was sheer blackness, and without my magic, I wasn’t sure how we’d have enough light to see by.

  “We’re going in there?” Melody seemed suddenly nervous.

  “That’s the plan,” Blitz said, not noticing Melody’s apprehension. I walked over and touched her lightly on the arm. She jumped at my touch though, shrinking back from me.

  “Sorry.” She whispered an immediate apology. “I get a bit jumpy around dark spaces.”

  I watched her eyes closely and could see the fear in them as clearly as if she were screaming in terror. “Do you want to wait out here?” I asked.

  She glanced up at me, hesitating like she was worried to give me an honest answer.

  “It’s okay if you do,” I said.

  She slowly nodded, letting out a breath. “I’m already slowing you guys down,” she said. “Maybe I should stay out here.”

  “Will you be all right on your own?” Dash asked.

  Melody gave a slightly more confident nod. “I’ll be fine.”

  “We’ll be back as quickly as possible,” he said. “If you get scared, or if we don’t return in a couple of hours, go back to the archway and leave. You’re much safer out there with your magic than you are here.”

  “Okay,” she replied.

  Dash stepped into the cave first, and I gave Melody’s hand a comforting squeeze before I followed him.

  The light from the outside world barely made it past the opening’s threshold. The blackness of the cave engulfed me, and I had to put my hands out in front of me to feel my way. I used one of the walls as a guide, and almost immediately I ran into the back of Dash.

  “Sorry,” I yelped, pulling backward. But he reached out and took hold of my hand, keeping it firmly within his grasp.

  “We need to stick together,” he said.

  His hand was large and warm, and my skin tingled at the contact, almost buzzing as much as if my magic had returned. I liked holding hands with the shifter a whole lot more than I should, and I decided to blame the darkness for the way I enjoyed his comforting touch.