When I was steady once more, he nodded, and his hand dropped from my arm. He moved past me, walking with sure and determined steps in the darkness. He made it look so easy, but then again, the shifter’s sight was probably better than mine.
I followed him, keeping a closer eye on where I walked. Knowing my luck, I’d twist my ankle or break a leg if I kept lumbering around in the dark without keeping an eye on the floor. I looked up though when I heard Dash speaking.
“Any sign of Crow?” he asked.
Coop had entered the room and was standing before Dash. He’d appeared so silently that I hadn’t heard him arrive. I wished I were half as stealth-like as the reindeer. My feet only seemed to have two settings though—clumsy and loud.
Coop shook his head. “Nothing outside the building, and no sign of him or the elves in the halls I’ve passed through to get here. This place is huge though. They could be anywhere.” He sounded troubled, and though it was dark, I could see the worry in his eyes.
“What’s Clio doing here?” Coop asked as I came to stand at Dash’s side.
“The same thing as you,” I replied.
The words had barely left my mouth when a tormented scream sounded in the distance. The lone cry was chilling as it shattered the silence of the factory, and it only lasted a second before it was cut off abruptly. My heart skipped a beat at the sound, and my eyes snapped past Coop’s shoulder, looking in the direction he’d come from. There had only been one cry, but it had been filled with so much fear and terror that my heart was still pounding rapidly in response to it.
“Are you sure you didn’t see anything?” Vixen asked.
“There was nothing, I swear!” Coop replied.
“That didn’t sound like nothing,” Blitz said.
Alfie appeared at my side. “The elves are here, and they are holding someone captive,” he announced. “I think they might be human.”
“What would the elves want with a human?” I shook my head, dismissing the question. Whatever it was, we needed to get to the elves before the human was hurt. If that scream was anything to go by, we didn’t have long. “Can you show us where they are?”
Alfie nodded and set off in the direction the scream had come from. The others, having heard my side of the conversation, hurried behind me as I followed my ghostly friend.
“How many elves are there, Alfie?” Dash asked as we ran. “And was Crow there?”
“Three of them,” he replied. “They were cutting the human with a knife, and it was almost like they were playing with her. I’m not sure what they hoped to achieve, and I didn’t see any sign of the krampus.”
“Three elves and no krampus,” I relayed. “They are torturing a human, but Alfie can’t figure out why.”
Dash shot me a confused look but didn’t ask any further questions.
Alfie took us up some old and creaking stairs, which led to the level above. Broken glass littered the floor of the corridor before us, but none of us hesitated as we ran over it. There was a door at the end of the passage that was slightly ajar, and when we started getting close to it, Alfie slowed down and turned. He placed a finger to his lips, indicating for us to be quiet, and then pointed toward the door. His hand was still hovering by his lips when his eyes suddenly widened. A moment later, he blinked out of existence.
I paused, staring at the empty space where he’d been hovering only seconds ago. I reached my powers out and tried to sense him, hoping he’d gone to check on the elves, but I couldn’t feel Alfie anywhere close by. He often disappeared suddenly when he exerted himself too much, and he’d clearly used up all his powers searching the factory. He’d done well to get us this far, but there would be no more help from him tonight.
I turned and pressed a finger to my lips before pointing at the door in front of us. Everyone nodded, their gazes hardening as we continued to creep toward the room where the human was being held captive.
“Please, please let her go!” a woman begged, the sound carrying through the open door of the room as we approached.
“We will,” a man replied. “But only once you give us what we want.”
“What do you want?” the woman whimpered.
“Your powers…”
“I can’t give you my powers!”
I heard the sharp, distinct sound of a slap that set my teeth on edge. “Then we’ll take them,” the man said.
Another scream came from the room, causing magic to run down my arms and pool in my hands. We had to get in there before it was too late.
The doorway was too narrow for Dash and the others to shift into their reindeer forms, so Dash armed himself with daggers as he sidled up to the doorway. He waved us all closer, and I saw that everyone else was armed too. I summoned a set of daggers of my own, feeling a little more confident now they were in my hands.
Another scream echoed from the room, and the agony I could hear in the woman’s voice sent a shot of fear through me. Dash didn’t hesitate as he barged into the room. Vixen, Blitz, and Coop followed right after him.
Melody and I brought up the rear, but as we entered the room, I came to a standstill. The space we had entered was another large hall that was mostly empty but for a few pieces of machinery across the back wall. There were several wooden beams from the roof that had fallen to the ground, and the floorboards looked to be rotting with age. The room was dark, but it wasn’t hard to miss what was happening given the magic that was lighting the space up.
A human woman was being held down by a dark elf who was pressing a knife to her throat. The knife was glowing as he dug the blade into her delicate skin, and she was whimpering as she begged for her life. Her gaze was focused on the far side of the room, and as I looked over, my heart skipped a beat and my blood ran cold.
A beautiful woman was struggling to get free as two elves pinned her to the ground and pressed a bright and blinding object to her chest. She was unlike any Christmas being I’d ever seen before with skin that glowed an iridescent white and long silver hair that glittered like stars in the night. She was thrashing against her captors, and her eyes were squinted tightly shut like she was in pain. But her struggles were useless against the elves who easily overpowered her weak attempts to escape.
“Is that a Christmas angel?” Melody gasped. A stab of pain went through my chest at the words, and a feeling of horror ran down my spine.
“It couldn’t be,” I stuttered, but I already knew that Melody was right. The being before us looked like it was made of pure light, and I’d always heard angels radiated with a soft glow that gave a sense of hope to any who laid eyes on them. I couldn’t understand what the elves were doing to her though. It was as though they were torturing her with the bright glowing object they held to her chest. It was horrific to watch. A Christmas angel’s mission in life was to protect good humans, and seeing such a serene being subjected to torture was monstrous.
The angel screamed out in pain again. It was the saddest and most devastating sound I’d heard in my life. Tears welled in my eyes, and I felt like I was enduring her agony too.
“Be quiet or we’ll kill your human too!” one of the elves growled at her. That must have been how they’d got the angel here, by capturing one of her charges and forcing her to come and protect them.
“Girls, help the human, we’ll look after the angel,” Dash said before he, Blitz, and Coop launched into action. They darted toward the two elves torturing the angel while Vixen took off after the one holding the human hostage. Melody went to help her, but I knew I needed to help the boys with the angel.
I raced across the room, the magic in my hands growing stronger as I went. The elves holding the angel down saw us coming. One of them looked up and slammed his hand down on the floor, his dark magic swirling over his palm before shooting out across the floorboards. The boards began to morph from wood to ice, the transformation rushing toward us so fast that I didn’t have time to react. I immediately started to slip and lose my footing, but the shifters took it in
stride. In a shimmer of glittering magic, they changed into their reindeer forms and continued to charge toward the elves.
I was almost to them when something hit me in the arm from behind. I let out a yelp as a searing pain spread across my skin. With a quick glance down, I could see flames had singed my top, and I barely had a chance to dodge out of the way as a second ball of fire flew past me.
I turned as a figure stepped from the shadows, and my pulse quickened as I laid eyes on the krampus who’d attacked me—Crow. Magic swirled in his hand as he summoned another ball of fire, and I ducked and rolled out of the way as he hurled it toward me. My whole body ached at the movement, and I was unable to avoid slamming my injured arm against the ground. I drew in a sharp breath and gritted my teeth to stop myself from yelling out in pain.
As I rose back to my feet, I hurled one of my daggers at him. The dagger spun through the air but narrowly missed him as he leaned out of the way. The krampus laughed. “A little out of practice, are we?” he asked.
I let out a grunt in response and hurled my second dagger at him. As it sliced through the air, I immediately allowed my magic to swirl in my hand, and I summoned another blade. In one fluid motion, I lifted the dagger and sent it spinning toward Crow. With two knives heading his way, Crow didn’t have time to react. He dodged one easily, but the other sliced toward him with deadly accuracy and struck him in the shoulder. He let out a groan in pain and I smiled. “Not that out of practice,” I replied.
I summoned another two blades, but the krampus was faster, and I had to dodge out of the way of another fireball. It caught me in the leg, and I fell to my knees in pain as I let out a groan in agony. Fireballs damn well hurt.
I looked up when I heard cry of pain and watched as Vixen slammed the elf she was fighting so hard into the ground that the floorboards splintered and he tumbled to the floor below. Melody had pulled the human woman to safety, but when she glanced in my direction, her eyes narrowed on Crow.
Melody’s gaze grew hot with fury, and she stood tall, magic already pooling around her wrists. Vixen dusted herself off, having dispatched the elf, and joined Melody as the two of them began to close in on the krampus.
He smiled with a confidence like he’d already won as they approached him. His dark magic was swirling at his fingers again, and he raised his arms in the direction of the nearest rusting factory machinery. The equipment started to shake, and I watched in horror as the nails began to rip from the metal. They disappeared before reappearing in the air above Crow’s hands, and he hurled them at the two girls.
“Watch out!” I screamed. The nails flew like bullets fired from an army of guns, and Vixen and Melody had to scramble to get out of the way. One lodged in Melody’s arm, and she hunched over as she hissed in a pained breath. Vixen somehow managed to throw herself to the floor in time to avoid harm.
I started to stand, my leg flaring with agony as I pushed to my feet. Crow glanced over his shoulder at me, and his dark magic started sparking around his hands again as he went to summon his next attack. This time though, his powers sparked erratically, spluttering as they winked in and out of existence. He was running out of magic, and his eyes went wide with realization as he glanced down at his fists.
His head snapped up as I went to summon another set of daggers, but his focus wasn’t on me. He was staring at the angel who was still on the floor behind me, and he smiled as he watched her. Even though he was surrounded and running low on magic, his eyes lit up like he had won.
He turned suddenly and raced for the large hole that Vixen had opened in the floor when she was fighting the elf. Crow’s magic was still crackling intermittently as he ran, and he launched himself toward the hole, tumbling through it to the floor below.
The three of us rushed after him to the opening and looked down at the long drop to the floor beneath us. With his failing powers, Crow had still managed to summon a mattress to break his fall. He landed in an awkward crouch on top of it before rolling off it. He glanced up at us briefly and then set off at a run as he went to escape.
“Coward!” Vixen shouted after him, before turning her attention on Melody and me. “I’m going after him. You both help the boys,” she said.
Before I could argue with her, she leaped through the gaping hole in the floor, and I watched as magic swirled around her feet. Reindeer shifters could fly close to Christmas, but it was still too early in the season for it. She somehow managed to use her weak flying power to buffer her landing though before she took off at a run after Crow.
“Are you okay?” I asked Melody, nodding at her arm.
“I’ll live,” she replied, but I could tell from the way she winced that she was in pain.
I turned and focused my attention on Dash, Coop, and Blitz who were still battling the two elves. The dark creatures had abandoned the angel and were fending off the reindeer in a blur of movement. They were fast, but Dash and his herd were just as quick. Their huge antlers were effective weapons, and the elves had to keep moving as they tried to avoid being impaled by them.
I could easily pick Dash out of the three shifters. He was far larger than the other two, and even in his reindeer form, he was the natural leader of their team. The three reindeer moved seamlessly as they fought while the elves were struggling to defend themselves in unison. The dark beings were weakening, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before Dash and his herd wore them down.
I started toward them to help with the battle, but a groan caught my attention. I turned toward the noise and saw the angel was still lying on the floor in the corner of the room. The glowing object I’d seen the elves using on her chest was still hovering over her, and she was shuddering beneath it.
I started toward her, running as fast as I could on my damaged leg as I crossed the room. The orb was far brighter than it had been when we arrived, and something about the way the light throbbed as it hovered over the angel made me concerned. Even though the elves no longer pinned her to the floor, she still hadn’t moved, and from the way she was shaking and letting out moans, I could tell she was in pain.
Her glowing skin was also less luminous than it had been before, and as I approached her, I felt an intense wave of power throbbing in the air. It seemed to be emanating from the glowing object rather than the angel, and as I drew closer, the air started to feel thick with the intense bursts of energy that pulsed from the orb.
I found it hard to look away from the object as I’d never been close to anything so powerful or so bright before. It was growing brighter by the second, seeming more powerful with every moment that passed. It had to be the Christmas star, and the realization of what I was staring at terrified me.
When I reached the angel, I fell to my knees at her side. Her glowing silver hair was splayed around her body, and her serene face was scrunched up in pain. I looked to the Christmas star, and now that I was closer, I could see it wasn’t simply a ball of light, but there was a golden rock in the center that the light was swirling around.
I watched in horror as the angel’s white magic was pulled from her chest and siphoned through the air and into the star. I could see that the star was draining her, and my stomach lurched at the sight of her powers slowly lifting from her body and merging with the star hovering over her. This had to be how the elves had killed the other magical beings. Christmas beings needed their powers to survive, and I knew the angel would die if I didn’t stop the star from draining her magic.
A shout rang out, and I glanced over my shoulder as one of the reindeer reared back and kicked an elf in the chest. The elf went flying and slammed into the wall. I wasn’t sure if he was dead or unconscious, but the reindeer didn’t stop to check and was already focused on the final dark being, who the others had backed into a corner. The elf was surrounded, and I felt confident it wouldn’t be long until the boys had dealt with it.
I turned back to the star and took in a deep breath before I thrust my hands toward the glowing object and grabbed hold of it. The star refuse
d to move at first and felt like it was magnetized to the spot where it hovered in the air. With one burst of energy, I yanked the star from over the angel’s chest, cutting its connection to her. The star burned hot against my hand, and I immediately felt my own power being pulled toward the bright object as I tugged it away. Queasiness churned in my stomach and a wave of dizziness slammed into me as magic sparked and swirled from my hands and flowed into the star.
The connection was intense and strong, and I struggled to let go of the star. It felt as though it was attracted to my hand, and it refused to be parted from me. I gritted my teeth together, fighting off the increasing waves of sickness I felt, as I slowly lifted the star up above my head. I threw my arms forward and pushed the star away from me with as much strength as I could manage. My attempt felt weak, but somehow, it was enough, and the star flew from my hands across the room.
The moment the star left my grip, I felt the connection it had caught me in snap, and my body relaxed and my magic calmed. I felt weak and tired though. I had only held it a few seconds, but I knew it had still managed to drain a little of my magic from me.
The star flew through the air before it landed on the floor a short distance away. It still burned fiercely, and it seemed be growing brighter with every second that passed. In the center of it, I could see a strand of my own magic dancing around the golden core of the star, and I wondered how much of my power it had taken.
I turned my back on the star to focus my attention on the angel. She was still breathing, but the sound was weak. The star must have drained a lot of her magic, and I wasn’t sure if she was going to survive the loss.
“Ah, Clio,” Melody said, coming to my side.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You’re going to want to see this,” she replied.
I looked up at her, and she pointed in the direction of the star. The orb was now throbbing with even more light, only now it wasn’t simply growing brighter but it was also expanding in size. What had started as an orb of light no larger than a baseball was now the size of a basketball and quickly getting bigger.
Christmas Magic Page 20
