Spencer’s body slammed onto the platform, and his clawed hands swiped out, catching Knoll’s wrist. Knoll screamed as his shoulder dislocated, but he stopped falling. Spencer strained against Knoll’s weight, but only because of the odd angle. I knew he could lift three times Knoll’s weight. Spencer’s feet struggled for purchase on the grating as he leveraged himself up, pulling Knoll with him.
I remembered how to breathe when Spencer pulled Knoll back onto the platform.
Then the world went silent but for one echoing laugh.
I felt trapped in warm honey as I tried to turn toward the sound, but I was moving too slow. Fear gripped my spine, trying to stop me, but I forced myself to look.
Althea was on her knees, and the door was open. Beyond, where there should have been sunshine and warm winds, was snow and darkness. The chill rushed inside as the portal reopened, and as the world beyond the door shimmered into focus, the face of a devil grinned at us.
Knoll screamed something, reaching for his gun with his good arm, and Spencer gnashed his wolfish teeth, hunched on all fours in front of Ronnie.
“Someone’s been naughty, so very naughty,” Krampus said, stepping on to the threshold and looking at the exhausted witch.
Althea’s hands slid from the door frame. She was barely strong enough to keep herself sitting upright. Krampus laughed again, and chills ran up my spine. A binding spell rushed to my lips, and I was lifting my hands to cast it when Krampus moved, crouching to grab Althea, who was too weak to fight him. I rushed toward them and managed to grab Althea by the ankle before he pulled her through the portal into the snowy world beyond.
Something sharp hit me, biting into my face. I looked up to see Krampus holding Althea with one arm and striking at me with his bundle of switches, the birch wood cutting into my cheek. I didn’t have it in me to scream as welts broke out over my skin. Closing my eyes, I turned my face to tuck my head into the well of my arms as I held on to Althea’s ankle. Krampus pulled and I pulled back, my feet hooked on the edge of the platform, but I felt myself slipping.
Teeth clenched, I grunted. My fingers ached as I clung to her ankle, and power pressed at my hands, needing release. I held it back, knowing I would just burn Althea. The switches whipped against my back, and once again I was grateful for the extra layers of clothing from the costume Joey had put together for me.
Then I felt hands on my legs—heavy, clawed hands. I didn’t need to look to know it was Spencer. His furred claws reached past me and grabbed Althea’s claves, allowing me to let go of her ankles.
When I looked up, I saw that Krampus’s deranged smile had turned into something wholly angry, pure evil. His eyes flashed red as he bared his sharp fangs, and snow swirled around him, rushing over me and making the cuts on my face sting. His eyes met mine, and his arm drew back the bundle of wicked switches, ready to let them fly again.
Spencer pulled at Althea’s legs. His strength was a match for Krampus’s, so she moved, drawn back half a foot, and Krampus stumbled forward. His fierce look became confused as he stared past me at the monster helping me. But Krampus’s grip didn’t slacken around the witch. I would have to force him to let go, and I only had one weapon at my disposal.
I crawled over Althea’s body. Ronnie screamed behind me and Knoll yelled something, but I ignored them both, trusting Spencer and his supernatural strength.
Krampus struck with the switches. I lifted my arm to shield my face, blocking the worst of them, and before he could pull his arm back, I snatched at the bundle, feeling the switches snap under my grip. He cried out wordlessly, pulling on the bundle and witch at once, but neither I nor Spencer would let go. He grunted and growled, jumping in place, his red eyes glowing with anger and hate.
In my free hand, power and energy built and built until my hand snapped and glowed with electricity. Krampus’s eyes slid to my hand flashing in the shifting light. His eyes darted to the bundle of switches and the witch he clung to. My free hand was inches away, the wind around him pushing at me and making me fight for every inch. His arm went slack around the switches, but he didn’t make his decision fast enough. I touched him, and I let the power explode from me.
Krampus wailed in pain as he was blasted back, ripping most of the switches out of my hand. He landed on his back, the snow whipping around him and the wind stealing his screams. Althea slid backward as Spencer pulled her back through the doorway and portal, and I hurried to follow, my feet slipping on the icy snow until I found the metal grate.
“Get down!” Knoll yelled.
I dropped without looking, my body slamming into the metal platform and making my teeth click together. An explosion ripped through the air. I looked up to see Knoll holding his gun one-handed, pointed over my head. Ronnie grabbed for me and pulled me across the threshold. I scrambled into her arms, looking over my shoulder to see Krampus holding his shoulder. Blood leaked between his fingers, and he gnashed his teeth at us.
“You better watch out,” he said, his words slurred. “Krampus is coming to town.”
The door slammed shut, making the platform and catwalk tremble. A gust of power rushed over us as the light beyond the door flashed bright before winking out.
Knoll collapsed against the railing, holding himself up with his good arm, still holding his gun with a shaking hand. His injured arm hung, seemingly dead, at his side. Cassandra held Althea’s head in her lap, brushing her hair from her sweaty forehead. Cassandra muttered something that might be a spell, but my ears were still ringing, so I couldn’t be sure. Ronnie held Spencer’s face, saying something comforting, I was sure. Everyone was accounted for, except for the poor broken girl below us.
With a trembling hand, I reached for the handle and pushed open the door. The early morning West Hollywood sun shone down, and a warm breeze brought by the Santa Ana winds swirled around us. The portal was closed, but I still had a few pieces of Krampus’s birch switches gripped tightly in my hand.
Chapter 16
If it weren’t for rejuvenation elixirs, I didn’t think Ronnie and I could have kept going. I told Knoll that with the pieces of birch I managed to keep hold of, I might be able to make a seeking or tracing spell strong enough to find Krampus. What I didn’t tell him was that Ronnie and I would try to open our own portal with those little pieces of wood. Because of the dead witch, he couldn’t leave the theater, but he finally let us go. We’d come to some kind of tenuous understanding after I agreed to help him find the missing children.
Joey brought up the elixirs from the shop while Ronnie went to her apartment to bring down Pumpkin. We didn’t know how long we would be gone, and he was still too young to be left alone for long. When she walked in with the tiny ball of orange fur, Artie twitched his whiskers and grumbled.
Pumpkin jumped to the floor on his stunted legs and scurried to the older cat, his paws slipping and sliding on the hardwood. Artie walked away from the excited kitten and went into the kitchen only to let out a long, warning Mrrrow when he turned to find Pumpkin hot on his tail. Artemis jumped on the counter and stared at the tiny kitten. It was too far a jump for one so little, and I swore I saw my smush-faced cat smile as he twitched his ears at the orange stranger.
“Don’t be a poop,” I warned Artie, flicking a tiny spark at his tail.
He jumped and hissed but sat quickly, trying to recover his aloof posture.
“Will they be okay together?” Ronnie asked, looking from her new familiar to my old.
“They’ll be fine,” I said, nudging Artie. “They just need time to get acquainted.”
Pumpkin was trying to climb the cabinet, reaching with his squat legs, paws batting at the wood, desperate to get Artie. I wanted to pick him up and put him on the counter, but I had to let them work out their relationship on their own. Ronnie made a noncommittal noise and turned back to her things on the table. She pulled her gun, loaded with silver bullets, out of her purse.
I pulled out a package of tuna I’d been saving and spooned two portions
into two bowls. Giving Artie the bigger portion first, I set the other bowl on the floor for Pumpkin. The sounds of two cats’ purring filled the silence, and I smiled.
Joey was bouncing on the balls of her feet, full of energy that I didn’t feel. After the concert, she, Frankie, and Kyle had gone home, and she’d managed to catch a catnap after checking on Artie. I’d forgiven her the nap when I found out she’d fed and combed my angry familiar so that, when I got home, I was greeted with purring rubs instead of angry aloofness.
“So what’s the plan?” Ronnie asked as she popped the magazine out of her gun, checked the silver bullets inside, and put it back together with a click.
I wondered how Spencer felt about that little piece of protection she kept, but that wasn’t the time to ask. I was filling a second pouch with my knockout powder. I wasn’t sure how effective it would be against a demigod, but I needed something. My kinetic powers had worked on him, but I didn’t trust them to be the only weapon I brought.
“We’re going to open a portal here, so the variables are constrained to this space. We’re going to use this seeking charm I made to make sure we go straight to his lair,” I said, holding up the lanyard of the charm made from pieces of the birch wood. “Then we’re going to try to get the kids out and contain him again.”
“You know”—Ronnie tucked the gun into a thigh holster—“he could be anywhere in the world. He might not be with the kids. We might find him somewhere besides his lair.”
“I know.” The words tasted bitter. “But if that’s what happens, then we’ll use the chains to bind him and force him to take us to the kids. You have yours?”
Ronnie held up the two enchanted chains I’d given her, and we tucked ours into leather pouches on our belts. Those pouches had flip tops held closed by a clasp, so we wouldn’t have to fight with draw-strings when we tried to get to the chains.
“And what am I doing?” Joey asked, lifting up on her toes.
I was grateful that her phone was nowhere in sight. I did not need photographic documentation of our expedition.
“You’re going to watch the clock,” I said, handing her a kitchen timer. She made a face, but before she could argue, I went on. “If we aren’t back in five hours, you cast that charm.” I pointed at the clay ornament on the table. Inside was the powder and power to force us back through the portal.
“Five hours?” Joey blinked at me. “That’s too long. You guys could totally die in five hours.”
“We could die in five minutes,” I said as I pulled on my fur-lined jacket.
“I’m not going to wait five hours.”
When I looked at her, her arms were crossed and her face was set. She looked much older, and I really wasn’t sure I could argue with her.
“Fine,” I said. “Then how long?”
“One hour.”
I shook my head as I reached for the black beanie on the table. “Joey, be reasonable.”
“I am,” she said, and that she didn’t stamp her foot made me reconsider her. “Your portal will take you right to him, wherever that may be. If you don’t have him snatched or contained in an hour, then you’re losing. Be serious.”
“I am being serious.” I tucked my hair into the black cap. My face still stung from the cuts on my cheeks. I’d considered healing them, but I thought the blood and pain might help in our casting. “But we might not snatch or contain him. If the portal opens to his liar and the kids are there, we might just try to release them. If we do that, we need time to be sneaky, and an hour won’t be long enough.”
“I can’t believe we’re arguing about this!” Finally, Joey’s mature façade broke as she threw up her hands in frustration. “Fine. Two hours, not a minute more.”
I looked at Ronnie for some support, but I could tell by the look on her face, as she braided her long hair to keep it out of the way, that she agreed with the angry pixie.
“Fine,” I said with a breath. “Two hours. But not a minute less.”
“Fine,” Joey agreed, twisting the timer in her hand.
“Okay, so at two hours, if we’re not back, you pick this up.” I grabbed the clay ornament and held it up. “Go to the portal, smash it, and yell ‘Revenio.’ Repeat that.”
“Revenio,” she said, but her voice shook a little.
“You’ve got to mean it when you say it, okay? You don’t have witch powers, so you have to have all the intent, all the belief that you can do this.”
“Revenio,” she said again, her voice stronger.
“Better. Sometimes yelling makes it easier, so when you smash the ornament, you yell that charm. Don’t think about it. Don’t hesitate. Just yell the word.”
“Revenio,” she said, repeating the word until she didn’t stumble on the syllables. She lifted her lavender eyes to meet my stare and nodded, her pink brows drawn together to form a little wrinkle in her forehead.
“Are we ready?” I asked.
“As we’re ever going to be,” Ronnie answered.
Ronnie and I stood before the door to my bedroom, holding hands and staring into the dark room beyond. Artie was still in the kitchen, gorging himself on tuna. I’d already told him to stay out of the bedroom, but it was the tuna guaranteeing his cooperation.
My hands were sweating inside my gloves as the power between Ronnie and I built. A cool breeze swirled around us, lifting the tips of my hair. Only my black beanie kept my hair down.
The threshold was lined with the broken birch pieces. Ronnie placed her other hand on the doorframe, and I followed suit on the opposite side. With eyes closed and heads bowed, we began the chant of the spell.
“Requiem aeternan, aperite ostium.”
We repeated the charm over and over until the power zinging through our joined hands began to burn, making our skin flushed, and a small point of pain blossomed between my eyes. But the doorframe shook under my grip, and I risked opening my eyes to look.
The air in the doorframe was shimmering and becoming opaque, my dark bedroom disappearing. The portal snapped into focus, and a gust of cold air pushed at us, making us grip the doorframe and grit our teeth. A burst of heat followed right behind the cold air, making Ronnie shoot me a look. Snow flurries swirled around our ankles, melting as they hit my hardwood.
I glanced over my shoulder and met Joey’s eyes. “Put a couple of towels down, please. I don’t want to get my area rug wet.”
Joey’s eyes bulged, and she shook her head. “Yeah, that’s the big concern here.”
Ronnie shook my hand to get my attention, and I turned toward the portal again.
“Okay, here goes nothing.” I took a breath and held it before placing one foot through the portal and hearing icy snow crunch. When nothing happened to my foot, I pulled on Ronnie’s hand and stepped through.
The magic flowed over me, sending a chill through my body like stepping through a cool waterfall, and when I opened my eyes, I had to squint against all the white, still bright in the moonlight. The still-healing cuts on my face stung, making my eyes water. Ronnie gasped when she came through and saw the wintery landscape around us. The snow shifted under my feet, and I had to catch my balance, gripping Ronnie’s arm for support. A gust of wind pushed at us, making the cuts on my cheek burn hot enough to bring tears to my eyes.
“Where are we?” Ronnie yelled over the howling wind.
I turned, not letting go of Ronnie so I wouldn’t fall, and looked over the expanse around us. The night sky was dark with clouds of varying grey and white, and in the distance, the ground fell away only to rise up again and again, higher and higher as I strained to see. The light of the portal played tricks on my eyes and brought spots to my vision, but I knew, in my gut, where we were.
“On a mountain,” I yelled back.
“Is it his lair?”
I turned to look past her, putting the portal to my back. The snowy ground rose up, disappearing into the darkness. Heat reached us from that invisible horizon, and I felt power emanating from it. “I think s
o.”
“Then let’s move.”
I turned back to the portal and released my grip on Ronnie. Joey stood at the opening, looking at us with squinting eyes. She’d grabbed my grandmother’s afghan and had it wrapped around her narrow shoulders, the fringe puddling on the floor.
“Two hours,” I yelled through the portal, and she held up the timer, ready to release the counter. “Towels!” I pointed at the growing puddle on the floor.
She rolled her eyes and disappeared from the doorway, stomping off to do as I’d said. Just as I was lifting my hands to cast, Artemis walked into view, Pumpkin following him. Artie sat on his haunches, his black fur poofing out around his thick back legs and round belly. His whiskers twitched as he stared at me with his bright yellow eyes. He was purring, not even minding the presence of the orange kitten following his every move. I shouldn’t have been able to hear his purring over the rushing wind, but I could. I felt it somewhere deep inside.
“Watch over Joey and Pumpkin,” I said, not yelling. I was sure he could hear me just as I could hear him.
His right ear twitched, and he blinked slowly.
“I love you, Artie.” Saying that almost felt like a jinx, to make sure it was the last thing I said to him before I closed the portal, but it wasn’t something I would regret.
“I love you, Pumpkin. Be good!” Ronnie yelled, making the kitten stand on his squat legs and step forward.
Pumpkin sat again right next to Artie, and he too began to purr.
The power of the portal snapped at my hands, making them burn through the leather gloves. A warm trickle ran down my cheek as one of the lashes on my cheek opened. I kept my eyes open as I pressed at the power of the portal and spoke the incantation I’d prepared. “Celo abscondo obscure.”
The words vibrated with power until they found the rhythm of the portal. As I watched, the bright light of the portal dimmed, and Artie’s image flickered out of sight. Joey came into view just as the snowy mountainside flickered into place.
Yuletide (Matilda Kavanagh Novels Book 3) Page 15
