by Sam Cheever
I looked at Hobs. “It’s okay, Hobs. Do what you think is best. I’ll be okay either way.”
The hobgoblin stared at me for a long moment. Then he nodded, and, after giving me one last look, shot off in a blur and hit the top of the shelves, dancing from one to the next so quickly it was hard to see him move.
A beat later, a pair of keys flew through the air and hit Earline. Her head snapped back, and she grunted in pain.
A small, black purse whipped through the store and smacked Eattle in the head. He staggered backward just as the front door crashed open.
The wooden door hit the Elf so hard it sent him flying. He crashed up against the sales counter several feet away.
A Gargoyle walked into the room, his rocky form dusted white from the blowing snow.
Earline yelped in outrage as Sebille wrapped her in binding magic, and I stepped away, rubbing my throat where the blade had nicked it.
The knife hit the carpet with a dull thud.
Wicked and Hex ran over to the blade and stared down at it. The weapon disappeared in a puff of silvery energy.
Grym examined Eattle, particularly interested in his funny pointed shoes. “You know, it’s a strange thing. The prints leading from the back are shaped just like these.” He kicked the bottom of Eattle’s shoe, his gaze rising slowly to Earline. “And there are two sets of them. One big and one small.”
Surprise made me turn to look at the struggling Elf. “But how? She was here with us the whole time.”
“Was she?” Grym asked. “There was a lot going on. Nobody was really keeping track, and half the time we literally didn’t know who was who.”
Which I realized was exactly what the Elves had hoped. “How’d she get through the door into the library?” I asked, glaring at Earline.
Queen Sindra flew from the back of the store, followed by her guards. “They overrode the keeper magic with this.” She held up a key-shaped locket on a silver chain. Sindra glanced at Hobs, who was sitting atop the nearest shelf, kicking his heels against the books and twirling a finger through his red and white scarf. “The hobgoblin’s been quietly pilfering stuff from everybody during the party. He’s got a pile behind the last shelving unit. He must have taken this from Earline after the identity mixing spell put everybody out of commission.”
I frowned. “Out of commission?”
“Yes,” Sindra said. “If this spell worked the way it was drawn, you would have all been unconscious for several minutes. The Elves breached the door and put a special ward on it so they could go through any time they wanted.”
I shuddered, thinking of being unaware for that long while the two nasty critters invaded Croakies.
“But where’d she get the key?” Sebille asked.
Sindra flew over and hovered before Earline, her wings beating the air with an angry rhythm. “This is ancient magic. If I’m not wrong, it came from Santa’s workshop.”
“Santa?” I asked. The head Elf himself.
“Of course,” Grym said, nodding. “How do you think Santa gets into all those houses on Christmas Eve?”
“Down the chimney?” I said, unwilling to let the final dregs of my Santa illusion be quashed.
“What about homes that don’t have chimney’s?” Grym asked, kindly. I got the impression he would have gone further with his argument, probably telling me Santa was too round to fit down a chimney, but he seemed to sense my reluctance to hear the truth of that little lie.
Good man.
I put out my hand and Sindra dropped the chain with the key into it. “Thanks, Queen Sindra. The potential for this to be abused is monumental.” I hoped Santa had a spare because the key was going into the toxic magic vault tout de suite.
Looking at Earline’s nasty glower and hostile black gaze, I had a feeling it had already been used for evil.
“My pleasure. We dosed your human friends with a denial spell. They don’t see any magic in the room or recognize any magical creatures. Everyone looks human to them.”
Well, that explained why none of them was freaking out about the giant snake hovering above and behind me.
“Would you like help with that?” Sindra asked, nodding toward the Naga.
I shook my head. “We’ll take care of it. Thanks so much for your help.”
Inclining her head, the Fae queen and her guards headed out of the store. I hugged Mrs. Foxladle, Claudette, and Mr. Peabody and thanked them for coming. To my vast surprise, they all gushed about how much fun they’d had and tried to get me to commit to another party the following year.
Gargoyles would sprout wings and fly before that happened.
Closing the door behind them, I leaned against it and closed my eyes, amazed to have survived the party.
“Hey!” Lea said, looking around. “Where’s Eattle?”
My eyes snapped to the spot where he’d been. All that was left was a damp Elf suit on the carpet. “What the?”
Grym crouched down and tugged the red suit off the floor.
I gasped.
It wasn’t just a suit. It was a full skin.
Eattle wasn’t real either?
“What by the goddess’s favorite chocolate bar is going on?”
“Skinwalkers,” Grym said, half under his breath. “No wonder...”
I eyed him. “Care to share with the class?”
He shook his head. “Police business. Sorry. It’s an ongoing investigation.”
I wanted to smack him upside the head. His “ongoing investigation” had rolled my party and my home like a heard of giants trying to get to a penny sale before it closed.
“He’s got to be here somewhere,” Grym said. “We need to look for him.”
We searched the bookstore but didn’t find any sign of the Elf. Sebille even checked the coat closet with no luck.
Birte yanked the bathroom door open and stepped inside. We heard the shower curtain snapping back and cabinets opening and closing.
I frowned. If Eattle was inside a cabinet, he had bigger problems even than we knew. Finally, Birte’s voice rang out. “Found something.”
Relief filled me.
Birte came out of the bathroom, carrying a duffle bag. “This was stuffed into the linen closet, covered by some towels.”
She set it down on the floor and Grym unzipped it, his face losing much of its healthy color as he took in its contents. He pulled another skin suit out. It looked like Rhonda.
“There were two of them?”
But he wasn’t done. The next suit looked like Earline. Then Grym. Then Hobs. There were even suits that looked like Slimy and Mr. Wicked.
“They brought extra suits for each of the people they expected to be at this party,” I breathed, appalled. “They planned ahead on this.”
“But when did they bring this bag inside?” Lea asked.
“Probably while we were all unconscious,” Sebille offered.
I fought back another shudder. What else had they done while I was out cold?
An icy breeze made me shiver. The scent of wet fur tickled my nose. Before I had time to consider what it meant, a tall, dark shape flashed past with a deep-throated laugh. The creature resembled a seven-foot-tall wolf that stood on bent back legs which ended in hooves. Its fangs curved over a hairy chin, and its forepaws ended in deadly-looking claws. The creature slammed into me, knocking me into Grym and sending us both to the floor.
I turned my head just as the shape, really almost a shadow, flashed to Earline and slipped a long, curved claw through Sebille’s bind, slicing it open with a purple-colored energy.
Light flared around Earline and her skin slipped to the floor, empty. Then with a cackle of pure glee, she and the shadow disappeared.
Before we had time to wrap our minds around what had just happened, the massive snake blinked itself awake on a roar.
12
Again!
“What in the world?”
Birte leaped into the air, bursting into the massive dragon and landing on the
Naga’s back, just behind its head. The dragon opened its jaws wide and clamped them over the snake’s body.
The monster roared again, surging upward to buck against Birte’s constraint.
Sebille ran toward the immobile giant, flinging herself to her belly to avoid being smacked with a flailing dragon wing. The snake swung sideways, its massive jaws opening and snapping inches from my face.
Grym punched a rock-hewn fist into the creature’s snout, barely dazing it as Sebille climbed to her feet and ran toward Theo.
The snake’s coils snapped sideways, trapping the Sprite against the bathroom door on a grunt of pain.
“Are you all right?” I screamed.
She lifted her hand, showing me the last piece of magicked cookie. “Here!”
With an internal groan, I lifted my hands to catch it.
The snake tried to roll over to lose the dragon.
The thick body smacked into me just as the cookie fell into my outstretched palm.
I yelped as the cookie went flying and screamed for Grym.
His blocky fist shot out and snatched the treasure from the air.
“Theo?” he asked.
I nodded and then remembered. “Half! We should give the snake some too. Maybe that will force him back to Devard.”
Grym broke the sweet in half. “Give this to Theo at the same time.”
I nodded, grimacing as the cookie piece left his hand and flew toward me. The chances of me even catching it were…
The cookie hit my palm and my fingers closed around it.
Pretty good, apparently.
I took off running. The snake surged forward, its cool breath bathing my neck as I kicked up my speed to keep from feeling its fangs against my skin.
With another roar, the Naga rose up on its coils, smacking Birte against the ceiling and sending dust raining down on our heads. The floor rumbled as they hit the ground again and sent me sprawling, arms scraping along the carpet. The cookie flew out of my hand. Buzzard blinkers!
Sebille sent green energy into the snake’s thick body. It roared, jerking far enough away for her to drop to the ground and crawl out from under its writhing coils.
She ran toward me. “Where is it?”
I shoved painfully to my feet. “I don’t know, it took a flyer.”
Sebille and I crawled around on the ground, trying to dodge the snake and the dragon while looking for the magicked sweet. We couldn’t find it.
I was starting to worry it had been crushed to dust beneath the Naga.
In the meantime, the snake continued to fight Birte’s restraint. The massive head swung sideways, scooping me off my feet and flinging me toward the tree.
I hit the prickly branches and felt the sharp, metal posts of the artificial concoction biting into my skin. With a pain-filled yelp, I skidded down the branches and landed in a puddle on top of Lea’s scarf.
A furry gray form flew through the air with an angry yowl, hissing as he landed on the snake’s head.
“No!” I screamed as Wicked sliced his razor-sharp claws across the snake’s snout.
With an enraged roar, the snake flung its head sideways, trying to unseat my cat.
Silvery light stabbed into the snake’s slitted eyes, blinding it as Hex joined Wicked on the monster’s head. The sigils on the two cats’ chests glowed, and a haze of silver magic bathed the snake, momentarily disorienting it.
The snake rose into the air, weaving back and forth as if drunk, and then slammed to the ground and sent the cats flying. They landed on their feet a few yards away and then scampered toward the food covering the floor as if they hadn’t just faced off with a prehistoric monster.
“Here it is!” Lea yelled, holding up the piece of cookie. She looked at Grym. “Now!”
The two of them shoved cookie into Theo’s and the Naga’s faces at the same time.
For a beat, nothing happened. Then Theo’s eyes blinked open. He looked around the room, his gaze finding Birte struggling to keep the snake from rising off the floor again.
His protective instincts kicked in and Theo stepped into motion on a shout of pure rage.
The Naga convulsed, its shape wavering and stretching as it fought to get free. For a moment, I thought I saw Devard’s face superimposed over the monster’s snout and I knew he was fighting for control.
Charcoal-colored magic rose from the snake’s skin, settling down to twist around its glistening scales and slow its movements.
The magic wound around the Naga’s head, coiling around its long body like two strings of macabre Christmas lights, and wrenched the snake upward, flinging Birte and Theo away.
Panic had me stepping forward. Fear that Devard was going to lose the battle and release the snake rather than imprison it had me shouting his name.
But the magic wrapped more tightly around the Naga, compressing its enormous body as it tightened. And when it was only six feet long and completely enmeshed in Devard’s magic, it began to take a different form. Its smooth sides bent and reformed to the shape of a man. Its tail dividing into legs. Two arms rose from the scaly sides and Devard’s features settled over the face.
Standing with bowed head and fisted hands, Devard shuddered once, violently, and then took a deep breath and opened his eyes. “Well, that was exciting.”
Birte handed Devard a towel to wrap around his hips, her ruddy cheeks even redder than usual. She wore the tattered remains of the robe she’d been wearing when she shifted. I made a mental note to find something in my closet she could wear home.
Theo shrank back to his human-facing size.
We all collapsed into exhausted puddles of goo.
Lea looked at me, her face a study in weariness. “How about we never do this again?”
I gave her thumbs up in full agreement. “Thanks for your help,” I told my friends.
“Sure, but next year I can’t come,” Devard said. “I have a…thing,”
I snorted out a laugh.
Lea looked at the skinsuits on the floor. “Skinwalkers?”
Grym frowned.
“It appears so,” Sebille said. “Wait until I tell Mother.”
“What’s a Skinwalker?” I asked.
“They can shift into anyone or anything simply by conjuring a skin to match their target,” Grym said. “But the kicker is, they take on all the attributes of the target while they’re wearing the suit. They can use their magic, their knowledge, their memories, everything that makes the target what it is.”
“Is the identity mixing spell part of their bag of tricks?” Lea asked.
Grym shrugged. “If the targets they’re impersonating can perform that spell, then so can they.”
“That’s terrifying,” I said.
He nodded. “And it makes it darn hard to catch them. The only chance we have is to find them in their base forms. They have very little inherent magic of their own.”
“They must have crashed the party just to steal that box,” Sebille said.
“But why?” Lea asked. “Certainly, they didn’t do all this for a music box.”
“More than a music box,” Sebille said. “That box holds the essence of Christmas. Love, life, magic, within its frame. For someone who’s having trouble embracing the spirit of the season, it can mean the difference between happiness or depression, life or death.”
Grym sighed. “She’s right. That box would fetch a pretty penny on the black market. We’ve been chasing a thievery ring for the last few weeks. We haven’t been able to figure out how they get in and out without being seen. Now I know. They don’t look like thieves. They look like the people who live in the target house.”
“What are they stealing?” I asked. “They seemed to know exactly what they were looking for here. They were all over the library and didn’t take anything. They just wanted the box.”
“As far as I can tell, they’re fencing magical artifacts,” Grym explained. “They target artifacts owned by non-magical people. We believe they get orders for
items from specific buyers.”
“Speaking of the box,” I said, “where is it, anyway?”
“Here, Miss,” Sitting atop the shelves, Hobs had the box clutched in his hand. “Is it time to open it?”
I glanced around Croakies, frowning at the devastated store and my worn out and slightly battered friends. I fought a wave of despair. “This isn’t what the season is supposed to be about.”
“Isn’t it?” Sebille asked me, a gleam in her eye.
Grym placed a hand on my shoulder. “Are you sure?” he asked with a smile.
Birte and Theo walked over together, their hands clasped. Birte reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. “It was a fun adventure, Naida.”
I glanced around. They were all smiling.
“Meow!” Wicked’s soft, warm body wound between my legs and he sat on my feet. He started to bathe his legs, purring loudly.
“Ribbit!”
Slimy hopped across the floor, stopping beside Wicked and staring at my cat with his bulgy, blank eyes.
“The gang’s all here,” Theo said in his jolly, rumbling voice.
I snorted out a laugh. They were right. We were together. We were all safe. And together we’d created a Croakies kind of Christmas.
I shook my head. “You’re all crazy. No wonder I like you.”
Orchestral music throbbed through the room as the Soul of Christmas box continued to offer hope for a delightful and peace-filled holiday season.
Devard headed for the door. “I have a turkey and some other food at home. I’ll be right back.”
I watched him leave, emotion making my chest tight. “He’s going to freeze his toogies off in that towel.”
Sebille chuckled.
“I have pies.” Lea followed him out.
“I need to go report this and set up a task force. Now that we know what we’re dealing with, we can be more effective in finding the thieves,” Grym said.
I nodded, thinking of the faint image in the Book of Pages. It suddenly made sense. The book had been trying to show me something that had no real likeness of its own. “Thanks for your help. Will you let me know when you find them?” I wouldn’t rest entirely easy until I knew the skinwalkers were behind bars.
