“Like I told you before. I don’t have a choice in this,” I said.
Nicholas nodded and then stood back, waving a hand toward the balcony. “Be my guest.”
“Why aren’t you trying to stop me?” I asked.
“Because you’ve already passed the tests,” he replied. “You proved your courage in the storm. Your empathy and quick thinking got you past the bridge. I offered you your heart’s greatest desire, and it was not enough to change your mind. You are free to face the last challenge.”
I tilted my head as I looked into his eyes. They were wary, with a hint of sadness, and I could see Nicholas not only felt a responsibility to protect the star; he also wanted to protect the young ones who came after it.
I took a deep breath in before I stepped forward, my stomach swirling with a mixture of emotions. I might have passed all the other tests, but now, I was facing the one that all who had come before me had failed. I’d looked deep inside myself, trying to see if I was worthy of the star, but I didn’t know the answer, and I still wasn’t sure I was making the right choice.
I walked past the ancient young one, catching a whiff of his magic as I passed. I could smell the fragrant magic of claus about him, but there was also a richer scent; a strong hint of something floral, similar to the smell I’d picked up on the stairs at the base of the mountain. I felt like it had to be the smell of his mother’s magic, and I wondered if my own magic was similar to my father’s.
As I reached the edge of the cliff and looked out over the precipice toward the ground far below, my stomach dropped. There was nothing but open air between where I stood and the green meadow that was so far below me I could barely make it out.
The fall would definitely kill me, and I wondered for a moment if it would be considered cheating if I attempted to create myself a pair of wings. I knew I couldn’t do that though. It would hardly be a leap of faith if I didn’t have faith in myself that I would survive it.
A part of me wanted to find my father and slap him across the back of the head for creating such an impossible challenge. It was a shame that once Belsnickel had returned to full strength he would be able to use his magic to overcome such an obstacle. I felt certain he would fail if it came down to his intentions for the star.
I slowly made my way out onto the narrow balcony. The golden material it was made from was so shiny I could see my reflection in its surface. I was far more distracted by the long drop below me though. The wind rushed around me and whipped the loose tendrils of hair across my face.
Fear was thrumming through my veins as I shuffled along the balcony. I’d nearly fallen to my death several times on my way up the mountain and now I was supposed to willingly jump. It was a good thing I couldn’t properly make out the bottom of the fall, or I knew I wouldn’t be able to find the courage to jump.
I closed my eyes and stood still when I reached the edge of the balcony. My clothes were flapping in the wind, and my heart was racing. My legs began to shake, and there was a sinking feeling in my chest as the world around me seemed to spin. I felt an intense urge to turn around and walk back, but my feet felt frozen to the spot.
As I stood there, unable to move forward or back, I caught the faint smell of my father’s magic floating past me on the breeze. I remembered the complete faith and belief he had in me. I had to have the same faith in myself. I didn’t open my eyes again, and with one more deep breath in, I leaned forward into the wind and opened my arms as I allowed myself to drop.
My body fell swiftly into the open air, and I could feel the wind whistling past me as my feet left the solid floor of the balcony. All fear and terror seemed to rush from my body as I embraced the fall. I could no longer go back, and I couldn’t stop myself from plunging through the air. I knew I had jumped for the right reasons, so I couldn’t have any regrets. I was trying to save countless magical beings from the destruction of a god. And if that wasn’t a pure enough intention, then I didn’t know what was.
I had been afraid until the moment my feet left the balcony, but now, all I felt was peace. I was confident in my decision to jump, and as I tumbled through the air, my body rolling as it was tugged and pulled by the strong winds around me, I knew I had done the right thing no matter what the outcome.
The air around me began to change though, suddenly growing warmer as I neared the ground. I blinked my eyes open, and the feeling of peace I had been enjoying faltered for a moment as I saw the ground coming toward me. The grassy meadow was drawing in quickly, and a large area of rock covered of the ground directly below me. There was no way I was going to survive the fall, and my heart started to race as the conviction I had felt fled me, replaced by fear and panic.
The ground was rushing closer, and I was falling so fast that the seconds were flying by. I was headed straight for the rocks, and I was so close to them now that I could make out the pebbles that were scattered across the ground around them. I tensed my body as I realized that perhaps I’d been wrong. The leap of faith was a fatal mistake.
Just as I was about to slam into the rocks, the ground started to ripple, and the whole world around me blurred into a haze of colors. Instead of hitting the ground, I found myself suspended in the air as magic began to crackle around me. The power was hot and unbearable as it enveloped my body. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the pain. I felt like I’d been thrown in an oven as magic burned violently against my skin. But just as quickly as it had begun, the sensation ceased.
I opened my eyes as the world around me became clear again, and I started falling once more. I tumbled only a few meters before I slammed down onto a hard wooden floor.
I let out a groan as I rolled onto my back and looked up. I was in a dimly lit room and below a ceiling of logs and timber. The tall mountain and the vast green meadow were nowhere to be seen.
“Clio?” someone called out as I struggled to draw in a breath. I felt like my rib cage was bruised and my whole body was battered.
A head popped into view above me, blocking the ceiling from my vision, and I exhaled with relief as I realized it was Dash.
“Where am I?” I groaned.
“You’re back in Nicholas’s cabin,” he said. “You’ve only been gone for about twenty minutes. We weren’t expecting you to return so soon.”
“Some of us weren’t expecting you to return at all,” Jack said from somewhere else in the room.
I slowly went to push myself up but realized I was holding something in my hand. My whole body stiffened for a moment before I bolted upright and lifted the softly glowing object in front of my face. It was a tiny golden rock that glinted softly in the low light of the room. I could see its magic dancing around the outer rim of it, and I sensed a gentle pull from the object drawing me in like a magnet.
“The Christmas star,” I whispered as I stared at the object I’d just risked so much to obtain. It was shining softly without any of the intense brightness I’d seen in the other two stars. I could feel it mixing and connecting with my magic, but it wasn’t immediately absorbing my powers like the first star had done when I’d touched it. The third and final star seemed much smaller than the other two, and I wondered if that meant its powers were weaker too.
“You’ve got it!” I looked over as Jack stepped forward and into the light. There was a feverish look in his eyes that I’d never seen before. He was still acting strangely, and I found myself instinctively tucking the star in the pocket of my jacket to keep it out of sight. I barely trusted myself with the star; I wasn’t about to let anyone else handle it.
“I knew you could do it,” Dash said, grinning down at me and drawing my attention back to him.
I smiled and nodded, but the smile didn’t reach my eyes. I glanced over in Jack’s direction once more. He was staring at the pocket of my jacket where I had placed the star.
“So, now what do we do with the star?” Dash asked, turning to look at Jack. “You said we need to protect it from Belsnickel.”
“That do
es sound like something I would say,” Jack said. He started to walk toward us, a smug grin stretching out his lips. With each step he took, I felt more and more unsure about him. His expression was dark and intense, and there was a feverish excitement in his eyes that seemed at odds with his jovial personality.
“If you pass me the star, I’ll show you what I was thinking,” Jack said, holding out a hand toward me.
I stumbled to my feet and stepped away from him. “No, I don’t think so,” I replied. My senses were screaming at me to get the star as far away from him as I could. My father had told me what to do with the star, and Jack had never claimed that he would be the one to protect it. There was something strangely sinister to his tone of voice, and he was staring at my pocket with such hunger that I didn’t feel like he could be trusted with the star.
Jack’s eyes narrowed as he looked at me. “Well, I see there’s no tricking you,” he said. He lifted his hands, and dark green magic suddenly shimmered around his body. I watched in horror as Jack started to change. His clothes morphed from a powder blue suit into a dark cloak that wrapped around his body. His hair started to shorten, turning from stark white to jet-black before my very eyes. Any imperfections in his skin disappeared, and his jaw turned more chiseled. The blue color of his eyes became more intense, and I gasped as I realized who I was looking at. Belsnickel.
I started to stagger backward, but the god immediately set his evil eyes on me. A small smile lifted the corner of his lips as his dark magic shot out of his hands and threaded through the air toward me. I didn’t have a chance to get away, and his magic crashed into me, coiling around my arms and body until I was completely bound up in his dark power.
The threads of magic lifted me up off the ground, and the more I struggled, the tighter the bindings became. I twisted and turned as I tried to get free, but there was no escape.
Even when I tried to call on my own magic to summon a weapon, the glowing gold sparks in my hand were quickly snuffed out by the power of the god before me. I was no match for such a formidable opponent, and it was no use trying to fight him. My only hope was to try to escape with the star, but how could I when I was so thoroughly trapped in his grasp?
His powers continued to dig into my skin, and I yelped out in pain as the pressure became too much. I was bound so tight I could barely breathe. And what little breath I had left was stolen from my lungs as I saw Dash race up behind Belsnickel.
My whole body went still, and I no longer seemed to notice the way Belsnickel’s powers burned against my skin. Dash had a dagger in his hand, and fear for him lanced through me as I watched him close in on Belsnickel and raise the dagger above his head.
Dash started to bring the blade down, but Belsnickel sent another burst of magic out behind him. The dark green magic blasted into Dash’s chest and sent him flying through the air. Dash slammed into the wall behind him, his head cracking loudly against the wood. His body slumped down, and he landed on the floor at an unnatural angle. He was motionless, and my heart started racing as I began to struggle against my bindings again.
“Dash!” I shouted, hoping he’d move in response to the sound of my voice. He lay on the ground so stilly though, and my stomach rolled with queasiness as I waited for him to respond. “Dash!” I shouted again. I hoped he was simply unconscious, but cold fear rushed through me at the thought that Belsnickel had done something far worse.
“You’re a monster,” I growled, turning my focus back on the god.
“I’ve been called worse,” Belsnickel replied. “And I did try to ask nicely,” he added, stepping closer to me.
“Get away from me!” I growled, as he came up beside me, and I struggled to move out of reach. His glittering green power still kept me trapped, and no matter how much I continued to rebel against it, I couldn’t fight my way free.
There was nothing I could do to stop the god as he dipped his hand into my pocket and pulled out the star. His magic still held me up, and I felt an overwhelming sense of defeat as I saw satisfaction dawning on his face.
“This was almost too easy,” he said. “I could not see your future, but I have been monitoring the futures of the frost and the reindeer closely. I saw you return here with the star before I was powerful enough to get it myself. If I hadn’t intervened, you might have succeeded in keeping it from me. The truth is though, you never really stood a chance.”
He tossed the star up into the air, and it hovered brightly above us, lighting up the room in its white glow. Belsnickel’s face was filled with joy as he lifted his hands high above him and allowed his dark green magic to start flowing out of him and into the star. The star began to pulse with magic and light as it absorbed the god’s powers. I’d already seen the other two stars explode because they were overwhelmed with magic, so I knew what was about to happen.
As I watched on in horror, I began to realize that I was trying to fight Belsnickel’s godly powers with my own claus magic and that it would never be enough. I had attempted to get free of his magical bindings by summoning a way out. What I needed to do was use my creation powers to break free.
I’d used my godly powers a few times now, and I was beginning to better understand how the magic worked. The power always came from an emotion or feeling within me, rather than taken from my surrounds. I needed a way to break free of Belsnickel’s bonds, but I also needed to get the star away from him to a place he could not enter. I still wasn’t sure if I could accomplish such a feat, but I knew I had to try.
Drawing power slowly from within, I allowed it to build up inside myself. Belsnickel’s full focus was on the star as he forced his magic into it, so he didn’t notice as golden magic started to shimmer at my fingertips. In one swift outburst of power, magic erupted from my hands, and a black rock appeared in my palm. Before I had time to consider what it was, the glittering green tentacles of power that engulfed me started to lift off my skin and moved toward the rock. The dark rock throbbed as it drew the green magic into it until it had absorbed my bindings entirely and I was finally free.
I stared at the rock in awe, not quite able to believe I’d created such a thing and not quite sure what it actually was. It had a similar shape to the Christmas star except it was smaller and the color of tar. As I turned it over in my hand, I felt the same pulling sensation on my magic that I’d experienced when I’d held the Christmas star. Like the star, my creation seemed to pulse with a halo of the green magic it had just absorbed. It was almost like I’d created a mini-star, and I wondered if it might just be my key to stopping Belsnickel.
I lifted my gaze to the god. He hadn’t noticed I’d broken out of his bonds, as he was still staring at the Christmas star that was floating in the air over his head. I knew I needed to act before he realized I was free. I might not be lucky enough to escape his power a second time.
I needed a distraction, so I threw the black rock I’d created toward him, aiming for right above his head where his magic left his hands. The rock hurtled through the air until it came into contact with Belsnickel’s beams of green power and jarred to a stop. It hungrily absorbed his magic, breaking the connection between the god and the star.
Belsnickel barely had a chance to react as I launched myself toward the star and grabbed it from the air. I pulled it in close to my chest as I sprinted across the room to where Dash lay on the ground.
Belsnickel bellowed in anger behind me, and I could feel his power radiating all around the workshop. Objects were shaking on their shelves, and small glass ornaments shattered as they fell to the ground.
I wanted to send the star somewhere else, like my father had wanted, but I couldn’t focus on that when a god was chasing me. I reached Dash’s side and tried to shake him awake. I glanced over my shoulder to see Belsnickel trying to rip his magic free from the rock. His powers were magnetized to it, just like they had been to the Christmas star, but he couldn’t seem to pull himself away. I didn’t expect him to be trapped for long though, and already the rock seemed to
be pulsing with more power than it looked capable of containing.
“Wake up, Dash, wake up!” I yelled.
He slowly opened his groggy eyes and looked up at me. A little of the pressure that had been clenched around my heart released. He was alive. I didn’t have a chance to relish in the moment though as his eyes immediately darted behind me, and he clambered to his feet.
“We have to get you out of here,” he said. But the moment he lifted a foot to leave, Dash froze, and the tattoo around his wrist started to glow.
“The favor,” I whispered.
Dash stood tall, pushing his shoulders back. “You need to run and get the star out of here,” he said. “I’ll stay and stop Belsnickel.”
“I’m not leaving you behind,” I said. I couldn’t abandon him, not after I’d seen how easily Belsnickel had fought him off before. “He’s only going to come after us. I know a way to protect the star. I can put it somewhere he will never be able to go. I just need time to figure it out.”
Dash nodded. “I’ll distract him. Now, protect the star.” Before I could try to argue with him, Dash shifted into his reindeer form and turned toward the raging god. The mini-star was still absorbing Belsnickel’s powers, but I felt certain it was only a matter of time before he overcame my creation.
I focused on the star in my hands. I knew what I had to do with it, but I had no idea where to start. How in Christmas did I create a new realm? I wouldn’t have thought it was even possible, but my father believed I could do it, so I had to be capable.
Taking a deep breath in, I tried to focus on my desperate desire to protect the star. I wanted to create a place for the magical object that only I could access, and I focused my powers on that wish, allowing it to rise to the surface.
Christmas Curse (Christmas Magic Book 3) Page 16