My golden magic slowly started to spark on my skin, but as soon as it appeared, another great roar echoed through the room, breaking my attention. My eyes snapped up as the small black star I had created shattered. It sent out a small explosion of magic that caused the whole room to shake, as Belsnickel’s powers broke free.
The god’s dark green magic ballooned into clouds of power that swirled around him as he turned his attention on me. Dash lowered his antlers and started stampeding across the room toward the angry god, but Belsnickel was barely bothered by the reindeer. His magic shot out in front of him, and Dash was instantly thrown to the side. He slammed into the wall with such force that he shattered the wood and went right through it. A huge gaping hole was left in the side of the cabin, allowing moonlight to filter into the room from outside.
I clambered to my feet and clutched the star to my chest. I kept trying to dig deep and use my powers to create a new realm, but fear was pulsing through my veins, and I couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than my increasing terror.
I was the only thing standing between an evil, angry god, and the final Christmas star.
Belsnickel hurled his dark magic toward me. I had no doubt that whatever was coming my way would be the end of me, but then I thought of the Christmas star in my hands.
At the last second, I lifted the star in front of me. Belsnickel’s powers collided with the star, and it throbbed brightly in my hands as it absorbed the magic. The star had protected me, but in doing so, it was one step closer to destruction. I gritted my teeth as I tried to resist the star’s power, which began to pull at my magic too. I had no idea how close the star was to exploding, but surely, it couldn’t take much more.
Belsnickel seemed to sense the same thing, and he started throwing more and more of his magic at the star, which seemed to grow brighter as I grasped it in my hands. I wanted to tug the star away, but I knew that doing so would leave me open to attack.
I could see the light from the star growing larger and brighter, and the star now pulsated with power. It was growing so big it was taking on a life of its own. A breeze whirled around the room, and the ground was shaking from the power that was throbbing through the air.
A flicker of movement caught the corner of my eye, and I jumped when I found Nicholas standing at my side. “You have to get out of here!” he yelled to me over the storm of magic that whirled around us. His eyes were filled with disappointment and sadness. “The star’s going to explode. There’s no stopping it.”
I was desperate for him to be wrong, but as I looked back at the Christmas star, I could see he was speaking the truth. Belsnickel was still feeding his dark magic into the star, overloading it with so much power that I felt sure there was no going back.
“If you don’t leave now, you won’t survive!” he continued. “And you might be our only chance at defeating him.”
Tears wet my eyes as I nodded and released my grip on the star. It remained suspended in the air where I’d been holding it, burning with unfathomable power. Belsnickel’s face lit up with glee as he saw me release the star, and my heart wrenched at the sight.
He’d won the battle, and now, he would win the war. And it was all my fault.
“Go!” Nicholas shouted before he slowly faded from sight. Just like when my mom had appeared to me as a ghost, I realized Nicholas must never have truly been in the Human Realm at all.
I looked back at the star one last time before I turned and ran from the cabin. Its light was just as bright and blinding as the other stars had been right before they exploded.
I raced from the house and started to sprint toward the trees that lay beyond. I had almost reached them when a deafening boom sounded behind me. I glanced over my shoulder as bright white light erupted from the cabin, causing the entire building to splinter into thousands of pieces. A wave of power rushed through the air toward me, and I was thrown to the ground as the explosion hit me.
Raw power flooded over me. It was far stronger than the other explosions I’d witnessed, and as the world around me rumbled and shook, all I could think about was how I had let the final star get into the evil god’s hands.
I lay in the snow, unable to bring myself to move, as the world suddenly fell silent. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to find Dash crouched over me. His face was covered in ash, and there were bleeding scratches across his skin, but he was alive.
I leaped up and grabbed him in a hug as my whole body shook with emotion. He grasped me tightly back and we stayed in total silence as we held each other.
“Are you hurt?” he eventually asked.
I shook my head as I pulled back to look at him. “I’m fine. What about you? You have gashes everywhere.”
“They’re already healing,” he replied though many of his wounds still bled. They didn’t seem to bother him, and his focus was entirely on me.
I looked down at his hands and noticed his favor tattoo had disappeared. I grabbed his wrist and lifted it up to study the bare skin. Dash let out a deep sigh. “I fulfilled my favor. I did everything in my power to stop him,” he said. “It just wasn’t enough.”
I was consumed with a similar feeling of failure. I’d been through so much and tried everything I could, but that wasn’t enough to stop him either. Unlike Dash though, I’d had the power to protect the star from Belsnickel. If anyone was responsible, I knew it was me.
I slowly turned to look at the cabin. All that remained was a pile of splintered wood and a few of Nicholas’s treasures strewn haplessly across the ground. There was no sign of Belsnickel, though I didn’t doubt he had survived the explosion, just like he had the last time he destroyed a star.
Shock consumed me as I took in the destruction the star had wrought. The wrecked cabin was just a hint of the devastation Belsnickel was about to unleash.
“What have I done?” I whispered, as tears started welling in my eyes.
I had just handed the world’s most evil being the one thing he needed to start a war, and now there was nothing to stop him from fulfilling his darkest wishes. The worst part was, I knew I only had myself to blame.
Chapter Seventeen
Dash and I trudged back through the snow to the sleigh point in total silence. The reality of our failure was starting to set in, and neither one of us seemed to want to talk about it.
“Well, there you are,” someone said from behind us.
My powers instinctively started buzzing at my fingertips, and I turned to see Jack walking toward us. I couldn’t trust the being in front of us. It certainly looked like Jack, but the last time I’d seen him, he’d morphed into the very god we were trying to defeat.
“Stay back!” I shouted, lifting my hands up as power flowed around them.
Jack came to a sudden stop and raised his eyebrows at me. “Care to tell me why you’re pointing your magic at me?” He nodded at my hands, which were now radiating with power. I swallowed as I tried to figure out what was going on. Was this Jack or the god we’d left behind?
“Great job giving Belsnickel the star, by the way,” he said, with a roll of his eyes, when I hesitated to answer him. “Not that I can really talk seeing as he attacked me in the woods and bound me up in some of his icky green magic. I fought hard, but he’s got some serious power. I even have a nasty bump to show for it.” He started gingerly touching his forehead. There was a large red mark on his skin, but I still wasn’t convinced it was Jack standing before us.
“How do I know it’s really you?” I asked.
Jack frowned as he looked between Dash and I. “I guess I’m not the only one to have been knocked on the head,” he replied. “I thought the white hair and dashing good looks were a dead giveaway, but I suppose I can come up with something else if you really need proof.” His hands lit up with light-blue magic, and Dash exhaled, his shoulders easing at the sight.
“It’s him, Clio,” Dash said.
I lowered my hands and nodded. I didn’t like the fact that Belsnickel could
use his magic to appear as anyone he pleased, but I’d known something was different about Jack the moment he’d entered the cabin. I liked to believe my intuition would let me know if he was playing the same trick again.
“So, what happened with the star?” Jack asked.
“I managed to retrieve it, but when I returned, Belsnickel was waiting for me somehow disguised as you. He foresaw that I would get to it before his powers had fully returned, and he had been waiting to trap us ever since,” I said.
“That’s not completely true,” Dash added. “He said he saw Jack and myself. He said he couldn’t see your future.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess he said that, but it doesn’t make much of a difference now the final star is gone.” It wasn’t the first time Belsnickel had said that he couldn’t see my future. It was like I was a blind spot in his vision. Perhaps the star would have been safely hidden away from him now if Dash and Jack hadn’t come with me.
I let out a sigh. “We really are completely screwed, aren’t we?”
With the final star destroyed, the Christmas curse would now be lifted. It would only be a matter of time before all Christmas beings had their full powers returned to them, and that was something to fear. Christmas creatures would no longer have their magic tied to the season. The strength of their powers at Christmas would course through them every day of the year. Belsnickel’s dark beings would have the ability to create untold destruction all year round. They would be unstoppable, and Belsnickel would have the formidable army he needed to conquer all realms.
There were no gods to save us this time. My father couldn’t leave his realm to help us, and even if he could, he’d be no match for Belsnickel now he had destroyed all three stars.
“We’re not completely screwed,” Jack said. “Just mostly.”
“Why only mostly? Do you have a brilliant idea to stop him?” I asked.
“Not really.”
“Well, there has to be something we can do,” I said, deciding I needed to be a little more optimistic about our chances. “Because I’m certainly not going to bow down to him.” I had to force down a shudder at the thought.
“No, I don’t really enjoy the idea either,” Jack said.
Dash was looking between the two of us. I couldn’t really tell what he was thinking because his lips were pressed tightly together and his eyes were thoughtful. “Let’s just get back to the North Pole,” he said. “We can figure out how to defeat a god from there.”
The words were laughable. There was no defeating a god. But Jack and I both nodded. I was far too tired to protest.
As we continued through the forest toward the sleigh point, my mind kept replaying everything we’d been through. So much had happened in such a short space of time I didn’t get a chance to tell Dash and Jack about my parents. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to share the information though. Not when I couldn’t help but feel like I’d let everyone down.
I also couldn’t stop focusing on what Belsnickel had said to me. He told me I had failed to prevent him from destroying the star because he’d seen my journey in Jack and Dash’s futures.
I glanced at my friends, guilt and confusion waging a war within me. It wasn’t their fault that Belsnickel had destroyed the star, but they were the reason he had known to come to the cabin. If I had simply gone there alone, Belsnickel wouldn’t have known we were after the star, and he wouldn’t have been able to stop me before I placed it in another realm.
I chewed on my lower lip as I tried to come to terms with the problem. It would have been possible for me to succeed, if not for Belsnickel’s prophetic powers. How could we ever hope to defeat him when he knew our every move?
Realization struck me as we arrived at the sleigh point, and I came to a stop as I watched Dash and Jack walk toward it together. Nicholas had said that I might be the only one who could stop the god, and I was guessing it was because Belsnickel couldn’t see me with his prophetic powers. If that was true, there was no way I could defeat him with the others at my side.
My stomach tightened at the thought and a shiver of cold ran down my spine. I didn’t know if I could beat Belsnickel, but one thing was clear: whatever I had to do to stop him, I needed to do it alone. I couldn’t let anyone else know my plans, or Belsnickel might foresee it through them.
“You coming?”
I jolted as I focused back on Dash. Jack had already disappeared, and Dash was standing alone in the sleigh point waiting for me. He tilted his head as he watched me, a frown furrowing his brow.
“Yeah, of course,” I said, walking over to join him in the sleigh point. I touched a hand to his shoulder, as I waited for Dash to transport us back to the Northern Realm. But as the green magic of the sleigh point started to swirl around our feet, I felt an instinctive lurch in my gut that told me returning with Dash was the wrong thing to do.
I swiftly stepped backward, my hand dropping from Dash’s shoulder as I left the sleigh point. Dash’s eyes flicked to mine in concern, but it was too late for him to stop me. A moment later he disappeared.
I wrapped my arms across my body and shivered as I looked around the dark and empty woods surrounding me. I was alone again, but that was exactly what I needed. I couldn’t tell the others what I’d realized about Belsnickel’s powers of prophecy, and until I knew what I wanted to do about it, I’d need to keep my distance from them.
As I stepped back into the sleigh point, another destination appeared in my mind. If I was going to sort out my thoughts and come up with a plan, I needed space to do it. So, instead of following after Dash and returning to the Northern Realm castle, I pictured the one place I could be alone without any magical interference: Bramblewood.
My apartment was dark when I got home. I couldn’t smell Tomi’s magic in the air, and the place felt eerily quiet without his presence. I stood in the open doorway as I considered walking into the empty place. Something about it no longer felt as inviting and safe as it once had.
It didn’t help that my stomach was still flipping with guilt. I had allowed the final star to be destroyed, and I was supposed to be in the North Pole figuring out a way to stop Belsnickel with the others, not running away and trying to fix it all on my own.
I kept thinking about how I’d already let everyone down so many times, and it was crazy to believe that I could defeat Belsnickel by myself. My apartment felt far too silent when my thoughts were so loud, so I shut the door, traipsed back down the stairs, and headed outside. I didn’t need peace and quiet right now. What I needed was a drink to quell some of the annoying voices in my head that kept making me doubt myself.
The problem was, there were people in Bramblewood who I had also let down. Sam’s eyes went dark the moment I entered The Rusty Gate. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually shown up for work, and he seemed pretty annoyed with me as I walked up to the bar.
It was almost closing time, and there were no customers, so I guessed that meant Sam felt like he could unleash his anger upon me. He stormed out from behind the bar, and I was surprised by how upset it made me to see him reacting so furiously. I’d always been able to talk my way back onto Sam’s good side, but right now his angry eyes seemed to pierce my heart. His expression was filled with wrath, but when he caught sight of the look on my face, his anger seemed to lessen a little.
I must’ve looked pretty pitiful because, instead of shouting at me, like I knew he wanted to, he pulled me in for a hug. He wrapped his arms around me tightly and brushed my hair as I leaned into his chest. It took me a moment to realize I was crying. And once I started, my tears didn’t seem to want to stop.
“What’s wrong, Clio?” Sam asked. His voice was surprisingly gentle.
“I’ve let everyone down,” I said between pathetic sobs.
“I’m sure you haven’t let everyone down.”
“No, I really have.” I stepped out of his arms and rubbed the tears away from my cheeks. “Everyone I care about and even those I don’t. I’m supposed to
come up with a way to fix my mess, but I can’t talk to anyone about it, and I don’t know what to do.”
It felt a bit ridiculous that I was spilling my guts to a human of all beings, but Sam’s eyes were so understanding as he returned my stare that I didn’t care whether he had magic or not. “Well, I think we better start you with a beer and work from there. How does that sound?”
“Really good,” I replied.
He gave me a pat on the shoulder and guided me to a stool at the bar. As he was pouring the beer, he kept glancing over at me. I could see he was curious, but he also seemed apprehensive about pushing me into talking about my problems. He placed my beer down in front of me and leant forward on the bar.
“So, you disappear for weeks on end and then come back crying like the world’s going to end,” he said. “What’s going on? You said you had some family problems…”
I nodded and chugged back several long sips of beer before I placed my glass back on the table, cleared my throat and spoke. “I have this, er, uncle who is the most vile, evil being in the world. I’ve been trying to stop him from doing all these bad things, but I failed. And now the world is going to end, and it’s all my fault.”
He shook his head. “Teenagers,” he muttered under his breath. “Well, I highly doubt the world is going to end,” he said. “And it’s not your fault if your uncle is a bad person. He’ll get what’s coming to him. You shouldn’t feel bad because you couldn’t stop him.”
I blew out a breath. “I wish it were that simple. I’ve let the whole, um, family down because I messed up.”
Sam frowned, and I could tell he was struggling to give me advice because I was being so ambiguous. He didn’t know half the struggle though. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep up with the uncle analogy. The messed-up thing was, since Belsnickel was my father’s brother, he really was my uncle. I was definitely going to need therapy if I ever got through all this.
Christmas Curse (Christmas Magic Book 3) Page 17