

Secret Santa

By Dave Ferraro

Copyright 2014 Dave Ferraro

Smashwords Edition

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Chapter One

"Watch where you're going!"

Holly Hamilton jumped at the harsh voice, her hands immediately shooting up into the air, as if to prove that she was holding nothing.

A large woman in a fur coat, carrying a little white dog far too adorable to belong to such an ugly person, glared at Holly, her round cheeks flushed, her eyes searching Holly suspiciously.

Holly grinned back as an apology until the woman turned on her heel with a practiced "Hmph."

Letting out a deep breath, Holly lowered her hands and searched the crowded street for the man in the business suit she had been about to pickpocket before Miss Hmph had forced her to abort her mission. She scowled as she saw the man duck into a nearby shop. It was one thing to "accidentally" bump into someone on a crowded street to grab their wallet. It was quite another to try to pick a pocket in a store with few exits, and no crowd to disappear into.

She debated for a moment on whether she should wait for him outside and try again, but the crowd was already noticeably tapering off. She would have to target someone else, although she hated losing such easy money.

As she scanned the people milling about, hurrying home after work or running errands, she scolded herself for not being more careful. She was actually lucky that the woman had yelled at her. Had Holly been in the process of grabbing the man's wallet when she'd bumped into Miss Hmph, she would have been in a real pickle. She had to be more observant before she made a move. Normally she was more attuned to her surroundings, but with the meager prizes she'd managed to swipe that day, she had to make up for her losses by being quicker, and thus, more daring than usual. Or Mr. Grott would really make her pay. She would be lucky to get anything to eat tonight.

As if on cue, her stomach growled, and her determination soared. She would be eating tonight. On a cold winter night such as this, she needed a nice hot meal to top off the day.

She felt the inside pockets of her coat, assuring herself that the lumps of wallets and jewelry that she'd procured so far were still there. She had more than enough for Mr. Grott to approve of her work. She was a natural sneak-thief, probably the best of his "students." Her younger brother Matthew, on the other hand, was clumsy and awkward at it, and usually ended up with only a wallet or two to show for a full day's work. Which is why Holly had to work so much harder. She could have easily gotten by herself, but she had to look out for her brother. She'd promised her parents she would, and she never broke a promise.

Turning to take a gander in the other direction, Holly gasped as a woman carrying a pile of boxes up to her eyes, walked right into her.

The woman let out a startled cry and fell forward, crushing the largest box, and spilling the contents of one of her bags. Holly landed on her butt in a pile of slush, which quickly soaked through her jeans and sent an icy chill up her spine. She jumped to her feet in a flash, then thought better of it and leaned over to help the woman gather her pyramid of boxes.

"Oh," the woman surveyed the damage with a worried expression. She blinked through thick glasses as she turned to Holly. "I'm so sorry. I hope I haven't injured you."

"Not at all," Holly assured her as she dropped several chains of jewelry back into the bag, carefully sliding two of the more expensive-looking ones up her coat sleeve. She handed the bag to the woman and looked down at the crushed box sympathetically. "I'm afraid one box didn't make it."

"Quite so," the woman agreed with a sigh. She pulled off the box top to regard a broken toy airplane. "Such a shame too. It was a beautiful toy." With a shrug, she carried the box over to a nearby trashcan. The box wouldn't fit, so she dumped the contents into the garbage, before leaving the box propped up against it. Then, without giving it a second thought, the woman hefted her stack of boxes up again, and continued on her way.

Holly stared after her for a moment as the teetering mountain of boxes disappeared into the crowd. Some people have more money than they know what to do with, she decided as she walked over to the trash can. But they make for easy pickings, at least.

She lifted the lid of the trash and gazed down at the airplane. It gleamed white in the fading sunlight, a candy apple red stripe down one side, from propeller to tail. One of its wings had broken off, but it was otherwise in perfect condition. A little superglue would probably do the trick. She reached in and carefully pulled the plane out, as well as the remote control that had been dumped unceremoniously beside it. With a smile, she placed the items into the crumpled box the woman had left behind. Matthew would love it. He was only nine, four years younger than herself, and still loved playing with toys like this. She imagined his eyes lighting up when he saw it, and quickly made for home, deciding that the extra jewelry would be enough to earn them supper for the night. And if she got home before him, she could quickly glue the wing back on and it would be waiting for him when he arrived.

As was her custom, she stopped by the public library on the way home. On really profitable days, when she was able to secure a good amount of valuables early in the afternoon, she wiled away the hours in the grand building, walking up and down the aisles and sitting down with a stack of books to lose herself in tales of daring young men, and girls with magical powers. But more often than not, she made a very brief stop, as she did today.

Climbing the wide staircase, she looked around quickly before ducking behind one of the stone lions that stood sentinel on either side of the double doors. Squatting down, she pulled on a loose brick and peeked into the hollow space behind it, a dark hole that only she knew about. She reached her hand inside and felt the reassuring presence of a wad of bills. She always went through the wallets she swapped, and took a few bills for herself. She liked to think of it as a tip. One that Mr. Grott didn't need to know about. It wasn't as if he actually paid them anyway, so it served him right. And one day, she would have enough saved up so that she and Matthew could leave, and start a new life for themselves. A Life that didn't involve petty crime.

She added two twenty dollar bills to her hidden cache and replaced the brick, before slipping back down the stairs and hurrying home.

As luck would have it, Matthew hadn't returned, and she had just enough time to glue the wing onto the plane and figure out the instructions while it dried. Holly considered the plane, which glistened in the light filtering in through the dingy windows of the orphanage bedroom. There were four beds in the room, fitted with rough sheets boasting holes and smelling of mold. Whenever an inspector came through, Grott would change the bedding, but until then, they would keep washing and bleaching the same sheets themselves, with the meager cleaning supplies he allowed, until they were all but rags.

"What's that?" Patty, a girl the same age as her brother asked with interest, as she knelt next to the table where the plane sat, awaiting its first flight.

"A present for Matthew."

Patty squinted at it and poked at the propeller, which spun weakly under the probe.

"Don't touch,' Holly hissed, slapping her hand away. "It's drying."

"I never get presents," the girl pouted, crossing her arms. "Why does Matthew get one when he can't even pick a pocket properly?"

"Patty picked a pocket properly," Aaron, an older boy, said with a laugh as he entered the room. He froze when he saw the plane. "Whoa!"

"Whoa, what?" Matthew asked, coming in behind him. His gaze fell on the plane and he tilted his blonde head curiously, his blue eyes sparkling as they drank in the toy. "Whoa!"

Holly smiled with satisfaction. "A present for you, Matthew. It was broken, but I fixed it up, right as rain." She puffed out her chest proudly. "What do you think?"

"Whoa," Matthew repeated, stepping up to the table shyly. He picked it up quickly, causing Holly to wince, but the wing held as he examined it. "Does it fly?" he wondered, his gaze shifting to the remote control.

"It flies," Holly confirmed, and watched with pleasure as he immediately began to fiddle with the controls.

"Let me try!" Aaron demanded, pushing him out of the way. He always was sort of a bully.

"It's Matthew's," Holly said sternly, glaring daggers his way. "You can try it out after Matthew, if he allows it."

With a grumble, Aaron relented. "It's lame anyway," he decided as he plodded out the door. "I bet it doesn't even fly."

But fly it did. Patty clapped happily as Matthew flew it around the room expertly, his tongue sticking out from between his lips in concentration. He had mastered sharp turns and kept flying it quickly toward the walls before making it veer away at the last second. It gave Holly a heart attack every time. He was just getting the hang of loop-de-loops when the bedroom door opened with a thunderous crash as it swung into the opposite wall.

Matthew paled and turned his attention toward landing the plane as Holly sauntered up to Mr. Grott, her eyes not missing Aaron lingering in the doorway, a wide grin on his face. The dirty rat.

Mr. Grott's beady eyes grew even smaller as he took in the scene before him. His thick mustache twitched beneath his hooked nose, his dense eyebrows lifting in response to the plane. He had a receding hairline, which he tried to hide by combing his hair forward, but it only served to accentuate the hair loss. Holly theorized that he grew out his mustache to make up for his head, but whatever his reasons, the overall look screamed "villain." And that's exactly how he acted, and how Holly perceived him. Perhaps he'd realized that he was a bad guy and figured he may as well embrace the look.

"Hello, Mr. Grott. Did you get today's donations?" she asked sweetly.

He called them "donations," like it would fool them into thinking that the people they stole from had willingly let them take their valuables. Usually Holly refused to call them by the term, but she didn't need to provoke him at the moment.

Mr. Grott ignored her, sidestepping her so that he was in full view of the plane that Matthew had managed to land perfectly. Matthew was a genius like that, and managed to get the hang of things really quickly. He read manuals for fun, for Pete's sake, when his nose wasn't stuck in his favorite book, that was. The dictionary. Talk about boring. Before the accident, their dad had even let Matthew watch him take apart an engine. Matthew had been in seventh heaven.

"Well, well," Mr. Grott said in an oily voice as he cracked his knuckles before him, as if in anticipation. "What is this, then?"

"It's Matthew's," Holly said matter-of-factly.

"Is that so?" His eyes pounced on her. "And how did Matthew manage to procure such a fine airplane?"

Matthew looked like he was about to cry, which made Holly's blood boil even hotter than it already was. She knew she shouldn't talk back to Mr. Grott, that it would only make matters worse, but she couldn't help herself.

"Not that it's any of your business, but some lady was throwing it away, and I saved it. It only needed a little TLC and it worked fine."

"Hmmm. So, you're saying that you didn't buy it?" Mr. Grott prodded. "Perhaps with some of the...donations?"

Holly gritted her teeth to keep from screaming. "I told you how I got it."

Mr. Grott nodded, like it all made sense to him now. "So, you're saying that you're not skimming off the top of the donations you bring to me?" He snorted. "Well, I guess I'll have to trust that you wouldn't cheat me."

And with that, he took a step in Matthew's direction, making sure to step directly on the airplane, earning a definitive crunch.

Holly's heart sank and she avoided looking her brother's way. When he was upset, his lower lip trembled and his eyes shined with tears. She couldn't face that right now, or she would punch the smug grin off of Mr. Grott's face, and that wouldn't be good for either of them. They wouldn't have a place to sleep tonight, let alone something to eat.

"How clumsy of me," Mr. Grott said in mock surprise.

"You did that on purpose," Patty frowned.

He sneered. "A lesson in life. For free. Quite a bargain." Then he turned and swept out of the room, an evil-sounding chuckle following him. He had to have worked on that laugh. It sounded way too super-villainy to be natural.

"No fair," Patty grumbled. "I didn't even get a turn."

Holly sighed, staring down at the remnants of the plane. The wing had come free again, but that was the least of its problems. It was crushed and shattered in places that simply couldn't be repaired. Without looking her brother's way, she turned on her heel. "I'll get a dust pan and broom."
Chapter Two

"Mr. Grott is not getting away with this," Holly said with determination the next day. "He crossed a line."

Matthew walked the busy city sidewalk beside her. "What are you going to do? He can do whatever he wants." He shrugged. "And I don't mind. I'll ask for a new plane from Santa. Christmas is only a month away."

Holly tried not to flinch at that word. Christmas. "We only have each other," she said softly. "We can't rely on imaginary toy makers who make it their business to get into everybody else's business."

"He's not imaginary," Matthew insisted with a frown. "He's real. And even if we live with mean old Mr. Grott, Santa will know exactly where to find us. You'll see."

"Okay, let's say he does. What will you do when Mr. Grott smashes your new plane? Huh? Santa can't stop him."

Matthew was silent after that, and Holly felt a flush of guilt. She hadn't meant to upset him, but she didn't want him getting his hopes up. They were orphans. Castaways no one had wanted to take in. The sooner he realized that, the better.

She glanced his way and noted his lower lip trembling. He saw her watching and clamped down on it with his teeth. "Look," she said in a kind tone, "I have a decent amount of money stashed away. We could leave, run away. I would have to keep up the snatch-and-grab gig for a while, but at least it would just be us."

Matthew looked up at her with hopeful eyes. "Where would we go?"

Holly paused when she saw a man carrying a turkey over his shoulder three times the size of his head and recalled that it was Thanksgiving. Thoughts of a golden bird with moist, fluffy stuffing and buttery potatoes almost made her salivate. All Mr. Grott would probably have waiting for them back at the orphanage would be the same old gruel he always fed them. Tasteless, cold gruel. "We could hop a train and head south, somewhere warm. I'm sure we could get someone to rent a place out to us, maybe if I talked up some disabled aunt or something."

"Warm?" Matthew frowned. "But what about Christmas? We'll miss the snow!"

"Who cares about the snow?"

"Mom did. Mom loved the changing of the seasons."

"Well, Mom's not here anymore," Holly couldn't help but snap.

They walked in silence for a few minutes after that, long enough for Holly to soften. "I'm sorry. That was mean."

"It's true," Matthew said in a flat voice. "It doesn't matter."

"It matters. Whatever makes you happy matters. If you want to freeze your butt off so you can see the snow, that's what you'll get."

"It's not the cold that I miss," Matthew said. Then more quietly, "Don't you miss them? You used to love Christmas."

"Yeah, before last Christmas. Finding out that your parents were killed in a car crash on Christmas Eve tends to put a damper of things."

Matthew didn't say anything to that and Holly gnashed her teeth angrily. "Anyways, Christmas is about spending time with family, and we don't have a family anymore, so Christmas is...just another day now."

She took a deep breath, realizing how harsh she was being. Touching him lightly on the shoulder, she sent him a smile. "But we have each other. And we always will."

He nodded slowly, then returned her smile.

Looking up, holly saw that they were approaching the library. She climbed the staircase with a bounce in her step, imbued with her new purpose. She would retrieve the money she'd saved up and they would leave horrible Mr. Grott and his depressing orphanage behind. They could start over anywhere they wanted!

When she reached the stone lion, she stooped over and carefully removed the brick, wiggling it to and fro until she could pull it out with ease. Then she reached in to grab the cash.

"Holly!" Matthew hissed, peeking behind the statue.

Holly glanced up to see panic written on her brother's face. "What is it?" She stood up and pushed past him to see what had him so concerned. A cop couldn't do anything to them without something on them. In fact, they would probably just be concerned about the two kids they'd stumbled across without their parents.

But her blood ran cold when she saw Mr. Grott taking the steps two at a time, Aaron trying to keep up, and failing miserably. Grott's face was red, his eyes narrowing as they caught a glimpse of Holly.

"Aha!" he cried out. "You stay right where you are!"

Holly's heart hammered in her chest as she slipped past Matthew again and quickly replaced the brick. With her hands shaking, it took longer than it should have, and suddenly it didn't seem very concerned with fitting properly. She wriggled it and cajoled it, but the brick was stubborn, refusing to comply so easily.

"Holly!" Matthew whisper-shouted.

With a frustrated grunt, she slammed her palm into the brick, scraping the tender skin of her hand and causing it to sting. But she didn't have time for anything else. Her palm had jammed it most of the way home, the brick only jutting out a fraction of an inch. Hopefully, that would be good enough. It would have to be.

"What have we here?" Mr. Grott said, finally reaching them. His eyes searched them hungrily for a clue as to what they'd been up to. "Loitering in front of the library? Very unbecoming of two orphans."

"I see Holly come up here a lot," Aaron announced. He pointed an accusing finger her way. "She's up to something, Mr. G."

"Hmmm," Mr. Grott crossed his arms and seemed to consider her. "Exactly what are you doing, coming here when you should be out, looking for donations to collect?" His eyes widened. "You wouldn't be cheating me, would you, Holly?"

Holly forced herself to meet his scrutinizing gaze. "Of course not," she said in a steady voice.

"What's this?" Aaron asked, suddenly behind her.

Holly whirled around to find him poking at the loose brick. "Stop that right now!" She thought better of her demand and added "that's public property!"

"You think me a fool, don't you?" Grott demanded, sweeping past her. "You may bring back more wallets than any of the other children, dear Holly, but you also bring them back with noticeably fewer bills. A coincidence? I think not." He stepped up to the brick, elbowing Aaron out of the way none too gently. And all of a sudden the brick was more than happy to cooperate, sliding out of the pillar like knife through butter.

Holly sent an apologetic look in Matthew's direction. She noted the tears shining in his eyes, and that stupid lower lip trembling. She suddenly felt furious at Mr. Grott.

"Low and behold," Grott said, whipping Holly's money out of the cubby hole in triumph. He waved it in front of her tauntingly. "More of my money."

"Wrong," Holly corrected him, stomping down hard on one of Grott's feet. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and hopped up on his good foot. Holly then elbowed him in the stomach, earning a yelp. Sufficiently distracted, Holly was able to tear the wad of bills from his slackened grip.

"Come on, Matthew!" she called, bumping into Aaron as she passed by, sending him sprawling onto the concrete painfully.

Matthew watched the events unfold with wide eyes, and only roused himself from his stupor when Holly yelled at him a second time, her voice much sharper and urgent than before. Then, he raced after her like rhinos where chasing him down.

Holly had to admit that she was impressed by his speed, since she was gasping for air as she tried keeping pace with him as they turned up the street and down an alley. But when she looked back, she saw that it wouldn't be enough. Mr. Grott was after them and gaining ground quickly, his long legs taking wide strides that ate the ground faster than Holly and Matthew could put it behind them.

"Bridge!" Holly gasped, spying a little wide bridge coming up on their right. A massive ship was making its way toward it, which meant that each end of the bridge would have to be raised in order to let it pass. "Faster!" she urged, outright sprinting as she turned the corner to run up the bridge.

Mechanical clanking filled the air as the street beneath her feet began to lift at a rapid pace. Ignoring the stop sign that flashed, and ducking under the bars that lowered over the road to stop traffic, she made her way up the ever-steepening incline, careful to avoid icy patches on the pavement. She eyed the gap that had widened between the two sides of the bridge, like a mouth eager to swallow them, but it was still only a slight leap to make it safely across to the opposite side. She jumped confidently, landing hard on her feet, Matthew following her lead and stumbled. Holly caught him before he fell, then turned to watch the gap open even wider.

Mr. Grott would not be deterred, however. As the opening became nearly insurmountable, he ran up to the edge daringly and sprang across the chasm like an Olympic athlete who'd been practicing such a leap for years.

"No way," Matthew breathed, stepping back, mouth open in shock.

Holly grabbed his arm and yanked him down the steep slope of the bridge as Mr. Grott landed with a flourish, grinning wickedly. In their haste to get away, they nearly tripped and tumbled the rest of the way to street-level.

"Holly!" Matthew warned, then cried out as Mr. Grott grabbed the back of his shirt, jerking him to a stop.

Holly skidded to a halt and glared at him. "Let him go!"

Grott leered at her. "I would be more than happy to, Holly dear. Just as soon as I get my money."

"You want your money?" Holly asked, anger rising in her again, threatening to blow like a geyser. It built and built, until the pressure tore up through her throat in a snarl. "Then you can have your money!" She pulled the wad of cash from her pocket and slipped off the rubber band that bundled it together. Then with a smile, she threw the bills up into the air and over the water.

Mr. Grott's mouth dropped open in disbelief. He shoved Matthew aside, then grabbed desperately for the cash as it rained down onto the water like confetti.

"Look at that!" somebody called below. "Is that money?"

Holly leaned over the railing to see the passing ship cut through the water below. A crowd of people on deck were scrambling to pluck the bills out of the air. A feeling of satisfaction running through her veins, Holly hoisted Matthew to his feet and pulled him after her as she ran from Grott, who was still too flabbergasted to notice their departure, let alone move.

"Where are we going?" Matthew asked breathlessly.

Holly didn't answer, but kept running. If they were truly going to lose Grott, they would have to run long and hard, or suffer his wrath.

They'd gone nearly a mile before Holly grew weary and was moving noticeably slower. She began to look for places to hide that would offer some semblance of shelter. They passed by store after store, but as it was Thanksgiving, most of the shops had closed for the day, save a few chains and convenience stores. And given how miserable the employees appeared to be, working on the holiday, Holly didn't expect that they would tolerate a pair of children hanging about without their parents.

Finally, Holly spied a Christmas tree lot, its lights dark, although holiday music had been left on, an oversight of someone in a rush to close up and spend the day with their family. It created a rather soothing atmosphere however, and called to Holly, whose legs felt rubbery by now. She glanced back at Matthew, who looked about ready to keel over.

"Almost there," she promised. They past the locked gate and followed the chain link fence around to the back of the lot. As luck would have it, a neighboring Oak tree grew directly next to the fence, a fat branch dangling over the edge of the lot like an open invitation.

Moving quickly, despite her weariness, Holly climbed the tree like she'd been doing it her entire life. Reaching back, she helped Matthew climb up after her, and before she knew it, they were scooting out onto the branch over the lot. When she felt it start to dip, she stopped. "Okay, ready?" she asked Matthew.

Matthew looked down dubiously, then shook his head.

"Oh, come on. It's not that far."

"It's far enough."

"Fine," she shrugged. "You can stay here then." And with that, she dropped to the ground below. She landed on her feet and quickly stood up straight, arms thrown up in triumph to show Matthew how easy it had been.

He looked skeptical, but imitated her movements. He didn't land quite as gracefully, however, tripping face-first into the snow after landing.

Holly bit back a laugh and helped him up. "See? That wasn't so bad."

Matthew wiped slush from his neck and grimaced. "Sure. Not so bad. Yeah, right."

Holly paraded them up an aisle of Evergreen, Pine and Spruce trees, smiling absently at the lights and tinsel hanging from the boughs of some of them. Happier times threatened to dance through her mind, but she shook her head to clear them before they could take hold. She had to focus on the task at hand. And it was then that they stumbled upon it. A stable.

"Here we go," Holly grinned, rubbing her hands together excitedly. She'd remembered seeing the horses that would pull carriages through the city streets come from the tree lot. And sure enough, she'd found a nice warm place for them to spend the night.

The double doors were locked with a length of chain threaded through the handles, but when Holly pulled on the doors, there was enough space for them to wiggle through.

"We're sleeping here?" Matthew asked, clearly disappointed. "With horses?"

Holly's eyes swept around the stable. There were three stalls with horses: one white, the other two chocolate brown. As if in greeting, the white horse whinnied at them.

"I think he likes us," Holly observed, a wistful smile crossing her face. "What do you think?"

Matthew wrinkled his nose. "They stink."

"They do not. They smell like horses." She spied axes, shovels, chainsaws and large pails of salt in the corner near an employee restroom. As she slowly walked in that direction, she noticed a short hallway. When she peeked her head around the corner, her eyes widened. It was perfect. A silver sleigh sat at the end of the hall, the back full of velvet and felt bags, and burlap sacks.

"We'll sleep here," she said.

Matthew turned the corner and was clearly not impressed, but he was too tired to argue. Fighting back a yawn, he climbed into the back of the sleigh, and Holly snuggled up beside him, pulling the piles of velvet bags up to their chins to keep them warm.

"Good night," Matthew murmured, eyes already closed.

"Good night," holly echoed, following suit. Before she fell asleep, her last thoughts were of her parents, and wondering what they would think if they could see her now.
Chapter Three

On Christmas Day mornings, before the accident, Matthew used to wake Holly up ridiculously early, like at four o'clock, hours before the sun would rise. He would be too excited to sleep any longer and would shake her and pinch her, and inevitably would play a Christmas album on Holly's CD player and turn the volume up loud enough that she couldn't ignore it, but not quite loud enough that it would bother their parents, whose bedroom was at the end of the hall. Their mom loved Brenda Lee's Jingle Bell Rock, so he would put that on, earning a sleepy smile from Holly, who was eventually convinced by Brenda's crooning that Christmas was magical, and she shouldn't waste one more minute of it in bed.

So when Matthew began shaking her amid the sound of jingle bells ringing in her ears, Holly turned away from him and grumbled, forgetting for a moment where she was, and imagining a happier time, when she insisted on being cajoled from bed before racing her brother down the stairs to the piles of presents waiting for them beneath the Christmas tree.

"Holly!" Matthew urgently whispered in her ear. "Wake up! We're flying!"

Holly couldn't make sense of his words at first, her mind still foggy with sleep. Flying? Oh, he must mean reindeer. "Those are reindeer," she mumbled.

"Yeah! There are reindeer! We've been kidnapped by reindeer!"

At the word "kidnapped," Holly finally sloughed off her sleep and shot up like a jack-in-the-box. "Did Grott find us?" she asked, pushing him back into the pile of felt bags protectively. She blinked. Then rubbed her eyes. "I'm still dreaming," she decided aloud.

"No, you're not," Matthew assured her. "This is really happening."

The moon was large and full in the night sky, stars shining around it like a handful of glitter had been thrown into the air. But they were still in the sleigh, protected against the frigid night air by the bags they'd burrowed under, although Holly's exposed face was getting the full brunt of a blustery wind. Her brother's cheeks were rosy from the cold, and his red nose leaked snot that she instinctively reached out and wiped away with one of the bags.

But the most wondrous sight that she beheld were the reindeer pulling the sleigh. There were four of them, each with spectacular antlers decorating the crowns of their heads like delicate lattice work. They had healthy brown coats, speckled with various spots and patches of black and white. Thick bands of hair covered their ankles, right above their hooves, giving them the impression of wearing boots. But while they galloped, they didn't touch ground. It was like the sky was solid to them, and they saw some sort of path that was invisible to Holly.

"We're flying," she realized, Matthew's previous claim finally sinking in. She grabbed onto him. "We're actually flying!"

"I know!" Matthew shouted to be heard over the roar of the wind. "Isn't it awesome!?" He giggled.

But Holly didn't find the situation to be very funny. How was she supposed to keep her promise to her parents, and protect Matthew, if they were thousands of feet up in the air?

She leaned over the edge of the sleigh and grew dizzy as she took in the gold lights from houses and vehicle headlights below. She couldn't make out much in the dark, but the building patterns were foreign to her, the streets laid out differently. She had no idea where they were.

"Holly," Matthew struggled to sit up, but Holly pushed him back.

"Stay down," she ordered. "You could fall out."

"I won't fall out," he mumbled.

Ignoring his response, she crawled over the bags to the front of the sleigh. No one sat at the narrow ledge that passed as a driver's seat. The reindeer seemed to be in charge of their course, which Holly found unsettling.

"Hey!" she yelled at the reindeer. "You let us out now, you stupid moose!"

"Not right now," Matthew added, scooting up to sit beside her. "And they're not moose."

Holly glared at him. "I said to stay back there."

"No, you didn't. You told me to stay down. I'm not standing, am I?"

Holly growled in response, then shifted her attention back to the reindeer. "You furry beasts land this thing right now, or you'll be sorry!"

The reindeer immediately in front of her on the right turned its head back and snorted at her, then returned to concentrating on the invisible path ahead.

Throwing up her hands in defeat, Holly sank back into the bags. "I can't believe this. Who knows where they're taking us?"

"Well, we did technically stowaway," Matthew told her.

"Not helping."

Matthew grinned. "Come on. This is kind of fun! It's an adventure! We couldn't go back to Grott. We had no money. Where they're taking us is an option at least. What else were we going to do?"

"I was going to keep you safe," Holly said, frowning. "Not entrust you to the whims of magical flying elk."

"Reindeer."

"Whatever."

***

Holly didn't know how she fell asleep through the flight, but after hours of gazing at the stars in the relative warmth of the bags, which they really hunkered down in to find said warmth, she awoke to find herself staring up into a golden glow. She blinked at the bright light that invaded her line of sight from the hole in the bags above her head, and turned to look at her brother, who was also asleep beside her, his head on her arm. At least she wasn't the only one who could fall asleep during a magic sleigh ride through the sky.

A bug suddenly appeared in the light overhead, fluttering its wings like a moth, and hovering, as if it were looking down at them. It was also showering them with dust, which Holly found kind of gross. She blew at the moth and waved it away, jostling her brother so that his head lolled back to rest on a burlap sack. He let out a loud snort, then continued to breathe heavily in sleep. She envied his ability to sleep through this.

Struggling up through the bags, Holly realized very quickly that they were no longer flying. The sleigh felt like it was parked again.

Of course! She realized, feeling silly for taking so long to figure it out. The whole thing had been a dream! They were still in the Christmas tree lot stable.

So when she emerged from the bags, it took her a moment to get her bearings. They weren't parked around the corner from a couple of stinky horses. They were in a stable of some sort, but it wasn't the same one. This one didn't smell like hay and horse poop, but of fresh-baked sugar cookies, which made her stomach growl like nobody's business. And while there were beams that framed the roof, and stalls with animals behind them, it was all freshly-painted in a warm butter yellow, with those stupid reindeer in the stalls, munching happily from pails that looked to be filled with carrots and lettuce. The one closest to her lifted its head briefly and snorted at her before resuming its meal, and Holly swore that it was the same one that had done it on the flight there.

So, it was real, it dawned on her. She rubbed at her eyes, and tried pinching herself, but nothing changed. There were still reindeer in the stalls. But maybe she'd been in a half-sleep. Maybe reindeer had pulled the sleigh to another stable, but the whole flying-through-the-sky thing had been dreamt up. That's exactly it, she decided, carefully pulling herself out of the sleigh with more confidence. Now all she had to do was figure out where they were, and then they could come up with their next course of action.

The moth began fluttering around her head again as soon as her feet touched solid ground, and she shooed it with her hand, grimacing at the copious amounts of dust it was dropping. But, it was pretty dust, she decided. It sparkled like glitter.

She squinted up at the moth, then sucked in a surprised breath. It wasn't a moth at all, but a little girl. Well, not a little girl, because she was an adult, but she was tiny, about the size of a tube of Chap Stick. And she had beautiful iridescent wings that beat so quickly that Holly could hardly follow the movement. The dress she wore was gold, and caught the light in a way that made her body look like it was shimmering.

"What...are you?" Holly asked. She closed her eyes and counted to five, figuring that a hallucination wouldn't stay put. When she opened her eyes again, the girl was gone. Letting out a breath of relief, Holly ran a hand back through her hair. She was probably just really hungry and it was doing weird things to her. The last thing she'd eaten had been a bowl of watered-down gruel for breakfast. No wonder she was imagining fairies.

"Holly?"

Holly jumped, then laughed at herself for how tense she was. She glanced back at Matthew, who was struggling out of the sleigh. "Where are we?" he asked as he dropped to the floor, his shirt catching on a corner of the sleigh so that Holly had to help free him.

"I don't know," she replied. "Let's find a way out and we can figure that out."

"The reindeer are here," he observed, looking around with wide eyes. "But can't they just fly out of their stalls when they want to?"

Holly scowled. "Of course not. Reindeer can't fly."

He frowned. "They did last night."

"That was a dream."

"People don't share dreams," he argued.

"Well, we did. That's certainly more plausible than reindeer pulling us in a sleigh through the sky."

A door suddenly opened behind them and Holly whirled around to regard the man who had just entered. He was elderly and short, perhaps two feet tall, with unkempt hair and a long, snow-white beard that nearly swept the ground. He leaned on a cane - a candy cane, mind you, that was still wrapped in thin plastic - its curved head fitting perfectly beneath his right arm. When he noticed them standing there, he blinked through thick spectacles, then frowned. "And what are you gawking at? Get back to work. Those deer ain't gonna brush themselves."

"I'm not touching those things," Holly crossed her arms. "And I think we're lost. Where are we, exactly?"

The man didn't seem to hear her, limping across the room to a dollhouse that she hadn't noticed before. With pursed lips, Holly followed him, curious at the sprawling doll mansion that was lit up with lights. As she drew closer, she noted a figure in a tiny pool at the front of the house. It was another tiny woman, lying back on an inflatable raft, which Holly suspected was made of bubble wrap, eyes closed, one of her slim little arms dangling over the side and into the water.

"Fairies!" Matthew gasped behind her.

Holly felt the blood drain from her face as she saw a little man poke his head out from one of the windows of the mansion. When he saw her, he waved a hand wildly and grinned at her. He was handsome, with a little gold cap over his dark curls, and white pants, though his chest was bare. As Holly looked on, he pushed open the windows and fluttered out of the house, wings buzzing behind him.

"Salutations!" he cried. He landed on her shoulder with bare feet, but Holly was too dumbstruck to reply, let alone move. She barely dared breathe.

"Hi there," Matthew said, sociably, as if meeting a fairy was an everyday occurrence. "How do you do?"

"I'm well," the man replied, taking off his cap respectfully and sending a shy look Holly's way. "And who might you be? You seem rather tall for gnomes. Or did they finally get fired?"

"Gnomes? There are gnomes here too?" Matthew's eyes shined.

"Of course there are gnomes in Tinseltown," the gruff bearded man said, pouring milk into a saucer from a small refrigerator. He set it down next to the pool, and the girl fairy who had been sleeping a moment ago flew to it eagerly, bending over to sip from it like a cat. Two other fairies descended from the rafters to join her, causing Holly to flinch and back away, nearly knocking the little man from her shoulder.

"Careful now," he warned, smiling at her warmly. "I'm Terrance." He held a hand out to Holly, and she blinked in disbelief. Not wanting to be rude, she extended her hand to him, then thought better of it and held out a pinky. He considered it for a moment, before nodding and shaking it jovially. "Pleased to meet you, uh, Miss..."

"Hamilton," she found herself replying. "Holly Hamilton." She felt like her mind was in a fog, but she couldn't deny what she was experiencing here. She was seeing a fairy. And she had ridden through the sky thanks to flying reindeer. And...did he say Tinseltown?

"I'm Matthew," her brother offered his own pinky to Terrance, who politely shook it. "And by Tinseltown, do you mean we're at The North Pole?"

Holly turned to Terrance for confirmation, and he looked between the two of them gravely.

"So, no one knows you're here, do they?" Terrance asked slowly, not answering the question.

Holly met Matthew's eyes, then shrugged. "We were kidnapped by your horses."

"Reindeer!" Matthew corrected her.

"This is no good," Terrance began to pace on her shoulder. "This is no good, indeed."

"Terrance," the old man approached Holly. "Settle down. We'll sort this out. Some spell to make them forget or something."

"That's not how magic works, Fouettard," Terrance snapped, then let out a deep breath. "Sorry. This just...this isn't good. Humans haven't been here for..."

"Decades," a new voice helped.

"Thank you," Terrance nodded. "Decades." He frowned, then turned to the speaker. "What do you know about this, Ginger?"

"A fairy just summoned me," Ginger said, his voice tiny and very British. And when Holly glanced back to take him in, she had to reevaluate her sanity.

Because Ginger was a gingerbread man. And he was looking up at them with a stern expression frosted onto his round head, in blue buttercream.
Chapter Four

"Okay, I don't know if I can take much more of this," Holly announced, stepping away from Ginger.

Matthew took her hand and offered her a smile. "They won't hurt us, Holly."

Holly swallowed hard. She had to settle down, and take this in stride better. For Matthew's sake. He shouldn't have to be the one reassuring her.

"I'll make sure they won't," she told him confidently, glancing back at Ginger uneasily. At least he looked pretty fragile.

Terrance alighted from Holly's shoulder and went to land near where Ginger stood, having just come through a tiny door cut into the bottom of the regular-sized stable doors. "What are we going to do?" he demanded of Ginger.

Ginger smiled tightly, and as he turned to the side to address Terrance, Holly noted that he was only about an inch thick, and his back was slightly overcooked. But at least he had features: eyes, a mouth and a dollop of icing for a nose. He also had little wavy lines of frosting decorating the sleeves of an unseen shirt and pants, and three buttons made of Red Hots.

"We will have to invite them to dinner," Ginger announced, looking over at Holly and Matthew.

"What?!" Terrance protested, his iridescent wings fluttering in agitation. "Dinner?"

"Of course," Ginger said calmly. "It's the only sensible thing to do. We'll introduce our guests to the others and discuss what's to be done."

"But-"

"It is Thanksgiving," Ginger interrupted him. "And it looks like they haven't had a decent meal in a good, long while."

Holly glanced down at the raggedy clothing she wore, then looked away, embarrassed. She met Matthew's eyes and smiled. "Dinner sounds lovely," she admitted, her stomach agreeing with a flip.

Matthew nodded vigorously.

"Then it's settled," Ginger smiled. "And not a moment too soon, I suspect. But in case you get any ideas, I don't taste very good. I was overcooked, you see."

"I know," Holly nodded, then frowned. "I mean, I don't know. I see. I mean, I don't see that you were overcooked, I just..."

"She understands and agrees that we won't eat you," Matthew interpreted, giving her hand a squeeze. "Unless we get really hungry on the way to dinner."

Ginger's eyes widened, causing Matthew to laugh.

"They were joking," Ginger realized, letting out a breath. "Oh, good. Very funny. Ha ha." He turned to Terrance and nudged him on the shoulder, gesturing back toward the children. "They were joking!"

Terrance nodded, looking unsure.

"At least I think they were," Ginger murmured.

***

When Holly followed Ginger and Terrance out of the stables, she had to stop to catch her breath at the beautiful sight. Tinseltown was breathtaking, built into an icy mountain that loomed over them like a giant iceberg, blotting out the moon. She looked up the side of the mountain at the wide cobblestone street that wound its way to the top, lined with buildings strung with Christmas lights. Big fake snowflakes hung from wires that crossed from roof to roof, over the elaborate snowmen built with exquisite detail, and complete with top hats, knit scarves and facial features created from buttons and candy. Most of the buildings were American Colonial with wide bay windows, but there were different sorts of houses peppered among them. The lights were also different from building to building. Some had large, fat bulbs of varying colors, some had lights that blinked on and off in a strange violet color, and others were more traditional or in a different particular color. Christmas trees stood in front of nearly every building, decorated to fit the color or trim of each building, glistening with glass bulbs of various sizes and shapes, with either stars or angels staring down with approval from the tip-top. Most trees were Pine, some Evergreen, some even artificial and made of colors like cotton candy pink or tinfoil silver. It felt a little bit like each building was in competition with the others.

Holly recalled that her parents had had a similar competitive spirit, wanting to have the best decorations in the entire neighborhood. Her dad purchased a beautiful Santa and reindeer decoration that sat on the roof, and inflatable snowmen that danced as air was blown through them. Her mom would string lights precisely through all the trees of the yard, and took extra care of the jumbo Peanuts nativity scene that was the crown jewel of the whole affair.

"Holly?" Matthew sent her a questioning look as he followed their guides, and she smiled back at him with reassurance before trailing behind him.

It wasn't as cold as Holly would have expected for The North Pole, but was a tolerable low Thirties, with little wind. The coats that Fouettard had sent them out in were enough to keep the cold at bay for the short trip to the dining hall, which was just next door, at the base of the mountain, and the beginning of the cobblestone path that twirled up the mountain. This building had soft blue bulbs burning from the coils of lights in the windows and over the eaves. The white Christmas tree out front was decorated with lights shining in varying shades of blue and gray, with a Periwinkle tinsel threaded through its branches.

"You coming?" Matthew asked from the open door the others had already filed through. Holly nodded and swept past the "Seasons Greetings" welcome mat, stomping off the snow residue that had accumulated on her shoes.

She closed the door behind her, then slipped her coat off as she was instructed, hanging it on one of dozens of pegs that lined one side of the entrance hall. The other side was filled with silver tables set out in front of mirrors, lovingly cleaned to a flawless shine. Sitting out on the tables were beautiful snow globes and music boxes. Stepping up to them, Holly carefully picked one up with a diorama of a boy pulling a sled of Christmas trees through an Evergreen forest. She smiled, then grabbed one of Santa in his sleigh, bulging with bags of toys, twelve reindeer twisting upward in a spiral to the top of the globe as they flew him through the night sky. Holly shook it to watch snow descend slowly over the scene.

"It plays," a pleasant feminine voice told her, and Holly looked up, startled, to see a lovely woman watching her with kind eyes, just beyond Matthew. She had white hair loose on her shoulders with snakes of silver and dark gray threading through it playfully. She was perhaps in her thirties, and the fine lines that pulled at the corners of her eyes only served to complete the image of beauty. She was tall and thin, with high cheekbones and a tiny, straight nose. Holly imagined that she must have been a model in her youth. "Allow me," the woman said, stepping forward. She lifted a globe from the table as Holly set hers down. The one that the woman held showed a snowy forest of birch trees, and two women facing one another, lifting their arms to the sky. As the sphere was shaken, snow fell upon the two figures and Holly could see that they were happily watching the snow fall. "This one's a favorite of mine," the woman announced as she cranked a small dial on the bottom several times, before placing it back on the table. It began to play "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in tinny notes, that were somehow comforting.

"It's stunning," Holly acknowledged, watching the snow continue to fall in the globe, although most had already settled toward the bottom. The women in the globe, she noted, looked much like the woman who stood before her now. Both women in the scene were thin and pretty, in blue dresses, one with white hair, the other silver. They could have been sisters.

"A little hobby of mine," the woman said as she watched the snow globe with pleasure. "They amuse me."

"You made these?" Matthew asked, stepping up to them and giving them a second, more thorough look.

"I did," she bowed her head slightly.

"Can you show me how?" he asked, looking back up at her with pleading eyes.

The woman smiled at him graciously. "It would bring me no greater pleasure. But it really depends on how long you will be staying. It is a time-consuming endeavor."

Holly watched her for a moment, then crossed her arms. "And who might you be?"

"That's Mrs. Claus," Terrance whispered in her ear.

"Oh, come now, let's not be formal," Mrs. Claus said with a sigh. "Call me Crystal. You are guests, after all. And we haven't had visitors in...in..."

"Decades," Ginger helped.

"Yes, decades," Crystal agreed, nodding with satisfaction. "Now, if you will join us for dinner, I believe the others have started."

Holly nodded and Crystal showed them down a short hallway that led to wide double doors. When she pushed them open, they were greeted by the sound of raucous laughter and merry voices.

Before she caught sight of the food, Holly smelled it, and her mouth watered at the scent of turkey, cranberries, and buttery mashed potatoes. She allowed Crystal to show them into the room, where they were all but ignored as they were seated. Crystal waited on them, filling plates with thick slices of the bird, mounds of potatoes covered in brown gravy, and heaps of cornbread stuffing. Holly helped herself to warm rolls powdered with flour, concoctions made from marshmallows and Jello, and scoops of sweet potatoes. There was just too much to take in. The table was filled with different varieties of food, enough to feed an army for days. But it was the guests that held Holly's attention as she shoveled food into her mouth as quickly as she could without seeming rude and ill bred.

The table was long and wide and filled the entire room, draped with a baby blue velvet cloth, trimmed in white fir. It had to seat well over a hundred people, with mirrors lining the walls, giving the room the illusion of being much bigger than it really was. Most of those at the table were short, at about two feet in height, and sat on stools. Many of them had pointed ears, and wore different colored outfits. Fairies flitted about here and there, grabbing a sugar cube or a roll, before disappearing, while still other people about as tall as pencils dropped down on thin threads of string from a massive crystal chandelier overhead, where Holly spied other little ones dining at yet another table, like a miniature dollhouse version of the very table they sat at.

Holly was all but overwhelmed, and tried not to stare as she took in the men in green who looked like leprechauns, with bowler caps boasting four-leaved clovers, and the little men with white beards down to their feet with pointed gold hats twice as long as their faces.

"This is amazing," Matthew said, leaning in to her. "We're eating with Fairy Folk!"

"Fairy Folk?" she echoed.

"Sure! The Good Neighbors. Wee People. You know."

"Well, that looks delicious!" a woman on Holly's other side suddenly exclaimed, one of the few people in the room as tall as Holly.

Holly turned to find the woman staring back at her. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties and very pretty, with twinkling blue eyes and long, silky blonde hair that fell past her shoulders and over the back of her pink dress. "What looks delicious?" Holly asked.

"Why, you do!" the woman replied, looking her over. She picked up Holly's wrist and fondled her arm before Holly ripped it from her grasp.

"Excuse me," Holly said, frowning.

The woman's eyes widened. "You need more meat on your bones before I eat you though. Can I see your teeth, please? I do so love good, healthy teeth."

"That's enough, Titania," Crystal was suddenly behind the woman, laying gentle hands on her shoulders. "These children are our guests."

"Guests?" Titania frowned at them. "But they look...human."

"They are human."

Many at the table stopped eating at that, and the clatter of forks against plates, and rumbles of conversation came to a screeching halt.

"Excuse me," one of the leprechauns said, itching his ears. "But I could have sworn you said that humans were here."

"They are here," Crystal announced, gesturing toward them. "Meet Holly and Matthew Hamilton. Honored guests of the Claus household."

"Holly Hamilton," a black man a little taller than the others said in a deep voice, nodding. His brown eyes looked over her quickly before he went back to buttering a biscuit, "She's on Santa's good list. So is Matthew. She asked for a Barbie and a playset last year. He asked for an Encyclopedia set."

"Which we got," Holly crossed her arms. "How did you know that?"

"I read the mail."

"You read our letters to Santa?" Matthew asked, eyes wide. "Doesn't Santa read them?"

"Sure, he does. But I help make the list for what kids want, and verify that they're on the good list."

"You're giving away all of our secrets!" Terrance covered his eyes and lowered his head. "We'll be ruined!"

"Let's not be overdramatic now," Ginger patted his back. "Like Peter said, they're on the good list."

"Just what is going on here, Crystal?" Titania asked, pulling her napkin from her lap and throwing it over her plate dramatically.

"I would like to know too," Holly added.

"As would I," a new voice announced.

Holly looked up to see a man in his early thirties, with blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. He was good-looking, with an air of authority about him. As he stood up from his seat, everyone turned to regard him, as if in reverence.

"What do you say?" the man said, gesturing back toward the hallway. "Shall we step outside and discuss this matter in private, my dear wife?"
Chapter Five

"You can't be Santa Claus," Matthew stated the moment the door shut behind them.

"No?" the man asked, crossing his arms.

"Nicholas..." Crystal said in a warning tone.

Nicholas sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. Holly blushed, as she found Nicholas to be sort of...cute. But if he was Santa Claus...that was just weird.

"You can't be Santa," Holly agreed with her brother. "Santa's all white-haired and bearded and jolly and ho-ho-ho and..." She gestured out past her stomach. "You're none of those things, not to mention that you're way too young and..." She bit back her last thought, meeting Crystal's eyes, who raised an eyebrow, looking almost amused.

"Look, kid," Nicholas started.

"Holly," she corrected him.

"Holly," he smiled tightly, looking back at Crystal once before continuing. "People wouldn't feel as comfortable letting a dashing, good-looking fellow like myself into their houses, so I alter my shape for Christmas night. Just a harmless old-timer distributing gifts."

"You can change your shape?" Matthew asked.

"Sure, kid," he turned to regard her brother. "How else do you think I can get down all those chimneys? Not to mention through cracks in doors and windows when people are locked up tight. Gotta get creative, you know? No old jolly fat guy is gonna be able to do all that."

"Wow!" Matthew looked stunned. "You are Santa."

Nicholas smiled triumphantly, then frowned when he saw Holly's skeptical look.

"I'm not as gullible as him," she said. "You're going to have to do better than that."

"Yeah?" Nicholas rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Alright. How about this?"

Nicholas' skin suddenly seemed to shift like liquid, as if he were made up of wax that had melted under a heat lamp. His face flowed into his chin, and his arms rolled up into his shoulders in a disturbing demonstration of talent. Holly blinked, startled, and looked away for a moment. When she glanced back up at Nicholas, Santa stood before her. Tall, wide, old and bearded. He wore thin-rimmed glasses and a red fur suit trimmed in white, just like the classic illustrations suggested. Her eyes widened, noting that even his cheeks were rosy.

"Ho ho ho!" he bellowed, the sound coming from deep in his gut. "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

"We get it, dear," Crystal said, looking unimpressed.

In a flash, he had returned to the good-looking blonde version of himself.

"What are you?" Holly asked, stepping forward to look him over. He was lean and lanky, and even when he wasn't in all-out Santa mode, still had a little flush in his cheeks.

"We're fairies," Crystal said, putting a hand on her husband's arm. "Nicholas here has the ability to alter his shape, which comes in useful, as you've seen. He comes from a long line of shape-shifting fairies. A distant relative of his was the original Santa Claus, and with each generation, a new one has taken his place."

"One day, I'll actually look like the fat, old bearded man you want me to be," Nicholas added. "But I've got a century, at least, before that happens."

"If you're lucky," Crystal smiled at him, amusement crinkling the corners of her eyes.

"No way," Holly protested. "Terrance is a fairy. A little thing with wings on his back. That's a fairy."

Crystal smirked. "Yes, well, that's a common fairy. Fairy royals are larger, like us. And Titania."

"Titania?" Matthew scoffed. "That whackadoodle?"

"That whackadoodle is the tooth fairy," Nicholas frowned. "You could show a little more respect." He turned to his wife. "Are you sure they're on the good list?"

Crystal nodded. "Peter confirmed it."

"Well," Nicholas said, crossing his arms and turning to regard them. "What are we going to do with you?"

"We'll work for you!" Matthew offered. "We work hard."

Holly frowned. "Matthew..."

"No, we will!" Matthew said, desperation I his voice. "We'll do anything you ask. I'm great at fixing things, and a whiz with electronics! Just...just let us stay here."

Nicholas and Crystal exchanged a look, before Nicholas sighed. "Very well," he said. "Show them to some rooms. We can discuss their...roles in the morning."

"Very good," Crystal smiled, then nodded to Holly and Matthew. "Follow me."

They complied and walked behind her down the hall. Before they turned the corner, Holly looked back to find Nicholas staring after them, a look of contemplation on his face. When he caught her eyes, he turned and walked back into the dining room, the sound of laughter reaching her ears before the door closed with finality.

"Don't mind him," Crystal said as they slipped their coats back on and followed her outside once more. "Your appearance was rather unexpected. As I said, we haven't seen humans in Tinseltown for years."

"Decades," Matthew reminded her.

"Yes, decades," Crystal agreed in a whisper. She grinned at them. "But you'll see that you will fit in here just fine. Tomorrow, we'll make sure you get a tour of the area, and then we'll find a good spot for you in town, where you can be made useful."

"Sounds great!" Matthew beamed back at Holly. "Doesn't that sound great, Holly? We have a place here."

"We do," she agreed, not feeling as sure about the situation as he seemed to. If the reaction of some of the others, including Saint Nick himself, was any indication, they would probably not be welcomed with the open arms that Crystal seemed to think. And Holly had the feeling that this situation would be very temporary.

***

"We can't trust them," Holly said as she pulled the covers over Matthew. "You shouldn't be so desperate."

"I'm not desperate," Matthew argued, frowning as he watched her climb into her own bed next to his. "I just saw an opportunity and seized it."

"You seized it, all right," Holly said, gazing around the bare room. There was a dresser, a little nightstand between their beds, and a closet in the corner. A small fuchsia lamp illuminated the room from atop the nightstand, throwing golden light over the thick covers, in various shades of purple.

"And Crystal seems nice. She wants us here."

"I don't know if anyone wants us here," Holly murmured. "They're making the most of a bad situation. We shouldn't be here. You saw how they all reacted to humans being here. We just...no one wants us, Matthew. We're orphans. No one wanted us when our parents died, and no one wants us now." She suddenly felt a flash of rage course through her veins and hopped back out of bed.

"Holly..."

"Go to sleep," she snapped, and turned off the light, throwing the room into darkness, save for the light offered by a lone window.

She heard a stifled sniffle come from his bed and did her best to ignore it, approaching the window slowly. She gazed outside, where she could see the lights of Tinseltown still bathing everything in an artificial glow. Frost had gathered on the window and she pressed her finger into it, reveling at the cold she felt at her fingertips before it melted. With a sigh, she leaned against the wall, her forehead sliding into the cool glass as tears gathered behind her eyes. She swiped at them, then focused her attention outdoors to distract herself.

Snow had suddenly begun to fall. All was quiet in the streets, but somehow that soft snowfall made it appear magical. She used to love the first snowfall of the season. She would burst outdoors and try to catch snowflakes on her tongue, letting the flakes collect in her hair and lashes. Life seemed to be so much simpler, back when she was actually loved.

Swallowing hard, she blinked away any remaining tears and watched the snow quietly, reminded of the snow globes that Crystal made. Scenes immortalized, forever frozen in time. Life could never be like that. It just kept moving along, without letting you catch your breath. And bad things happened, whether you wanted them to or not.

A small noise reached her ears then, and Holly turned to locate the source. It sounded like something rustling. And it seemed to be coming from her closet.

Glancing uneasily back at Matthew's bed, Holly approached the closet. It was probably nothing, but they were in a crazy fairy village, so who knew? She recalled Titania's interest in her teeth and shuddered.

Gathering her courage, Holly laid her hand on the door handle, then pulled the door open quickly. There were several little shirts inside, in every color of the rainbow, and obviously tailored for some of the shorter people in town. She pushed a few shirts aside for good measure, then shook her head at herself. But then a small figure emerged from the corner of the closet and blinked at her. She stared back at it for a moment, before screaming.

The light blinked back on, and Matthew was at her side in a matter of seconds, grabbing her arm, eyes wide. "What....?"

The small door cut into the bottom of the door leading out into the hall flew inward and Ginger entered, looking left and right anxiously, a candy cane in hand, which he wielded like a sword, to Holly's amusement. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked.

Holly gestured to the intruder who had been in the closet. A penguin gazed around at them all curiously, meeting their scrutinizing looks with cool, level eyes. It had a little blue scarf on, its flippers buried in a fluffy white muff that dangled over its stomach.

Exchanging a look with Matthew, Holly turned to the penguin. "Hello there. I'm Holly." She held out a hand to it.

The penguin regarded her hand for a moment, then turned and waddled back into the closet.

Holly blinked, then looked in at the little nest of blankets it had made for itself. "Hello?"

"She can't talk," Ginger scoffed. "She's just a penguin."

"Oh, right. Says the talking gingerbread cookie in Fairyland."

Ginger nodded, as if that were a matter of course. "That's Olga. She gets nervous around T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G. We've been looking for her for days."

"Why does she get nervous around Thanksg-?" Matthew wondered.

"Shhh! Shhh!" Ginger jumped up and down and waved like a fire had been lit beneath him. "Don't say it out loud!"

Matthew frowned in confusion, but made a zipping gesture over his mouth.

"What's her deal?" Holly asked for him.

"She wandered into Tinseltown a few years ago and decided to make it her home," Ginger explained. "It took us a while to figure it out, but she thinks that she's a turkey."

"A turkey?" Holly echoed.

"That's right," Ginger nodded. "So you can understand why that day makes her nervous. Frankly, I can relate."

Olga made a short gobbling noise from the depths of the closet before Ginger closed the door on her. "Don't mind her," he said. "She's harmless, so long as you don't say the T word around her. Then she throws a tantrum. And it's a spectacular tantrum, mind you."

"She just scared me is all," Holly assured him. "But thank you for coming to check on us."

"Sure," Ginger shrugged. "I've been put in charge of you two by the Clauses, so if you need anything else, I'll be just outside."

"Thank you."

"No problem." He paused as he was about to leave the way he'd come. "And I'm glad the two of you are here."

Holly frowned. "Why do you say that?"

"It's the same here, day in, day out, year after year," he smiled, his frosting lips turning up at the corners. "A little youthful exuberance is a good thing, especially around a bunch of stuffy immortals."

"Well, we're happy to be here," Matthew told him politely.

Ginger nodded, then left them.

Holly sighed and regarded Matthew. "Well, this day couldn't get any weirder. But...I guess I'm glad we're here too. A comfy bed is way better than sleeping in a stable with a bunch of caribou."

"Reindeer!"

She chuckled. "I know." She kissed him on the forehead and tucked him back into bed. And for the first time in a long while, her head hit the pillow with a smile on her lips.
Chapter Six

"Now, I'm going to give you a tour of what we have to offer here in Tinseltown," Ginger said formally as he led them up the snowy path away from their rooms.

Holly sent Matthew a secret smile and rolled her eyes.

Matthew stifled a giggle, prompting Ginger to look back at them with a frown. "What's this, now?" he asked.

"Nothing," Holly said sweetly. "We're just very excited is all."

Ginger studied them for a moment before nodding. "Of course you are. Christmas is all about spreading joy, and Christmas is now alive all around you, in full bloom, so to speak."

The road was on a steady incline, but it wasn't terribly demanding. Holly was more worried about falling than the hike, as it looked like it would be difficult to stop should she fall. She looked up the side of the mountain, which looked more like a tiny mountain village in the daytime, without the Christmas lights throwing magical colors over everything. But it was still extraordinary. Looking up at the top, Holly could see what looked like castle turrets scraping the white sky.

"Lovely view, isn't it?" Ginger asked as he noted her interest. Holly nodded absently as she tried to take everything in. They were led past dozens of buildings before stopping before one painted sunset orange, a Christmas tree standing tall and proud in front of the door, wearing its orange and bronze ornaments like fish scales sparkling in the morning sun.

"Now, please keep quiet as we go in and out of the buildings. Everyone is quite busy, and they don't need any distractions. It's hard enough to concentrate with so many fairies zipping about."

"We understand," Matthew said politely, and Holly nodded her acquiescence.

"Very well," Ginger said, pushing through the small door at the bottom of the main door to the house. "Come alone, then."

Matthew glanced back at Holly, as if looking for her approval, before opening the door and stepping inside.

They were immediately bombarded with the scent of fresh-baked cookies. Chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, peanut butter...all the smells that reminded Holly of home, watching her mother bake during the holidays when she would sneak Holly and Matthew cookies fresh from the oven, warm and gooey and practically melting in their hands.

Holly entered the room with a smile lighting up her face. The whole building was a huge kitchen. There were rows upon rows of ovens and stoves and freezers, and countertops covered with blenders, egg beaters and mixing bowls. Packages of flour, plates of softened butter, and bowls full of pecans sat patiently on tables as little furry creatures about four inches tall fluttered about on great wings like those found on moths, boasting large painted eyes and swirling patterns of bronze and orange. The creature's bodies were shaped like a human's, but were fuzzy like the soft, short fur of a chipmunk or a rabbit, and varied in shades of brown, black and white. As one hovered near the door to get a good look at the newcomers, Holly stared in awe at the creature. It was a small woman with tan fur, her eyes completely black and framed by thick lashes. On top of her head were two antennae that were fluffy and beautiful, almost like feathers.

"Wow," Matthew breathed.

"This is where I was born," Ginger said, pride in his voice, as he gazed around the kitchen with something like nostalgia. "And this is what the sprites do. They bake. And bake. And bake."

Holly found herself nodding as she watched, fascinated, as a dozen sprites lined up at a nearby counter, grabbing two chocolate chips each from a bowl, and floating over to baking sheet that had balls of cookie dough laid out, impeccably spaced. As each sprite approached the dough, they dropped the chips with practiced aim, and evenly coated the dough with semi-sweet chocolate.

"They work in teams," Matthew observed.

Holly glanced over at where three sprites held a mixing bowl in place while two worked a beater. "And they're really good at it."

"They are," Ginger agreed. "And their fur insulates them from the heat, so there aren't any burning accidents."

As if to demonstrate his point, four sprites each lifted a corner of a baking sheet covered with snickerdoodle dough, and steered it directly into a waiting oven, never minding the heat that Holly could see distorting the air that escaped its hungry mouth. As soon as they set the sheet down, they flew back out and together, pushed the oven door closed, the sprite on the left setting a timer.

"Oh, what's this now?" Ginger asked as one of the sprites approached shyly. She carried a small plate that boasted three peanut butter cookies, the tops criss-crossed with the impression of forks.

Holly took one gratefully, as did Matthew, and the sprite seemed pleased at their reactions when they each took a bite. Holly's mouth was flooded with the taste of peanut butter and sugar, nearly melting on her tongue. She could have eaten a dozen more, she lamented as she finished it with a small moan of pleasure.

Ginger frowned as the sprite offered him the final cookie. "Do I look like a cannibal?" he snapped, to which the sprite stuck her tongue out and retreated back into the kitchen. Clearing his throat, Ginger looked back at Holly. "Well, then. Shall we continue?"

"Let's," Holly agreed happily, nearly skipping out the door alongside her brother.

They passed a large stone that jutted out from the mountainside, about ten feet overhead. It was bright red like candied apples and pock-marked, like a big painful boil protruding from the rock face, standing out against the snow distinctly.

"What is that?" Matthew asked, stopping to stare.

Ginger looked up, a look of distaste crossing his mouth before he answered. "That is where the sprites live. It's their hive."

"Hive?" Holly echoed, then noted a sprite flutter up to the nest. She folded her wings behind her quickly and crawled into one of the small holes along the face of the structure. "Do they make anything like honey?"

"Do they have a hive mind?" Matthew talked over the end of Holly's question. His eyes brightened as he turned to Ginger. "Do they have a queen?"

Ginger looked taken aback by their questions and blinked at them, as if trying to understand their interest, before standing tall (well, as tall as he was able) and clearing his throat. "They aren't very much like bees, if that's what you're asking. What they produce is what you see in the kitchens. They don't make honey and they don't have a queen. They do respond to chemicals, like bees, however, and it's in their nature to use raw ingredients to make something exquisite."

"What about stingers?" Matthew wondered.

"No stingers," Ginger glared at him. "But if it gives you pleasure to know, the sprites will swarm and bite if they smell eggnog. Which is why consumption of eggnog is restricted to the tavern. Sprites are otherwise very peaceful creatures."

"Tavern?" Holly echoed.

"Of course. Fairies and elves need a place to unwind after a full day's work, just like humans. But don't get any ideas. Children are not allowed."

Holly met Matthew's eyes and they grinned at each other. Ginger didn't realize it, but he was practically begging them to check out the tavern with that comment.

The next house they came to was a crisp white, matching the snow so well that it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. It had two entrances so that it looked like a duplex, with a tree on either side of the building. The tree on the left was a short, fat white tree with delicate fake snowflakes hanging from its branches by strings. The tree on the right was tall and thin, with elegant strings of silver bells threaded through its boughs. Scenes of dancing polar bears were painted on the right door, while fat penguins skated on the painting on the left door.

"Next we have the pixies," Ginger announced, ushering them toward the left door. "They're in charge of Christmas decorations."

"What about the right door?" Matthew asked, stopping to point.

Ginger scowled. "No one you need concern yourself with. You'll only get into mischief behind that door." He pursed his lips as Matthew's eyes lingered in that direction. "As I was saying, young man, the pixies are this way."

"What sort of Christmas decorations are they in charge of?" Holly asked as she stepped inside. "Like...oh."

She stopped in the doorway to stare around at the artificial Christmas trees being meticulously shaped by little blue fairy-like creatures flying on dragonfly wings. One nearby tree was buzzing like a beehive, and covered in the figures as they secured little green slivers of plastic to branches to give it the illusion of life. Still other pixies were staged near a large furnace, where they were blowing glass bulbs, while others shaped strands of garland with tinsel or artificial evergreen branches, which they wound red ribbons through, and garnished with pine cones and sprigs of mistletoe.

Holly found something new going on in every direction she looked, from crocheting to stringing cranberries to creating figurines from molds. It was stunning to see them work so quickly and efficiently, and with such a variety of materials. Many of the things that she saw reminded Holly of decorations she herself had seen around her house.

"Many decoration ideas are put online for people to use," Ginger said. "But many are originals here as well. Of course, some companies have taken it upon themselves to mimic our efforts or create their own holiday ornaments, but that only helps our cause."

Holly continued to stare around herself in wonder. "Which is?"

"Why, getting people into the spirit of Christmas, of course!"

"Of course," Holly murmured, turning toward Matthew. She noticed that he'd stepped closer to a group of pixies who were threading popcorn through string. Walking over, she looked down at the pixies' quick fingers, moving so fast that they were hard to see, like the wings of a hummingbird.

Matthew glanced back at her with a big smile. "They look like smurfs!" he declared.

She snickered as she took in the pixies' blue skin, and the white caps and leotards they wore. They were more slender than the smurfs she'd seen on TV, but they did have similar characteristics.

Walking behind the pixies, Matthew bent over two female pixies tying knots at the end of their strands of popcorn garland. "What you smurfing there?"

The pixies looked up at him with wide eyes, staring.

Matthew rubbed the back of his neck. "What? Never smurfed a smurf before?"

The two little women chuckled at each other and suddenly flew into the air, wrapping the popcorn around Matthew's neck several times so that he looked like he was wearing Hawaiian leis. Then they giggled again and flew away.

Matthew tipped his head forward and took a bite of the popcorn, smiling as he crunched on the kernels. "Mmm. Buttery."

Holly laughed as the two fairies came back again, and wrapped another garland of popcorn around his waist.

"Uh...I'm good now," he said as they disappeared. "Really. Go smurf someone else!"

Leaning over a counter as she laughed, Holly bumped up against a little bowl of beautiful glass ornaments shaped like icicles. She lifted one up and examined the glitter that shone at the top, where a mound of snow had been painted. It was slender and very lovely, so she slipped it into her pocket. Then, she saw little wooden bird ornaments in a bowl on the other end of the counter. She picked one of these up and marveled at the delicate little wings that jutted out from its sides, and the beautiful eyes painted onto its blue body. She nonchalantly put one of these in her pockets as well.

Turning back to Matthew, she saw a dozen pixies floating around him, helping him eat the popcorn. He laughed as they tickled him, doubling over until he was nearly crying. Holly laughed herself at the sight, until Ginger cleared his throat.

She looked down and blinked as he glared up at her. "What?"

"What, my dear, is in your pocket?"

Holly blushed, and dug into her pocket, retrieving the ornaments she'd taken. Hastily, she replaced them in their appropriate bowls. "Sorry," she said, biting her lower lip. "Old habits die hard."

Ginger didn't look very convinced of her sincerity, but let it go, turning back to the spectacle with a weary sigh.

The truth was that Holly did feel guilty about sneaking the ornaments, but it had been habit. She was used to taking things that looked pretty and expensive. It had been expected of her.

A cupboard on the right side of the room suddenly crashed open and more little creatures entered the room with a garbled collective yell. These ones were about twice the size of the pixies, and green-skinned with jet-black hair. They were dressed in either black overalls or shorts, and had piercings all over their faces, gold rings hanging from their ears, eyebrows, lips and noses. They looked fierce, even if they were small. As Holly watched, they charged the decorations with fervor, climbing trees and jumping up and down on aluminum branches, bending them out of shape. They untied garland and disassembled them, as well as wreaths and anything else they could get their hands on.

Holly pulled Matthew out of the way of the siege and held him close, keeping as still as possible so as not to attract attention. "Ginger..." she said weakly. "What is going on? We need to get out of here, call for help."

Ginger smirked up at her. "Is that so?"

Holly blinked, then frowned as she took in the carnage once more. None of the new arrivals were breaking anything that couldn't be fixed. They passed by the glass ornaments and delicate figurines, in favor of decorations that could be put back together with little effort. And, she noticed, they were wrestling playfully with the pixies. Despite the sharp rows of teeth that Holly detected behind their dark green lips, she saw that they didn't bite, or claw, or punch. They were...romping. And some even began to dance together.

"What in the world?" Holly breathed.

Ginger shrugged, looking on as if this were an everyday occurrence, which could be the case, for all Holly knew. "Pixies love to wrestle and play. They have these faux wars with the gremlins, who live next door, all the time. Sometimes the pixies will start it, climbing into the gremlins' workspace, and sometimes the gremlins begin the battle. It seems to be whatever strikes their fancy. After they've had their fun, everyone will clean up the mess and will return to their duties. It's unconventional, but they seem to enjoy the little breaks."

"That's...interesting," Holly said, struggling to come up with a better description for the odd behavior.

"Yes, it's rather archaic and silly, if you ask me," Ginger sniffed, turning to her. "And the gremlins are always getting into things, the mischievous little imps, so I recommend you steer clear of them." His eyes widened and he took a step back.

Holly blinked, then looked down at where he was staring, and saw several pixies fluttering at her waist. "What are you doing?" she asked, dropping Matthew's arm to shoo them away. They dispersed for a moment, then recollected, shoving more glass icicle ornaments into her pocket. Her face drew up in horror as she noted a dozen already spilling out of the pocket as they began to put little wooden bird ornaments into her other pocket.

"Oh, no, no no," she said, smiling tensely. "That will be enough. I don't need anymore."

The pixies stared up at her for a second, then added more ornaments, as if they didn't understand. They only stopped when her pockets were completely crammed with birds and icicles.

"Thank you," she said politely as they finished and looked to her for approval.

They nodded happily and zipped away.

"Okay," Holly turned to Ginger, who was stifling a laugh. "I think we should go now."
Chapter Seven

"And this is where the elves make toys," Ginger said, throwing open the door of the toy shop with a flourish. For such tiny hands, that should have been very fragile, he was stronger than he looked.

Holly's eyes widened as she took in the rows upon rows of elves with pointy green and red hats sitting at benches, knocking hammers into rocking chairs or stitching dolls or painting toy wagons. The room was about the size of her school lunch room, back when her parents were around. And a little toy train circled the room on tracks, belting steam from its coal black engine and letting loose with a shrill whistle every minute.

"The sound helps them keep track of time," Ginger said apologetically as the train chugged past the doorway they stood gaping from.

"I love it!" Matthew proclaimed. He suddenly tugged Holly's arm and pointed to a nearby elf who was concentrating very carefully on a plane in front of him. He was painting a stripe down its side. "That looks just like the plane you got me!"

"It does," Holly agreed, watching as the elf completed the candy red stripe. She frowned, then turned to Ginger. "So, what about name brand toys? They can't just make them here. Companies manufacture them."

Ginger scoffed. "Oh, we make them, alright. But it's the brownies who do that work. Toy companies provide us with blue prints, specifically for Christmas night. It's great marketing to get kids excited about the toys, then they tell their friends, and they turn a profit. The brownies love using blue prints. Much easier than when they were hiding in houses, fixing things around the place for a spot of honey. They like complicated work, and are very detailed in what they do."

Holly tapped her lower lip. "So, brownies and elves make toys, leprechauns make shoes and clothing, pixies whip up Christmas decorations, and sprites create holiday food and Christmas cookies."

"And put them on-line for people to bake themselves," Ginger nodded.

"How were you made?" Matthew asked, cocking his head curiously.

Ginger shrugged. "A fortunate accident involving baking powder, molasses and fairy dust."

"Well, what I want to know," Holly said, turning to gaze down on him, "is why all of these fairy creatures are here in the first place. And why help make Christmas into such a big thing?"

"You want to uncover all of our secrets now, do you?" Nicholas' voice drifted to them from behind.

Holly whirled about to see Nicholas and Crystal approaching from up the hall. Nicholas was in what Holly could only describe as an ugly sweater, gaudy with red snowflakes and a cartoon reindeer head hanging from it. Crystal, on the other hand, looked like the royalty she was, in a white velvety outfit with a Russian Ushanka cap and a muff flecked with brown spots. A beautiful stone hung from her neck by a delicate silver chain, and caught the light as she moved.

"I trust you slept well?" Crystal asked in greeting.

"We did," Holly agreed, nodding to her, but keeping her eyes on Nicholas, who seemed to be in better spirits this morning.

She saw Crystal nudge Nicholas, who perked up and smiled brightly at them. "Please, allow us to accompany you on the rest of your tour."

"Really?" Holly asked, unsure.

"But of course!" Crystal said happily. She caught Holly's elbow up with her own and led her out a side door covered in wreaths of intertwining pine needles, plaid ribbons and mistletoe. "Ginger is a wonderful guide, I'm sure, but he doesn't know the history like we do!"

Glancing back, Holly saw Nicholas awkwardly put an arm on Matthew's back to guide him forward. She was surprised by how out of his element Nicholas seemed to be, especially given who he was. She caught her brother's eye and smiled, then turned back to Crystal, who was breathing in the air exuberantly, clouds of air puffing out of her mouth and nose as she exhaled. "I love winter mornings," she confessed, leaning in to Holly. "They make me feel alive."

"Me too," Holly agreed, with less enthusiasm. She didn't much care for the cold, but the snow was rather pretty. "How come it's not like fifty below zero at the top of the globe?"

Crystal nodded, like she'd been expecting such a question. "That would be the elementals. You can't see them because they don't have physical bodies, but they can control the weather." She looked up at the fluffy cotton clouds overhead. "You know when the snow falls at just the right time, when you're feeling blue, or when you're going to go sledding with friends?"

"Yeah."

"That's elementals at work. They bring about those beautiful winter moments that can make the holidays feel so special."

Holly considered this. "You guys have everything here. Are there unicorns?"

"No," Crystal laughed, then paused. "Well, not here, at least. But we do have gnomes to tend to upkeep, and gremlins to fix machines that go awry. They're much better at fixing things than destroying them, no matter what you may have heard." She squeezed Holly's arm. "But enough questions for now. I know you must have a hundred more where those came from. But first, I would like to bring you somewhere very special to me."

"Where's that?" Ginger asked, surprising Holly by being right on her shoulder. She turned her head and caught a whiff of his spicy scent, her stomach instantly growling, despite the mountain of blueberry pancakes she'd scarfed down that morning. It was hard having a friend who smelled delicious. And looked delicious. And probably was delicious, for that matter.

She decided it was probably best to breathe through her mouth, so as not to catch another irresistible whiff. "Yeah, just what part of Tinseltown would get you excited?"

"The candy shop!" Crystal squealed, sprinting ahead, and dragging Holly along like a little kid herself. She made for a storefront with a tree decorated with pink ornaments, in varying shades, from salmon to bubble gum, and candy canes that Holly had to assume were raspberry-flavored and strawberry by their color. Frilly pink tinsel that looked like a feather boa snaked through the branches, as if searching for sleeping mice.

The house itself was more impressive, however, as it was entirely made of candy. Like any respectable gingerbread house, its walls were made from slabs of graham crackers, held together by extra gooey marshmallows. The roof was made up of Hershey bars, which were woven like tiles, and the doorway had been created from bricks of caramel. Gigantic gum drops were clumped around the house like shrubs, and on either side of the door were two huge tinfoil figures, a classic Santa Claus illustration printed on them. Crystal paused at these and tapped them with a giggle. "Chocolate! Solid chocolate!"

"I love chocolate," Matthew said, catching up to them. "But I haven't had any for almost a year. Mr. Grott wouldn't let us have any. He said it would be a waste on orphans."

Crystal blinked at him, then sent a knowing look her husband's way.

Holly hated people pitying her, so when she felt a flash of annoyance come over her, she stepped past Crystal boldly and pushed open the door to the shop. A tiny bell tinkled overhead, announcing their arrival.

"Well, hello there!" a familiar figure stepped into her path, wearing a pink dress as before, the exact color of Pepto Bismal, blonde hair trailing behind her in waves. She smiled sweetly, and watched expectantly as everyone filed through the door behind Holly. "What a pleasant surprise!"

"Good morning, Titania," Nicholas said jovially. "Just bringing the new arrivals through to have a look at the candy."

Titania licked her lips and nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes. We want to fatten the little ones up a bit, don't we, now?"

Holly shivered, despite herself, but very quickly fell under the spell of the shop. There were pink and orange barrels full of all sorts of candy and chocolate, glass shelves lined with jugs upon jugs of sweets.

"Whoa!" Matthew cried, pulling a lollipop the size of his head out of a basket. "This is huge!"

"Take whatever you like," Titania encouraged, nodding happily as she watched them. "And come back when the fancy strikes you. It's all free here in Tinseltown."

Holly looked around with wide eyes at the barrels of Tootsie Rolls and bubble gum, the jars full of brightly-colored ribbon candy and salt-water taffy. Cotton candy was overflowing from a huge orange tub in one corner, and caramel apples littered the countertop. It was overwhelming, and they were luxuries they hadn't been able to have over the past year. Even on Halloween, when candy was free, Mr. Grott would send them out to snatch wallets from parents distracted as they watched their children ring the doorbells of strangers' houses. Just thinking about it set Holly's teeth on edge.

"You really can have anything," Crystal told her, touching her shoulder when she noticed that Holly hadn't claimed anything yet. "No need to be shy."

"I appreciate it," Holly said, "but I'm still full from breakfast, not to mention dinner last night. I'm not used to such rich food."

Titania leaned over her, eyes looking her up and down anxiously. "But you need to rot your teeth like good little children. How else will they fall out?"

Nicholas snickered and patted Titania on the back. "Maybe next visit," he told her, winking at Holly. "You about ready there, Matthew?"

Holly glanced over to see Matthew with chocolate smeared over his lips, his pockets bulging with candy. When she caught his eye, he looked away guiltily. "Yes, sir," he muttered, slinking past her.

"He's just a young boy," Crystal whispered in her ear. "Let him enjoy himself. If he gets a stomach ache, then so be it. He'll learn not to indulge next time. We all have to make mistakes to learn by."

Holly watched Nicholas follow Matthew out the door, and nodded in agreement. "I know. It's just hard. I want to protect him from everything. Not just the really hard stuff. He's...had to deal with enough already."

Crystal squeezed her hand sympathetically as she escorted her out the door. "As have you, my dear. As have you."

"There you are!" a voice cried out.

Holly's head snapped up to see a female elf with red hair flowing behind her, rush toward them. She was very pretty, with freckles sprayed over her thin nose, and ears pushing up past her green cap, which worked well with her hair color. She wore a thin black belt over her green dress, which came down just below her knees, ending in deliberate frays. Her shoes were gold with black straps and a wide buckle.

"I've been looking all over for you," the elf continued as she came to a stop and bent over to catch her breath. After a moment, she righted herself and cleared her throat, looking over Holly and Matthew dubiously with sharp emerald green eyes. "So, it is true. There are humans in Tinseltown."

"Human children, yes," Crystal replied, eyes narrowing. "They are guests, Snow."

"Guests?" Snow snorted, crossing her arms. "And have you forgotten that we just entered the most important time of the year? After thanksgiving, it's all a scramble to finish things before Christmas Eve. And you're just taking the children out for a leisurely stroll? Where are your priorities?" She turned to Nicholas with a severe frown. "Where are your heads at?" For someone only two feet tall, she could sure be intimidating. Even Nicholas looked uncomfortable, but Crystal met her challenge with steely eyes.

"It seems that the reindeer brought them here inadvertently," Crystal told her. "If this occurred, it happened for a reason, and we should make the best of things. They are welcome here."

"It's a dangerous world out there since we left it behind," Snow retorted. "Even human children can be horrible creatures."

"Peter has vouched for them. They are on the good list." Holly looked away. She wasn't so sure that that was accurate. Perhaps they had been on that list last year, but since then, they'd done horrible things under Grott's supervision. They had stolen from good people all year long. They couldn't possibly be considered "good" now. The moment the elves discovered their error, Holly had a feeling that they wouldn't be welcomed so wholeheartedly.

Nicholas scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, adding "If they'd come here with bad intentions, they wouldn't have been able to get past the snowmen."

"The golems of snow and slush," Snow scoffed. "Yes, well, say what you will about the children. They are an unnecessary distraction, and you should arrange transportation for them to be returned to their homes immediately, before things get more chaotic around here."

"But we have nowhere to go," Matthew said, grabbing Nicholas by the sleeve. "And we like it here."

"You must have family worrying about you."

"No, we don't. Out parents died in a car crash last year, on Christmas Eve." Matthew swallowed hard, then threw his arms around Nicholas' waist, burying his face.

Snow looked surprised, and bit her lower lip. "Oh. I see." She took off her hat and ran a hand back through it before replacing it. Averting Holly's eyes, she said "Very well. I suppose we can manage, so long as everyone stays focused."

"We'll find a place for them here," Crystal assured her.

Snow nodded, then turned on her heel and hurried back the way she'd come.

"Are you okay, kid?" Nicholas asked, patting Matthew on the back.

"Kid?" Matthew pulled back with a frown, then looked up into Nicholas' concerned face. "I want to meet the snowmen."

Nicholas rolled his eyes. "In due time."

"You promise?"

"Sure, kid."

"Okay!" Matthew said, skipping ahead happily.

Holly watched him for a moment, then glanced up at Crystal. "Just how do you know who goes on the good list?"

Crystal looked down at her, then laughed. "Oh, don't worry, dear. I can tell that you're a good girl."

"But how do you know?"

"Well, that's the job of the yokai," Nicholas piped up.

Holly turned to him. "Yokai?"

"Yes. That what they're called in Japan. Spirits. They can appear to people as animals or people, or they can possess inanimate objects, like those little elves that people are so fond of buying around the holidays."

"Or they can be invisible to everyone, period," Crystal concluded. "They are everywhere, and they observe the children, reporting back and adding children to the good list, or the naughty list. Then it's Peter's job to sort through them all and verify that there are no duplicates, and other elves help him assign out toys to the deserving, based on letters or what we've been told by them personally, either by their parents or straight from their mouths in shopping centers."

"So, wait," Holly frowned. "How can Santa, er Nicholas, be in every shopping center across the globe?"

Nicholas grinned. "That's my special power." He took a deep breath and stuck his thumb into his mouth before blowing hard. His face got rounder quickly, and then his whole body did. When he pulled his thumb from his mouth, two more Nicks suddenly pulled themselves free from his inflated mass and waved at them. "See?" all three Nicks asked at once. "This way I can be in more than one place at once."

"You duplicate yourself!" Matthew said, looking impressed. "So, you can be in hundreds of places at once?"

"Thousands," The Nicholas on the left confirmed, looking smug. The one in the middle nodded, adding "And when my counterparts rejoin my body, I get all of the information from their exploits."

"Is that how Christmas Eve works too?"

"Partly," the middle Nicholas acknowledged again, then nodded to his two doppelgangers, who walked right into him, absorbed into his body once more. "But there are other powers at work there too."

"Like?" Holly asked, expectantly.

Crystal opened her mouth to answer, but sirens suddenly began to roar throughout the village. She stopped and frowned.

Holly tilted her head and looked around, wondering what the sound could mean.

Matthew was suddenly at her side, clinging to her.

"Perimeter breach," Nicholas said, no humor in his voice. "Get them to safety?"

Crystal nodded as he sprinted up the street.

"Wait!" Holly called out. "I'm coming too!"

"You most certainly are not," Crystal told her.

Holly pushed Matthew into her arms. "Take care of him, please." And then she rushed after Nicholas, ignoring the protests at her back. This place was strange, and there were plenty of odd creatures here, with even odder customs, but they had been kind to Holly and Matthew. The first kindness that anyone had shown them since their parents had died. Aunts and uncles, their own blood, had shown little interest in them before throwing them into the foster care system, yet these strange people had taken them in with few questions. She would repay that kindness however she could, and earn her place here. She wouldn't earn her way here out of pity, but would be useful. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to accept this gift.

Nicholas was fast, much faster than she'd expected, and she soon lost sight of him as she passed house after house. She was afraid that if she went much faster, she would tumble and roll the rest of the way down the mountain, but she hated the idea of being left behind even more. She bent over to catch her breath, and paused to read a sign at the left edge of the road. It read "WATCH FOR SLEDS!" She tilted her head, glancing up the mountain. There was a smooth dip in the surface that ran all the way to the top of the mountain, with tracks that looked like they had been made by sleds. Frowning, she stepped closer to the edge of the cobblestone path, which was packed with snow over the wide area sleds could potentially glide over. Half a dozen bright orange sleds dangled over the edge of the road, at the edge of the sled path. Holly approached one and found that it was turned upside down over a spike that secured it. She freed the sled and glanced down the mountain. They weren't that far up, but she still didn't like the idea of breaking her neck on the way down. Then she caught sight of Nicholas as his sled came to a stop at the base of the mountain. No wonder she'd lost sight of him. And that was the only motivation she needed. She set the sled onto the edge of the road so that the front dangled over the steep incline. Then she took a deep breath and leapt on top, her momentum pushing it forward.

She careened down the slope, and held onto the sides of the sled for dear life. It was obviously a quality sled, balanced so that it wouldn't tip on her, but she still gripped the rope handles so tightly that her nails dug into her palms. She was going fast. Much too fast for her liking.

As she approached the cobblestone road below, she noticed that several elves had stopped politely off to the side to let her pass, but she closed her eyes tightly anyway. She felt the ground shift as it flattened out briefly before her momentum carried her past the road, and again, down the steep incline. Then the incline gradually grew less steep, until she was again on flat earth, and slowly coming to a stop.

After the sled had completely stilled, Holly tentatively opened an eye to make sure that she was, indeed, safe. She glanced back at the mountain behind her and smiled with satisfaction. That hadn't been so bad, after all. In fact, under other circumstances, it could have been a lot of fun.

Leaping to her feet, Holly sprinted around the mountain in the direction she'd seen Nicholas go. Igloos began to appear around her, and up ahead, she saw a great snow wall rise like a tsunami, eclipsing everything around it. She turned her head to see that it encircled the entire base of the mountain. She was surprised she hadn't noticed it before.

As she neared the wall, she noted that it was made up of ice blocks, snow packed between the blocks like cement. It was about twenty feet tall, and seemed pretty darn sturdy and impenetrable. Holly figured that whoever was attacking it had quite the uphill battle, especially given who was defending it.

Skidding to a halt, Holly slid across an ice patch and slammed into the wall, which could have been made of iron for how solid it was. She fell back on her butt and shook her head, dazed.

"Fire!" a snowman overhead called. Holly stared up, her mouth open in awe. It was an honest-to-god snowman, with a black top hat, a red scarf draped over his shoulder, and branches for arms that jutted out from his sides, working perfectly, as if he had joints in all the right places. Like the snowmen Holly had built at home, he had a heavy boulder of snow for a base, a snowball the size of a beach ball for a head, and a medium-sized one sandwiched in between.

"Fire?! Where?" another snowman beside him asked, looking panicked.

"No, no, no, you blockhead," the first one said, turning to him, and giving Holly her first glimpse of his face. He had coal for eyes, a carrot nose, and a simple hole for a mouth. "I mean, attack!"

"Then why not say attack?" the second frowned, donning actual dentures and a celery stick for a nose. He had blue earmuffs and a green shawl draped over his shoulders, and turned his attention back beyond the wall without waiting for a reply as Holly slowly made her way up a staircase fashioned out of snow. She was careful to lean into the wall with her hand to brace herself, in case she slipped again. Snow and ice were not easy to walk on.

"What's this?" the snowman with the top hat demanded as he noticed her.

"I'm here to help," Holly announced, looking out through a hole in the wall. Beyond, she spied a forest of Evergreens and dozens of creatures venturing forth, about five feet tall and covered in shaggy white fur. Her eyes widened as she absorbed their wide mouths full of jagged teeth. They resembled apes more than anything, with long arms that they used to propel themselves forward, but they were much scarier. "What are they?"

"Yeti," Nicholas suddenly appeared at her elbow. Or one of him, at least, as she saw three others just like him further up the wall. "And if you want to help, you can get the snowmen ammunition."

"Ammunition?" Holly peeked back out through the hole to see the yeti hurl large snowballs at the wall, and ducked out of the way as one splattered alongside her porthole, spraying her hair with ice.

Nicholas handed her a basket and pointed down to the ground below, where another Nicholas was forming snowballs, packing them tightly so they were sturdy.

"All right," Holly said, grinning. She gingerly picked her way back down the stairs and quickly filled the basket with snowballs. "Hello, Nicholas."

The Nicholas forming snowballs smiled back. "Hey, Kid."

"Does this happen often?"

"An attack by yeti?" he frowned. "Maybe once a month. But don't worry. We always beat them back into the woods."

Holly nodded, then carried her basket heaping with snowballs back up the stairs. It was much slower-going this time, as snow was much heavier than it looked. When she reached the snowmen and the other Nicholas, she set the basket down with a grunt, and they immediately grabbed snowballs and began to hurtle them at the yeti.

"Here's another one," Nicholas said, shoving another basket into her arms.

Holly sighed, already rather tired from her first trip, but she clambered back down the stairs, and gathered four more baskets full of snowballs before the battle had concluded.

As the snowmen cheered around her, Holly leaned against the wall and let out a loud sigh.

"More work than you expected?" Nicholas asked, sidling up to her. He offered her a mug, which she accepted, and smiled down into steaming hot chocolate, complete with mini marshmallows.

"Yum," she said, blowing to cool it down before taking a tentative sip. She grinned as she savored the rich sugary taste. "Delicious!"

Nicholas nodded as he emptied a thermos into another mug and leaned against the wall next to her. "It's one of the pleasures I love most, enjoying a cup of cocoa after being out in the cold."

Holly drank hers faster than she probably should have, given how hot it was, but it tasted heavenly and she couldn't resist. She ended up scalding her tongue, but it was worth it.

"Thanks for the help, Ma'am," the snowman with the black top hat acknowledged, removing his hat and bowing low to the ground, like a branch weighed down by snow. Holly was worried that his head would fall off, but it stayed put as he righted himself and winked at her. As he had no feet, he simply slid away, the snowman with the blue earmuffs following with a wave in Holly's direction.

"That was amazing," Holly breathed.

Nicholas chuckled as he finished his cocoa. "Tinseltown is full of wondrous sights."

"So I've seen," Holly agreed. She tilted her head as something small and low to the ground approached them. At first she thought that it was a snow fox, since it was white and blended in with its surroundings so well, but when it was near enough, she made out the shape of a dog. A dog made of snow. Unlike its humanoid counterparts, the snow dog was made up of one long sausage-shaped snowball. It had coal for eyes, a button for a nose, and a circle of yarn placed over its mouth. A little black hat with two long flaps graced its snowball head, giving it the illusion of ears, and a twig stuck out of its back end, yet still wagged like a tail. The little thing stood awkwardly on stubby little logs, which forced it to walk stiffly, legs jutting out to the side for each step. It didn't look comfortable, but the dog didn't seem to mind. "And who's this?" she asked as the dog sniffed at her boots. She reached down to scratch him behind the hat, which sent its twig tail into a frenzy.

Nicholas smiled. "That would be Hot Dog."

"Hot Dog?" Holly looked up at him with a wry smile "How ironic."

"It suits him."

As she leaned down, Hot Dog nuzzled her face, snow melting on her cheek in what she assumed was the equivalent of dog slobber. "Good boy," she told him, giving him one more pat on the head before standing.

Hot Dog looked up at her for another moment, panting, before trotting away with a short bark.

Holly watched him go, marveling at the little dog, before turning back to Nicholas with a small shake of her head. "So, just why were the yeti attacking you?"

"Not all fairy folk are happy with our agreement with mankind."

Holly's eyebrows shot up. "And what agreement is that?"

Nicholas regarded her for a moment, then shrugged. "Come. Let's warm ourselves by the fire and I'll tell you all about it."

She nodded and followed in his footsteps. As they neared the mountain, she paused to regard a house that stood a little apart from Tinseltown and the rest of the festive rows of buildings that wound up the mountainside. It was a tall, foreboding building, dark and silent with no decorations. A blackened pine tree stood out front, its branches curled and broken, as if from a fire. There were no windows in this house, but one large set of double doors barred visitors from entry.

"What's in there?" she asked, stopping to point.

Nicholas glanced back at her, then swung his head toward the house. His eyes narrowed and he backtracked to where she stood, grabbing her by the arm. "That is somewhere you can never go, got it? It's off-limits."

Holly swallowed hard and looked down at his hand on her arm, where he was gripping her painfully. "You're hurting me."

He blinked, then let go all at once, a deep breath escaping him. "Sorry. It's just...a part of our past that we'd rather forget. And it's dangerous for you. Please, just...forget about this place."

"Got it," Holly said, offering him a smile.

He smiled back, then turned toward Tinseltown, walking at a clipped pace.

With a frown, she glanced back at the building curiously. But by the time she'd reached the bright lights of the cobblestone streets, she'd forgotten all about it.
Chapter Eight

"Long ago, fairies were everywhere in the countryside," Nicholas said, leaning forward in his rocking chair beside Crystal, who was knitting a sweater before a roaring fireplace. It looked like the beginning of one of the ugly ones that Nicholas currently wore. Stockings hung from the mantelpiece from hooks, beside happy pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Claus. The whole place was decorated in red, from the cranberry wreaths, to the garland intertwined with crimson ribbon and holly. It really warmed the stone walls up seeing poinsettias out on tables, and little Santa figurines and knick-knacks laid out over nearly every available surface. It made everything seem cozy and personable, even though they were in a drafty castle with large rooms and echoing corridors. How Nicholas and Crystal could live in such a huge place alone was beyond Holly, but it seemed that they had settled into only a handful of rooms, with all but one wing closed off. Supposedly they only opened it up to guests after Christmas, on the New Year, to celebrate the hard work they'd accomplished. It had to be some party.

The Christmas tree in the corner of the room held beautiful ornaments of varying shades of red, as well as more Santa figures strung through with hooks. At its base, a red velvet rug was spread out, already topped with packages and gift boxes. Holly wondered if they were all for Nicholas and Crystal.

"Like the old stories of brownies and pixies," Matthew said, sitting forward from the sofa.

"The very ones," Nicholas confirmed. He smiled, as if remembering the past. "Not all fairies were nice, of course. Many of them lived for mischief and getting into trouble. I remember one fairy by the name of Puck who-"

Crystal cleared her throat and smiled sweetly at her husband.

As if remembering himself, Nicholas blinked and stood up straighter in his chair. "Yes, well, that story can wait for another time. But suffice it to say, fairies were everywhere, and while most people couldn't see them, they knew that they existed, because of their deeds, good or not."

Holly nodded encouragingly and Nicholas caught her eye, offering her a grin as he proceeded. "The humans soon discovered that if they left offerings for the fairy folk, they would leave humans alone, or in some cases, they would get something in return. If they offered butter to brownies, they would fix a broken stool. If people left out a shoe in need of repair, leprechauns would fix it if they also left out a loaf of bread. Of course, some fairies became upset if they received nothing, and would cause damage if no gifts were presented." Nicholas sighed. "It was an uneasy alliance, this cohabitation of human and faerie, but it seemed that there was no other way. Until an arrangement was made that benefited both sides."

"What sort of arrangement?" Holly asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, what sort of arrangement?" Terrance asked from where he sat beside Ginger on an end table.

"You already know this," Ginger reminded him.

"Oh, yeah," Terrance agreed, with a sheepish shrug. "I was just caught up in the moment."

"The arrangement," Nicholas continued, eyeing Terrance and Ginger with annoyance, "was that the faerie would leave the countryside and leave the humans in peace, and once a year, they would participate in an exchange that would satisfy both sides."

"An exchange," Matthew echoed.

"Between sundown and sunup on Christmas Eve night, the faerie would deliver gifts to the deserving children of the human world, and in return, the humans would leave offerings, what has come to be cookies and milk, or candy canes strung on trees, for the faerie. It is an exchange that has kept the peace between our species for centuries."

"Sounds simple enough," Holly shrugged.

"It is," Crystal nodded, looking up from her knitting. "All it took was a simple offering to appease both parties. And ever since, we have secluded ourselves to The North Pole, well out of the way of humans, and have been forgotten by many."

"Many people don't even leave cookies out anymore," Nicholas shrugged, "but there are candy canes and other traditional offerings that most people leave out, and we keep up our end of the deal, and are happy with what we receive nonetheless."

"Fascinating," Matthew said, scratching his chin. "Do you have any reading material on the matter?"

"But, of course," Crystal replied. "I'll have some books sent to your room."

Matthew's grin extended from one ear to the other as he looked over at Holly. She couldn't help but smile back at him. The books would keep him happy for a long time, she was sure. And would probably be more enjoyable than a dictionary.

They were interrupted then by a figure entering the room, carrying a tray of cookies and milk. It was a nutcracker, but this one was as tall as Holly. She watched warily as it made its way over to them on stiff wooden legs. Its mouth opened and closed, as if it were breathing hard, and the room filled with a mechanical clanking noise, that grew louder the closer he got to the waiting party. His wooden body was painted a brilliant blue, with matching eyes, and a thick black beard. Behind the first nutcracker, another emerged from the doorway, this one in bright red, and carrying a silver tray with steaming tea cups.

They all accepted refreshments from the nutcrackers, Mr. and Mrs. Claus taking tea, while the others all claimed milk. Ginger didn't partake of the Russian teacakes, but the others did, including Nicholas and Crystal. The cookie melted in Holly's mouth, and she regretted not having the foresight to grab a second cookie, as the nutcrackers made their way back out of the room.

"Are they mechanical?" Matthew asked, watching them leave with interest.

"They are," Crystal said. "Many elves offered to serve us here, but we wouldn't have any of that. The gremlins, however, presented us with these lovely robots, and I have to admit, they make our busy lives much easier."

"The gremlins did that?" Matthew asked, looking amazed. "Wow!" He leaned forward in his chair. "I was thinking about a device to cut through the snow during bad storms. After all, Rudolph can't be everywhere, and you can't duplicate him."

"If there even is a Rudolph," Holly snorted. She blinked, then looked at Crystal. "Is there a Rudolph?"

Crystal chuckled. "There is. You'll meet him soon enough, I'm sure." She tilted her head in Matthew's direction. "And I'm sure I can introduce you to the gremlins, and you can pitch your idea to them. They love little jobs like that."

"There goes the neighborhood," muttered Ginger, to no one in particular.

"So, how is it that no one knows about this deal in the human world?" Holly asked, considering their story. "Most people don't even believe in Santa Claus anymore."

Matthew frowned. "They're stupid."

Crystal and Nicholas exchanged a look, before Nicholas let out a sigh. "That is our doing. To remain safe in this brave new world, we came up with some...precautions, to ensure that we would remain safe."

"Precautions," Holly repeated.

Nicholas watched her for a moment. "You asked the other day about how Christmas Eve was possible, reaching that many houses in such a short window of time. Well, part of it is my ability to multiply. But another part is the djinn we have here."

"Djinn," Matthew stood up straight, eyes wide. "Like genies?"

Crystal chuckled. "Very much so, young man. The djinn are very powerful and cloak this area from prying eyes. No human or machine can see what we have created here in Tinseltown. They also have considerable magic over time and space."

"Time crawls for us between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day," Nicholas agreed. "Without their support, it wouldn't be possible to leave gifts for every child and collect our offerings. But with the djinn, we not only have the time to execute what is necessary to uphold our end of the bargain, but we faerie move so quickly through time that humans don't see us. Usually. There have been some...glitches in the past, where the magic has had a little hiccup here and there and has slowed us down, but it serves our purposes."

"A Christmas hasn't gone by where we weren't able to execute our tasks," Crystal said, beaming proudly.

Matthew clapped, and Ginger and Terrance joined him.

Holly giggled and half-heartedly applauded them as well. "Very impressive."

"Thank you, thank you," Nicholas said, shyly.

"But you still didn't answer my question: Why do so many people not believe in you, and don't know that you exist?"

"That would be the sirens," Crystal announced.

"Sirens?" Holly shook her head. "How many creatures do you have up here?"

"Plenty," Crystal allowed. "And the sirens are instrumental in our secrecy. They have lent their voices to Christmas music throughout the ages. Even now, people love to listen to Christmas music all season long. And through the sirens' voices and the lyrics in traditional Christmas songs, they have weaved a spell."

"What sort of spell?"

Crystal bit her lip and met her husband's eyes, before looking away. "Well, we make humans forget, you see. When humans come of age, and make the transition to adulthood, they become a danger to us. They can hunt us down and...needless to say, we have created an insurance policy against such abuse. Children are innocent and wouldn't harm us, so they know all about us, and their eyes are open to the world as it is."

"In fact, we rely on children," Nicholas added. "Without their insight into our existence, without the Christmas spirit burning within each of them, this pact wouldn't work. We need them to remember and demand Christmas from the adults, who no longer believe."

Holly frowned. "So, the sirens make adults forget about Santa and the pact. They make it so they don't believe in him."

"Yes," Crystal nodded, looking relieved that she understood. "The magic weaved into the music even makes some parents believe that they purchased the presents for their children themselves. It's a very clever spell. It basically draws a curtain down over the adult mind, clouding the imagination, the belief in faerie, that could ultimately harm us."

"You take away free will!" Holly said, standing up quickly. "That's crazy!"

Nicholas exchanged a look with Crystal before standing as well. "No. The children need us. Not the adults. It's our choice if we let the adults see us or not. And we choose not to."

"So you really don't trust humans at all," Holly said. "That's why nobody wants us around."

"Now, that's not true at all," Crystal said, setting aside her knitting needles. "You children are a blessing. You're a reminder of what all of this work is for. You bring joy to us."

"Yeah?" Holly jabbed a finger in Crystal's face as fury wracked her body. "And just what happens when we become adults, huh? We just forget about all of this? We don't even remember that you existed?" She threw her hands up in the air. "Even if you give us the best years of our lives, we won't know it! And what happens when I come of age before Matthew? Do I just forget him too?"

Crystal's eyes were wide and she looked back and forth between Holly and Matthew, white as a sheet. Holly was hurting her, and after all of the kindness that Crystal had shown them. But Holly didn't think about that. Her mind was swirling with anger. "I will not be separated from my brother," she said through her teeth. "We don't need you."

And with that, Holly dragged her brother from the room, sobbing and begging her to leave him be. But she didn't listen. Her rage was too loud and all consuming. When she reached their beds, she slammed the door shut behind them and slid down the door, barricading it with her body. Matthew watched her for a moment, tear stains shining on his pink face, before he went to his bed and covered his head with the sheets.

Holly tried to slow her heart, which was beating rapidly in her chest, and only succeeded hours later, as the sun lowered in the sky. She watched the flickering artificial lights turn the window red, then purple, then green, then blue. But it suddenly didn't seem as magical as before. Instead, the glow left her feeling cold and empty.
Chapter Nine

A tentative knock on the door awoke Holly, and she lifted her head to see the sky bruising for the evening as it transitioned into night.

With a sigh, Holly stood, feeling weak. She touched her face and noted the tears that came back with her fingers. Scowling, she rubbed the sleeve of her shirt over her face.

The knock sounded again, small and meek, and she realized that it was coming from the tiny door cut into the bottom. Which meant that it wasn't Nicholas or Crystal. That was something, at least.

"Come in," she said softly as she stood with shaky legs, exhausted from the energy she'd spent being angry.

The door opened hesitantly, on squeaky hinges, before Terrance ducked his head in. "Holly?"

"Yeah." She sank down onto the edge of her bed and glanced over at Matthew, who was still buried beneath the sheets.

Terrance zipped over to her on his wings and landed on her knee. He looked up at her sadly, and offered her a thin smile. "I'm sorry."

She snorted. "For what? You didn't do anything."

"I was unsure of you when you first arrived," Terrance admitted with a shrug. "I thought you were a mistake. Because you're human. But...you're not."

Holly frowned. "How do you know?"

"Because you're a wonderful person," Terrance said, taking a step up her leg. "I've seen you. How radiant you are when you're happy, when you get past the anger and sadness."

"Well, thanks, I guess," she murmured, watching him warily. "Is that all you came to say?"

"No," Terrance stood up straighter. "I want you to be happy here. Tinseltown is magical, you know. It's full of possibilities. And I will personally guarantee that you will remain here, and that the sirens' spell will never effect you, even when you come of age."

Holly looked skeptical. "You can do that?"

Terrance looked away. "I'll do my best. I'll find a way." He glanced back up at her. "I promise."

Nodding slowly, Holly offered him a smile. "Thank you."

He smiled back.

"But I don't know if we're going to be around for much longer anyway."

Terrance looked defeated all at once. "You want to leave."

"No, I..." Holly shook her head. "I don't want to. I kind of like it here."

"Really?"

"Really." She grinned as she realized that it was true. She'd seen so many marvelous things, and she could maybe see a life for herself here. She was sure that she could find some way to be useful to Tinseltown. "But the truth is, there's been a mistake."

"What sort of mistake?" Terrance asked, cocking his head curiously.

"We shouldn't be on the good list," Holly admitted. She glanced over at Matthew's bed. "Well, at least I shouldn't be." She shrugged. "When they realize their mistake, I'm sure they'll force us to leave, and that will be that."

Terrance considered for a moment, his lips pursed. "Then we can't let them discover their mistake."

Her eyebrows knit together. "What?"

"I mean," Terrance said, voice low as he stepped closer conspiratorially, "We need to ensure that you're on the good list."

She blinked at him, then frowned. "You'd do that for me?"

"Sure," he shrugged, his little face turning red. "I mean, I like you, like I said. And if you are on the naughty list, you shouldn't be."

"You don't know me," she said, leaning back on her elbows. "I'm not a good person."

"Yes, you are."

With a heavy sigh, she shrugged. "I stole wallets from people, jewelry, watches. I just pocketed all of their hard-earned money. And I barely even gave it a second thought. I was only thinking for myself...and Matthew. I only cared about our survival." She looked away. "If that doesn't land you on the naughty list, I don't know what would."

Terrance watched her carefully, the blinking lights from outside the window throwing his face in various shades of color, one after another. "Why did you do it?"

"Because I had to," Holly admitted. She let out a deep breath, suddenly feeling like she was going to cry again. It made her angry, thinking of what Grott had forced them to do, turning them into thieves. "If we didn't, Grott wouldn't feed us. He would have probably kicked us out over time, if he didn't find us useful."

"You had no choice then."

"There's always a choice," she argued, then laughed bitterly. "I just chose myself over the innocent people I stole from."

Terrance paced up and down her leg. "Despite what you may have done, I know you're a good person. You had to eat."

"The law doesn't care. Why should Santa?"

"And you're a minor."

"I knew what I was doing."

Terrance scoffed. "You have a comeback for everything."

"I'm guilty of a lot."

They regarded each other for a moment. "Well, I'm helping you, no matter how guilty you want to make yourself feel," Terrance announced, crossing his arms over his chest. "And that's that."

The thin line that Holly wore on her face melted and lifted into a smile. "Well, I appreciate it. I haven't had a...a friend in a long time."

Terrance looked up at her sharply. "We're friends?"

"Of course we are. Isn't this the sort of thing that friends do for each other?"

"Well, I suppose it is," Terrance admitted. He grinned up at her. "Well, friend Holly, let's get started on ensuring your permanent residence here in Tinseltown."

***

"What is this stuff?" Holly asked outside the building five minutes later, as she stood with her arms straight out from her sides, as Terrance had instructed. She glanced up at her bedroom window, hoping that she would find Matthew still asleep when she returned.

"Just hold still," Matthew ordered, flying in a circle overhead.

Holly grimaced as gold dust sprinkled over her clothing and hair. It was like it was raining glitter, but as soon as the dust touched her, it vanished. "Is this really necessary?"

Terrance did one last lap above her, then flew down and fluttered in front of her face. "Done. And we won't be able to just walk through the front doors of Elf House if we don't want to be noticed."

"So, what are we going to do?"

Lifting an eyebrow, Terrance glanced down at the ground. "You've seen Peter Pan, haven't you?"

"Peter Pan?" Holly repeated. "What does that have to do with..." She let her voice trail off as she followed his eyes to the ground. Her boots were no longer touching the snow. They were floating two inches above the sidewalk, as if she had been lifted into the air by invisible strings.

"What in the world?" she breathed.

Terrance flittered back a few feet and waved her toward him. "Come on. Move toward me."

Holly looked up at him with wide eyes, unsure. "I don't know how."

"Sure you do. Just float toward me. You need to want to go in this direction, and your body will follow."

Holly began to paddle her arms through the air as if she were swimming, and Terrance laughed. "What?" she demanded, glaring at him. "It's not as easy as it looks."

"Yes, it is. You just need to believe. This is magic we're using, not physics."

She considered his words, then dropped her arms. "Okay. Magic."

"Magic."

"Like Peter Pan."

Terrance nodded, and Holly closed her eyes. She wasn't sure what she was doing, but she trusted Terrance. He wanted her to succeed. So she followed his advice. She wanted to move to where he was waiting for her, and imagined her body following suit.

When she opened her eyes, she was inches from Terrance, who was grinning back at her. "See?" he said. "Told you that you could do it. Just don't get used to it. It'll wear off in an hour."

Holly giggled, looking up at the roof, wanting to reach it. And sure enough, she floated up to the roof, and swiped at the icicles hanging from the gutters, watching as they fell to the cobblestone below and shattered like glass, but so silently that it was like the air had swallowed the noise.

"This is amazing," Holly said, floating up even higher. She was soon thirty feet over the top of the mountain, where a large candy-striped pole jutted out from the rock, with a blinking red light at the top. Holly's eyes swept over the castle where Nicholas and Crystal resided, then moved onto various rooftops that looked smaller and smaller the further down the mountain they went. The bird's eye view of Tinseltown was spectacular, the houses lining the winding path making the mountain look like a big cinnamon roll from overhead. Any higher and it would look like a model town, like they had in those Christmas stores in malls. Lights blinked from up and down the street cheerfully, Christmas trees standing sentinel like glowing guards before each door. Behind the mountain, a perfectly round mirror reflected the moon overhead, like some sort of frozen lake. She could see the snow wall encircling the land, but just barely in the darkness.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing toward what seemed to be a dense forest of pines and evergreens along the east side of the property, near the snow wall. Strings of lights hung from the tops of the trees and snaked down their trunks, making it appear like a forest make of festive lights. One humongous Oak tree with twisting, naked branches reached toward the sky from the middle of the small forest, with windows and doors built into the trunk. "And is that a house? A tree house?"

"That forest is where the other reindeer stay," Terrance explained. "There's a dryad that lives there, and keeps the greenery growing to feed them. The elves that aid her in her work live in that tree."

"There are more reindeer?" Holly asked, sneering.

Terrance snickered. "Well, Nick may be able to multiply, but the reindeer can't. His clones need sleighs and reindeer too."

Holly nodded slowly as she processed this obvious explanation. "So, why do the ones in the stable get special treatment?"

"They're the originals," Terrance shrugged. "And they're kind of in charge of the others, the leaders of the packs on Christmas Eve."

Holly glanced around, a smile lighting up her face as the cold wind blasted her cheeks and made her fingers numb. Flying made her feel alive, and somehow everything seemed so much more magical when she could partake in a little of the magic. "It's beautiful," she told Terrance, as if he hadn't had the pleasure of such a view before. "It's all beautiful."

"It is," he agreed. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

Holly met his gaze and smiled. "I wouldn't either."

"Then let's makes sure you won't be."

She nodded in compliance and moved to follow as he floated back down toward Tinseltown, but not before taking one last good look at the magical string of houses. Despite the cold, the snow, the ice and the gray skies overhead, this was the most stunning scene she'd ever absorbed in her life. It felt like pure happiness.

Terrance was so tiny that he was hard to make out in the dark, but once she drew closer to the bright lights of the houses once more, he was easier to find, and she fell in line as he led them toward the house the elves lived in.

She kept getting distracted by things she'd never seen before, like a large cave entrance in the mountain, just barely visible in the lights from the path.

"That's the entrance to the gnome caves," Terrance said. "They have tunnels all throughout the mountain." He shrugged. "Makes them feel more at home than houses, I guess. I can't personally see the appeal."

"It's wonderful!" Holly giggled in delight. "I bet Matthew would love exploring them!"

"Yes, I'm sure he'll love it," Terrance replied dryly. "But don't get so distracted that you forget what we're doing here."

That sobered Holly, and she followed Terrance closely, until they drew up to a house that resembled a log cabin.

"Try the second floor windows for one that's unlocked," he told her, zipping down to ground level. "I'll check the first floor."

"Are we sure we can't just walk through the front door?" she whispered.

But Terrance was already out of earshot. So, with a sigh, she pulled on the handles of every window as she made her way around the house. When she tried the handle of the final window and found that one latched as well, she shook her head, feeling like her chance at staying in Tinseltown was slipping through her fingers.

"Any luck?" Terrance asked, gliding up to her.

"No. You?"

Terrance shook his head. "Well, there's always the Santa Claus way."

She frowned. "The Santa Claus way?"

He smiled and gestured toward the chimney.

Her eyes widened. "No. No way. I am not going down a chimney."

"Oh," Terrance looked away sadly. "Then I guess you really don't want to stay in Tinseltown."

She rolled her eyes, knowing that he was trying to manipulate her. But he was right. She wanted this. And if she had to slide down a chimney to have it, then so be it.

"Alright," she caved in. "Let's just get this over with."

Terrance didn't even try to hide how pleased he was. He led her over to the lip of the chimney and instantly zipped down the shaft without waiting for her.

Holly hesitated as her hands dug into the brick. She leaned over and stared down the throat of the chimney. Aside from the bricks at the top, she couldn't see very far. Its shape was completely lost in shadow.

Terrance suddenly reappeared, nearly earning a scream from Holly, but she clamped down on her mouth in time. "All clear!" he declared.

"You almost scared me to death," she hissed, swatting at him.

He laughed and dodged her hand easily. "You're just too easy."

With a grunt, she floated over the chimney and gazed down the dark mouth, as if hungry to devour her. Then, with a deep breath, she plunged into its depths. She lowered herself slowly and carefully, trying not to touch the sides, although it really couldn't be helped, since she couldn't see where she was going. Just when it felt like she'd been descending for an hour, she touched ground. She paused for a moment, then tentatively bent over to look out from the fireplace, where she could see the elves' living room beyond the grate.

"The coast is still clear," Terrance said as he landed on her shoulder. "Ready?"

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Trying to be as quiet as possible, she shifted the grate out of the way and set it aside, then slipped out of the fireplace with tentative steps. She looked around with wide eyes, then skulked over to a bookshelf and ducked behind it, letting her eyes adjust to the dark.

"Where do they keep the lists?" she asked.

Terrance pointed to a doorway on the right. "The room at the end of that hall."

Nodding, Holly quickly darted out into the room and slipped through the doorway, sticking to the shadows. When she was halfway down the hall, a door on their right opened, allowing golden light to splash over the floor. She stood stone-still and held her breath as the elf Peter stepped into the corridor. The sound of a toilet refilling could be heard in the still darkness as he shut the door behind him and wandered toward the other end of the hall, ducking into the last room on the left.

As soon as the door clicked shut firmly behind Peter, Holly let out a breath of relief.

"That was close," Terrance murmured.

Holly nodded, putting a finger up to her lips for silence.

He nodded as she continued up the hall, noting that the door to the room at the end was ajar. It seemed that luck was on her side as she slipped through the doorway and closed it quietly behind her.

Flicking on a light switch, Holly blinked at the two large tables that stood in the center of the room, littered with thick oversized books and various scraps of paper. Mailbags lined two of the walls, overflowing with sealed envelopes, letters from ambitious children who wanted to get their Christmas wishes in before the holiday rush. Against the back wall were two rolls of what looked like paper towels on dowels. But they were much thicker, nearly the size of tires. Above the one on the left, the word "Naughty" was spelled out in fancy calligraphy, the word "Nice" over the roll on the right.

"Okay," Terrance whispered. "What do we do? Just switch the rolls?"

"No way," Holly retorted. "It would be noticed for sure, and I want the kids who deserve presents to get them. Matthew's probably on the nice list anyway."

Terrance nodded his agreement as Holly approached the rolls, noting that they were really thin paper scrolls that seemed like they would disintegrate under her touch. She gently caressed the Naughty list and tugged on the paper as carefully as possible. It was in alphabetical order by first name, then last name.

"This is going to take awhile," she sighed.

"You'll be toward the front, at least," Matthew told her.

"Well, I'm making sure that Matthew isn't on here first."

"How commendable," an icy voice said from behind them.

Holly stiffened and closed her eyes as she recognized the voice.

"Uh oh," Terrance muttered.

"'Uh oh' is right," Nicholas agreed.

Holly turned around slowly to see him leaning against the door casually, arms crossed.

"And just what, pray tell, are you doing here, Miss Hamilton?"

Holly forced a smile in place. "Just...checking out the lists. I was curious."

"So, you wouldn't be looking to alter them, then?" He raised an eyebrow, staring her down as if daring her to lie.

With a sigh, Holly nodded. "I can't go back to Grott, Nicholas. I was...I was going to make sure our names were on the nice list so that wouldn't happen." She swallowed past the lump in her throat and felt tears forming behind her eyes. In response, anger welled up in her chest, but she forced it down. She would accept whatever punishment he issued her, even if it meant leaving."

Nicholas turned his fiery gaze on Terrance. "Terrance, you may go. I'll have a word with you about this later."

Terrance bit his lip, and looked back at Holly apologetically, sympathy burning in his eyes.

She looked away, fearing that she might cry if she held her friend's gaze for too long.

A few seconds later, she heard the door close behind him, and she was alone with Nicholas. She chanced a look at his face and found him staring her down still. She looked away guiltily.

With a sigh, Nicholas took a few steps in her direction, then plopped down in a chair at the table. "I'm disappointed in you, kid. There's no other way to say it."

"I know," Holly said, hating to hear the quaver in her voice. She bit into her cheek hard to keep the tears back that threatened to flood her eyes. She wanted to face Nicholas with dignity. She didn't want to feel his pity over her tears.

"Take a seat," he told her, nodding toward the chair across from him.

She complied, looking down at the scratches in the tabletop, eyes drinking them in as if she were trying to memorize their shapes. Anything to keep from looking up into his crestfallen eyes.

"You've suffered a great deal in your life," he said softly, surprising Holly.

Holly looked up at him sharply, but he was looking past her, at the scrolls set in the wall.

"The death of your parents was a tragedy, and I understand how it would have jaded you to Christmas, given the timing. But you can't keep associating the joy of that holiday with death. They were separate occurrences."

"I know that," she couldn't help but snap.

Nicholas seemed amused by her tone and smiled, drumming his fingers before him. "And then, everyone turned their backs on you. Family you'd visited with your parents during holidays, faces you'd come to know over the years...the moment your parents died, they wanted nothing to do with you. And so you were forced into foster care, and ended up with the basest that the system had to offer, forcing you to steal for your place at his table." He shook his head sadly. "No, Holly, you are not the troublemaker here. You were forced into a terrible circumstance, one you never should have had to suffer through."

Holly felt the tears spilling from her eyes before she could stop them. She wiped them away on her sleeve, but they were quickly replaced.

"You look out for your brother like your parents would have wanted, keeping him safe, providing for him as best as you can. You even put his needs before your own. Now, that is a good sister." He cocked his head. "How could I exile someone so kind? So selfless?"

Holly lowered her head to her arms on the table, letting the tears out amid moans and shaking shoulders. "I'm sorry," she choked out between sobs. "I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Nicholas said, his hand suddenly on her back. "Holly, you were never on the naughty list. Those lists are tools...to gauge how children respect their parents, and whether they're deserving of having gifts bestowed upon them for their behavior. But every child does things that are wrong. It's their innate goodness that counts and lands them on the nice list. And that's something that won't change because of some mistakes you've made. You have faced significant obstacles, and you've still turned into a wonderful young lady who watches out for her brother and cares."

She lifted her head and tried to wipe the signs of her tears away futily. "So, you're not mad at me?"

He smiled kindly. "Of course not. And we don't want you to leave either. You deserve a good home."

"Thank you," she said quietly, and gave him a fierce hug, burying her face into his shirt. "Thank you so much....Santa."

"Nicholas, please," he corrected her.

She chuckled.
Chapter Ten

Over the next week, Holly tried her hand at different tasks around Tinseltown, from baking with the sprites, to tending to the reindeer in the stables with gnomes, to running supply carts for the elves as they made toys. She seemed destined for failure, however.

She was a klutz in the kitchen, and made a mess of eggs and flour. And not just a spill here or there, but it literally looked like the bags of flour had exploded after she'd poured ingredients for the sprites. Cracking eggs was a lot harder than it looked too, and Holly found it very hard to not dribble them everywhere, if she even managed to get them free from their shells without dumping flakes into the mixing bowls along with everything else. Not to mention the fact that the kitchen would probably never be rid of the burned smell from tray after tray of cookies she'd actually managed to get onto cookie sheets...and left in for far too long. To top it all off, she may have almost come close to accidentally drowning a sprite in chocolate...

The reindeer didn't listen to her at all, and seemed completely indifferent to her when she tried to wash them or brush their hair. Maybe if she could have worked with the reindeer in the woods, it would have been different, but the twelve in the stables were divas. Her last straw there had been when she'd shoveled poop for the third time from the same reindeer's stall within minutes. Prancer, who'd been the one to snort at her from the beginning, seemed to like watching her with a shovel in hand. And for some reason, the gnomes frowned upon her shoveling reindeer poop back at the reindeer in retaliation.

Finally, the demands of the elves was too overwhelming for Holly. She couldn't decipher their language for the types of wood they wanted, the chisels and screw drivers and wrenches needed, or the specific shades of paint. What was the difference between sunshine yellow and gold nugget yellow anyway? She would inevitably bring back half of the wrong items and end up frustrating the elves as much as herself.

So, it was with pity that she sat in the corner of the holiday kick-off party by herself, hand propping up her head as she looked on the happy fairies and creatures around her as they chattered and danced, a black cloud hanging over her that threatened to erupt whenever someone dared approach.

Matthew seemed to be quite happy at the gala, dancing around the huge tree in the middle of the room, multi-colored lights blinking on and off randomly as the music roared, boasting Christmas cheer. But Holly just couldn't get into it. She felt like a failure. And the thing was, she really, really wanted to succeed here, and find her niche. She just didn't seem to be a natural for anything. Unlike at the orphanage with Mr. Grott, she actually wanted to be useful and help out, but she seemed destined to bungle things up no matter where she was placed.

So, it was with a heavy heart that she watched the gaiety around her. With a sigh, she leaned back in her chair and swirled the dredges of punch around in her plastic cup. She didn't realize then that things were about to change. She wanted this to be her home, but it wasn't yet. And no matter what encouraging words Nicholas or Crystal offered, she couldn't help but feel down in the dumps, and question her place among such kind people. She just didn't get the feeling that she fit in, or ever would.

But that feeling changed quickly.

Sometimes when you meet someone, it's like you've known them your entire life. That was what it felt like for Holly when she first met Ozma that night at the party. Holly was being an unsociable Grinch, but Ozma didn't mind. She swept right into the room and claimed the chair across from Holly at the empty table, before looking around the room wistfully, with a slight smile on her face.

Holly was immediately struck by Ozma's beauty. She had hair as dark as a raven's wing, and rosy cheeks, as if she'd just come in from the cold (as was most certainly the case). Her lips were red as blood, as was the flower in her hair with its dark core, and when she turned her gaze upon Holly, it was like her eyes pounced on her, and saw directly into her soul with those emerald green irises.

Holly looked away, intimidated by Ozma's confidence, not sure who this stranger was, but drawn to her anyway, like a moth. She looked to be about Holly's age, but somehow seemed older and wiser at the same time.

"Same old party then," Ozma sighed, leaning back in her flowing white dress. "I can't believe they never get sick of this Christmas music. It's like nails on a chalkboard."

"It's pretty," Holly said, to be difficult.

"You'll be changing your tune when they don't. Ever. Holiday music all year round, all the time." She shuddered, then turned a curious eye on Holly. "I'm Ozma, by the way. And you would be? Besides petulant, I mean."

Holly blinked, not catching her meaning. She thought she had maybe just been insulted, but it didn't seem a bad thing at all coming from Ozma. "Holly. Holly Hamilton."

"Nice alliteration."

"Thanks. I think." Holly turned her attention back to the merriment, noting her brother laughing as he twisted around in Crystal's grip.

Ozma smirked and tilted her head. "You're new here, Holly Hamilton."

"And you're really observant."

Raising an eyebrow, Ozma glanced back out at the dance floor. "Is that your brother?"

"Yeah. Matthew."

"Matthew seems to be having more fun than you right now. Why are you sitting here all alone, wallowing in your misery?"

"I'm not wallowing," Holly protested. "I just don't feel like a party right now."

Ozma considered her for a moment. "Okay. And why don't you feel like a party?"

"Because I'm useless around here," Holly admitted with a loud sigh.

"Ah," Ozma nodded, as if she'd just confirmed her suspicions. "I can relate to that. I only come up here once a year to bring supplies. I couldn't handle living in a winter wonderland constantly."

"Yeah, I thought that your poppy was a little out of season," Holly said, referring to the red flower on the girl's head. "It's more Autumn."

"That it is," Ozma acknowledged. "There isn't much color during the winter, aside from the dead brown trees, gray skies and white snow falling and gathering over the hibernating fields. The pines and evergreens are really the only notable exceptions. Which is why the Christmas tree was adopted, to offer hope of life in the harsh winter." She paused. "And then the Christmas tradition furthered that concept. Twinkling lights, bright and cheery ornaments – it's all a farce to keep people from feeling oppressed by the dead season."

Holly frowned and watched the girl for a moment.

"You can't help but admire them, however," Ozma said a minute later. "They pour their everything into making the world cheerful when it should be somber. And they do a smashing job of it." Her eyes flicked over to Holly, causing her to start and look away. "Except they can't seem to lift your spirits."

"It's not their fault," Holly shrugged. "I'm just terrible at everything around here. They can't find a job fit for me." She gestured to her brother. "Unlike my brother, who was immediately taken in by the gremlins. But he's always been good at fixing things, so he was a natural. Me, on the other hand...I don't have any skills."

"None at all?"

"Well, aside from pickpocketing. But that's not very useful up here."

"So I would imagine." Ozma cocked her head. "What are they doing?"

Holly glanced over at her, then noticed that the girl's eye were trained at her waist. Looking down, Holly scowled to find the pixies filling her pockets with icicle ornaments. She stood up and shooed them away, earning a giggle from them. "They mean well," Holly murmured, dumping the contents of her pocket onto the table, half a dozen ornaments total. "I tried stealing one once, and they keep giving them to me."

She shrugged and looked up to find Ozma stifling a laugh. "What's so funny?" Holly demanded, although she couldn't help a smile from flickering across her face.

Ozma shook her head. "Do you want to get out of here?"

Holly looked up at the dancing, and how Matthew was clapping as a leprechaun breakdanced in the middle of a circle of people. She noticed the willowy tall figures of the beautiful sirens, all with fire engine red hair, and the odd ghost-like figures of yokai as they swirled around everything, some becoming black shadows, while others took on human form from time to time to join in the dancing. Three djinn sat clapping from carpets that hovered over the heads of the dancers, yellow creatures with sharp teeth, beady black eyes and horns that curled out from behind their ears to frame their faces. It was magical to take in, but because everyone was having so much fun, and she was not, Holly felt lonelier than ever.

"Yeah," she said. "Let's get out of here."

***

"You brought me to a greenhouse?" Holly asked, surprised as she gazed around the glass structure, which was warm and damp inside. She noted holly and mistletoe growing everywhere, as well as poinsettias in the process of being placed into red and green clay pots. It was located at the base of the mountain, on the opposite side from where the stables were, and had been quite a hike. And totally not worth it.

"It's a winter garden," Ozma corrected her. "And this is the only place in Tinseltown where you're going to get a dose of summer, so you're going to come to appreciate this place in the coming months."

"It is humid in here," Holly admitted as she watched a fine mist spraying over the mistletoe. "But this is so much lamer than the party. And the party was lame."

"The party was festive and fun," Ozma said. "You're the one that's being lame. Now, come along. What I wanted to show you is out back."

"Out back," Holly repeated. She rezipped her coat in preparation of going outside again. But as cold as it was at night time in Tinseltown (and it was freezing, or below freezing, rather), Ozma didn't seem to need any extra clothing to keep her warm. Her billowy light dress was enough. "What are you, anyway?" she asked, not caring that the question sounded rude.

Ozma glanced back as she put her hand on the handle of the back door. "What do you think I am?"

Holly considered. "Well, you're not tiny or furry or anything weird, but you're obviously not human because you don't get cold." She tapped her lips with a finger. "I would say that you're what Nicholas and Holly are. You're a fairy."

"You can call me that, if you'd like," Ozma granted. "I am from a fairyland. I prefer the term sorceress, but we're friends, so I'll allow it."

"Friends?" Holly asked as Ozma opened the door. Somehow the cold air outside didn't intrude into the greenhouse, but the moment that Holly stepped outside, her body was barraged with cold.

"Sure," Ozma smiled. "You remind me of someone I used to know. Another good friend of mine."

"What happened to her?"

"Oh, she died of old age. She had a long and happy life, though. I saw to that."

Holly frowned. "Just how old are you?"

Ozma lifted an eyebrow. "Now, you should know better than to ask a girl her age. Don't I appear to be the same age as yourself?"

"But you're not."

"True. Let's just say that I've seen my share of life, and leave it at that." She turned and gestured to a field before them. "Now, what do you say we have some fun?"

Holly blinked at the flat, dark earth stupidly for a moment before she realized what she was looking at. The lights from the winter garden illuminated it a little, but for the most part, the ice rink was bathed in shadow. It was, however, clearly a smooth, clean circle of ice.

"I can't ice skate," Holly said automatically.

"Why, have you ever tried?"

"No."

"Then you don't know for sure, do you?" Ozma laughed and led her out onto the ice. "Now close your eyes."

"Why?" Holly asked her, suspicious.

Ozma's smile widened. "It wouldn't be a surprise if I just told you, now would it?"

Holly pursed her lips, considering stomping away and going back to the party for a moment. But then she would just sit in her sad corner while everyone else continued to have fun. And she was rather interested in Ozma. They got along so easily, even though Holly knew nothing about the girl. "Fine," she decided, closing her eyes. "But no tricks."

Her eyelids suddenly turned red as she kept her eyes closed, as if the sun had come out, and she heard the sound of scraping over the ice. "What is that?" she tried opening her eyes, but Ozma immediately covered them with her hands, from behind.

"Nuh-uh-uh," Ozma said. "That would be cheating." Her hands stayed firmly in place for another minute before she removed them. "Okay. Now you may open them."

Holly blinked, not expecting much to be different upon opening her eyes. She gasped at the suddenly lively ice rink. Snowmen and Snowwomen of all shapes and sizes skated along the ice gracefully, some in pairs, but mostly solo. Scarves of every color of the rainbow adorned their necks, and their features were pieced together from a variety of sources, from coal and carrots to rubies and turquoise. The scrapes and scratches of their icy feet upon the rink filled Holly's ears as she watched them in awe. The entire scene was bathed in bright red light, the source of which was a reindeer, sitting on the sidelines at the other end of the rink. His nose glowed brightly, and Holly could only guess that this was the infamous Rudolph.

"Well, aren't you going to join in the fun?" Ozma demanded. She pointed to a bench with a pair of ice skates lying in wait. Holly suspected that they would be a perfect size for her feet.

Grinning, Holly dropped to the bench and hurried her frozen feet into the skates, lacing them with quick and nimble fingers. "I'm probably going to embarrass myself," she muttered.

Ozma chuckled.

As predicted, the skates fit like gloves, and as she stood on shaky feet, Ozma offered an arm to steady her. "We'll start out slow," she promised.

Holly nodded her agreement at the suggestion, and noted that Olga had joined the impromptu skating party, sliding along the ice on her belly, scarf trailing behind her carelessly. Holly couldn't help but laugh at the sight as Ozma slowly escorted her around the ice, careful to help Holly whenever she seemed about to fall. After a short while, she felt steady enough on her feet to try it without Ozma's assistance, provided the girl didn't stray too far.

A short bark behind Holly made her falter, but she managed to stay upright, and tilted her head to see Hot Dog at her heels, jumping on his stubby legs to get her attention. "I see you, boy," she said. "I just don't think I can pet you and skate at the same time."

Ozma lifted the dog into her arms and spoiled him with affection as Holly continued to strengthen her strides and grow confident in her movements. Before long, it was like she'd been ice skating her entire life, and she laughed happily as she darted in and out between snowmen, who raised their hats to her as she passed by.

Holly practiced stopping and gaining momentum, and only paused when she noticed an elf saunter up to the ice rink, arms crossed and glowering at the spectacle. Her red hair gave her away quickly as she stepped up to Ozma with authority.

"And just what is going on here?" Snow demanded, with a huff. She looked up as Holly approached, skillfully coming to a stop. "I should have known you would be behind this mischief."

"Oh, please do settle down," Ozma said, flipping her hair. "It was all me. I wanted Holly to have a nice night, one where she felt included."

"A human shouldn't be included in anything here," Snow sneered, emphasizing the word "human" like it was a dirty word. "They're only trouble."

Ozma scoffed. "You're more of a handful than Holly is."

Snow flushed and turned away abruptly. "Well, I just wanted to inform her majesty that her attendant is looking for her."

Ozma grumbled to herself as Snow disappeared back into the winter garden.

"Her majesty?" Holly repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"I rule over the fairyland I come from," Ozma admitted, looking guilty. "But please, don't mind Snow. She means well. She's just rather...uptight."

"So I'd noticed. But don't think you can just change the topic on me, your majesty."

Ozma sighed. "I'm sure that Crystal told you that all fairies my size are royals."

"True," Holly nodded. She pointed to a milky white stone hanging from a thin chain around Ozma's neck. "And Crystal has a stone like that too."

"Ah," Ozma looked down at the stone and gingerly touched it, whereupon it briefly glowed. "This is an elderstone."

"What does it do?" Holly wondered, reaching out and touching it herself. While it felt warm against her flesh, it didn't glow or react in any way when she brushed her fingers against it, not like it had with Ozma.

"Elderstones are powerful gems passed down through royal families. They contain elemental powers. This is the Air Stone. Crystal is in possession of the Ice Stone. But there are others, for earth, fire and water. While all royal fairies have natural powers, elderstones enhance their powers, and give them significant abilities over the element the stone is named after."

"So, it makes your magic stronger."

"It makes my magic stronger," Ozma agreed, with a smile.

"Where did they come from?"

"That is the question. Some say they date back to the origins of the universe. Some say they used to all be part of one stone. But who's to say? That was so long ago, and no one was there to witness the beginning of it all."

"Nicholas doesn't have one," Holly noted, with a frown.

"No, he does not."

"Why does Crystal have one, and he doesn't?"

"That is a question for the two of them," Ozma said, then shrugged. "Anyway, enough about boring fairy legends. Why speculate about the past, when you have all the magic you could ask for right in front of you?"

Holly looked back over her shoulder and eyed the snowmen, her gaze drifting back toward Rudolph, who watched them all with bright eyes.

"Have you met Rudolph properly?" Ozma prodded.

Holly bit her lower lip. "I'm a little intimidated, to be honest. He's like, a legend."

Ozma waved the title away. "We're all flesh and blood here, Holly. Were you so star struck when you met Santa?"

"No, but he was hardly what I was expecting."

"Exactly. Legends rarely are."

And so, Ozma introduced the two of them. Holly was nervous and giddy at the encounter, but Rudolph was very gracious, bowing his head as they met. He looked very much like the other reindeer, with the notable exception of his nose, with was larger and had something that looked like filaments burning at its core.

"Doesn't he speak?" Holly whispered as they left him alone.

Ozma smiled. "This isn't a stop-motion cartoon. He's a reindeer. You should be amazed that he understands us at all."

Holly considered this, and all of the creatures that spoke that shouldn't, and decided that she would never be able to understand the rules that seemed to permeate everything here.

They walked toward the winter garden, and a dark figure emerged from the door as they approached. As he stepped out of the doorway, he drew up to his full height, which must have been ten feet. He was lanky, with arms that seemed too long on his body, and was dressed all in black. His most disturbing feature, however, was his head. It was a pumpkin. A large orange pumpkin, with a face carved into it, showing off a hideous smile and hollow eyes.

Holly shivered and grabbed Ozma's hand, startled at his appearance.

Ozma smirked and gestured to the man. "Holly, I'd like you to meet Jack Pumpkinhead. He's my escort to Tinseltown."

"Escort?" Holly repeated, looking him up and down.

"Yes. Glinda insists that I take one every time I come up here. It's silly really, but she's only looking out for me. And as far as escorts go, Jack is a rather intimidating figure. Wouldn't you agree?"

Holly found the challenge in her words, and dropped the girl's hand nonchalantly. She squared her shoulders and approached Jack boldly, holding out a hand that only shook slightly.

Jack took it graciously. "Pleased to meet you," he said, in a garbled voice.

"Likewise," Holly said. "Holly. Holly Hamilton."

Jack bowed his head, then turned back into the winter garden.

Ozma nodded her approval. "I suppose that that's our cue. We should return to that dreary party."

Holly glanced back longingly at the ice rink, noting that the snowmen hadn't let up in their exercise.

"It will always be there for you," Ozma told her, then beamed. "And we found something that you're good at. You're a natural ice skater."

"I suppose I am," Holly agreed, returning the smile, her heart overflowing with pride. And when they returned to the party, she was in much brighter spirits.
Chapter Eleven

Terrance flew alongside the toy plane, mimicking its movements perfectly as Matthew laughed from where he sat on his bed. He made the plane twist in the air several times, and Terrance grinned as he followed it faithfully.

"Wonderful flying," Ozma commented.

"Thank you," Matthew and Terrance said at the same time, and everyone laughed.

The party had been over for nearly an hour, and they had gone back to their room with some of their friends for a small after party. Ginger had recalled that Matthew had pointed out the toy airplane when they'd toured the elves' toy shop, and had persuaded them to give him an early Christmas present. Holly still felt a little misty-eyed when she remembered the look of utter delight in the boy's eyes as he'd accepted the gift. Matthew had, of course, insisted on playing with it immediately.

Ginger sat up on Holly's pillow now, following the movements of the plane along with everybody else.

"Thank you for doing this," Holly said, tapping him on the arm.

Ginger's frosted lips turned up into a smile. "It was my pleasure. This is what Christmas is all about, after all: making a child happy with a gift."

"Still, you were very thoughtful," Ozma echoed Holly's sentiments.

Ginger ducked his head and if Holly wasn't imagining things, his cheeks looked burned all of a sudden. "Why, thank you. But really, it was nothing."

Holly stifled a yawn as she watched the plane nearly miss colliding with Jack Pumpkinhead, who stood silently in the corner like some ghastly decoration, the expression on his face never changing. Holly figured that the only way to change his expression would be to carve a new expression into his head. She wondered if that would hurt him.

Having noted Holly's attempt to stifle her yawns, Ozma suddenly clapped her hands. "Alright, everyone. I think it's time we call it a night. It's rather late, you know."

"Awwww," Terrance groaned as Matthew landed the plane with precision. "It was just getting fun."

"And there will be more fun to be had later," Ozma said. "But everyone needs their sleep."

Terrance nodded his agreement, still looking glum. He glanced over at Ginger. "Carry you to the kitchens for a snack?"

Ginger looked pleased to be asked. "If you will."

With a smile, Terrance grabbed Ginger from under the arms and flew him out through the open door, a rushed "Goodnight, everyone!" following them.

"You didn't need to cut the night short on my account," Holly said, stifling another yawn.

Ozma lifted an eyebrow. "You don't say."

Matthew had lifted his place onto his lap and was looking it over, eyes drinking in every detail.

"Do you like it?" Ozma asked him.

"I love it," Matthew confessed, grinning. "And I can see where Holly glued the wing back on the other one. This one is a lot sturdier."

Holly chuckled. "Well, no one's going to throw this one away, so you can admire it later. Time to get ready for bed."

Matthew frowned, looking up at them. "I'm not very tired."

"Probably a result of all that candy at the party," Holly shot him a disapproving look.

"It was all really good." He sighed. "I'm going to get fat living here."

Ozma laughed. "I think you just need to eat sensibly. There's more than just candy around here."

"I want something to drink before I go to bed."

Holly jumped off her bed. "Fine. A quick trip to the kitchen. Then off to bed."

"Sure," Matthew agreed. "You coming, Ozma?"

Ozma smiled. "I'll escort you to the kitchen, then I'll go off to bed myself." She stood and Jack Pumpkinhead stirred. She glanced at him and waved him away. "You go back to our room, Jack. I'll be along shortly."

Jack seemed hesitant, but nodded before plodding from the room.

"He's scary," Matthew said quietly as they left the room after grabbing their coats.

"He's a good friend," Ozma said. "He just gets shy around new people. Back home, he's very lively and talkative."

"If you say so."

When they reached the kitchen, it looked like they'd missed Terrance and Ginger. Snow was tidying up following the party with a half dozen other elves and gnomes. At their entrance, her eyes narrowed, but she said nothing, mostly ignoring them.

Holly opened a refrigerator and examined the contents. "Let's see. Cranberry juice, milk, apple cider...something that looks like green sludge."

"That's for the gremlins," Matthew told her. "I tried it. It's gross. Like snot."

Holly wrinkled her nose as she looked back at him. "So, what do you want?"

"Is there any hot chocolate?"

Ozma opened a low cupboard and rummaged around it for a moment before turning to Snow. "Where's the hot chocolate powder?"

Snow sighed loudly, as if annoyed at being asked. She set down the tray she was wrapping in tinfoil just to put her hands on her hips and glare at them. "It's like a restaurant in here. People coming and going at all hours of the night, like we don't have work to do."

"Yes, I'm sure you're very put out for cocoa."

Snow glowered, then went back to wrapping her tray. "We're out. The last of it was used for the party. We have to wait for Titania to make a new batch."

"Oh," Matthew looked disappointed. "That's too bad."

Ozma smiled courteously at Snow. "Thank you for the hospitality."

Snow ignored her as they left the kitchen.

"Well, that was a bust," Matthew said, moping.

Ozma cocked her head. "Not necessarily. I'm sure that Titania has some cocoa powder at her shop."

Holly shuddered. "No offense, but I don't want to go poking around her shop at night. That lady gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"Oh, hush," Ozma said, marching straight for Titania's candy shop. "She's very kind. She just doesn't know how to behave around human children."

"Yeah, because she's too preoccupied by a thousand and one ways to eat us."

Ozma ignored the comment and led them to the candy shop, throwing open the doors as if she opened the place. She gazed around the dark room thoughtfully. "Now, if I were to keep cocoa somewhere, where would I put it?" She wandered over to a cupboard at the side of the room and rummaged through it.

Holly followed her quietly, not wanting to disturb anything. She tentatively touched a barrel of candy canes as her eyes swept the room.

"Maybe at the counter?" Matthew whispered, venturing deeper into the dark store.

"Matthew!" Holly hissed, following him. "Be careful!" And then she tripped over the corner of a table. She managed to stay upright, however, and was more aware of her surroundings as she continued after her brother.

He was poking through baskets at the counter as Holly looked on, when she was startled by a voice at her ear. "Try in the back corner, by the taffy."

Holly screamed, then backed up into the counter, upending a tray of chocolate that fell to the floor.

"Oh. Look what you've done to the almond bark," Titania said as she flipped on a light switch. She clucked her tongue as she stooped to retrieve the chocolate, throwing it in a trashcan as Holly held her breath, waiting to be turned into a toad or something.

"Hello, Titania," Ozma greeted her. She walked over to the back corner where Titania had indicated and smiled as she held up a jar of hot chocolate with a flourish. "Right where you said it would be."

Titania grinned at them all. "Is that all you came for? Why didn't you turn a light on?"

"We didn't want to disturb you," Ozma said.

Titania waved a hand her way. "Nonsense. My store is always open to anyone who wants it." She grabbed the hot chocolate from Ozma and put a kettle on a stove before pulling four mugs from a cabinet. Then she turned back to the four of them. "Now, there's nothing better than adding some mint or marshmallows to a good cup of chocolate. Feel free to peruse the shelves."

"To rot our teeth faster?" Holly couldn't help asking.

"You have your permanent teeth in," Titania nodded. "They're worth much more than baby teeth."

"Stop trying to scare them," Ozma warned, shaking her head with a smile.

"I'm just telling the truth," Titania insisted. "Eating a baby tooth barely gives me a spark of magic. An adult tooth allows me to cast a rather large spell. There's nothing like it to get the old juices flowing."

Holly tried not to listen to what Titania was saying, instead focusing on finding something to add to her drink. Matthew was considering some caramel syrup, which sounded wonderful to Holly, but she liked the idea of mint chocolate, as Titania had suggested. Just as the piercing of the kettle's whistle signaled that the cocoa was about to be served, Holly found a bowl of little mints in pale pink, yellow and green. She popped one into her mouth to test it, and it melted in her mouth smoothly. Grabbing a handful, she returned to the others.

"I'll have some eggnog, if you please," Ozma said, winking at Holly.

Titania chuckled. "It's a rare treat out here. We have to be careful with the stuff, you know. But I have some in the tavern in back."

Holly looked over at the door that Titania walked up to. "Wait, the tavern's back there?"

"Of course," Titania answered. "There's another door in back for patrons. But it's rather quiet tonight because of the party."

"I wanna see!" Matthew said, then looked up at the fairy with round eyes. "Pleeeease!?"

Titania considered him for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, you. Follow me."

Holly jumped off her stool and followed them into the back. The tavern was connected to the candy shop by a short dark hallway, and when Holly stepped into the room, she wasn't very impressed. It looked just like the candy shop, except with a bar along one side. She spied flavor syrups to add to drinks, such as toffee nut and cinnamon dolci, as well as drinks like root beer on tap. There was no alcohol being served that Holly could see, but all sorts of different milk shakes and malts were advertised, as well as the infamous eggnog.

There was only one person sitting at the end of the bar, a gnome with a red pointed cap, who was fast sleep, his chin resting on the bar, his long white beard furling and unfurling in synch with his snoring.

Titania stepped around the bar as the others took seats on stools, and poured a mug full of frothy whitish-yellow liquid, which Ozma accepted gratefully.

Titania handed Holly a mug with cocoa powder, and she added her mints before Ozma poured some milk and hot water over it all.

"I found marshmallows," Matthew announced, brandishing a bag of tiny white cubes.

"I also have whipped cream in the fridge," Titania offered, stooping behind the bar to procure the promised treat.

Holly considered, and opted for a generous helping of whipped cream that forced her to take a few mouthfuls of the fluffy topping to get to the actual drink.

"Now we just need to top it off with a little magic," Titania said, and shook a little container over each of their mugs in turn. Holly looked into her cup and smiled at the multi-colored sprinkles that clung to the whipped cream, and smiled. Then they all sat quietly, sipping at their drinks. Titania had been right. The mint was fantastic in the hot chocolate, adding another layer to the rich taste, and leaving Holly feeling refreshed.

"Well, does this meet your requirements?" Ozma asked Matthew.

Matthew nodded vigorously. "I don't think I've ever tasted hot chocolate so good in my life."

"Well, there's plenty more where that came from," Titania told him with a wink.

And suddenly Holly felt a bit of warmth toward the strange woman. Her creepiness was charming in a strange sort of way. Endearing. Maybe Ozma was right and she just didn't know how to act around them. But she could brew a mean cup of cocoa, and that was a start.

"What's all this noise about?" the gnome at the end of the bar suddenly sat upright and blinked over at them. "Can't anybody get any peace and quiet at this time of night?"

"You're in a tavern," Holly told him.

The gnome glanced around, then nodded. "So, I am." He squinted at Holly. "Ah, you're those human kids. The talk of the town."

Ozma smiled politely. "Holly, Matthew, meet Sleepy. He's one of the dwarves who works in the winter garden."

"At least, when he's not sleeping in a corner somewhere," Titania added quietly.

Holly exchanged a look with Matthew. "What's the point of coming to a tavern if there isn't any alcohol? I thought people came here to unwind."

"So, we do," Sleepy said, sitting up straight and tapping the bar. Titania refilled his eggnog. "We come to chat and gossip and tell stories to one another. There isn't a better way to unwind than that, is there? Being sociable?"

"I suppose not," Holly allowed. "What sorts of stories do you tell?"

Ozma sighed and put a hand to her head. "Here we go."

Sleepy let loose a chuckle that had a mischievous quality to it. "Would you like to hear about the Krampus, children?"

"I would like to hear about the Krampus," Titania leaned forward, excited.

Ozma bit her lower lip. "I don't think that's an appropriate story to be telling the children before bedtime. It could give them nightmares."

"Oh, pleeeeaaase," Matthew begged. He turned his wide eyes on Ozma. Holly narrowed her own eyes at him. She would have to remember this trick he used to get his way.

"Fine," Ozma crossed her arms. "But I won't be held responsible for the consequences." She turned to Sleepy. "Go ahead."

But Sleepy had fallen over, asleep again. He loosed one particularly loud snort in his sleep before Titania knocked his head once with her knuckles.

"What? What?" Sleepy looked around, then focused on the children. "Ah, yes. The Krampus. Well before you children were born, the Krampus went on his bloody rampage. It was dubbed Black Christmas after his foul deeds, when the season took a turn for the worst and Christmas could signal terror as well as merriment once more."

Matthew swallowed hard and grabbed Holly's hand beneath the counter where nobody else could see. She offered him a reassuring squeeze as she sat forward to hear the tale.

"It happened to quite a few houses, the ones where the children were especially naughty. They talked back to their parents, bullied other children, and were terrible to their teachers and neighbors. No amount of discipline seemed able to turn them around. Which is how they caught the attention of the Krampus." Sleepy took a sip of his eggnog, then wiped his mouth before continuing. "Santa will bring presents to all of the deserving boys and girls of the world, but to the children on the naughty list, he will leave a lump of coal, serving as a warning to mend their wicked ways. The Krampus didn't agree with Santa's methods. He thought that they were too lenient. So, he took it upon himself to see to the naughty children, whom he saw as broken things, like toys that needed to be discarded."

"What did he do?" Matthew whispered, eyes wide.

"Well, I can tell you about what happened to one family full of naughty children. Just before midnight, all of the lights in the house were severed, throwing the house into utter darkness. One little girl grew unsettled, and slipped out of her room and crept down the staircase to see what was going on. As soon as she was crossing the dark living room floor, the lights suddenly returned, illuminating a horrible scene. The Christmas tree was no longer in the corner of the room. In its place were two of her brothers and sisters, tied together by the strands of Christmas lights, ornaments hanging from their skin by bloody hooks that had been forced through the flesh of their arms and legs."

Matthew hid his face behind Holly's back, but peeked over her shoulder at Sleepy.

"Those are the ones they could find," Sleepy said, enjoying Matthew's reaction. "They only found bits and pieces of her other two brothers. Fingers in the stockings over the fireplace. Ears pinned to the garland that wrapped around the staircase."

"Okay," Ozma stood up abruptly and smiled tightly. "Thank you for the story, Sleepy. It was very...vivid." She turned to Holly and Matthew. "And I expect you to promptly forget that tale."

"What ever happened to the Krampus?" Matthew asked, coming out of hiding. "Is he still out there?"

Holly glanced back at Sleepy, but he was sound asleep once more, his mug of eggnog spilled over the countertop.

Ozma patted Matthew on the shoulder. "Don't you worry about the mean old Krampus. He was captured long ago, and is a threat to no one anymore."

"Oh," Matthew looked relieved, but then he brightened. "That story was awesome! I'm going to tell the gremlins all about it."

"You do that," Ozma said, frowning. She caught Holly's eye, who shrugged. Ozma smiled back at her.
Chapter Twelve

It turned out that many people wanted to learn how to ice skate from Holly. Word of the little impromptu party that Ozma had arranged with the snowmen had gotten around, and Crystal had decided that a weekly ice skating party would be a great way to blow off steam during the busy season. So Holly found people lining up for days at the ice rink to get a turn with Crystal, as if her abilities would rub off on them. She was surprised that people had that much confidence in her, but she found that she gave rather good instructions, and had even the worst pupils at least on stiff legs by the time they left her, and they would only improve with more practice.

Things were starting to look up for Holly, and she felt that she was finally being useful, which made her feel lighter than she'd felt for days.

"You're doing good work here," Crystal noted, watching as old Pere Fouettard left the rink with a smile on his naturally sour face. "People are really responding to you."

Holly ducked her head and shrugged, embarrassed by her praise. "Thank you, but I really couldn't have done it without Ozma. I hadn't even considered ice skating, but it was like she just knew that I would be good at it."

"And perhaps she did," Crystal frowned, tapping her lower lip. "I wouldn't doubt it. That one is hard to pin down. Just do me a favor and be careful around her."

"Careful around Ozma?" Holly asked, surprised. "Everyone seems to love her."

"Of course they love her. She's a sorceress. But she's not from Tinseltown. She rejected our way of life, and that makes me rather...wary of her."

Holly frowned, mulling this over. She'd spent a good deal of her time over the past week with Ozma, and felt at ease with the girl. Nothing about her seemed fake or forced. She seemed like a genuinely nice girl, and Holly admired her openness. How could she just turn her back on Ozma when the girl had helped Holly turn that difficult corner, discovering that she could, perhaps, belong here. Holly shook her head slowly. She couldn't. "I think you're wrong about her. I think she's lovely."

Crystal smiled tightly. "It's just a thought. Just keep it in the back of your mind. And don't say anything to anyone else. It may just be that I'm wary of outsiders in general." She put a hand to her head. "Perhaps I've been isolated up here for too long."

"How can you say that when you have me to entertain you?" Nicholas suddenly joined them, throwing his arms around Crystal's neck and nuzzling her neck. Crystal shrieked playfully and batted him away, looking at Holly with a crimson blush in her cheeks.

Holly smiled at the sight. They were a cute couple, and she liked them together. There was something playful about their relationship that was nice.

"What are you doing out here?" Nicholas asked, pulling back to lean against the bench that they sat on.

"I was just seeing how the lessons were going," Crystal told him, then raised an eyebrow. "And just what are you doing out here?"

Nicholas looked away and shrugged sheepishly. "Well, you know, if we're going to be having these ice skating parties...I figured that I should know, that is, learn how to perhaps improve upon-"

"Oh, my gosh!" Crystal stifled a laugh. "You're going to take lessons too!" Her eyes were wide, and she suddenly couldn't contain herself, doubling over with the giggles. Tears streamed down her face as Nicholas looked on with a stony face, clearly not amused.

"I would be more than happy to help you improve your skating abilities," Holly told Nicholas diplomatically.

Crystal seemed to mostly sober up at that, but still had to cover her mouth to keep a giggle from erupting every so often as she watched Nicholas put on the skates that Holly gave him.

"Maybe you should go," Nicholas suggested, looking up at Crystal after he'd laced the skates.

Crystal snorted. "No way am I missing..." She sighed, then nodded. "Alright." She turned to Holly. "Be gentle with him."

"I'll do my best," Holly promised, watching Crystal escape through the winter garden. Then she turned to regard Nicholas, who stood on shaky legs, using the bench to steady himself. "You really can't skate?"

"Not at all," Nicholas admitted, biting his lower lip. "I've tried, but I just can't get the hang of it. Give me a chimney to climb down any day."

Holly offered him her arm and escorted him slowly toward the ice. "Well, let's see what we can do."

***

"Your brother is very skilled," Ozma observed as she sipped on her cinnamon tea. She watched Matthew help a few gremlins with the lights on a huge Christmas tree that had been erected at the very top of the mountain, behind the castle, and right beside the candy-striped north pole. The tree was taller than the castle itself, and wider than the street. Holly had no idea how it had been transported to its present location, as it had just appeared that morning, waiting as if it had always been there. After the pixies had decorated it with a variety of ornaments, ranging from candy canes to glass bulbs to little figurines, they had arranged the red and gold tinsel, and strings upon strings of lights. And then...the lights on the top half of the tree had not turned on with the bottom lights. It had been an anticlimactic ending to what had been a feverish tree trimming. And so the gremlins were put on the case, and Matthew along with them, since he had already been proclaimed one of the best fixers among them.

Holly watched as the gremlins scaled the branches of the tree like spiders while Matthew worked on wires below, head bent in concentration.

"He is skilled," Holly agreed, then tilted her head to watch Ozma. Holly still couldn't see why Crystal would be worried about Ozma. Ozma was observant and thoughtful, but that was hardly a crime. And she brought supplies to Tinseltown every year. Wasn't that a goodwill gesture in and of itself?

"You have questions," Ozma said, more a statement than a question itself. She turned to meet Holly's eyes.

Holly blushed and looked away. "Well, I mean, I was just wondering...what you bring to Tinseltown each year."

Ozma nodded. "Raw materials for the elves to make their toys. Trees grow fast in the fairyland I come from, so your world need not deplete its forests." She smiled. "But you really want to know why I don't stay here."

Holly blinked, surprised. "How did you-"

"I know what Crystal thinks of me, so I'm sure that she's wasted no time discussing the matter with you."

Holly pursed her lips, then sighed. "I'm sorry. I know the kind of person you are. I just can't wrap my head around why Crystal would think you have ulterior motives. And what would they be?"

Ozma gazed at her for a moment, as if considering something. "While I am glad that the humans and faerie folk of this realm have reached an agreement, I do not belong in Tinseltown. I grew up in a fairyland my own, and rule there. It is secluded in much the same way Tinseltown is, but we have no agreement with the human world. We have chosen to remain apart. I tend to my kingdom and make my people happy. That is why I do not come to stay here. Could all of the people of my kingdom come to live in Tinseltown? Certainly. But why should we when we are already content with our current situation?"

Holly nodded slowly as she processed this. "I get it. You must love your kingdom."

"I do. I would love if you would visit me there someday."

Perking up, Holly's eyes shone. "Really?"

"Of course, really," Ozma laughed. "We're friends, aren't we?"

Holly nodded, then laughed. "I've never had a friend like you before."

"I should think not," Ozma agreed, then glanced back over at Matthew. "Your brother is welcome to come with you when you visit as well. I've known you both a short time, but you're both already dear to me."

"Matthew can be a pain sometimes," Holly admitted with a shrug, "but he's family. And he's all the family I have now."

Ozma looked sober for a moment. "Yes, I'm sorry about your parents. But you must enjoy the present, and don't waste a moment that you have with your brother. Time flies faster than you would believe." She cocked her head. "You will inevitably butt heads over the years in this little village, but just remember what a gift he is to you."

"I know. And I made a promise to my parents...I will always look out for him."

As if rousing herself from a reverie, Ozma looked up at Holly. "I would like to share something with you, Holly. Something that you should know that I think others may not think you are ready for."

Holly blinked. "Like, a secret?"

"A terrible secret," Ozma agreed. "It's not that they don't trust you here, but sometimes people think that if you don't know about something, it can not harm you. But I, for one, think that if you understand something better, it loses some of its mystery, and thus, some if its power over you. You can better prepare yourself if you aren't ignorant of it."

Swallowing hard, Holly nodded. "Okay. I agree with that."

"Good." Ozma hesitated. "I hate to meddle in the affairs of others, but as you're my friend, and it has to do with you, in a way, I feel that I should bring it to your attention."

Holly frowned. "It has something to do with me? But I just got here!"

"True. It's more of what you are, more than anything." Ozma tilted her head. "Did you notice how many of the people of Tinseltown reacted to your appearance here initially?"

Holly thought back on Terrance's reaction when he'd first met her, and others, like Snow, who still seemed not to trust her, and for no apparent reason. "Is it because I'm human?"

"Precisely. But their fear doesn't merely stem from the fact that you aren't faerie and you are here." Ozma set down her teacup and stood. "Walk with me."

Obeying, Holly glanced back at Matthew, who was still absorbed in his task.

"He will be alright," Ozma assured her as she began to leisurely walk along the street with her. Jack Pumpkinhead, who'd been standing silently nearby, followed them at a distance, like a dark, lanky shadow, his empty eye sockets following their movements. Holly shuddered, not quite at ease with the strange-looking creature. His head looked damp, and on the verge of spoiling, which made him seem that much more grotesque. Holly wondered what he did when his head went bad. Did he just get a new one? She decided to file that question away to ask later, more discreetly.

They passed by house after house, Holly expecting at any moment that they would stop before one of them, but they did not. When they reached the base of the mountain, they continued toward the igloos and the large snow wall. This is where Holly began to assume that they were headed, until Ozma paused before the black house set a little apart from the mountain. Holly blinked at the dead black pine tree, charred and ugly, branches hanging limp or at odd angles. She suppressed a shudder, thinking of the time she had looked on the house curiously and Nicholas had warned her away, rather harshly. What had he said? "That is somewhere you can never go, got it? It's off-limits."

"I'm not supposed to go in there," Holly said quickly.

"Of course not," Ozma agreed. "They were right to warn you away from this place, but should have entrusted you with its secrets." She paused and glanced back over Holly's shoulder. "Isn't that right, Nick?"

Holly started and turned to see Nicholas approaching them, hands deep in his pockets. He looked sad or maybe...ashamed? Holly couldn't quite place the expression on his face, but he was clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"Nicholas?" Holly frowned.

"She's right," Nicholas said, coming to a stop in front of Holly. He looked over at Ozma with steady eyes. "I should have told you about this place when we first decided that you would be staying here. Nothing good can come of hiding it from you. It's just...something we would rather leave in the past and forget about it."

Holly glanced back at the dark house without windows, two intimidating double doors taking up most of the front side of the house like castle gates. Or a crypt.

"What is it?"

"A museum of sorts," Nicholas mused, stepping up to the doors and looking up at the house. He placed a hand on the door, as if feeling for a heartbeat. "And a prison, as well." He glanced back at Ozma, then focused his attention on Holly. "You have to open it."

"Me?" Holly took a step back. "I don't think I even want to go in there. You open it."

"I would if I could," Nicholas said, then shook his head. "That's a lie. I would prefer it stay locked up forever."

Ozma rested a hand on Holly's shoulder. "Do you see a doorknob? A lock?"

Holly frowned as she looked over the doors carefully. When she didn't see anything, she drew closer to the building, sweeping her eyes over it once more. Still, she found no way of opening the doors. "I don't see anything."

"That's because it's protected by magic. Only a human can open it."

"A human?" Holly echoed, turning to gaze at Nicholas. "Why?"

"Because of what it harbors."

Nicholas wouldn't meet her eyes, so Holly rounded on Ozma. "Fine. I'll bite. What's in there?"

"You will have to open the doors to find out."

"And if I refuse?"

Ozma smirked. "Your curiosity will get the better of you eventually. Wouldn't you rather enter now with two trusted friends?"

Holly recalled Crystal's warnings of Ozma, but Nicholas was here also. Between the two of them, they wouldn't let her do anything dangerous.

Nicholas placed a hand flat against the door again. "Just put your hand on it, like this," he said softly.

Licking her lips nervously, Holly looked at Ozma again, then at Nick, as if searching for permission. But, of course she had it. She just didn't like how strange everyone was acting. It made things seem very ominous.

Before she talked herself out of it, Holly slapped her hand on the doors quickly. The doors clicked open immediately in response and slowly swung inward on squeaky hinges. Holly stepped back and watched as the doors opened all the way as if someone were pulling on them from the other side. It was pitch black inside, so she saw nothing. And she heard nothing. It was like the house was holding its breath.

"These doors haven't been opened in over a century," Nicholas sighed. He looked back at Holly and sent her an encouraging smile. "Come along, then." And he stepped within.

Ozma took Holly gently by the arm and escorted her inside. As soon they passed the threshold, the lights came on, forcing Holly to blink for a moment. And then she swallowed hard. The house was one big room and the interior was all cement floors and plaster walls, painted black. And that was it, aside from the bare bulbs hanging far above them from the exposed ceiling beams. There was nothing merry or Christmassy about it.

It was freezing in the room, like a meat locker, which was appropriate, given that there were huge blocks of ice on either side of the room, in varying sizes.

"What is this?" Holly breathed, stepping forward to look at the first ice block. Within, she could see a giant wolf, at least six feet tall and twice as long. Its teeth bared ferociously, eyes yellow and glaring as if it could see her even frozen beneath three feet of ice. It was a little like looking at a reflection in a mirror that was all steamed-up. Details were hard to make out. But Holly decided that perhaps that was for the best.

"That would be Amarok," Nicholas said. "He would stalk people who dared hunt alone at night in winter and devour them."

Holly shivered, and glanced at the ice block beside him. A large ape-like creature with thick white fur stared out from its frozen prison, twice as tall as the wolf. Holly took in the sharp claws on its huge hands, and the teeth jutting out from its lower lips, and decided that she wouldn't want to run into a creature like this one. Ever.

"And that one in The Wendigo," Nick told her. "I could list his offenses, but it would take quite a while. And it's very bloody and gory."

Holly walked up the aisle, taking in more terrible creatures, at least a dozen total. The largest was a giant made of ice, who, hunched over, still reached the ceiling. She could barely see him within his ice prison; he blended in so well. "Hrimthurs," Nicholas noted. "He can freeze anything or anyone he wishes."

Dwarfed beside Hrimthurs was a Japanese woman in a white kimono. She was beautiful with long flowing black hair and blue lips.

"Don't be deceived by her appearance," Nicholas warned in her ear. "She may be the worst of them all. Yuki Onna. A yokai that humans call The Snow Woman. She creates snowstorms, sucks energy from people and freezes them solid with her breath. And she looooves children."

"Okay," Holly said, turning to face him. She waved a hand around them. "What do they have in common? Why are they here?"

Nicholas walked over to a snowman with claws and a lanky frame, very different than the snowmen she'd met near the snow wall. His eyes were made of what looked like human eyes, and his mouth was a steel bear trap. "The Abominable Snowman," Nicholas said. "Even you must have heard of him."

Holly stared at the figure for a moment, then turned to Ozma helplessly. "I don't understand. These are bad guys? This is like a prison?"

"Precisely," Ozma nodded. "These are the vicious members of the fairy world who would never allow the pact to remain between humans and faerie kind. In fact, they fought for their right to continue to disrupt the human world, terrorizing and murdering people indiscriminately. They're terrible creatures."

"And they needed to be locked here, to keep humans safe," Nicholas said. "There would never be another Christmas if they were let out into the world."

Holly noticed a form in a red Santa Claus suit and approached it with a frown. It looked like a man with wide shoulders and a crooked smile. She couldn't make out much through the ice, except for the horns that curled out from his beneath his red hat like a mountain goat's. He still looked more like Santa Claus than Nicholas. "He looks like he wouldn't mind Christmas."

"Yes, the Krampus rather loves Christmas," Ozma replied, with a wry smile.

Holly felt a chill run down her back, recalling Sleepy the gnome's tale. So, the story was true? And he was standing right there, in Tinseltown? With only a couple feet of ice restraining him from his bloody deeds?

"Unbeknownst to us," Nicholas admitted, "The Krampus would visit the children on the naughty list, the ones who didn't receive a visit from me. But he didn't bring them presents. Not even coal."

Holly exchanged a look with Ozma, and swallowed hard.

"He devoured them," Nicholas ended the suspense dramatically. "At least, if he was in a merciful mood."

Holly licked her lips and turned back to Nicholas. "Okay. Bad guys. I get it. Why so hush, hush about this, though? We have prisons in the human world too."

"You've seen the yeti attack us because they have similar beliefs as these monsters," Nicholas said. He gestured to Ozma. "Some may not participate in what we are doing here, but others are downright against it. Any of these creatures would be happy to rally an army to tear down Tinseltown and destroy the trust that we've worked so hard to build with the human world."

"The human world wouldn't know what hit them," Ozma added.

"Which is why we locked them away here, spelled so no fairy could get to them. Spelled so that only a human would be able to open those doors."

Holly let out a deep breath. "Ah. So that's why people are uneasy with our presence here. We can open these doors."

"Everything the people of Tinseltown fear is locked away in this room," Ozma agreed. "The idea of any one of these creatures getting loose to wreak havoc and taking out their long captivity on Tinseltown terrifies them."

"Which is why we didn't tell you," Nicholas said.

"But why I thought you needed to know," Ozma returned.

Holly nodded slowly. "Okay. I get it. I'll make sure Matthew stays away from this place too. And I'll never...I'll probably never even look in this direction again." She shuddered, understanding wholeheartedly the reactions of Terrance and Snow, given what she was capable of merely by being there. "These monsters give me the creeps."

She looked over at another ice block. A woman in a light blue dress with white hair cascading down her shoulders stared out sadly from her prison. She was very pretty. And for some reason, Holly thought that she looked vaguely familiar.

"I'm relieved to hear you say that," Nicholas admitted. "And I'm glad that we showed this to you. It unloads a great burden from my shoulders now that you know. Ozma was wise to instigate this."

"I try," Ozma ducked her head.

"Alright, let's just lock this nightmare behind us," Holly said, noting some condensation building on some of the ice blocks. "I think they're starting to melt."

And as soon as the doors were shut firmly behind them, they walked away, and Holly didn't look back once.
Chapter Thirteen

The first ice skating party went by without a hitch. Holly was proud to see many of her pupils skating confidently on the ice, while others were brave enough to at least give it a shot. Nicholas looked like he'd been skating for years, never tripping or stumbling as many did around him. He took his time and was careful, as Holly had taught him, but he could enjoy himself without looking terribly out of his element.

"You did wonders for him," Crystal said, sitting down beside Holly. "I'm impressed with the results."

"I am too," Holly admitted. "I didn't know that he would be able to transform so quickly."

"Well, he is a shape-shifter," Crystal chuckled.

"That's true," Holly laughed, watching as Nicholas approached them.

"Looking good out there, Hon," Crystal told him.

Nicholas beamed. "Thank you, my dear." He glanced at Holly. "Do you mind if I steal my wife for a spin around the rink?"

"Go right ahead," Holly told him, and watched as he led her around the ice.

"Holly, want to make snow angels with the gnomes?" Matthew asked, running up to her with Hot Dog at his heels, tongue lolling out.

Holly smiled. "No, thank you. But you have fun, okay?"

Matthew nodded, then ran past her, Hot Dog letting out a short bark as he followed. Holly shook her head and leaned back on her bench, enjoying the evening. Sprites were making snow forts that looked like sand castles nearby, and Holly was amazed at how detailed and intricate they were making them. On the other side of the rink, the pixies and gremlins were having an epic snowball fight. Every so often one would stray onto the ice rink and split harmlessly along the surface or against someone's back, but it was mostly self-contained. If Holy watched the air filled with snowballs for long, she got dizzy, so she refrained from looking in that direction for the most part.

"Enjoying yourself?" a garbled voice shook Holly from her reverie.

Holly glanced up to stare into Jack Pumpkinhead's hollow eyes. She forced a smile in place as she sat up, taking in the green and black mold growing over the bottom of his head as it rotted. It rather looked like a five o'clock shadow, and somehow suited him, oddly enough. "I am. Everyone else seems to be too."

Jack nodded and looked around, as if he hadn't noticed the merriment. "Princess Ozma wishes to see you before she leaves."

"Leaves?" Holly frowned. "What do you mean? She's going back home?"

Jack held out a hand to help her to her feet. "The cold has slowed the decomposition of my pumpkin head, but I'm afraid I must get a new one before long. My apologies, Miss."

"No need to apologize," Holly said, feeling slightly dazed. "I was just taken by surprise. Her departure seems so...abrupt."

"She put it off for as long as she could," Jack informed her, then led her through the winter garden and up the mountain path.

Ozma was at the top of the mountain, standing before the large Christmas tree, its lights all in working order now, thanks to Matthew and the gremlins. She was staring up at the blinking colors as if it were a fireworks display. As Holly approached, Ozma didn't seem to notice them, but then, without turning, said "I'm always surprised by how much I dislike leaving this place."

"It's magical here," Holly shrugged. "It's Christmas."

Ozma nodded, then smiled over at her wanly. "Yes, it is. Yet I never look forward to coming here. It's funny how it creeps into your blood and wins you over, makes you feel like a child again."

"But you are still a child."

Ozma smiled, but didn't reply.

Kicking her boots against the frozen cobblestone, Holly looked away. "I hear you're going."

"I am. Jack-"

"He told me already," Holly interrupted her. "I'm just sorry that you're leaving. I wasn't expecting it so soon. And...I guess I feel like you're...well, we really bonded."

Ozma embraced her in a long hug, and a bittersweet feeling washed over Holly. "You're a fine friend, Holly Hamilton. I won't soon forget you. And I will see you again next December, and before that, if you would like to visit me." She pulled back. "However, I think that we'll have to wait at least until the busy season is over up here."

"After Christmas," Holly nodded. She bit her lip. "Can I get your e-mail address or something to keep in contact?"

Ozma laughed. "It doesn't really work like that, I'm afraid. We don't really take advantage of...modern luxuries where I'm from." She cocked her head. "But if it makes you feel better, I will look in on you daily. I have a magic picture that allows me to see anywhere in the world. It would bring me great pleasure to see how you're getting along here."

"Please do," Holly told her. "It'll be nice knowing that you're watching sometimes."

Ozma looked at her with something of pain in her eyes, then nodded to herself. "We must be going. I just wanted to say goodbye, and wish you well."

"Thank you for that," Holly said, and looked around. "Is the Polar Express coming to pick you up or something?" She scoffed. "Or are those infernal reindeer bringing you home? Because I do not recommend them as a mode of transportation."

"Faerie have other ways to travel," Ozma revealed. She gestured to a circle of smooth gray stones on the ground before her.

"What is it?"

"A faerie ring. A gateway of sorts. There is another ring like this in my gardens back home. As long as there is a faerie ring, I can go there with this."

"That's convenient," Holly allowed, then stepped back. "I'll miss you."

"And I, you," Ozma acknowledged. She gestured to Jack Pumpkinhead, whose large hand swallowed Ozma's small one. And together, they walked into the faerie ring. There was no brilliant flash of light or rippling air. They simply walked into the center of the circle of stones and vanished quietly.

And Holly felt a wave of loneliness wash over her. She glanced up at the flashing lights, turning from green to red to purple and gold, in quick succession. But it didn't warm her heart. Christmas really was all about friends and family, and with Ozma gone, it seemed a little less cheerful.

She was crestfallen as she made her way back to the ice rink, not really in the mood for a party any more. But somehow, with the buzz of activity, Holly felt her mood lighten. The leprechauns had decided to break out with Christmas carols, and Holly smiled to herself as she listened to their rendition of Carol of the Bells.

"She left then, did she?" Terrance landed on her shoulder.

Holly nodded sadly.

"That's too bad. She's a good time." Terrance brightened. "But really, she was hogging you. Now, we can hang out more."

"Oh, we can, can we?"

Terrance grinned. "What do you say we show those gremlins and pixies how to really throw snowballs?"

Holly blinked, surprised at the proposal, then grinned mischievously. "I think that sounds like a marvelous idea."

And it was. Using a blockade of snow to duck behind, they created a trove of ammunition before they entered the fray, then they let loose, fast and hard. Terrance was too small to do much throwing, instead opting to drop the snowballs from the air like snow bombs.

Holly laughed hysterically as she was pummeled with snowballs thrice as often as she hit a target, but the snowballs of the gremlins and pixies were so small that she hardly noticed them. When she hit them, however, they were on the ground, shaking snow from their bodies.

"Can I have some?" Matthew asked, running up to her and gesturing to the dozen snowballs she had left.

"Go for it!" she told him.

Hot Dog barked excitedly as Matthew rushed the pixies, throwing snowballs like one of those machines that spit out baseballs.

Pretty soon even Nick and Crystal had joined in the fun, and the snow blockade was no longer helpful with the many bodies attacking one another.

By the end of the epic battle, Holly walked away weary, yet satisfied. She had melting snow trickling down her neck, and she couldn't feel her nose, but she'd had a blast. It had certainly taken the sting out of Ozma's departure. She seemed to have made more friends than she'd ever imagined possible.
Chapter Fourteen

There was one more ice skating party before the week leading up to Christmas. Everyone was in a somber mood, and seemed on edge, given the looming deadline. There were no impromptu snowball fights.

By the time the week of Christmas arrived, everyone was running around busily, making last minute preparations. Holly had no one to coach, and mostly just tried to stay out of everybody else's way, often skating alone or taking it upon herself to retrieve the orange sleds from the bottom of the mountain, hauling them back up the path for future use (something the gnomes usually saw to). She wanted to feel useful during this period, especially given how Matthew was still busy as ever with the gremlins. So she quietly did what she could, and otherwise entertained herself.

The bustle of Tinseltown admittedly reminded Holly of the week before Christmas with her parents. Her father would come home late each night with something mysterious tucked under his arms, and would answer Holly and Matthew's interrogations with a knowing smile. Her mother would be busy decorating and baking, filling the house with the aroma of cinnamon and sugar. The memories that flooded her mind put a smile on Holly's face, but also put her in a melancholy mood.

Aunts and uncles would come over for Christmas dinner, bringing gooey bars or caramel popcorn or sweet potatoes, and they would all have a noisy dinner full of catching up, before settling in to watch movies like A Christmas Carol and White Christmas. Holly didn't understand why nobody had wanted to take in Holly and Matthew following their parents' accident, but she understood how they might be seen as a burden. She was just happy that they had found a place in Tinseltown, and that they were viewed as contributors now. And not because they provided "donations."

"Christmas Eve is a full day for us," Ginger explained the day before the twenty-fourth. "Nicholas and his doppelgangers begin their deliveries early, and make their way across the time zones so all of the deliveries are finished under cover of darkness, before Christmas morning."

"And the djinn work their mojo that entire time," Terrance added as he took a bite of the tiniest egg salad sandwich Holly had ever seen. She glanced around the dining hall at the elves and fairies and gnomes, all with bags under their eyes and jittery from caffeine. Anticipation and excitement were thick in the air, and Holly couldn't help but feel giddy herself, given that this was her first Christmas at the North Pole. "Time slows significantly for the various Santa teams, thanks to their efforts."

"What do you two do?" she asked them.

Terrance puffed out his chest. "The fairies journey with the reindeer. We have to use our fairy dust to help them continue to fly throughout the day." He tilted his head. "Just thinking about it makes me tired. I'll be sleeping until the New Year afterward."

Holly looked to Ginger expectantly, who shrugged in response. "I help out wherever I can. Snow runs the show in Tinseltown, feeding information to the Santa teams: weather info, last minute changes in deliveries, that sort of thing. Everyone else gathers intel for her or makes sure that the presents are continually being fed to the correct sleighs."

Holly raised an eyebrow, and Ginger smiled. "Of course not all of the gifts that need to be delivered can fit into the sleighs all at once. Faerie rings are used to teleport presents periodically, to each sleigh. We have to ensure that the right presents are fed to the sleighs at the right times."

"That sounds like quite an operation," Holly commented.

"It is," Ginger acknowledged. "But it all goes smoothly with the right people running things, and Crystal motivates everyone involved with that part of the process."

"Well, I hope I can help too."

"I'm sure they'll find a place for you," Terrance said, glancing up at the clock. "But now, it's time for us to head back to work."

"Oh, yeah," Holly looked up to see that it was well past noon. Have fun! I'll just...be here." But they didn't hear her, as they were already scrambling out the door along with most of the others.

Holly slumped forward and sighed heavily.

"You going to finish that?"

Holly looked up from her Caesar salad to see Nicholas slipping onto the bench across from her. "Go for it," she told him, pushing the plate his way.

He accepted the plate gratefully and began to shovel food into his mouth.

"Are you all ready for the big day?" she asked, watching him indulge his ravenous appetite.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he replied between mouthfuls of food. "I'm well-rested, talked over the game plan with Snow and Crystal, saw to the reindeer teams and assigned fairies and elves to each sleigh...all I need to do now is gather my strength." He lifted the plate. "Fuel up for all the magic I'm about to use."

"Are you nervous?" she asked. "Do you still feel that...Christmas magic? Or is it all business as usual after all these years?"

Nicholas paused in his eating, his fork halfway to his mouth. He set it down and grinned at her. "Holly, it never gets old. Every single Christmas is magical. Each one is different, and each one is special. I hope you feel that way too after you've seen as many as I have." He patted her arm and winked at her. "There's just something about this day. I don't know if we knew what we were getting when we made the pact with the humans, but the results of that pact are spectacular. Christmas is full of magic, promises, and dreams. We've built something wonderful here, and I'm more proud of it than I could ever say."

Holly smiled and nodded. She felt it too. Christmas was something special. And she wanted more than anything to keep it that way.

***

Holly drew a heart on the frosted window as Matthew added two pieces of wood to the fire, sending sparks up the chimney.

"I wonder if Nicholas has ever gone down a chimney with a fire by accident," he murmured.

"He's far too clever for that," Crystal smiled as she stepped into the room. She wore a red velvet cloak with a hood trimmed in white fur. She put the hood up and smiled, her red lips standing out as the glow of the fire lit her face. "And thank you for escorting us to the sleigh."

"Thanks for inviting us," Holly returned her smile. "It's nice to be included. Everyone else seems really busy."

"Well, it's your first Christmas in Tinseltown. You have to be at the send-off." Crystal shrugged. "Honestly, I'm usually all alone, watching those sleighs disappear into the night sky. It always gives me a...sense of dread, for some reason, like Nicholas won't return." She snorted. "I mean, it's silly. We do it every year."

"Yet, you always worry," Nicholas said, sweeping into the room in an ill-fitting red and white suit that hung around him limply, at least twelve sizes too big. It looked like he was drowning in it. He hefted his thick black belt up, then scowled as it drooped back down.

Matthew looked up at him from where he'd been prodding the fire with a poker. "Are you nervous?"

"Not at all. This night is pure fun for me!" With that, Nicholas put his thumb into his mouth and blew. His cheeks inflated, then his arms and legs, and finally, his stomach. As Holly watched, white hair grew from his cheeks like some twisted werewolf transformation, and his hair seemed to slowly lose its pigmentation until it was like a blanket of snow had engulfed his head. Wrinkles crinkled at the corners of his eyes and his nose bulged. When all was said and done, Nicholas let out a jolly "Ho ho ho!"

"Your glasses, dear," Crystal said, shoving a pair of spectacles into his hand.

He slipped them on as Matthew beamed up at him. "That was great!"

"Thank you, my boy," Nicholas bellowed, his voice rich and loud, rather different from his normal speaking voice. It was odd. He seemed like a completely different person.

"Now watch his ego inflate with the rest of him," Crystal said, chuckling.

Nicholas glared at her. "I'm being jolly."

Crystal nodded. "You know I love this little persona." She handed him his hat. "Shall we?"

He took his wife's elbow. "We shall."

They made their way down the winding path of the mountain, and elves and gnomes, fairies and pixies, gremlins and sirens, brownies and leprechauns, all left their warm homes to follow them as they passed by. It seemed that with every couple of steps, another Santa Claus split out from Nicholas' body. Holly would imagine that Nicholas was stopping, but then would see that he had continued to walk on ahead, merely leaving a doppelganger behind. Then, after a moment, the doppelganger would shake its head, as if waking from a dream, then follow the ever-growing procession.

"Are you still the real Santa?" Holly asked one of his doppelgangers, freshly made, and bringing up the rear of the party. He looked exactly like Nicholas.

"Nicholas," he corrected her.

Holly grinned. "Oh, you're definitely still him."

He nodded. "Think of these clones as buttons. I create the clothes I wear when I shape-shift, and I can take them off, and they are still there. I can reabsorb them later, but they're still a part of me when I'm not around. It's like that with all of these Santas. Although you will notice some differences, with the more I make. I get tired after a while, overextend myself, and I already have an army of Santas out there that have been listening to children in malls across the globe."

By the time they reached the bottom of the hill, there were hundreds of Santas, and the parade of fairy creatures had swelled significantly. It seemed that everyone from Tinseltown was in attendance, and then some. As Nicholas had predicted, some of the Santas weren't exact replicas, but were very similar. One had cheeks that stood out more than the others, another had a beard that draped the entire front of his outfit, and another still had a green outfit instead of red. But they were all Nicholas, more or less. As they came to a stop, half a dozen of the Santas turned and sent her a wink at the same time. It was kind of creepy.

"I love this part," Titania said, suddenly at Holly's side.

Holly looked up at her curiously, then watched as Pere Fouettard led the reindeer from the stables out before them.

"What are you all gawking at?" Pere demanded, frowning into the crowd. "If you've seen it once, you've seen it a million times." His eyes landed on Holly and he winked, before turning to look back with everybody else, toward the forest near the snow wall.

Holly squinted, and could just make out more figures approaching. As they drew closer, she could make them out as more reindeer. The sound of jingle bells rang in her ears and she smiled as she saw that the deer were fastened to sleighs.

"Wow!" Matthew said beside her, eyes round.

Holly took in his face and laughed, reaching down to give him a quick squeeze. She could see how magical the moment was to him by the look in his eyes, and she had to admit that she felt it herself.

A tree was leading the reindeer to them. It was a large Oak Tree that walked like a man, albeit slowly. Its branches overhead were naked, but as it approached them, Holly could make out a face in the bark, and two branches swinging at its side like a human. Thick roots twisted themselves into makeshift snowshoes, allowing it to walk easily over the terrain.

"Who is that?" Holly asked Titania.

"That's our resident dryad," Titania informed her, leaning close enough for Holly to smell her. The scent of Jolly Ranchers hung over her. "We call her Grandmother."

Grandmother stopped just before the original Nicholas and smiled kindly, a splitting sound accompanying the motion. She stood well over twelve feet tall, effectively dwarfing Nicholas, but he somehow still seemed so much larger, so that Holly wasn't surprised when the dryad bowed to him. "The sleighs are ready, Sir," she said, her voice creaking, as if she didn't speak much.

Nicholas smiled upon her, and she seemed to glow under its radiance. "Thank you, Grandmother. You are very kind for providing for the reindeer for yet another year."

"It is my supreme pleasure," she answered. "I will await their return anxiously."

Holly noted Pere fasten the reindeer he'd brought from the stables to the head of several sleighs.

Then a red glow drew Holly's eyes to the back of the crowd, where people were parting for Snow, who was pulling Rudolph along behind her.

"What's this?" Nicholas frowned, hands on hips.

Snow shrugged. "A bad snowstorm in the Ukraine. Potential blizzard in Nova Scotia. You're going to need Rudolph this year."

Pere stepped forward and patted Rudolph's side, causing the deer to start. "He's getting fat. Too pampered, this one." He turned to look back at Nicholas. "But perhaps the wee one is right. Better to be prepared." He gestured to one of the reindeer he'd just fastened to a sleigh. "Prancer's been a stubborn one lately. He can sit this year out."

Prancer snorted, then trotted away with Snow as soon as he was released, head held high.

"Gonna have to give that one a lesson or two in the new year," Pere noted. "He's getting airs."

"Prancer's always had airs," Nicholas said, watching Rudolph as he was fastened to the sleigh in Prancer's stead. Holly was happy to hear that she wasn't the only one who'd noticed Prancer's attitude. "I'll take Rudolph."

"And throw off the whole schedule? I think not. You'll be taking Comet," Pere said, gesturing for him to climb aboard another sleigh.

Holly took a few steps closer as Nicholas and his doppelgangers boarded their sleighs. The sleighs themselves were silver and gold, gleaming beneath the moonlight. In back of each sleigh was a huge sack, stuffed with toys, but closed tight against the night.

After the Santas were all in place, an elf accompanied each sleigh, as well as a fairy. Nicholas had Peter with him, who took the reins of the sleigh with obvious pleasure. Terrance waved at Holly happily as he showered the eight reindeer of Santa's sleigh with fairy dust.

And then, with little more ceremony, the reindeer kicked off, beginning with Nicholas' sleigh, although the others weren't far behind. They flew directly up into the air, pulling the sleighs behind them easily, as if they were light as air. And perhaps with the assistance of magic, they were.

"Bye, Nicholas!" Matthew yelled, waving as the sleighs flew by them and continued to ascend into the night sky. "Good luck!"

Holly watched them go with something of a heavy heart. She suddenly understood what Crystal had meant about feeling dread at their departure. Something about the sleighs disappearing into the sky, as if swallowed by darkness, was unsettling. But she had only to remember where they were going to feel better about it.

"Alright," Crystal sighed, looking around her. "We have jobs to do. Let's make this another flawless Christmas. Titania, can you check in on the djinn? Pere, make sure the faerie rings are all in working order?"

The crowd began to disperse, most everyone making their way back to Tinseltown. Holly watched Grandmother taking slow, measured steps back toward her forest.

Holly felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down to see Matthew staring up at her. "He won't forget to bring presents for us, will he?"

Holly almost laughed out loud, but kept it contained at the serious expression on his face. "I doubt very much that he would forget about us. Now come on, let's get some hot chocolate and get warmed up."

"Actually," Crystal placed a hand on Holly's shoulder. "The gremlins are on stand-by all day and could really use Matthew's help, if that's alright. If anything should happen to the sleighs, they need to go through the rings to fix things quickly. I was hoping we could have Matthew stay in a cot nearby, in case he's needed."

"Um, sure," Holly said, frowning. She looked at Matthew. "Is that all right with you, Matthew?"

Matthew nodded happily. "Yeah! Me and the gremlins have been working on my ray beam to melt the snow in a blizzard, but we've incorporated magic into it so that it won't accidentally start any fires. There's only one Rudolph to go around, so they might need it someday. And we're sooo close to finishing – we could maybe even finish tonight!"

"Sounds like you've been busy," Crystal said, impressed.

"And maybe we'll attack the smurfs tonight!"

"The smurfs?" Crystal frowned as Matthew ran over to a gaggle of gremlins, who immediately began to crawl all over him.

"Don't ask."

Crystal smirked. "I was wondering if you would like to keep me company tonight."

Holly raised an eyebrow. "Really? You don't think I would be in the way?"

"Not at all. It would be nice to have an...assistant for a change."

Holly suddenly felt a lot lighter than before. In fact, she nearly felt giddy with anticipation. She would get to see all of the behind-the-scenes goings-on of Christmas Eve from Tinseltown!

"Before we head to the elves' workshop though, I have a small errand to run. Care to accompany me?"

"Anything you need!" Holly replied, happily. And she followed Crystal around the base of the mountain happily, ignorant of the catastrophe that lay ahead.
Chapter Fifteen

At first, Holly thought that Crystal was leading her to the snow wall, perhaps to check in with the snowmen. If the yeti were going to plan an attack on Tinseltown, it seemed that Christmas Eve was a natural time, given how busy everyone would be. And so Holly kept walking past the dark black house that stood apart from everything else. She stopped after she'd taken a half dozen steps and hadn't heard the crunch of snow beneath Crystal's boots. She looked back over her shoulder to see Crystal standing before the black house, its featureless face staring back at her blankly.

Hesitantly, Holly backtracked and put a hand on Crystal's shoulder. "Crystal? What's wrong?"

Crystal's eyes were fastened on the doors, and she didn't respond to Holly at first, as if she were in a trance.

"Mrs. Claus?" Holly licked her lips. "Are you okay?"

Crystal seemed to rouse herself then and tore her eyes from the house reluctantly. She studied Holly for a moment, head cocked. "I think something's wrong in there."

Holly swallowed hard and looked up at the dark house. A light wind rustled the dead branches of the black pine tree, but everything else was still, like the calm before a storm. "Something like what?"

"That's what I'd like to find out."

Holly took a step back and wrapped her arms around herself. She looked back at the lights of Tinseltown and the safety it afforded. From this vantage point, the mountain looked like a Christmas tree, streetlamps and various colored lights winding along the road like a coil of lights, all the way to the top. "We should get help."

"It might be too late by the time we return," Crystal said. She frowned. "Did you enter this house?"

"Sure. With Nicholas and Ozma."

Crystal looked troubled. "These doors haven't been opened in a long while. Something may have been inadvertently disturbed. Or perhaps Ozma..." She bit her lip. "I knew that girl was up to no good. Was it her idea to go to the house in the first place?"

Holly's eyes widened, thus answering her question. Crystal nodded, as if to confirm her suspicions. "Quick, child. Open the doors. I can right this wrong, if it isn't too late. We must keep them frozen."

Holly nodded and even though she felt Crystal's urgency, she hesitated. The house just felt...sick. And she didn't want to be in its presence for any longer than she had to. But she couldn't just ignore it if something was wrong. What if one of the monsters within escaped just because she was uneasy around it? No, she had to do this. Crystal was a fairy, after all. She had powers, and could protect them if anything went awry.

Holly reached out and gripped the handles of the doors. Then she paused. "How do you know that something's wrong?"

Crystal pursed her lips. "I can just feel it. It's a gift I have."

"To feel things? How come I never heard of your gift before?" She dropped her hands and turned to see fire burning in Crystal's eyes. Her patience was obviously wearing thin, but this was something else. It was as if things weren't going as Crystal had planned and she was frustrated with her.

"What is this?" Holly whispered, drawing her hands to her chest.

Crystal took a step closer and towered over Holly, her eyes serious, her jaw set. "I need you to open those doors, Holly."

"And what if I don't?"

Holly didn't see the hand coming, but suddenly her head had spun to the side and her cheek stung from the flat of Crystal's hand.

"You will open these doors!" Crystal demanded, grabbing Holly's arms and pulling her toward the door.

"No!" Holly cried, trying to yank her hands out from Crystal's grasp.

"Then I'll have to get your brother to do it. Any human will do. Do you really want me to get him involved in this?"

Holly stopped struggling then and looked Crystal in the face. "I thought you were different. But you're no better than Grott or any of the others who wanted to use us."

"Grott is nothing compared to a pissed-off fairy, I promise you that. I can harm your brother in ways you can't imagine if you don't open these doors for me."

By the tone of Crystal's voice and the madness bleeding into her eyes, Holly didn't doubt her words.

"I won't let you hurt him," Holly said, her voice even.

"Then don't make me."

Holly swallowed hard, then put her hands on the door handles. And with a deep breath, she pushed open the doors.

Crystal smiled as the doors opened inward. She clapped her hands and gazed inside with joy. "See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"Nope," Holly agreed. "See you later, then." She turned on her heel, but Crystal gripped her by the collar and pushed her through the threshold and into the dark house.

"What we need is a little privacy," Crystal said, shutting the doors firmly behind them. "And a little light to see by." With a wave of her hand, balls of fire appeared at the corners of the room, and suddenly the prisoners of ice stood out against the darkness.

Holly shrunk back against the wall as Crystal strode into the room, laughing.

"Glorious!" Crystal shouted. "You don't know how happy you've made me, Holly."

"My pleasure," Holly muttered.

Crystal looked back at her and clucked her tongue. "Come now. Don't sulk. You don't know what a gift you've given me this day, Miss Hamilton." She pulled a crystal globe from out of one of her pockets and held it up to the light so Holly could see it.

Squinting, Holly saw that it was the snow globe that Crystal had shown them their first day in Tinseltown. Two women stood in a forest of birch trees, facing one another, arms raised. She shook the globe and fake snow drifted down over them. "My sister and I," Crystal said, eyes crinkling as she smiled. "We were so happy back in those days, when we were free to roam the human world. But my sister was a lot like you. She was fiery, and wouldn't stand down when we made the truce with the humans. I conceded, and eventually married Nicholas. My sister's fate, however..." She waved at one of the forms entrapped in ice, a woman looking sadly out from her prison, white hair cascading over her light blue dress. She resembled Crystal. Holly blinked and took a step closer, despite herself.

Crystal wiped at the frost that had accumulated on the edge of the glass, blurring the figure, and suddenly it was like Crystal was staring into a mirror. The two women were identical.

"Twins," Holly breathed.

"Yes, twins," Crystal agreed, looking the icy figure over. "You see what you've done for me? You've reunited me with my sister. What wouldn't you give to save your brother from a similar fate?"

Despite the trickery she'd used to get Holly to open those doors, Holly did understand. She would do anything for Matthew, even in the face of others she cared about. Even if it meant breaking the law. He was her everything, her only family. And she'd made that promise to her parents, one that she didn't take lightly. So she empathized with Crystal. "You could have told me."

Crystal smiled sadly. "I'm afraid my sister has a rather poor reputation. I couldn't risk it. I am sorry for how this had to go down."

Holly frowned. "How is this going to go down? What are you going to do?"

"I am going to free her from her prison, and then we will disappear together."

"Disappear?" Holly echoed. "But Tinseltown...Nicholas..."

Sadness frosted Crystal's features and she looked pained for a moment. "It was a difficult decision, Holly. I don't want to leave Nick...or any of this. But I can't sit back and enjoy my life while my sister rots in here. My two worlds aren't compatible. I...have to leave. I've sat back idly and done nothing for long enough."

"I get it," Holly acknowledged. "I'm just sorry you have to go."

Crystal smiled. "I am truly sorry for the subterfuge. And please, tell Nick..." She sighed. "I don't think I have the words."

"I think he'll understand."

"That's kind of you to say, but I'm afraid that this betrayal will cut deep."

The fire ball in the furthest corner of the room rushed forward and flanked the ice surrounding Crystal's twin. Condensation slowly sweated across its surface at first, before it began to melt in rivulets.

"What did she do that was so horrible to warrant this?" Holly asked, feeling conflicted.

"We were born the daughters of The Ice King." Crystal patted the elderstone strung around her neck by the slender silver chain. "He controlled the snowfall and had amazing powers over icy landscapes and arctic winds, ruling the land with an iron fist, thanks to this little stone here. When he died, he bequeathed this stone to our care." She lifted the stone from her neck and with a small grunt, pried the stone into two pieces. "He split the stone into two shards, giving us both equal shares of his kingdom. And together, we reigned over the snowy landscapes as he did, as Ice Queens." Crystal gently pushed the pieces of stone together again, and they fit snugly into one large stone, which twinkled and fell back against her chest as she let it go. "Celeste did not wish to conform with the laws once the fairies struck their deal with the humans. She...well, she preferred to have humans serve her, as a queen, a ruler, the way we were raised by our father. When she didn't dissolve her kingdom, she was forced into this."

"And you did comply with the laws?"

"I did, and when my sister was taken away, I held onto her stone for safe keeping, adding it to the power of my own."

"And what? You think you can convince her to live in this world now?"

"I think so. I've had decades to come up with arguments and counter-arguments. She will listen to me. She will have to. She will be weak when she breaks free of her prison, her powers atrophied over time, and I will whisk her away from here. And perhaps after living in solitude for several years, we can return. I just need to work on Celeste a bit before that happens."

"Well, for what it's worth, I'm rooting for you."

Crystal smiled. "Thank you, Holly."

Celeste was free of the majority of the ice, and what remained clung to her skin in patches. Her hair looked brittle and her lips were tinged blue, but otherwise, she was a dead ringer for her sister.

As soon as the traces of snow had disappeared and color had begun to return to her cheeks, Celeste's eyes fluttered, and then her arms twitched and shifted.

"Sister?" Crystal said, eagerly stepping forward. She dispersed the fire and put a hand out to steady Celeste as she raised a slim hand to her head.

"Crystal?" Celeste asked in wonder. She looked around. "Am I free? Is this real? It's not a dream?"

"It's not," Crystal replied, tears of joy slipping from her eyes. "You don't know what torture it has been, knowing that you were imprisoned here, hoping for release, while I waited for an opportunity to free you. But that day has come." She threw her arms around Celeste and cried into her shoulder.

Celeste looked out of it, and stared around at her surroundings until her eyes landed on Holly. "And what is this? A human girl?"

Crystal pulled back and swiped at her eyes. "Yes. She helped me access this place, to free you. But we must go quickly, if we are to escape."

Celeste stumbled and her sister caught her. "Are we still at The North Pole? What day is this?"

"It's Christmas Eve," Crystal told her. "And yes, we are at The North Pole. But we're going to have to leave this place, hide you elsewhere until you recuperate, under the radar. Much has changed since you've been gone."

"Christmas Eve," Celeste scoffed. "That accursed night that the treaty relies upon? Don't tell me that you've aided these traitors all these years."

Crystal sighed. "Celeste...it's not like that. Things are good now. We'll have plenty of time to discuss our course of action."

"Our course of action is simple: We stop our kind from fulfilling our end of the treaty so the contract is void. Then we can take back what has been denied us."

"Sister..."

Celeste's eyes flashed. "You've grown weak over the years, I think. You've been swayed by their talks of peace. You forget who you are. What we once were. Feared by the humans, served as gods. And now we cower in a frozen tundra, serving them. It's completely unacceptable."

"Please, Celeste. Just hear me out. I know that you're bitter-"

"Bitter? Bitter doesn't begin to cover it! But if you're not with me, you're against me. A pity." Celeste reached out and snatched the elderstone from Crystal's neck. The silver chain snapped loudly in the room, and a flash of power coursed into Celeste from the stone. Crystal made a mad grab for the stone, but Celeste held her back, a smile growing over her face as her strength returned. "That's much better," she said, suddenly grabbing Crystal by the throat with her free hand, a ring of ice forming around Crystal's neck. Celeste held her sister a few inches up from the floor. "You think that I was hard of hearing in that ice prison? I heard everything you said to your little human pet. And unfortunately for you, it seems that my strength has returned rather quickly, thanks to our father's inheritance."

Crystal tore at her sister's hand for naught, and then her eyes swung up to Holly's desperately. But Holly didn't know what to do. She stood rooted to the spot, unable to move.

"I think it's your turn to feel the numbing bite of this frozen prison, sister," Celeste spat. "See how charitable you feel toward these traitors when you are freed a century from now."

The ice that had started at Crystal's neck flowed over the rest of her body like water, clinging to her flesh. It continued to expand until it was three inches thick, before Celeste set her down.

Holly stood in horror, her eyes searching Crystal's face, frozen in startled horror as the realization of what she'd done had hit home. And she would remain that way until she was released once more.

"Now, then," Celeste tapped her lips and looked around the room. "If I can't count on my own sister's help, I'll have to look elsewhere. And it seems that I don't need to look far."

She turned to Holly, causing her to jump. "And what to do with you?"
Chapter Sixteen

"Remember, if you betray me, I will find this brother of yours," Celeste warned in Holly's ear. "It won't be hard for Amarok, the giant wolf, to sniff out the sole human male in this village. And I will do things to him that my sister never would have dreamed of."

Holly let a shiver creep up her spine as she nodded toward the elves' workshop. "This is it."

"It had better be."

Leading her to the door, Holly looked back at Celeste, struck once more by how she looked exactly like Crystal, but with a cruel twinkle in her eyes. And beyond Celeste, sticking close to the shadows, other dark creatures. The largest of them, the ice giant Hrimthurs, blended into the mountainside flawlessly. But there were no witnesses to the parade of evil. Everyone was too busy this night to be out and about. Well, aside from the random creature that didn't know any better. A pixie bumped into Holly and flew around her head several times before disappearing into the night with a chuckling sound. It wouldn't be warning anybody of imminent danger, and Celeste seemed to instinctually know this, not bothering to even mention the creature.

"Just promise that you won't hurt anyone," Holly said, her hand on the doorknob.

Celeste smiled, a bitterness coming through her lips. "I won't harm anyone that matters."

Holly swallowed hard, and led her through the doors. Holly took her time to dislodge the snow from her boots, but she knew she was only delaying the inevitable.

Another pixie swirled around Holly on its dragonfly wings, giving her an excuse to pause for another moment. The pixie made a chuckling sound before it vanished.

"Enough," Celeste snapped after Holly had lifted a boot to scrape ice from the valleys in the soles.

Holly bit her lip and nodded, leading her through the doors of the workshop.

The workbenches had been removed, in favor of dozens of fairy rings, which were spread all along the floor, up and down the large space, a group of elves anxiously looking over each one. Runners were pulling wagons full of giftwrapped toys to each ring, ready to reload the sleighs once given the signal from the particular Santa they were assisting. It was quite the production, and the room hummed with excited voices.

Ginger noticed them and approached as quickly as his little legs would carry him. "Mrs. Claus! Everyone's in position, and awaiting your orders!"

Celeste sent Holly a warning look to keep quiet, then smiled warmly at Ginger. "You've done a wonderful job staging this. Please, tell everyone to take a break before we really get going. It's going to be a long night."

Ginger tilted his head, his frosted eyebrows pulling down in confusion. "A break? But we have to watch-"

"I will watch for anything that comes up," Celeste interrupted him. "And little Holly here can assist me. Take ten minutes. And make sure to clear the room."

Hesitantly, Ginger stalked over to a group of nearby elves, who helped him to quickly spread the word.

Two pixies began to swirl around Holly again, who swatted them away gently, earning a round of giggles from them before they left her, disappearing somewhere overhead.

"Thank you, Ma'am!" a few elves said upon quitting the room. "Very generous of you!"

Celeste took it all in with a smile until the last elf had vacated the space. Then Ginger stood before her, waiting for additional instructions. "Why, you can take a break too."

"I would rather be here to help you," Ginger said, bowing. "It would be an honor."

"Well, you won't be any good to me when you're exhausted by the day's end."

"I don't sleep," Ginger countered, frowning.

Celeste nodded to herself. "Aw, yes. How could I forget. Still, I'd rather have a private word with Holly, if you don't mind."

"Oh, alright," Ginger agreed. He sent a questioning look Holly's way, before closing the door behind him.

"I thought that overtalkative pastry would never leave," Celeste growled. She turned to Holly. "Quickly, now. Open the back door and admit our friends."

Holly frowned. If she just warned all of the elves in the other room, they could perhaps overwhelm The Ice Queen with sheer numbers. But even as she thought it, she remembered the ice sheet she'd used to entomb her own sister. She was not to be underestimated. The elves didn't have special powers or an elderstone. Even three hundred to one, The Ice Queen could probably freeze them all with the flick of her hand. And then where would that leave them? And Matthew...she couldn't risk it.

"Well?" Celeste barked. "I'm not accustomed to having to repeat my every command."

Holly glared at her, then stomped over to the door, throwing it open wide.

Amarok, the wolf entered first, its great yellow eyes glowing against the night like twin fires. He leapt through the doorway and quickly sidled up to Celeste, who thoughtlessly ran a hand over the thick gray hair atop his head.

Next entered the wendigo, who had to turn sideways to be admitted. He loomed over Holly, a deep growl emitting from his powerful chest as he stomped by, allowing her a good look at the deadly claws at the end of his claws, covered in shaggy white hair.

Yuki Onna floated through the doorway like a breeze, silently and unremarkably, her inky hair trailing over the back of her white kimono. Her face was powder-white, with lips tinged blue. Her eyes were like gazing into bottomless black pits. She carried a small ice cube, which she tossed to the floor. It quickly grew into the form of the ice giant, Hrimthurs, who had to hunch over to avoid crashing through the ceiling. He was a couple stories tall, and in place of the features of his face were dark caverns of darkness that formed eyes and a mouth. He looked haunted and horrible.

The Abominable Snowman slid into the workshop, pulling himself through the door with arms made of sturdy branches, and ending in claws that looked like they'd been ripped from a polar bear. He was lanky, with a rope around his neck, a noose hanging over his chest like a mock tie. The steel bear trap it used for a mouth rattled as it traversed the room, and Holly realized with a start that its eyes were human eyes. Actual human eyes. She could still see some gristle hanging from them.

The fake Santa Claus was last. The Krampus. He lit a match on the door frame as he entered the room, and lit his pipe. The light momentarily flared up to illuminate his face and the horns that swirled on each side of his head like a ram. He puffed out a cloud of dark smoke as he stepped into the room with a click.

Holly's eyes darted to the floor, where a cloven hoof stepped onto the tile. He took another step into the room and Holly took a step back, like they were performing some macabre dance. His whole bottom half was like a goat. It seemed very demonic and unnatural on him, especially given the Santa coat he had shrugged into, his red cap hanging askew from his head.

He chuckled and leered at her, his whiskers looking stiff and coarse, his eyes bleary and sickly-yellow. "Too bad you're not on the naughty list, Honey," he said through yellowed teeth.

Holly swallowed hard as he swept by her, the smell of something rotting left in his wake. What was more haunting than the terrible, twisted aspects of him was what she recognized in his face and gait. Nicholas. She saw Nicholas in his eyes and forehead, in his strong shoulders and arms, and the way his cheeks dimpled. And then she realized at once that this was one of Nicholas' doppelgangers. But one that had come out very, very wrong. She tried not to think of the stories that Sleepy had told of his evil deeds, but she could see the malice in the lines of the Krampus' face, and in his eyes.

Holly stood still for a moment, feeling the enormity of what she'd just done, who she'd just let into that room, before she took a deep, shuddering breath. When she turned back toward Celeste, she saw that she was directing some of the monsters through one of fairy rings.

Hrimthurs was swallowed quickly, despite his size, as he leapt into the ring. Yuki Onna was there one second, then gone the next.

"Remember to make him pay," Celeste instructed the Krampus, pointing toward the fairy ring outlined in red chalk.

"That, I will," The Krampus promised. He turned to wink at Holly, unsettlingly similar to Nicholas, and disappeared.

Celeste sighed and turned to Holly. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

"What are they going to do?" Holly asked in a small voice.

"Stop this ridiculous tradition called Christmas from continuing, of course. How they accomplish that, what terror needs to be sown to strike fear into the mortals, I don't really care."

Holly felt her hands shaking, but couldn't tear her eyes from Celeste. She wanted to ask why. She wanted to scream at her. But she was frozen to the spot, for Holly had played a large part in this. She had aided this monster.

"Now," Celeste clapped, snapping Holly from her stupor. "You are going to lead Amarok to the djinn."

Holly blinked and stared at the great wolf, looking away once she met those yellow eyes again. The wendigo and abominable snowman stood behind the wolf quietly, looking anxious to break things. "The djinn?" she repeated.

Celeste raised an eyebrow. "Of course. As soon as Amarok takes out those filthy little creatures, their little spell over time will make it impossible for Nick and his fleet of Santas to fulfill their part of the treaty." She paused. "And, of course, we'll have to do something about those dreadful snowmen after that. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet."

"The yeti."

"Of course, the yeti." Celeste smiled. "Now, be a good girl and do as you're told. Or suffer the consequences."

Feeling powerless, Holly watched Amarok come close and bow his head to her.

Holly frowned at first before realizing that he meant for her to climb onto his back. She did so, feeling numb, before he threw himself into the night at the same time that the door opened behind Celeste.

Celeste whirled around with a giant grin on her face as Ginger stepped into the room.

"Oh, where did Holly go?" he inquired, the elves filing in behind him.

"On an errand," Celeste answered truthfully. She cocked her head. "Tell me. Where is Matthew right now?"

"Matthew?" Ginger frowned. "In the next room, with the gremlins. They're working on that heat ray thingy."

"Heat ray?" Celeste echoed, her eyes glittering with excitement. "How perfectly delightful. Be a dear and fetch him for me, won't you?"
Chapter Seventeen

Holly closed her eyes against the cold as Amarok propelled them through the night, his great paws digging into the snow of the path with each bound, and springing them forward, ever closer to the djinn.

Ginger hadn't shown Holly and Matthew the house where the djinn resided, but Terrance had mentioned it in passing once. It was near the top of the mountain, in a lodge jutting out from the rock, twelve feet up from the path so that it wasn't very easy to access.

"You don't have to do this," Holly yelled to be heard over the wind whipping in her face, swallowing her voice as soon as she spoke.

In reply, the wolf beneath her seemed to gain speed.

Holly felt defeated, but perhaps once the time spell unraveled, the people of Tinseltown would realize what was going on and would be able to put a stop to it. Holly was under no illusions that they would let her stick around after this disaster, but if she could somehow keep the treaty in place, she didn't care what happened to her. She was tough, and she could make it anywhere.

As Amarok came to a sudden stop, Holly realized that they'd reached their destination. She gazed up the path that continued up to the castle that Nicholas and Crystal resided in, then swung her head toward the rock face to her left, lifting her eyes to the glass and metal that stuck out unnaturally from the stone like a splinter in the mountain. Yellow lights glowed warmly from the glass in what looked vaguely like a lodge at a ski resort. Holly could imagine people sitting inside in snow boots, sipping cocoa as they warmed themselves after a night on the slopes. But she knew that it was actually a trio of djinn working their spell within. A spell that was instrumental to Christmas.

Holly was suddenly bucked and thrown into the snow, and she grunted as she hit the snow-packed path with a thud. "Hey!" she protested. "I could have broken my neck, you crazy mongrel!"

She glared back at Amarok, and was suddenly facing a boy. He had milky white skin, his chest exposed to the frigid air, and long white hair. But his eyes glowed yellow, just as Amarok's had, leaving Holly little doubt of who stood before her.

Climbing to her feet, Holly stood carefully, watching the tall boy with the muscular chest as he tilted his head to study the djinn residence. The lower half of his body was covered with thick white fur, and his hands ended in wicked-looking talons. As if sensing her watching him, he turned his head back to her and grinned, revealing sharp teeth. Holly stiffened, reminded of a werewolf. But she had little time to think about it, as he quickly darted out and grabbed her around the waist, hoisting her over his shoulder in one fluid motion before beginning to quickly scale the mountainside.

Now would be her chance to act, if she had some sort of weapon. Amarok's hands were busy, his attention focused elsewhere. He was exposed to her. If she had her ice skates in hand, she could slice through that white skin easily, but she had no lucky instrument on her. Instinctively, she dug into the pocket of her jeans and her mouth opened, nearly releasing a gasp of surprise. But she held it in check as her hand wrapped around one of a half dozen icicle-shaped ornaments. The pixies she'd encountered! Tears of joy nearly trickled out of her cheeks as she slowly lifted the ornament from her pocket and looked it over. It was only glass, but it was solid glass, and came to a deliciously sharp point. It would have to do.

Turning her head, she regarded Amarok's solid back. But she had little time left to think about it. They were nearly to the djinn building. She lifted her arm high and sliced it downward with all of her strength behind the blow.

The ornament sliced easily through Amarok's flesh, and she left it buried in his back as he threw her from him like a doll.

Holly only had enough time to release a startled "Ah!" before slamming into a pine tree, its branches cushioning the impact, before she fell the rest of the way to the ground. She sucked in a breath as she landed on her back, a rock bruising her hip. But she was relatively unharmed.

The wind whipped her hair, tearing at it furiously as she stood. She saw Amarok not twenty feet away, back in wolf form. A red splash stood out against his snow white fur, and trickled over the ground, like he was a leaky water balloon.

Reaching into her pocket, Holly pulled out another icicle ornament, but it seemed small and insignificant now, especially as she looked into the furious eyes of the wolf, its teeth bared. A low growl rose in the distance between them, causing Holly to swallow hard. She could really use those ice skates right about now.

"What is this now?" a voice rang out along the path.

The wolf's head snapped up, and Holly turned to see a figure ascending the mountain behind her. She recognized the pink dress immediately. "Titania, get out of here!" she called out to her.

But the fairy either didn't hear Holly, or chose to ignore her.

"Is this a stray wolf?" Titania asked, walking in between them. She turned to the wolf. "And just how did you get past the snowmen? And did you climb that snow barrier? Quite impressive, little beasty."

"Titania..." Holly tried again, but was silenced by a sharp look from the fairy.

Titania smiled sweetly back at the wolf. "But what's even more impressive than all that is those teeth. You have marvelous teeth, you wicked thing. And I would have them."

Amarok snapped at her, then charged.

But Titania seemed ready for it. She lifted an arm and it was like an invisible wall slammed into the wolf, sending it careening through the air. It struck the mountainside with a sharp cry before it fell to the ground, limp.

Holly stared at the wolf for a moment before turning wide eyes on Titania. "Titania...thank you. You saved my life."

"Yes, I did, didn't I?" Titania examined her nails. "And just what sort of mischief have you gotten yourself into, little lamb?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"That looked like Amarok, so I assume that the others have escaped as well?"

Holly blinked. "Okay, maybe you would believe me."

Titania chuckled. "You'll have to..." Her voice trailed off as she squinted past Holly, into the night sky.

Holly frowned, then turned around to see a golden light shine out from somewhere on the mountain below. The ray of light covered the distance between the mountain and the snow wall quickly. And its effects on the wall were similar to that of a knife through bread. The snow wall disappeared anywhere the light came into contact with it. And as they watched in stunned silence, the light continued along the wall as the whatever was creating it moved around the mountain.

"Oh, my," Titania breathed. "That's not good."

"The snowmen," Holly shook her head slowly. "No. This can't be happening."

And then, from out in the darkness beyond the melting wall, a chorus of inhuman howls rose up into the sky.
Chapter Eighteen

The yeti were fast, traversing the distance to the mountain in leaps and bounds with their long, powerful arms propelling them forward.

"We have to warn everyone!" Holly said, a note of panic rising in her voice.

"I can do it," Titania nodded. "I'm faster than you are, and someone needs to check on the snowmen. They may have..." Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's already too late."

"We don't know that," Holly told her. "I'll get down there. But you have to know that Crystal's been replaced by her twin sister, and she has her elderstone."

"Celeste," Titania's lips curled upward. "Of course. This has her stink all over it. She always did have nice teeth though."

Holly blinked at her. She couldn't quite believe that she was working with Titania. "And get Matthew to safety? Please?"

"I will do everything in my power," Titania replied. "But my power is fading fast. It took most of what I have to take out Amarok. What I have left is going to have to go into fast flying."

"Just keep him safe until I get back. Promise me that."

"With my life."

Holly hesitated, then nodded. "Alright. Let's do this then." She watched as Titania lifted into the night air, then blinked out of sight.

Pushing her wind-strewn hair out of her face, Holly gazed down the mountain to see the yeti climbing the paths quickly. There were hundreds of them. Dozens of them were attacking the stables, the snapping of wood echoing in the night. Her heart beating wildly in her chest, Holly wondered how she was going to get to the snow wall, past all of those savage creatures. And then her eyes landed on the sled path. Of course. That would be the fastest way down anyway. With any luck, she would lure some of the yeti back down the mountain too, and the residents of Tinseltown would be a little safer for a little longer.

The sound of wheels crunching over the path met Holly's ears, and she looked further down the path to see a hulking white figure pulling a sled along behind him. The light that had melted the snow wall sat in the sled snugly, its yellow glow still slicing through the night.

Holly's eyes met the Wendigo's eyes at the same time as it saw her. It dropped the rope it had used to pull the sled as it noticed Amarok's crumpled form. Holly was already flying down the path before it let out a loud roar, baring teeth that would put a saber-toothed tiger to shame. And would make Titania salivate.

The sleds lay between Holly and the Wendigo, and she was determined to reach them first. Being small and quick on her feet, Holly found it a simple task. The Wendigo lumbered toward her, arms outstretched, fangs bared. But if he couldn't reach her, he couldn't hurt her. With shaky hands, she grabbed a bright orange plastic sled and flung it onto the sledding path, leaping onto it just as the Wendigo reached her. She could literally feel the air that the Wendigo's claws cut through tickle the back of her neck as the sled took off with alarming speed.

Holly braced herself, white-knuckled hands gripping the edges of the sled tightly as she grit here teeth against the cold air that made her eyes tear and her nose ooze. She slipped easily by one path crossing without any trouble, and grunted as she bounced back onto the sled path, dropping down a steeper incline that made her stomach flip-flop.

Up ahead, Holly could see yeti on the path. They really looked like white gorillas up close, but much scarier, with big teeth and terrible claws. But she was going too fast for them to catch her. She zipped between two of them as she crossed the path once again, their angry cries echoing behind her in protest. And then she was slowing, having reached the bottom of the mountain. Without waiting for the sled to come to a complete stop, she leapt from the plastic, and hit the snow hard, her boots crunching in the snow loudly with each footfall. She didn't hear anyone pursuing her, but she wasn't going to take any chances. She ran as if the devil himself was at her heels. And she didn't stop until she'd reached the snow wall.

At first, she didn't even see the snow wall. But she gave pause when her boots let out a squishing noise. She looked down to see her foot in a pile of slush. And then she tilted her head as she caught her breath. The slush was in a curved line, about six feet wide, just as the snow wall had been. She blinked as she realized that nothing remained of it whatsoever. She let out a deep, shuddering breath and looked away, her eyes landing on piles of random objects: a pipe, a carrot, balls of coal, buttons, scarves, ear muffs, and top hats.

She realized that she was gazing on what remained of the snowmen. "Oh, god. No..." She fell to her knees, tears dripping from her eyes. She let out a small sob as she thought of little Hot Dog, his makeshift tail wagging. "No. No. No."

"They are gone," a voice creaked behind her.

Jumping at the voice, Holly rose to her feet and swiped at her wet eyes, her arm running over her nose to wipe away the snot that had collected there as well. She blinked at the immense form of the dryad, her naked branches dangling overhead. She shifted, the mouth carved into the bark making a loud crackling noise as it turned down into a frown. "They are gone," she repeated.

"I know," Holly said. "And it's all my fault." She shook her head. "It's because of me that The Ice Queen's loose, and the wendigo and the ice giant and...and the yeti."

"You can't blame yourself for these events," the dryad said slowly, a foot of twisted roots lifting it a step closer. "If it hadn't been you, it would have been another human. These events were planned long before you arrived. Crystal always was weak."

"What?" Holly frowned, looking up. "What do you mean by that, Grandmother?"

Grandmother sighed, a sound like leaves in the wind. "She would visit the black house, like a tomb, and stand outside it for hours. Her longing for her sister was too much for her to bear. It was cruel that they should have ever been separated. Exiling them would have been the more humane thing to do."

"Well, Crystal got what she deserved then," Holly said, anger rising in her chest. "She's a block of ice now too. Guess that's what she gets for caring about her brother."

"You mean sister."

Holly opened her mouth to issue a retort, then closed it, swallowing hard. "I have to get my brother. He's in danger."

"There's only one person who can stop The Ice Queen," Grandmother said, stopping her.

Frowning, Holly tried to think of who she could mean.

The dryad pushed something into her hand, and Holly closed her hand around what felt like pebbles without thinking. She blinked and looked down at her hand as she opened it. A dozen little green seeds sat in her palm.

"What am I supposed to do with these?" Holly wondered. "Go farming?"

"You'll know what to do when the time is right."

Scowling at her vague words, Holly turned on her heels. "Well, nice knowing you. Try not to die." And with that, she sprinted away, back toward the chaos of Tinseltown. It's not that she didn't trust Titania, but, well, she only sort of did. And Matthew was too important to leave in her hands. Holly had to do something to make sure he was safe, him and the rest of Tinseltown.

As she drew nearer to Tinseltown, she could make out yeti all over the mountainside, from the base to the tip-top. Elves and leprechauns and other creatures were screaming, running from the beasts, who had set fire to one of the houses and were ruining others.

She was so preoccupied by what was going on ahead of her that Holly didn't notice the yeti surrounding her until she nearly ran smack dab into one of them.

"Oh!" she cried, stepping back as the yeti growled at her and flashed his teeth.

Holly took a step back, then looked around at a half dozen others. They all began to beat on their chests like gorillas, mouths open wide to show off their sharp yellow fangs. One began to emit a crazy half-laugh that unnerved her. "I don't suppose we could talk about this?" she asked, shrinking into herself.

As if in reply, the one ahead of her took a bold step toward her.

And then they all parted as something jumped into the middle of the fray, landing beside Holly gracefully. Eyes wide, Holly barely had time to take in the creature before she realized what she needed to do. She threw herself onto the back of the reindeer, and it leapt gracefully over the heads of the yeti easily, leaving them behind, howling in rage.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you," Holly said, clinging to the reindeer's neck. "I could kiss you."

Prancer looked back at her and snorted.

She blinked at him, then smirked. "Yeah, I think that's going too far too." She patted his neck as he charged up the mountain, easily avoiding yeti left and right. "I have to get back to the elf workshop. That's where The Ice Queen is."

As if in answer, Prancer galloped right past the workshop.

"Hey!" she protested. "Hey! Stop right now, you stupid moose! My brother's in there!"

Prancer pulled up short a moment later and indicated with a flick of its head that she should get off.

"Rude thing," she murmured, looking up at Titania's candy shop. "Why did you bring me here? You want a candy apple or something? Well, too bad." She began to walk back down the mountain toward the workshop, but Prancer trotted into her path and protested with a snort.

"Out of my way," she grimaced, then paused as the sound of voices came to her ears. Perking up, she turned in the other direction and skulked up the path. Around the next bend, she saw bright lights. Pressing herself close to the mountainside, she inched along the rough surface to get a quick look.

Dozens of elves and gnomes had been rounded up, including Snow, Peter and Pere Fouettard. They were bound and gagged and sitting in a semicircle in the middle of the path. Meanwhile, a dozen yeti and the Wendigo stood against the rock face, watching them and grumbling to each other.

Frowning, Holly watched the scene for a moment. She had to do something. The yeti could destroy Tinseltown without their help. And who knew what they were going to do with the prisoners?

Pulling on her hair, Holly walked back and forth for a moment, before a hand clamped over her mouth.

Her scream muffled, Holly turned with wide eyes on her attacker and immediately stopped fighting.

Ozma put a finger up to her lips for silence.

Holly nodded and let out a relieved sigh when Ozma removed her hand from Holly's mouth. "Oh, my god, Ozma. I am so happy to see you."

Ozma nodded. "I leave for a few weeks and the place goes to hell. Figures."

Holly chuckled, but it was a forced laugh. "We are in so much trouble."

"I know. I saw it all through my magic picture when I looked in on you."

"And?"

"And reinforcement will be here soon, but in the meantime, we need to free those prisoners."

"Yeah," Holly agreed, then glanced back out at the yeti and the mountain they leaned against. Her eyes fell to the sprite nest over their heads. "And I think I have an idea for that."
Chapter Nineteen

"Ouch!" Ozma tripped and nearly dropped the jar she carried, then righted herself by placing a hand against the rock wall.

"You okay?" Holly looked back.

"I'm fine."

Holly nodded, looking up the tunnel determinedly. She'd never stepped foot in the gnome tunnels before, but it was the only way they were going to get behind the prisoners, and that was key to Holly's plan. The tunnels were rough and the ground uneven, which made for treacherous going, but it suited their purposes, even if they had to walk single file.

"We should take a little breather," Sleepy said, slowing to a stop and leaning against the wall. He lifted the pointy cap from his head and wiped his forehead, before setting it back down over his white hair.

"There are people depending on us," Ozma told him. "We need to keep moving."

"Besides, we've only been walking for ten minutes," Holly added.

"I don't know if I can go any further," he protested. "I'm not used to such exertion."

Holly and Ozma exchanged a look. "Well, the yeti certainly won't ever let you sleep," Ozma said. "They'll work you day and night."

"Rest isn't in their vocabulary," Holly added soberly.

Sleepy blinked back at them. "Well, I suppose we can go a little further. Since there's a crisis and all."

"That would be for the best," Holly agreed.

Ozma rolled her eyes as they continued, Sleepy protesting loudly every minute or so that he would pass out before long.

"I almost wish he would pass out," Ozma muttered under her breath, earning a giggle from Holly.

Licking her lips, Holly gazed down at the jar in her hand, identical to the one that Ozma held. The light liquid within sloshed against the glass, as if ready for what came next.

"He's going to be okay," Ozma told her.

Holly glanced back at Ozma. "Matthew? I know. He's tougher than he looks."

Ozma met her eyes and smiled in agreement. "This whole thing will turn out okay. We'll fix this."

"We have no other choice." Holly looked up ahead again, sighing as another exit came into view. Given the distance they'd traveled, she expected that this had to be the right one. And it turned out that she was right. Sleepy motioned for quiet and gestured ahead. Very carefully, they picked their way over the final length of cave to the opening.

Darting her head out, Holly took in her surroundings in the dark, and realized that they were exactly where she'd hoped they would come out.

She nodded back at Ozma, and Ozma nodded back, handing her the other jar.

Sleepy leaned back against the wall. "I'll just..." But he never finished his sentence, as he fell fast asleep.

Ozma stared at his motionless figure for a moment, shaking her head incredulously. "He could fall asleep in the jaws of a shark."

Holly hefted the jars in her hands and looked back at her. "Well, we're going to be facing our fears, even if others can't." She sent Ozma a small smile, then stepped boldly out from the cave, and right into the throng of yeti.

The Wendigo noticed her first, standing tall and growling deep in his chest. The other yeti followed suit, some pounding on their chests.

"Hey, guys," Holly said cheerfully. "Eggnog?"

She brought her arm back and threw the jar up at the sprite nest, the glass exploding just overhead, against the rock. Shards of glass rained down over the yeti, along with drops of eggnog, its spicy-sweet smell making Holly's mouth water.

She opened the other jar and whipped the contents out around her, splashing yeti left and right. They snarled and began to drift in her direction, but not before Holly got the reaction she'd been looking for.

Overhead, the sprites buzzed angrily.

The Wendigo looked up, and Holly followed suit, watching a swarm of sprites squirming out from the nest and filling the air with agitated energy and rage.

And then they descended on them, making for the yeti, whose fur were coated with the eggnog the sprites detested. The Wendigo, equally as culpable, was also attacked as sprites attacked them each by the dozens, biting and clawing viciously.

Amid the chaos, Holly flew past the yeti and began cutting the ropes restraining the elves. Ozma was out a moment later to help and, as cries of pain resounded around them, mixing in with the fury of the sprites, the elves made their escape back into the gnome caves, following Holly and Ozma to freedom.

"We're saved!" Peter exclaimed. "Thank you, Miss Hamilton. Well planned and executed."

"...Close my eyes for a second," Sleepy snorted awake, and blinked around at them. He smiled dreamily. "Quick work. Good. Now I can finally get some rest."

Ozma snorted in digust.

"Thanks, but it's not over yet," Holly told Peter, her jaw twitching as she led them up the tunnel. "Next, I go after my brother and The Ice Queen."

"The Ice Queen?" Snow echoed. "And just how did she get out? Oh, yeah. Only humans can get in there. And there are only two humans in Tinseltown that I know of."

"She was coerced," Ozma said. "I saw it all through my magic picture. Your Mrs. Claus is to blame here, not Holly. And she's already paid the price for her treachery."

Holly stopped in her tracks, nearly causing Ozma to bump into her. "Oh."

Ozma blinked at her, then let out a breath. "Oh, what?"

"Only one person can stop The Ice Queen. That's what the dryad said." Holly turned to Ozma. "Her sister. We have to free Crystal. She's the only one who can end this peacefully."

"End this?" Ozma repeated. "But she instigated the entire thing."

Holly sighed. "It's...more complicated than that. She loves her sister. She wanted her to have a life. She never meant for anyone to get hurt."

"But they did."

"They did. And she will be punished accordingly, I'm sure. But she might be able to stop this. She knows her sister. She's the only one who really knows her. If anyone can stop her, it will be her."

Ozma scowled. "Since when did you get all sensible?"

"Since the situation demanded it. And I know what it's like to be dismissed outright, without a chance to prove myself. But some people trusted me when they had no reason to. Crystal deserves the same treatment. She has a chance to make things right."

"Do it," Snow said, frowning. "Just...we don't have time for this. I have to monitor what's going on with Santa and the sleighs."

"And we need to secure the djinn," Ozma nodded. "Alright, Holly. Go and free Crystal. But pray that she doesn't just make things worse."

"She won't," Holly said, sounding more confident than she actually was.

"I knew this girl was going to liven things up around here," Pere Pouettard muttered as they dispersed. "Things haven't been this exciting for years."

***

Holly hesitantly put her hand on the door to the black house. The last time she'd been here, things hadn't turned out so well. With any luck, this visit would reverse things. But could she really trust Crystal after what she'd done? After the way Crystal had lied to Holly to get her to free her sister? After she'd threatened Matthew?

Holly shook her head. She had no choice. Her mind drifted to when she'd broken in to the elves' house to alter the naughty and nice lists. Nicholas had forgiven her then. He'd believed in her, despite her foolish actions. Holly had to believe in Crystal in the same way. And for whatever reason, she did. Maybe it was desperation, but Holly knew in her gut that Crystal was good, and her intentions had been pure. She just needed to face the facts here, and once she did, Holly believed that she would do the right thing and confront her sister. And hopefully save Tinseltown and Christmas.

Prancer huffed behind her, as if to encourage haste. She looked back at him and nodded.

Upon pushing open the doors, a gust of wind blew in behind her, throwing her hair into chaos, and ushering her inside the black house.

Swiping her hair out of her eyes, Holly hurried over to the figure of Crystal, trapped in ice like a mosquito in amber. She wiped the ice in front of Crystal's eyes to get a good look at her face. "You'd better not make me regret this," she said softly. Then Holly pulled the handful of seeds the dryad had given to her from her pocket. She lifted her hand and let it hover over the ice prison for a moment, feeling the cold waft from it. And then she slapped the seeds onto the surface, rubbing them into the condensation.

One seed cracked open and Holly drew back. She stared as the seed's shell split open and a tiny green bud forced its way out. Then the other seeds broke from their shells as well, like baby birds forcing their heads out through egg shells. Then they grew rapidly. The little buds grew as if time were speeding up for them. They stretched into vines with pops and creaks, roots digging into the ice, lapping up the condensation greedily. And then Holly understood what the plants were doing. Their roots were forcing themselves deep into the ice, like pushing through concrete in sidewalks. Once they were deeply entrenched in the ice coffin, and still growing plumper by the second, a great crack shot through the room, echoing off the walls. And then the ice fell away from Crystal all at once, showering the floor like shattered glass.

Crystal gasped and looked around her with wide eyes. She seemed to have a hard time catching her breath, and doubled over as the vines continued to grow at her feet, seeking the remnants of the ice prison for precious moisture.

"I don't believe it," Crystal finally said, staggering.

Holly stood up straight as she realized that Crystal was crying. Her body shook with the force of her sobs. Holly wasn't sure what to do, but as soon as she'd decided to place a comforting hand on Crystal's shoulder, the fairy stood with a deep intake of breath. She wiped her eyes and forced a smile in place.

"We don't have time for this," Crystal said, pausing to clear her throat. "Celeste is..." She shook her head. "She's out of control. I'm sorry. I thought I would be able to..." She let her voice trail off, and a sort of faraway look came over her face. "She was so young and innocent once. We both were."

"Everyone's born innocent," Holly shrugged. "Mr. Grott was. So was the extended family that abandoned us when we needed them. But it's how you live your life that determines whether you remain that way."

Crystal stopped and stared at her for a moment. "That was very mature. You're right, of course, but it's not always black and white. It doesn't always come down to...to being put onto a naughty or nice list. It's gray. Nobody's good all the time."

"But we can strive to be good."

"That we can," Crystal nodded, a determined set to her jaw. "Now, come along. I have some atoning to do."

Holly let out a deep breath that she didn't know she'd been holding and scrambled to follow Crystal as she swept out of the house.

At the doorway, Crystal paused and glanced back at her. "And thank you."

"Don't mention it."
Chapter Twenty

Holly passed by the stables silently, watching flames as they licked at the blackened timbers. The entire structure was consumed by fire, eager to devour what remained. Holly thought of the little building where she'd first awakened in Tinseltown, the reindeer in their stalls, Terrance and the other fairies sharing the dollhouse. She felt a lump in her throat, a familiar feeling of loss creeping over her. But she pushed it back down, instead focusing on the anger that bubbled up from the pit of her stomach. The yeti were destroying things thoughtlessly, tearing down the magic of Tinseltown. It made her want to hit something. Very badly. Instead, she buried her hand in the fur of Prancer's neck, who must have felt the loss more than she did. The reindeer turned to regard her for a moment with its black eyes, then snorted and looked away.

Crystal lifted a hand as they passed the burning stables, and a breeze blew over the building, boasting flakes of frost and snow. Even from the other side of Crystal, Holly felt the deep cold wafting from it. She allowed a shiver to work its way up her body as she watched the fire die under the fury of the snowy gust. Only a shell remained, smoke wafting from the blackened wood. Ash mixed in with the lingering snow from Crystal's burst of power, and slowly settled back to the earth.

Prancer made a startled noise, lifting his front legs in a show of fright. Holly's head snapped up in response, and she gasped as three yeti vaulted toward them, using their long, muscular arms to propel themselves forward.

Holly spread her legs apart, bracing herself for a battle with the monsters, but Crystal waved her hand again, and the beasts cried out, turning to run from them, frost covering their fur.

"You're so powerful," Holly noted. "Is The Ice Queen as powerful as you are?"

Crystal smiled at her. "Celeste may have been known as The Ice Queen because of her tyrannical rule, but we shared the title once upon a time. And even without the elderstone, I retain some of my strength. With the stone, Celeste is certainly more powerful than me at the moment, but she has a long way to go to regain her powers completely. And she's out of practice. That's gives me the upper hand."

"She beat you before," Holly pointed out, wincing as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

Crystal didn't seem to mind, however, and merely nodded in agreement. "She took me by surprise. I walked into that room expecting to talk with my sister, not battle with a monster." She shook her head. "Of course, I should have realized that she would be reclaim the stone, to hasten the return of her powers. But without the elderstone, she will become weak, like the atrophied prisoner she is."

"So, we can win this."

Crystal grinned. "We can defeat my sister. She has assembled a formidable army very quickly, however." She glanced up and Holly followed her gaze. The mountain was still teeming with yeti. "What of the snowmen? How did the yeti break through our defenses?"

Holly let out a deep breath. "There's this heat ray thing that my brother was working on with the gremlins..."

"Ah," Crystal tapped her lower lip for a moment. "So, they've merely melted?"

"Merely?" Holly stared at her. "Did you really just say merely? They're dead! Your sister had them executed!"

Crystal smirked. "Snowmen don't die, my dear. Because snow doesn't die. It merely changes and transforms with the seasons. It's the cycle of nature. Snow, ice, water. They are all the same. And water turns to vapor and falls as rain, and it continues."

"But they're more than just snow. They're made of magic!"

"That they are," Crystal agreed. "And they need solid forms to move again." Closing her eyes, Crystal turned back toward the snow wall and lifted her hands. "You may want to get behind me."

Holly complied, and winced as one of the most frigid blasts of air that she had ever felt struck her face with incredible force, nearly knocking her over. But she braced herself and shrugged her head deeper into her coat to ward off the cold, closing her eyes until the air was calm once more.

Holly blinked when the air stilled. She looked up to see Crystal breathing hard, but looking radiant, in her element. She turned to Holly and smiled. "They will come to join the fight again."

And Holly saw that what she said was true. She could make out the forms of snowmen making their way toward the mountain already.

Suddenly, a lot of movement caught Holly's attention from the top of the mountain. Dozens of figures were pouring down the mountain, and as they came upon the yeti, they engaged them in battle.

"It looks like even more reinforcements have arrived," Holly said.

Crystal blinked. "Reinforcements? But...oh. Ozma."

"Ozma," Holly confirmed.

Crystal bit her lip. "I hate owing that one anything, but I can't deny that her aid is appreciated." She sighed. "Of course, I was trying to seed suspicion in you. I didn't want you getting too close to Ozma. She is one insightful girl, and she always seems to know what's going on. It can be...infuriating. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I can't believe that I was so...wrong."

Holly thought of Ozma's magic picture, and decided to keep that tidbit of information to herself. "You can thank Ozma in person later. As for me, apology accepted. You're doing the right thing when it matters."

"I...appreciate it," Crystal said, looking humble.

"Now let's not let Ozma steal all the glory. Let's go save Tinseltown."

Crystal chuckled. "Yes. Let's."

As they made their way toward the elves' workshop, they passed all manner of strange creatures battling with the fearsome yeti, including a cat made of glass (with a large ruby heart you could see through her body), a girl who seemed to be made from a patchwork quilt (who laughed manically), a large tiger with a red bow tied around its tail, a monkey with large wings on its back, and a small horse made of wood, with rather stiff legs, who rammed the yeti with its head until it pushed them over the mountainside. As they approached the workshop, Holly finally recognized one of their allies. "Jack!"

Jack Pumpkinhead turned to regard her, holding a yeti at arm's length, its claws raking the air between them futily. "Holly Hamilton. It pleases me to see you again."

She rushed up to him, noting that his head had been changed out for a new, fresh pumpkin. Similar cutouts were spread over his face, although his nose had been cut into a triangle this time instead of mere slits. "Your new head suits you."

"Thank you." He nodded toward the workshop. "Ozma just entered the building. She may be in need of assistance."

That was all Holly needed to hear, and she hurried over to the building, Crystal at her heels. Several elves rushed out of the building as they entered, shouting "Run for your lives!"

In her haste to get inside, Holly nearly stumbled over Ginger, who looked up at Crystal with clear confusion over his frosted face.

"What?" Ginger shook his head. "How can you be here, when you're in there?" He frowned. "A shape-shifter! I knew it couldn't be you, Mrs. Claus!"

Holly and Crystal exchanged a look, before Crystal licked her lips. "I'm afraid I'm to blame for this disaster as much as my sister."

"Sister?" Ginger's eyes widened. "Surely not."

"I'm afraid so," Holly said, losing patience. "What's going on in there? Where is Ozma?"

"It's chaos. Mrs. Cl – I mean, The Ice Queen, has taken control of the fairy rings. Her and that abominable creature with her." He looked away. "Ozma is in there now, but...the villains have Matthew."

"Matthew!" Holly exclaimed.

Ginger was calling something after her, but Holly was already sprinting down the hallway as fast as her legs would carry her, giving no thought to stealth, let alone personal safety. She was feeling rash, and that old familiar anger was flooding her body, washing her common sense away in a wave of emotion. All she could think about was Matthew. His safety, and making the ones who held him captive pay.

"Are you planning to just barrel in there without a plan?" a voice called out to her from the shadows of the doorway.

Holly slowed and turned to face Titania. "You were supposed to keep him safe."

"It was already too late," she said. "But he is unharmed at the moment. Ozma went in to talk to The Ice Queen." She crossed her arms. "Little good that will do."

Crystal came up behind Holly, and Titania raised an eyebrow. "And here's our little back-stabbing fairy queen. Nice to see you've finally come to your senses."

Behind Crystal were Prancer and a man that Holly didn't recognize. He was made of ice, his eyes hollow, as was his mouth. She could see through him for the most part, although his body was cloudy and distorted objects on the other side of him through his icy body. But she could clearly make out definition in his body and limbs. His head even had a hairstyle etched into it. She frowned at the red scarf wrapped around his neck. "Who's your friend?"

Just then another figure bounded in behind him. A little weiner dog made of ice. Like the ice man, its eyes were hollow, but its mouth hung open, a little red piece of felt serving as a tongue, just like...

"Hot-dog!" Holly's eyes widened.

Hot-dog barked in confirmation, jumping around her and rubbing his head against her legs.

Holly looked up at Crystal. "But how?" She looked at the snowman. "And...how?"

"I froze the melted snow so that the snowmen could form new bodies for themselves," Crystal said. "Naturally, they became icemen. When we have a little more time, we can melt them, evaporate the water and make them snow again, but time is of the essence, I'd say."

"I would too," Titania agreed, rounding on Holly. "Now, if you want to save your brother and end this once and for all, we need to do something while Ozma's captured their attention."

"We need Matthew out of play," Crystal said.

"Of course. But how?"

Holly stepped up to the door and inched it open carefully, wincing when it creaked. Voices from within weren't loud enough to make out, but through the small opening, Holly could make out Ozma talking to Celeste, several feet between them. Matthew was just to the side, his arms trapped against the sides of his body by tinsel and lights.

"We're never going to get to him unnoticed," Titania observed.

Holly glanced around the room, and noticed a little creature lying on the floor, as if it didn't have a care in the world, eyes drooping lazily as if there wasn't a standoff occurring just a few feet away.

"We need a bigger distraction," Holly said. "And I think I have an idea how we're going to get it." She turned to Crystal. "There must be a speaker in there. How do you communicate to the workers?"

"An intercom in the next room," Crystal answered.

"Good. Titania, you need to get to the intercom for me."

Titania raised an eyebrow, but listened to her next commands and agreed to follow them to the letter.

"Okay," Holly said, tensing near the door. "As soon as I get Matthew out of the way, you can confront your sister." She glanced at Crystal. "And no holding back this time. She has to be stopped."

"I'll do what needs to be done," Crystal said, staring into the room at her sister. "I promise you: I won't let you down again."

"See that you don't," the snowman grumbled from behind them. He smiled at Holly. "I'm Frosty, by the way. We met in passing, but were never properly introduced."

"The Frosty?" Holly blinked.

"The one and only," he replied, dimples standing out in his icy cheeks.

Holly felt a little starstruck, but she couldn't allow herself to be distracted at the moment. She turned her attention back to the room before her, eyes whipping between Ozma, Celeste and Matthew in turn. Her body was tense and ready to act, as soon as she was given the sign.

Holly tilted her head as the speaker let out a little whine from the workshop. Ozma stopped mid-sentence and looked up as Titania's voice rang through the room. "It's Thanksgiving, Olga. Thanksgiving!"

Celeste frowned. "No, it's not. And who's Ol-"

She was cut off as the slumbering penguin was suddenly rampaging through the room. The normally passive bird was flapping her wings frantically, eyes wide and red with terror. She was flinging herself into tables and chairs, sending toys and papers all over the floor.

Holly didn't wait to see what happened next. As soon as she noted that Celeste's attention was fixed upon Olga, she darted out from the safety of the door, making straight for Matthew.

Matthew saw her approaching, his eyes wide. He was shaking his head. But she didn't care about the danger. She was going to get him to safety, and then Crystal was going to throw down with her twin.

"Holly!" Crystal's scream tore through the room, alerting everyone to the presence of both herself and Holly. Holly silently cursed Mrs. Claus, but then she looked back over her shoulder and twisted out of the way of a steel bear trap that was about to snap closed over her head.

Holly slammed into a wall and felt her teeth rattle. The Abominable Snowman. He must have been standing against the closest wall to the door, where they were unable to see him.

Bear claws reached for her from the end of his branch arms, but Holly dodged them, slipping out from under his reach and racing toward Matthew once more.

Ozma shot several blasts of what looked like green energy at the Abominable Snowman, but the creature kept following Holly, not even slowing with the gaping holes in his snowy body, which Holly noticed were slowly knitting themselves back together. And then Celeste suddenly seized the opportunity to get her own shot in at Ozma.

"No!" Holly managed, but too late. Ozma was strewn across the floor by a blast of ice. She slammed into the opposite wall, head-first, where she lay still.

"That's enough of that, now," Frosty grumbled, stepping into The Abominable Snowman's path. The villain laughed, but the first punch from Frosty's ice hands wiped the smile from The Abominable's face, as well as an eye that fell to the floor with a wet plop.

Hot-Dog yipped like mad as Celeste turned her gaze on Holly, face full of fury. "I've had enough of you," The Ice Queen said cooly.

"I couldn't have said it better," Crystal agreed, blasting her sister with a gust of wind that knocked her off her feet.

Holly, meanwhile, had reached her brother. She pulled an icicle ornament from her pocket and began to work on freeing Matthew, tears of relief gathering in her eyes. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "We're going to get you out of here. And we're going to stop the bad guys."

"You take orders from little girls now?" Celeste yelled at her twin as she shot ice shards from her hands. "From human girls?"

Crystal grunted, breaking the ice attack with a vortex of wind. "I see now what you are, sister. This world is no longer the world you knew. Your time has passed."

Celeste laughed, and renewed her attack.

Holly pulled the tinsel from Matthew frantically as the silver rope finally gave way, and began to work on the string of lights. His mouth free, Matthew let out a little sigh of relief. "I'm sorry, Holly."

She paused and stared at him. "It's okay. I've got you now."

"I mean for the heat ray. If it wasn't for me..."

Holly shook her head. "It turned out alright. The snowmen will be okay, and Ozma's army is driving the yeti from Tinseltown as we speak."

"Really?"

"Really," she said, smiling into his hopeful eyes. "Now I'll have you out in a jiffy. Keep still."

She glanced up and saw Frosty drive his icy arm into The Abominable Snowman's soft midsection. The Abominable tilted his head, amazed. "I need to melt to ice," he noted, impressed.

"But you won't get the chance," Frosty assured him, slicing his arm up through his head. The Abominable Snowman's head fell off into two piles of slush, and Frosty quickly worked to dismember the rest of him.

"Ah!" Crystal was suddenly knocked off her feet, as Olga slammed into her side, still panicking.

"Finally!" Celeste said. "I should have finished you when I had the chance!"

Holly gritted her teeth and leapt at Celeste, throwing the ornament that had been in her hand at the woman's head. Holly was simmering with anger now, and clawed at Celeste's hair. "You horrible, detestable, despicable woman! How dare you harm your sister! Don't you have any loyalty to your own blood?"

Celeste managed to pry Holly off of her and backhanded her, sending her in the opposite direction of Matthew, who still struggled against the string of lights. "Enough!" She turned a frosty glare on Holly. "Sister, watch as I destroy your precious human protector!"

Crystal pushed herself to her feet, still dazed, but her head snapped up at her sister's words. "No! Celeste, she is an innocent!"

"There are no innocents!" Celeste declared, raising a hand toward Holly menacingly. The fairy grinned a cruel grin. "Nothing personal."

A little spark of ice flickered from her fingertips, and the smile dropped from her face. She looked down at her hand with a frown. "What? What is..." Her voice trailed off as she looked down at her cape. "The elderstone!"

Crystal's mouth dropped open, and she stared at Holly, impressed.

Holly stood up, a triumphant grin on her face as she hefted the gem in her hand. "Yeah, I picked up a few things on the streets. Us humans can be quite talented."

Celeste's face twisted in fury. "You will regret that, child." She took two steps back, and before Holly had a chance to react, The Ice Queen grabbed Matthew, lifting him by the front of his shirt.

"Matthew!" Holly cried.

"Hey!" Matthew grunted, feet kicking empty air. "Let go!"

"I was planning on it," Celeste chuckled. She looked up at Holly. "You can either follow me or save your brother. You can't do both." And with that, she threw Matthew at a fairy ring, and he disappeared. She then stepped back into another fairy ring and vanished.
Chapter Twenty-One

Without even thinking, Holly jumped into the fairy ring that Matthew had been pushed through. It hadn't really been much of a choice at all.

And then she found herself falling out of the night sky, wind whipping past her face. She felt her stomach drop as she saw Matthew similarly falling a few yards beneath her. They were high above the winking lights of a city. It would have been a beautiful sight if she hadn't been falling to her death. Looking back up, she saw a sleigh fly past, a lone reindeer pulling the empty cart, which dangled through the air, upside-down. That couldn't be good.

"I'm sorry, Matthew," she said, although she knew he wouldn't be able to hear her. "I'm so sorry, Mom and Dad. I failed you."

She squeezed her eyes tight, thinking of how unfair the situation was. But she was helpless, and in a few short moments, she would be dead.

Suddenly, Holly felt a tug on the collar of her coat and she was pulled back, her legs resting on something solid. Grunting, Holly opened her eyes to Crystal's back, her cloak billowing in the wind and flapping back into Holly's face. She pushed it aside and looked down at the reindeer's back she rode on. Prancer tossed his head and dove faster after her brother, kicking his legs against as invisible road.

"Faster!" Crystal ordered, her voice snatched by the night air. "Faster!"

Holly twisted her head around Crystal and saw Matthew ahead, arms and legs kicking like mad. And the city growing ever closer. She wasn't sure they were going to reach him in time. "Crystal!" she cried, fear making her voice go high. "Get him!"

"We're trying!" Crystal shouted, and gritted her teeth together. She threw up a hand and a blast of snow and wind seemed to slow Matthew's descent as he rushed past the tips of tall office buildings. It bought them the time they needed, however, and Prancer bit into Matthew's collar, hoisting him up and away from the city streets just before crashing into them.

Holly felt the relief flood through her, but it was short-lived. Up ahead, people were screaming and running up the streets, away from the giant form of the ice giant Hrimthurs. He stomped through the streets, his head swinging to and fro, even with the buildings ten stories high.

As Holly watched him, Hrimthurs opened his mouth and let out a burst of cold breath, which roiled through the streets, turning everything it touched to ice. The street, storefronts, and mailboxes all turned white with frost. People stilled and fell forward as icicles hung from their noses and coat sleeves, enveloping them in sheets of ice.

"Crystal, we have to do something!" Holly yelled.

"One thing at a time!" Crystal shouted back. Nearing a bank of snow, Prancer dropped Matthew safely into a fluffy pile that sent flakes flying up into the air. Then he landed rather gracefully, touching his feet to the ground twice before firmly galloping along the street, and slowing.

Upon stopping, Crystal leapt from the reindeer's side and helped Holly down as Matthew rushed over to them.

"Holy smokes!" Matthew cried, watching Hrimsthurs. "He's wrecking the whole city!"

"That he is," Crystal said, watching him. "I'm not sure how to stop him." She tapped her lower lip.

"Where's Nicholas?" Matthew asked, looking around wildly.

A group of screaming men rushed past them, jostling Holly as they did. She glared back at them, but could hardly blame their frantic fleeing. She looked up and gasped, her eyes meeting the stone lions at the top of the library steps. She knew every inch of those stairs.

She turned and met Matthew's wide eyes. "We're home," Matthew said.

Holly swallowed hard. "No, not home." She turned to Crystal. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't have the power to stop him," Crystal admitted, flinching as the ice giant blew another blast of air up a side street to the sound of screams. "If Ozma were here....but she was out cold last I saw. And Titania has no more energy left to help us. If I could find Nick-"

"We can get Titania more power," Holly interrupted her.

"What?" Crystal frowned. "I don't see how. She'll need days to refuel..." Her voice trailed off and she suddenly eyed Holly warily. "You don't mean..."

Holly nodded, opening her mouth to tap her teeth. "Just take one from the back."

"I'm not-"

"We don't have time to argue about it. Just...numb it with some cold and yank it out, alright?"

"I'll do it!" Matthew said. "Take one of my teeth!"

"No. You'll need to get the tooth back up to Titania."

Matthew put his hands on his hips and frowned. "And just how am I supposed to do that?"

"The same way I got Prancer to fly," Crystal said, sprinkling fairy dust over him. "Large fairies don't produce as much dust as smaller fairies, but this will be sufficient for our needs. You're going to have to track down that sleigh with the fairy ring you fell from."

"I can do that," Matthew said bravely.

Crystal nodded and tapped her finger against the side of Holly's mouth. Holly's mouth was suddenly numb.

Her heart was beating fast at the prospect of pulling out a tooth, but she didn't see another option. She was going to fix this mess she'd helped create, and if one tooth was the cost, so be it. She looked at Crystal expectantly and opened her mouth wide.

She didn't feel a thing, thankfully. She kept her eyes closed, and felt more cold radiate into her jaw as Crystal froze the tooth and pried it out.

"Done."

Holly blinked, and closed her mouth, testing the back with her tongue. Her teeth all seemed to still be there. And Crystal held no tooth in her hand. Instead, she held the elderstone that Holly had pocketed.

"This seemed much simpler," Crystal explained. "And less bloody."

"I didn't even think of that," Holly acknowledged, relieved. "But I'm glad you did."

Crystal set the elderstone in Matthew's hand without hesitation.

"You're just going to hand over your stone like that?" Holly asked her.

Crystal blinked up at her. "With the mistakes I've made, I'm hardly worthy to wield its power at the moment."

Holly was impressed and watched as Crystal took a step back from Matthew. "Be quick now," the fairy told him. "I'm not sure how long we'll last without help."

Matthew nodded, and tentatively lifted a foot into the air, then another. He seemed to be walking up an invisible staircase into the sky. He laughed then, and pushed himself up into the night, gaining speed.

"Let's hope he's fast," Crystal murmured.

Prancer snorted his agreement.

Hrimsthurs let out a great roar and stomped hard, a street closer to them than he was before. Holly felt the street shudder beneath her feet.

And suddenly, snow roiled over them like a fog.

Holly felt snowflakes whip past her cheeks so quickly that they felt like they would cut her skin. The air was so thick with snow, and so quickly, that she grew disoriented. She couldn't see a foot in front of her, let alone locate Crystal or Prancer.

"Crystal!" she called into the pure white wall of snow that swirled around her angrily. "Crystal!" The wind plucked her words and tossed them into the air haphazardly, where they would be of no use. Snow flew into Holly's open mouth and chocked her, and she bent over, coughing, as cold creeped in with the snow that snuck into her collar and up her sleeves, to melt against her chilled skin.

"Crystal!" she tried again, and looked up to see movement to her left. With relief, she stumbled in that direction. But after a minute of staggering along, she couldn't see anything else. Except white. White everywhere. And she was slowly freezing. She walked along aimlessly, trying to orient herself with a building, but nothing loomed out of the white world to guide her. She lost track of all time as she pushed herself forward, recalling that people in blizzards died by not staying in one place. But she was already so far from where she'd started out.

Wrapping her hands around herself, teeth chattering, Holly took a few more determined steps forward. "Crystal!"

"Child."

Holly whipped around toward the voice that had spoken, and she saw black hair stand out against the blizzard. The wind buffeted it, causing it to fly about frantically. "Crystal?" But Crystal didn't have black hair.

The black hair grew closer until Holly could make out a beautiful woman. Her skin and robe were so white that they nearly blended in with the maelstrom, but Holly could still see that the woman floated over the ground, like a phantom. "Child," she said again, and Holly noted that the woman's blue lips didn't move with the words.

Yuki Onna, Holly recognized the woman. The yokai they called The Snow Woman.

Swallowing hard, Holly took a step back. Then she turned and ran. She didn't care where she ran to, so long as it was away from the evil woman. But then Yuki Onna was in front of Holly, blocking her path.

Holly stopped, confused. Had she gotten turned around, or had The Snow Woman gotten ahead of her somehow?

Turning to go in the opposite direction once more, Holly gasped and stopped. For Yuki Onna was in front of her again.

"No!" Holly yelled. "Leave me alone!"

Yuki Onna floated closer and touched her cheek. Holly shivered, drawing back. She could see Yuki Onna's breath freezing the air around her, creating snowflakes in the air as she crystalized unseen water vapor.

"No," Holly repeated, shaking so hard now that the words were garbled when they left her mouth.

Her body numb, Holly didn't feel the woman's hand as it stroked her cheek again.

"Child."

And Holly closed her eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Two

"Holly!"

Holly pressed her eyes closed harder. She wasn't cold anymore. She just wanted to sleep. Why wouldn't they just let her sleep?

"Holly! Where are you?!"

Matthew.

Holly's eyes snapped open and she froze, staring up at The Snow Woman, who had a hand on Holly's chest. The yokai seemed in rapture, as if she were feeding.

"Okay, that's enough of that," Holly said, shoving Yuki Onna's hand aside. "You picked the wrong girl to mess with."

Yuki Onna smiled at her. "Child."

"I've had to grow up fast," Holly said, pulling one of the icicle ornaments from her pocket and quickly slicing at the woman with it. It nicked Yuki Onna's cheek, and a small line of red blood appeared on her skin. "And no one gets between me and my brother."

The snowstorm faltered for a moment, enough for Holly to see that they were standing in the middle of the street, near a lamppost. But the white barrier was raised again in a moment, and Yuki Onna let out a hissing noise, like a snake.

"Now, now. That's enough of that," Ozma suddenly appeared behind Yuki Onna.

The Snow Woman swiveled in her direction, hands forming claws, but Ozma easily took her out with a burst of green energy. The curtain of snow that had swallowed the world fell away, and the city reappeared.

"Oh, thank god," Holly said, slumping. Ozma caught her, keeping her upright.

"Are you okay?" Ozma asked, looking her over. She pressed a hand to Holly's face and she felt warmth spread throughout her body. In a moment, she could feel her hands and toes again.

"Much better," Holly managed a smile. "And you're okay."

"I am," Ozma said. "But not for much longer if Titania doesn't act quickly." She looked over her shoulder, and Holly followed her gaze. Hrimsthurs was at the end of the street. He stepped on a park slide, which crunched loudly beneath his weight with the screech of metal.

"Matthew found you?" Holly asked.

"I found them!" Matthew agreed, running up to them.

Holly felt a great weight fall from her shoulders as he threw his arms around her waist. "I'm proud of you, little man."

Matthew looked up at her with a wide smile. "It was fun! I wish I could fly all the time."

"Where's Titania?" Ozma asked him.

"She had to get something. She said she'd be right back."

"Get something?" Ozma echoed. "What on earth could she need?"

Ozma got her answer soon enough, as Titania appeared in the middle of the street quite suddenly, on the back of the runaway sleigh that held the fairy ring. She looked out of place in the icy landscape, snow banks having formed from Yuki Onna's snowstorm climbing over the doors of shops and swallowing mailboxes and newspaper stands. Her pink dress shimmered in the moonlit night, like Holly imagined a proper fairy would. At least, a fairy who was full of magic.

Hrimsthurs regarded her for a moment, then let out a roar that sounded like a fog horn. He filled his lungs and let out a great breath of ice. The storefronts and sidewalks became layered in sheets of ice, but Titania and her sleigh were left unmolested.

"Well, if that's all you've got," Titania said. She waved a hand behind her, and suddenly figures leapt from the sleigh. Dozens upon dozens of men filed out, and Holly realized quickly that they were coming out of the fairy ring from Tinseltown. She recognized Frosty and Hot-Dog, among other ice men whom she'd come to know over the past month when they'd been made of snow. They were more defined now, with very human-like features, but all with those empty eyes that were somehow unnerving.

When the last of the ice men emerged from the sleigh, Titania flashed a smile at them. "Ready, boys?"

"Ready!" Frosty agreed.

Titania rotated her hand and the ice men swirled into a vortex that mimicked the movement of her wrist. An icy tornado made of men swirled in the middle of the street, and the figures within seemed to melt and shift and change, molding into something else. When the funnel finally slowed and came to a standstill, what was left was one giant ice man, as tall as the ice giant. Little scarves and mittens and various materials collected over his fists like boxing gloves.

Hrimsthurs blinked at his new adversary, then let out another growl, before taking a threatening step forward.

The ice man let out a chuckle and launched a swing at Hrimsthurs's head, causing the ice giant to stumble backward and fall into a church.

Holly gasped as the church crumpled beneath the monster's weight, sending glass and debris across the street.

"Uh, sorry about that," The ice man said, his voice rumbling like thunder.

Hrimsthurs roared and stood, bending over as he charged the ice man, ramming into his midsection with a force that sounded like ice cracking.

Matthew clung to Holly's legs as the ice man fell into a park, the grass softening his fall. When the ice man landed, he kicked up a foot to ward off Hrimsthurs, who fell back onto the street, causing the ground to quake.

"Come," Ozma said, gesturing to Holly and Matthew. "Let's get you somewhere safe."

Holly looked around with a frown. "Wait. Where's Crystal?"

"She took Prancer to go find Nicholas."

"Nicholas?" Holly repeated. "Where is he?"

The immense sound of ice shattering met their ears, and Holly turned to see the ice man's hand punch through the head of Hrimsthurs. Hrimsthurs stood there for a moment, then fell all at once, as if in slow motion. When he hit the ground, he broke apart completely, chunks of ice crumbling over the asphalt.

"That seems to be the end of him, then," Ozma sniffed.

"Holly?"

Holly looked back to see Terrance hovering in the air, watching the scene unfold with worry. "Terrance! You're alright!"

Terrance blinked, then darted in closer to land on her shoulder. He slumped against her neck. "I'm okay. But Nicholas..."

"What about Nicholas?" Holly felt herself tense.

Terrance shook his head. "The Krampus has him."

"Where?" Ozma demanded.

Terrance licked his lips and pointed up the street at a large two-story building.

Holly stiffened as she took in the faded, peeling paint at the front of the building, the lifeless, yellow grass flattened by snow. "Oh, no. Not there."

"The orphanage," Matthew said, his voice turning cold.
Chapter Twenty-Three

Walking through the front doors of the orphanage felt like walking into a prison cell. Holly immediately felt a tightening in her chest, and a feeling of foreboding weighed heavy on her shoulders. She had the irrational sense that once she stepped foot in the house, that she would never leave again. But once she was within the walls of the orphanage, she saw it for the house that it was. It was a place. Run down and a little untidy, and barely furnished.

"This is where you were living?" Terrance asked, eyes wide.

Ozma sent him a dirty look, and he immediately bit his lip. "I mean, it's very...homey," he amended, chuckling nervously.

"Believe me, we didn't live here by choice," Holly told him. "This is where the castaways go. Like the island of misfit toys." She smiled over at him, and he blinked at her. She scowled. "It's from like, the most famous Christmas special ever."

"Special what?"

"Oh, forget it," she sighed, pushing open the door of the hall to admit them into the main living space. As light was admitted into the room, cockroaches skittered out of the way, vanishing into the walls like ghosts.

"That's definitely a health code violation," Ozma muttered.

Matthew shrugged. "It just means they haven't had social services come through recently. Grott always exterminates before they visit."

"Speaking of Grott, it's awfully quiet in here," Holly said with a frown as she led them into the sitting room, with the worn couch and rug that had been slowly unraveling year after year.

A dozen dingy socks were nailed into the mantel over the fireplace. Grott would never splurge on actual Christmas stockings, but he allowed them to use their own socks for Santa's visit.

A light suddenly flickered on overhead, and Ozma let out a breath. "There. Much better."

"Yeah, better," Holly said, swallowing hard. She stared down at a path of blood that led to the fireplace, as if someone had been dragged there.

They were all silent for a moment before Ozma swept over to the fireplace and stuck her head inside, twisting to look up the chimney chute.

"Oh," she stepped out, startled, and Holly noted a drop of blood on her cheek.

"Ozma?" Holly asked. She wiped the drop of blood from her face, then ducked into the chimney herself. She looked up to see someone blocking the chimney. "Hello? Are you hurt?"

The person coughed, and shifted, and Holly blinked as blood dripped onto her head, soaking into her scalp. "Holly?"

Holly's eyes widened, and she looked back at Ozma. "It's Nicholas."

Matthew gasped and covered his mouth with both hands. Terrance wrung his hands.

"He needs help," Holly said, suddenly feeling panicked. She started as he shifted overhead, and stepped out of the fireplace as he suddenly crashed to the ground with a pained yelp.

"Nicholas!" Holly rushed forward, and Ozma laid a hand to his head. His forehead was bleeding profusely, but the cut seemed to heal quickly under Ozma's touch.

"What happened?" he managed, sitting up, looking dazed. He was still the fat, jolly Santa that he'd transformed himself into, so it was a little strange to hear his normal voice coming from this body.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Ozma said.

Nicholas thought for a moment, then nodded. "I was in the sleigh, and I was hit from behind."

"It was the Krampus," Terrance informed him, flying in close.

Nicholas's eyes met his. "What? What's happened?"

"The Krampus and those other terrible creatures upended the sleigh," Terrance said. He looked up at Ozma. "The Krampus took him here afterward."

"For what purpose?" Ozma wondered.

"Does he need a purpose? He's the Krampus!"

"Even the evil have purpose."

"Well," Matthew cleared his throat. "The Krampus eats bad children."

"And this is a house full of thieves," Holly said, sitting up straight. She met Ozma's eyes.

"Go look in on the other children," Ozma told her. "I'll see to Nicholas. If you see the Krampus, do not engage him. Just get them to safety, if you can. We'll see to the Krampus."

Holly nodded. "Will do." She grabbed Matthew by the arm and pulled him toward the staircase.

Terrance looked back and forth between Ozma and Holly, then threw up his hands and followed Holly. "The Krampus. The Krampus! I can't believe it!" He chomped on his nails. "This is bad. Very, very bad."

"Would you hush?" Holly glared at him. "We don't want him to know we're here if he's still around."

Terrance's eyes widened and he nodded sharply.

Holly carefully crept up the stairs, her hand on the railing, palm fitting into it like it had hundreds of times over the past year. Everything was so familiar, and yet so foreign. The picture of an old man in a top hat in the gilded frame that had been hanging on the wall was no longer there. Instead, there was a square of bright yellow against the sun-washed wallpaper. Holly wondered briefly where the painting had gone, before the thought drifted from her mind. She paused before the top step of the staircase and gestured toward it, looking back at Matthew, who nodded.

"What?" Terrance asked, frowning as he landed on her shoulder to whisper in her ear.

"That step squeaks really loud," Holly said softly in return.

"Oh." Terrance watched them carefully step over the stair, and continue up the hallway to the bedrooms where the children slept.

Holly paused outside of the first door. She glanced back at Matthew, who gave her an encouraging nod, before she pushed it open.

The beds were empty. And none of the dingy sheets had been tucked in, as if they'd left them in a hurry.

Holly stood staring at them for a moment before meeting Matthew's eyes, who mirrored her concern. Then she heard the sound of something metallic clinking from up the hall. She looked up sharply and stepped into the doorway, peeking up the hall. No movement caught her eye, so she skulked along the railing, peeking down over the first floor balcony once to make sure that neither Mr. Grott nor The Krampus were there. Holly wondered which of the two she was most afraid of.

At the end of the hall was the dining room, where they had taken their meager meals of gruel, provided they'd procured enough donations for the day. She didn't have very many pleasant memories of the room, but then again, she didn't have many nice memories of the place in general.

She pushed open the door, and froze.

At the two long tables, all of the children sat eating from plates of cookies. Sugar cookies, Russian teacakes, Peanut Butter cookies and double chocolate chip, chewy fudge cookies and shortbread. The children looked happy and between mouthfuls, would speak to one another in low voices, until someone spotted her.

"Holly!" Patty said, standing up so suddenly that her chair fell to the floor. The girl next to her laughed, but continued to stuff her face with cookies. "You're back!"

Holly stepped into the room, disoriented. She'd never seen anyone look as happy in this house as these children looked. "Patty, what's going on?"

Matthew stepped in behind her, and Patty regarded him for a moment. "Hello, Matthew."

"Hey," he replied weakly."

Patty grinned at him and slapped him on the back. "You should join the party!"

"Party?" Holly echoed. "What party?"

"Our Christmas party, of course, silly." Patty smiled and pointed to the end of the second table. "Mr. Grott and Aaron are the guests of honor!"

Holly looked up to see Grott and Aaron tied to their chairs, mouths stuffed full of cloth to prevent them from speaking. She hadn't noticed them until now, she'd been so distracted by the joy of the other children. "What...?"

"Why are they tied up?" Matthew asked as Holly rushed over to them.

"Why wouldn't they be?" Patty asked, frowning. "They're bad. You know how they are. Grott's a horrible man, and Aaron's a bully and a snitch."

"Snitch! Snitch! Snitch!" one of the boys agreed with a laugh.

"You can't just go tying people up, no matter what they've done," Holly scolded, pulling the cloth from Aaron's mouth. He looked dazed, and met Holly's eyes with fright.

"You," he whispered. "You came to get even with me."

"I did nothing of the kind," Holly told him. She quickly untied the knots holding him captive, and he rubbed his wrists gently.

"What did you go and do that for?" Patty asked, stepping up to her. "Santa's going to be mad."

Holly pulled the cloth from Grott's mouth, then paused and looked back at her. "Santa?"

And then she saw him standing in the doorway. The Krampus lifted his head, horns catching the light from above. "Hey, kid," The Krampus said by way of greeting. "Fancy meeting you here."
Chapter Twenty-Four

"Arrest that man!" Mr. Grott yelled, spittle flying from his mouth.

Holly turned back to offer Grott a glare. "You don't get a say in the matter, Grott."

Grott paled, then swallowed hard. "Holly, my dear little protégé. You always were one of the best children I've ever had under this roof."

"You had a funny way of showing it."

Grott frowned. "Well, that's what will happen when you steal from me, isn't it?" he snapped. He looked up and caught a glimpse of The Krampus, then started to sob. "I'm going to die. That horrible demonic Santa is going to kill me, like The Ghost of Christmas Future. And me, poor Ebenezer." He looked up abruptly. "But, wait! I'll change my ways! In fact, I'm a changed man already!" His eyes shone hopefully Holly's way.

Holly rolled her eyes, then turned to The Krampus. "I don't get it. What are you doing here? Why are you feeding the kids cookies?"

The Krampus snorted. "I'm giving these good children what they want most in the world. Grott. I'll let them deal with him, however they see fit. Though, I would prefer to eat the boy." He leered at Aaron.

Aaron shrank back, flinching.

"No one's eating anybody," Holly said, with authority. "You've had your fun. And the children appreciate the cookies, but you need to go away now."

The Krampus smirked. "Really? And what do the children think of that? Do they want to be subject to this monster's tyranny any longer?"

"No way," Patty said, lifting her chin. "Grott deserves what he gets."

"And what's he going to get?" Matthew asked. "You can't hurt him."

Patty looked uncertain. "I'm not sure."

"They'll kill him, of course," The Krampus said. "They can each take a turn." He looked at Holly. "You can take a turn, my dear. I recognize that pent-up rage within your soul. You want to hurt him more than any one of them."

Holly turned to regard Grott, who sat dazed and frightened. Snot dribbled from his nose onto his upper lip, and his eyes looked bleary and panicked. A little while ago, she would have been scared to death confronting the man. Now, he just seemed pathetic. She almost pitied him. All at once, the fire of anger within her cooled. She laid a hand on Grott's shoulder. "We'll do what should have been done long ago. We'll tell social services what he's been doing. They'll punish him."

The Krampus' eyes blazed. "That won't do at all." He opened a drawer and pulled out a butcher knife, causing Holly to flinch. But he pushed it into Patty's hand, and nudged her in the general direction of Grott. "We deal with him our way. The good children deserve to get what they really want."

Patty looked at the knife in her hand, then back at The Krampus. "I don't want to use this. I just want Grott to go away."

The Krampus sneered. "Grott will go away when you stick that knife in his chest and slice his beating heart!"

Patty paled and backed away from The Krampus. In fact, the entire room grew still. One little girl began crying.

"I believe you're done here, Krampus," Ozma said from the doorway.

Holly looked up to see Nicholas behind her, looking around him in amazement. "Nicholas! I mean, Saint Nick!"

He smiled at her. "Hello, children. Don't you worry now. These bad men are going to go away. Head back to your beds and you can open your presents in the morning."

The children looked around at one another reluctantly, but finally Patty led them all out the door and up the hallway to their rooms. Aaron followed them at a distance, looking pale and frightened.

As soon as they were out of the room, Ozma closed the door, turning to The Krampus with folded arms. "Now, I think you're going to do the right thing here."

The Krampus laughed, a deep, baritone sound. "You think to intimidate me, little girl?" He leaned forward, his mouth open to show off his sharp teeth. "I am the mighty Krampus, the dread that weighs heavy on the hearts of bad little children everywhere."

"Yes, well, they feel the weight of their decisions in their own way, and the little love they get in return will be their punishment."

The Krampus stood tall and crossed his arms, looking up to regard Nicholas. "I suppose we'll have to fight this out, for the future of Christmas, once and for all."

"No," Holly said. "The others have already been defeated. It's over. Christmas is, and always will be, a holiday that people celebrate with joy and warmth. Your fear has no place in it."

The Krampus stared at her for a moment. "I am a part of Nicholas. I came from him. Deep down, I will always be there."

"Fear resides in all men," Ozma said. "That is nothing new. But it's long past time that you put aside your petty crusade."

The Krampus considered her words. "Perhaps it is." He looked up at Nicholas. "I grow weary of this game anyway. This day, and this fragile alliance you have with the humans will be yours to bear....unless, that is, it's my turn to reign."

Holly frowned and tilted her head toward Ozma. "What does that mean?"

The Krampus smirked. "Oh, didn't he tell you? Nicholas here isn't the son of Santa Claus, or the great-great grandson of the original Saint Nick. He's a doppelganger, just like I am. He wasn't born. He was merely chosen to be the next Santa Claus. When one Santa's time is over, and another Santa's time has come, it's the doppelganger who absorbs Santa Claus to become the new man in charge."

"We call it The Christmas Spirit," Nicholas said, looking somber. "It chooses which of us should wield the power and safeguard Christmas."

"So, he's telling the truth?" Matthew asked.

Nicholas nodded.

"And perhaps," The Krampus smirked, "He's afraid that I will absorb him. What a reign that will be. Isn't that why you had me locked away in that icy prison before? Just in case?" He boldly took a step in Nicholas' direction. "Perhaps deep down, you think that I'm right. That I have the right idea here."

Holly turned to Nicholas. "You've carried this burden with you, year after year? Never knowing if you'll be absorbed, passing the mantle onto someone else? Never knowing if your time was over?"

Nicholas looked back at her without saying anything.

She touched his arm gently. "Thank you, Nicholas. You're very brave. In order to keep Christmas going every year, you run the risk of sacrificing yourself."

Nicholas looked touched, and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's worth the risk, each and every time."

The Krapmus snorted. "Oh, bah humbug." He suddenly walked confidently up to Nicholas, and Holly flinched, expecting him to punch Nicholas. But he walked right into him, absorbed into Nicholas's mass.

Nicholas let out a sigh of relief, then shifted, his body melting like wax and reforming into the handsome twig of a man that Holly recognized. "It'll take some getting used to, having those feelings inside of me again."

"But you will get used to them," Ozma told him.

He smiled at her. "I will."

"I'm glad you're okay, boss," Terrance said, landing on Ozma's shoulder.

"Me too," Nicholas replied, then gestured for Holly and Matthew to approach. He surprised them both by embracing them in a firm hug. "And thank you guys. You were really courageous."

Holly shrugged. "It was no big deal."

Matthew chuckled.

"All the same, I am grateful," Nicholas said. "Thanks to you two, Christmas has been saved." He pulled back and smiled at them. "Speaking of which, we've still got a full night ahead of us. These presents aren't going to deliver themselves." He looked over at Matthew. "Care to help me out?"

"Really?" Matthew asked, eyes wide.

"Really," Nicholas laughed. "I could use a helper." He glanced up at Holly. "Or two."

Holly held up her hands. "Thanks, but I've had all the excitement I can handle in one night."

Terrance chuckled at that.

"I'm proud of you, husband."

Holly looked up to see Crystal standing in the doorway, looking radiant in the soft light. She stepped into the room hesitantly. "It looks like I've missed the final confrontation."

"Crystal, my dear," Nicholas grinned. "You came to rescue me?"

Crystal looked away, and the smile faded from his face. "Oh," he said.

"We have a lot to talk about," she told him.
Chapter Twenty-Five

"We have a lot of rebuilding to do," Ginger noted from where he sat on Matthew's shoulder. He gazed up at Tinseltown, the mountainside trashed, with downed trees and wires, torn decorations and wisps of smoke rising from buildings settling in wake of fires.

"We do," Nicholas agreed, lifting his chin. "But with the holiday behind us, and some magic between us, Tinseltown will be good as new in no time."

He glanced over at Holly. "You must have been frightened. I wouldn't blame you if you had second thoughts about staying here."

Holly smiled tiredly at him. It had been a long night, and she'd spent most of it closely with the elves, helping each of the sleighs en route to finish their deliveries while many Tinseltown residents helped Ozma's people put out fires and drive the yeti back into the woods. The wall had been rebuilt from ice, and the icemen had been separated into individuals once again, chipped off from the giant man they'd become. The sirens had been called in to perform some damage control, using their voices to make people forget all that had taken place, all save Grott, who wouldn't soon forget what he'd gone through, and knew that he still had much to atone for. Nicholas had had a few unkind words for him before leaving, and Holly had no doubt that he would be changing his ways, given the impossible things he'd witnessed that night.

"I'm needed here," Holly replied. She smiled over at Matthew. "And I feel like we belong here."

"I feel the same way," Nicholas nodded, suddenly sobering. "I'm only sorry that my wife couldn't be here to continue showing you her kindness. She really cares about you crazy kids."

"I understand," Holly said, feeling the loss of Crystal in her chest. Mrs. Claus had left shortly after the night was over.

"I must go after my sister," she'd told them. "I let her loose on the world, so she's my responsibility now, whatever mischief she gets into. And frankly, there are people here who would probably...appreciate my absence at the moment."

"But you've redeemed yourself," Holly had said. "You showed your true colors in the end, and where your loyalty lies. Plus, you had good intentions all along. You just saw good in someone you desperately wanted to be good."

"I appreciate that, Holly. But this is something I must do. Alone."

She had left in a fairy ring not long after, for destinations unknown.

"She'll be back," Terrance said, floating up to Holly. "When she puts things right, she'll be back."

"I know," Holly agreed.

Prancer snorted behind Holly and pushed his nose into Holly's arm. Holly smiled and ran a hand over his neck.

She looked up to see Nicholas dangling something in front of her. A gold necklace on a chain.

"What is this?" she asked with a frown as she accepted it. She looked it over and fumbled with a latch on the gold oval hanging from the chain. It opened to reveal two familiar faces grinning back at her. Her parents.

Holly stared, surprised, and suddenly missed them very much. They stood beside each other in the portrait, Holly and Matthew standing before them, and looking like they wanted to be anywhere else. Her eyes drifted back up to the kind eyes of her parents. Their knowing smiles. She could drink in that photograph all day.

"They would be so proud of you," Nicholas told her, with a smile.

She clutched the necklace to her chest and stared up at him. "Thank you. It's...beautiful."

"Well, I couldn't forget to get one of the kids on the "nice" list a present, could I?"

She smiled and looked over to see Matthew with his nose in a huge dictionary, one he could barely lift. She chuckled at the sight and glanced up at Nicholas with tears in her eyes. "It's very nice."

"I couldn't get you what you really wanted for Christmas," Nicholas said softly, gesturing toward the picture, "but I hope that we can be your family. We can never replace them, but I promise to make you as happy here as we're able to."

"I'd like that," she said, feeling choked up. She cleared her throat and blinked away the tears that were forming in her eyes. She looked away from Nicholas for a moment, then smiled back at him. "So, tell me: how do you celebrate the big day being behind you?" she asked.

Nicholas stretched and stifled a yawn. "Sleep. For a few days, at least."

"Oh."

He grinned. "But just you wait. Our New Year's parties are legendary." With a wink, he walked toward the mountain.

Matthew grabbed Holly's hand and tugged her after him. "Come on, Holly. Let's go home."

"Home," Holly breathed. Then she smiled.

THE END

Young Adult Books by Dave Ferraro

Dark Genesis

The Tomb

Twice Bitten

Yokai

The Young Adult Book Club

The Hunters of the Dark series

Her Dark Destiny

Night Cries

Face the Dark

Dead of Night

The Shape of Evil

The Abyss

