Page 111 of The Nightmare Before Kissmas
Kris stares blankly at her.
“You didn’t tell them how they should RSVP?” she pushes. “How will you know if they’re coming?”
“They’ll… show up? Shit.” I scratch my forehead. “That was dumb. But there’s no good place for them to respond, is there? They can’t very well send something to thepalace.Could they use magic to drop something into my suite? Would Dad feel that?”
“Unlikely,” Hex says. “We have no connection to other Holidays’ uses of magic, even ones who would be linked by tithing as you are. Their magic is its own separate function.”
“Though I feel like a worm asking them to use their already limited magic, limitedbecause of us,on something Christmas-related. No better ideas?”
The room hangs in silence.
“Shit,” I say again. “Okay. So—Kris?” I wince at the stack of sealed, ready-to-go letters behind him. “Can you add something about them sending their responses to me magically? And how we’ll make it up to them.”
He spins around. “We’ll need to get better at this.”
“What, you mean two guys who have never had to apply their foreign affairs studies to real-world situations are sucking at it right out of the gate? Who would’ve guessed?”
“Didn’t you finish your senior capstone where you did exactly that?”
“It was a group project and thereal-world situationwas presenting a slideshow to a boardroom of government officials. It had nothing to do with espionage.”
“I’m willing to betDadknew we’d suck at it. Which was part of his plan, right? That we could never do stuff like this so we’d be forced to comply with his shit.”
I’ve been maneuvering around that realization, but hearing Kris say it, my chest aches.
Dad wants what’s best for Christmas. I believe that. But I don’t know how far he’s willing to go to see his version ofbestthrough.
Hex rocks into me, a slight bump, and I feel the implication in it.Do you still need my help?
“When the letters are done,” I say, “we can’t drop them in with the normal palace mail.”
“We could deliver them using magic, maybe?” Kris offers.
“Dad would know. He can senseourmagic use, at least.”
“Iris could deliver them with magic? Or Hex? Or—” Kris glances at me as he works open the envelopes. “You look like you have a plan.”
I give a sly smile. “How would you like to sneak out into North Pole City?”
Kris’s brows raise. “We’ve never done that before. Why haven’t we done that before?”
“Because using magic to hop around to nightclubs across the world is more glamorous. But we should have been doing it. And, to avoid Dad finding out, I have a better mode of transport.”
I grin down at Hex.
Who shoves up from my bed—unacceptable, but I’ll allow it this time—and with an easy, graceful throw of his wrist, creates awhole-ass portalin my bedroom.
The door-size oval is shaded in black, ripples of darkness in a frame that shows an alley in North Pole City. There’s the square, the ice skating rink, all under the clear afternoon sky.
Iris and Kris fly to their feet.
I follow them up and bracket Hex’s hips with my hands, my smile pressing to his ear. “God, you’re useful—wait.Wait a hot fucking second.”
He glances up at me.
“Isthishow you vanished on me at the bar?”
Hex’s eyebrows bounce in a show ofduh.
