Page 112 of The Nightmare Before Kissmas
“Youimp.” I capture his hips against my body and bite his neck. He chirrups in surprise. “Fuck me, I thought I was losing my mind when you were gone.”
“And I thought Coal was losing his mind too,” Iris says. “I didn’t see a damn thing. Impressive.”
“I have my talents,” Hex says, and I should be given an award for not responding to that perfect setup. “Halloween’s magic thrives on joy created most by mischief. And, for as long as we are gone, provided it isn’tdays,anyone who comes searching for us will conveniently be diverted elsewhere.”
“We should’ve made friends with someone from Halloween years ago,” Kris says, lifting one hand to touch the edge of the portal. A waft of smoke uncoils, drifts around his fingers. “You didn’t need a doorway? You conjured a fucking portal in midair. With a literal flick of your wrist.”
“It’s how we dispose of the corpses.”
Kris flinches like the portal bit him. “What?”
Hex is serene. “The corpses. Once our magic wears off and the zombies stop being animated. We open a portal to a landfill and toss them through.”
He lays his hand over mine where it’s still on his hip and squeezes. I grin into the back of his head.
It is not even a little surprising that him fucking with people is a major turn-on.
Iris leans over to Hex and stage-whispers, “Kris doesn’t know you’re teasing him again.”
Kris glowers at Iris, then Hex. “I know. Obviously.”
“I am teasing, Kris.” Hex cocks his head. “Halloween does not defile corpses.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I swear on my great-great-grandmother. Or I would, if we could find her. She never likes to stay in her tomb for very—”
“Okay, so, we’re sneaking out into your city,” Iris cuts in, saving Kris, and Hex tosses a pressed-lip smirk up at me.
I hug his hips to me one more time. “God, you’re hot.”
“Then we’re mailing those letters,” Iris continues, “and…?”
I exhale, ruffling Hex’s hair. “And we’re going to talk to the people there. I want to find out what they think of us,reallythink of us.”
“You think they’ll be honest with you, Prince Nicholas?” Her eyes go up and down my body.
“Fair enough.”
Kris gets back to work repackaging the envelopes and I shuffle through my closet for basic gear I don’t usually wear and isn’t as put together as my Wren-styled outfits. I toss some to Kris and Hex too, and Iris, who reluctantly changes out of her sleek purple coat and into a drab old gray one of mine. I grab a few pairs of sunglasses, tug a hat fully over my curls so they’re less noticeable.
Hex pulls on a blue coat, his equally noticeable hair tucked up under a bright red hat. It’s more the fact that he’s wearing my clothes than that he’s in color that has me restraining myself, again, from kissing him, and wow, yeah, this is why I opted out of the event earlier. It is way too hard to be around him and not touch him.
Iris shoves her hands into her pockets and gives me an appraising grin. “Wow, Coal. Look at you, all grown up.”
I roll my eyes.
“No, I’m serious.” She steps forward and points at my head. “I think I saw some gray hair, right—”
“Okay, okay.” I bat her away. “Game faces. We have jobs to do.”
Iris and Kris go motionless. They share a look.
“This all went from entertaining to somewhat frightening,” Iris murmurs. “Who is he and what’s he done with your brother?”
The square of North Pole City has the same sentiment of cheer as when we’d come ice skating, only it feels less orchestrated.
Wayless orchestrated.
