Book Two, Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Three

Darkness flooded the entryway, extinguishing every trace of light in the house in an instant. Justin felt it collide with him, as cold and hard as iron that had been left outside on a winter night, and he was sent flying backwards across the living room until he collided with the great glass wall on the other side. He both heard and felt something snap, and pain flared throughout his still-injured body as cracks spiderwebbed across the glass behind him. He slumped to the ground, and his vision went white—but not before he saw Mari Lwyd’s skull come racing toward him, her one remaining eye blazing with furious dark light. Her jaw was stretched wide, ready to bite into his chest and rip out his heart. He cringed, waiting for the pain to come…

But it never came.

It took his vision a few seconds to come back, but once it did, he saw Lucas standing a foot away from him, his hands wrapped around the back of Mari Lwyd’s skull. She fought to get free, and Lucas’ face was screwed with the effort of holding her back.

“I could use…some help here!” he grunted.

A green clad blur came rushing out of the darkness, and Tanraak swung his club, striking Mari Lwyd on the side of her skull with a resounding THWACK! She flew free of Lucas’ hands, flipping end over end until she struck the back of the kitchen wall. Then, with a furious shriek, she spun to face Tanraak and raced toward him. The elf charged right back at her, raising the shield he had in his other hand. He leaped at the last second, and slammed the shield against her skull, batting her over to Moryta, who lashed out with both of her daggers—which Mari Lwyd caught as two shadowy arms burst from her neck.

“I will not lose again this night!” she screamed, hurling the elf down the hallway while sprouting four more arms. “You have not truly seen me fight!”

Lucas flew hoof-first into her from behind, and they went careening through the living room until they collided with the TV. It shattered from the impact, and Mari Lwyd screamed as electricity coursed across her skull, vaporizing her smoky limbs in an instant. The power died, and she fell free to clatter onto the floor.

“Finish her off!” Lucas yelled.

He didn’t need to say it twice. Tanraak and Moryta sprang into action, both raising their weapons as they closed in for the killing—

Dark clouds exploded out of Mari Lwyd, knocking everybody within a ten foot radius of her skull backwards with the force of a speeding truck. Lucas and Tanraak were slammed into the walls hard enough to crack the drywall. Moryta was flung into the kitchen, where she hit the ground hard, her daggers spinning into the darkness. She managed to roll back to her on her feet, and then spun to confront the demon again. But instead of sprinting back into the fight, she slowly raised a hand to touch her forehead, where a trickle of blood was…

Her eyes rolled back into her skull, and her legs gave out beneath her.

Mari Lwyd laughed with an almost girlish glee as the female elf collapsed to the hard wooden floor, and lunged for her.

“Moryta!”

Tanraak threw himself forward, dropping to his knees and sliding across the slick wooden floor to pass beneath the smoking skull. Dropping his shield and club, he grabbed Moryta and rolled with her, their diminutive size allowing them to pass beneath one of the nearby couches. Mari Lwyd struck and missed, her equine teeth tearing out a chunk of the floor with a CRUNCH! that made the fur on Justin’s spine stand up. Undaunted, she spat out her mouthful of wood and reared back to strike again as the elves came out on the other side of the couch.

“Get away from my Rider!”

Lucas zoomed across the room, snatching Tanraak’s club off the floor, and slammed it into Mari Lwyd as he passed.

“You cruel, foul, Light serving beast!” she screamed as another crack appeared in her skull. “I will eat your heart and leave you deceased!”

Lucas shot across the house, flipping over so that his feet struck the wall first.

“Here’s a poem for you!” he yelled. “Sticks and stones may break my bones…”

He thrust off of the wall, coming in for another strike.

“But rhymes will never—”

One of Mari Lwyd’s hands shot out, grabbing Lucas in midair. With a shrill wail, she raised him up and threw him down into the floor. Lucas cried out in pain as the floorboards cracked beneath the impact, and Mari Lwyd opened her jaw to deliver the final blow.

I have to help! Justin thought, fighting to think through the haze that surrounded his mind. With a groan, he began to force himself to his hooves. His injuries flared to life again, making his eyes water with pain, but he made himself keep going. If he didn’t do something, his own injuries would be nothing compared to what Mari Lwyd would do to him—and this time, Santa wasn’t here to bring him back.

For a second, he thought about using his light, but…no. He wasn’t going to gamble his friend’s life on whether the stubborn little spark inside him would cooperate or not. Instead, he held out his hands and launched himself across the room, grabbing hold of Mari Lwyd’s skull. With his fingers wrapped around the dry, brittle bone, he kept going, flying straight out through the front door.

“You can not stop what is coming, you fool!” Mari Lwyd.

Greeted by the cold night air, Justin rocketed up above the house. Taking the skull in both hands, he raised it over his head.

“Night will reign eternal, and Lord Krampus shall rule!”

“I kicked Krampus’ butt last year,” Justin said. “And I'll do the same to you tonight!”

More smoke was blowing from her neck, but when she heard that she froze. It was like someone had paused a video of a storm cloud that they had just been fast forwarding.

“What did you say?” she asked, horrified.

“I said I sent that putrid sack of slugs crying for his mommy!”

With that, he flung the skull straight downwards. Mari Lwyd's shriek of rage pierced his eardrums as she hurtled toward the ground—and then eight more arms erupted from the blackness within her skull. She caught herself half a foot above the ground, her limbs spreading across the driveway like a nightmarish spider.

On second thought, Justin reflected, maybe telling her that wasn't a great idea.

“YOU WILL PAY!” she screeched.

She bent her elbows, flexing her shadowy arms as she prepared to leap back up to where he was hovering. Justin braced himself. His entire body ached, his vision was swimming, and he was so…very…tired. He didn't know if he had it in him to dodge her attack, much less go another round with her. Where were Lucas and Tanraak?

Mari Lwyd hissed in anger, but before she could pounce, a pair of blazing lights appeared at the end of the driveway. A thunderous roar shook the air. Justin had to shield his eyes to keep from being blinded, and Mari Lwyd spun around—

Just as a bright red pickup truck crashed into her.

A ground-shaking BOOM split the night as the truck careened across the driveway and ran headlong into the garage door. The thin metal barrier was torn from its frame, crumpling like tinfoil around the out of control vehicle's hood, and a second CRASH rang out as the car inside the garage was crushed like a soda can.

For a moment, Justin could only float there and stare at the carnage, but he quickly shook himself out of his shock and flew down to investigate. He would sooner have believed that the Easter Bunny had rescued him than that this had been a mere coincidence. But who on Earth would have…

The truck's door flew open, and Lena hopped out of the driver's seat.

Justin paused in midair. “Well, that answers one question, but raises so many more.”

“Vixen's in the other seat,” she said, dashing around to the other side of the truck. “Hurry, help me get her out!”

Justin touched down and limped into the garage. Now that he wasn't in immediate danger, it was becoming more and more obvious just how bad of shape he was in. He could feel blood oozing down his back, matting his fur, as his half-healed cuts opened up again. Lena opened the door, and Vixen stuck her head out of the truck. She had to hunch over to make her antlers fit, and there was a pale tan material dangling from them that Justin guessed was all that remained of the airbag.

“Where did you two even get a truck?” Justin demanded, doing his best to help ease the Elder out of her seat. His exhausted legs shook under her weight.

“What do you mean?” Lena asked. “They’re everywhere!”

“Justin! What was…” Lucas’ head poked around the side of the garage, and he paused when he saw the destruction inside. “Oh. Yeah, that adds up. Is the freak dead?”

“No,” Vixen said, her voice deathly certain. “Only incapacitated. We need to take advantage of this while we have the chance. Are the Dawsons—”

“I told them to lock themselves in Charlie’s bedroom,” Lucas said, hurrying over to take her from Justin. Lena had her hooves, but it looked like they hadn’t managed to bring her wheelchair with them.

“Good. Now listen…”

Before she could explain whatever plan she had concocted, the truck began to shake. Smoke rose out of the millimeter-thick gap between it and Charlie’s car, and the groan of bending metal filled the air.

“Too late!” Justin exclaimed, pushing them toward the door. “Get out! Now!”

Lena and Lucas hurried to carry Vixen back out into the driveway. Justin was right behind them, but just as he was about to cross the threshold—

“I WILL TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!” roared Mari Lwyd. There was another BOOM, and the entire truck shot out of the garage like a cork from a toy gun. “I WILL DEVOUR YOUR HEART AND FEED ON YOUR SIN!”

Justin spun just as the skull came barreling out of the garage. Huge chunks of it were missing, and what was left looked like it was barely holding itself together. Underneath it, he could see a roiling mass of black clouds, constantly and violently shifting as if someone had taken a hurricane and rolled it up into the size of a snowball.

She crashed into him hard enough to drive the air from his lungs, and he flew backwards right into Lucas, Lena, and Vixen, knocking them all over like living bowling pins. He flipped antlers over hooves, flying across the driveway to land in the front yard. His vision blurred for a moment when he hit the ground, but it cleared just in time to see Vixen crack her head violently against the concrete driveway. Her body went limp, and she collapsed unmoving on the edge of the yard.

Dread filled Justin. Vixen was the only one of them who had full control over her light. If she was unconscious—he refused to even think that she might be dead—then they had just lost their most reliable weapon against Mari Lwyd.

He struggled to his hooves, his body crying out for mercy, and looked around frantically for Mari Lwyd. She had disappeared into the greater darkness surrounding the house, but he didn’t believe for a second that she had fled.

Come on, he thought, once again reaching for the light inside him. Without Vixen, I’m the only one who can finish her off!

He grabbed hold of the elusive power, and for one electrifying moment his antlers lit up with vibrant blue light. But then it was gone, like water trickling through his fingers. Growling in frustration, he reached for it again, with the same outcome. He was closer to it than he had ever been before, but something was still missing. What could it—

A cool breeze wafted against his back.

Ignoring his body’s protests, Justin threw himself forward and rolled back to his hooves. Half a second later, Mari Lwyd’s claws struck the ground where he had just been standing, digging razor-thin five gashes into the soft dirt.

“That you slew my master, I do not believe,” she said, flinging the dirt and grass away in disgust. “Save your lies! I am not so naive!”

She raised a hand to swipe at him again, and Justin leaped backwards. His deerlike physique let him jump farther than a human ever could, even without flying, but his injuries had left him so weak that his knees buckled beneath him the moment he landed. Mari Lwyd made a noise that could only be described as craving, and surged forward to finish him off.

“Stay away from my reindeer!”

Justin turned to see Lena sprinting across the driveway, her staff clutched tight in both hands. Driving it into the ground, she pole vaulted up into the air, then spun, becoming a green and white blur as she streaked across the yard. A sharp CRACK rang across the property as the wooden weapon connected with Mari Lwyd. She landed with catlike grace, and the demon raised a claw large enough to cut her clean in two.

“Lena!” Justin shouted. He raised a hand, but knew he wouldn’t be able to reach her in time.

“And while you’re at it…”

Lucas came soaring in from the other direction, head bowed so that his antlers struck Mari Lwyd with the force of an arrow loosed from a bow.

“Stay away from my friends! Both of them!”

Mari Lwyd was disconnected from her body again, her phantom limbs evaporating into thin air. Lucas grabbed her in one hand and raised her above his head, ready to throw her down onto the concrete driveway as hard as he could. His hand shot downwards—

And an arm erupted out of Mari Lwyd’s skull, grabbing Lucas by the antler.

“Gah!” he yelled, thrown off balance by his own strength.

Before he could recover, Mari Lwyd grew another hand and grabbed him by the shoulder. Pulling herself in close, her jaw opened wide, and—

“No!” Justin yelled as she sank her teeth into his flesh. He rose into the air and shot forward.

Luckily, Lucas’ struggling had thrown Mari Lwyd’s aim off. She had been trying to bite his chest to rip out his heart, but all she had managed to get was his shoulder. Still, she sank her teeth as deep into him as she could, causing Lucas to scream in pain.

Lena got there before Justin did. Jumping up onto Lucas’ other arm, she raised her staff and brought it down like a spear, ready to plunge it right into Mari Lwyd’s remaining eye—until a third claw billowed from her neck and slashed its claws at Lena’s stomach.

Terror flashed through Justin’s body as he saw his Rider fall.

Lena’s armor protected her from most of Mari Lwyd’s attack, but her claws still sliced straight through the magically resilient material. Five shallow cuts appeared on the skin of Lena’s belly. Painful, but nonlethal, so long as no further damage was done to her.

Justin reached them a moment later. Grabbing Mari Lwyd’s skull in both hands, he began to pry her free of Lucas’ arm. She stubbornly resisted, reindeer blood spilling across her teeth and jawbones. He had to put every ounce of strength he had left into it, but slowly he managed to open her mouth wide enough to yank her away and fling her across the yard. Lucas fell to the ground with a groan, writhing in pain. Mari Lwyd flew for thirty feet, but then froze in midair as even more smoke began to billow from her skull.

“Leave them alone!” Justin yelled at her, rising up into the air in challenge. “I’m the one who thrashed Krampus! I’m the one you want!”

Mari Lwyd opened her bloodstained mouth, and a new sound came out of it. It took Justin a few seconds, but he finally realized what it was.

Laughter.

“Your light is dim, your body weak,” she chuckled, the dark light in her eye glowing brighter with gleeful malice. “So you tell lies, and glory seek!”

Even more arms began to grow from her skull, and a pit formed in Justin’s gut. Four…six…eight…ten. They started to spin, making a tornado of limbs, each one tipped with claws sharp enough to shred flesh like wet tissue paper.

“But your sins can serve a worthy goal,” she went on. “Come and help make Krampus whole!”

She shot toward him, and Justin rocketed upwards. He felt the icy wind touch his hooves as she passed by less than an inch below. He glanced downwards as she chased after him, her body nearly invisible while her bleached white head gleamed in the moonlight.

“Your lying heart shall feed my lord,” she went on, “and by your sin will he be restored!”

Bracing himself for the pain he knew was coming, Justin flung himself to the side. The sky and Earth became a blur of darkness and starlight as he spun madly through the air, and he had to choke back the cry that tried to burst from his throat, but it got him out of Mari Lwyd's path. The demon sped past, snarling in annoyance as she fought to come to a stop. Now close to a hundred feet above the ground, Justin spun to face his enemy. She was ten or fifteen feet above him, and looking up at her, an idea came to Justin.

I haven't even tried this in over a year, he thought. He blasted upwards toward Mari Lwyd, clasping his hands and raising them above his head. Before she could react, Justin slammed into her's chin hard enough to snap her head up to look at the moon. He didn’t stop, though, continuing upwards for a few feet before looping backwards. Down he went, and then back up, his fists connecting with her skull a second time, and then a third.

Justin had only ever used this move once. A little less than a year ago, during Laetitia’s annual Reindeer Games. He and Lena had scored the final goal tens of thousands of feet over Val Luminara, bathed in the light of the portal itself. There, his old rival, Tornado, had finally decided to kill the “lightless one.” Justin had fought back, and by using this exact move, he had forced Tornado through the portal.

That fight wasn't something he was particularly proud of, but the experience served him well now as he pummeled Mari Lwyd's increasingly fragile chin again, and again, and again! Each time, a few small bone flakes would break off of her skull. Each time, Justin’s body begged for him to stop. All he could do was hope that his enemy gave out before—

“ENOUGH!” roared Mari Lwyd, in an instant, all ten of her arms joined together into one massive limb. Justin had just enough time to realize he was in trouble before she lashed out.

Fortunately, none of her claws struck him.

Unfortunately, it still felt like he had been hit by a bus.

A deep PHOOM rippled through his entire body with the impact, followed by a high pitched ringing in his ears, and everything went dark. Justin could feel his mind sinking into unconsciousness, but he fought it, pushing himself back into the waking world. There was pain waiting for him there, and his thoughts came slowly. He still had the presence of mind to know that he was a hundred feet up in the air, though. If he gave in and passed out now, he would never get the chance to wake up again.

He moaned as the expected pain wracked his body, but he forced himself to shove it to the side for now. There would—hopefully—be plenty of time to feel sorry for himself later. He was upside down, spinning lazily as he plummeted down toward the Dawsons’ house, as if he were planning on drilling straight through the ceiling and into the ground with his antlers. Summoning his magic, he arced out of his dive, launching skyward again. His entire body ached, but…no, he couldn’t let himself think about it. The more he acknowledged the pain, the harder it became to ignore it. He may have running on fumes, but so was Mari Lwyd. If he could hold out just a little longer, deal just a little more damage, then just maybe he and his friends would live to see another Christmas.

There was a shriek, and Justin spun to see Mari Lwyd closing in on him again. She had separated her one massive arm back into ten smaller ones, and they were spinning like a shadowy buzzsaw. She cackled, obviously expecting him to try and outrun her again.

Instead, he came to meet her.

“Get this through your thick skull!” he yelled, picking up speed. At the last second, he flipped over so that his hooves were in front of him, and he kicked Mari Lwyd in the face at nearly sixty miles per hour. He heard a sharp CRACK that he desperately hoped was her skull and not his legs, and Mari Lwyd’s arms vanished as she was sent flying backwards. “Krampus couldn’t beat me, and neither can you!”

The lie tasted bitter as it slid past his tongue, but trash talking Krampus seemed to enrage the monster, so he kept doing it. The angrier she got, the less clearly she would think. And the less clearly she was thinking, the easier it would be to kick her back to the South Pole.

Either that, or she would unleash all that rage with the force of a nuclear bomb in a hurricane, but it was too late to back out now.

Tendrils of darkness began to leak out of her skull again, and Justin gave her a solid kick, sending her spiraling out into the night like a bleached football. She roared with anger, the smoke coalescing to form even more arms, and she came for him again.

Justin braced himself, fists clenched by his side. It was time to end this.

All right, he thought, reaching for his light again. There’s only one way this is going to end in our favor. You know that. I know that. So please, please, please, for the sake of our friends, for the sake of the world, play nice with me just this once!

Mari Lwyd was almost on top of him. He couldn’t have dodged her now if he’d wanted to. It was all or nothing. He grabbed his light. His antlers lit up. He felt the magic coursing through his veins, and…

It disappeared.

“NO”! he yelled, despair clawing at his heart as Mari Lwyd bore down on him. It was over. He had fai—

Something crashed into him from the side, sending pain lancing up and down his spine and pushing him out of Mari Lwyd’s path. The demon screeched in anger as she flew past, and Justin looked in confusion at the lithe, brown-furred form that had him in its clutches.

“Willow?” he exclaimed.

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking at him with those big, beautiful brown eyes.

“I- I think so, but…”

“The others?”

“They’re not in good shape.” He looked past her, to where Mari Lwyd was wheeling around to make another attack. “If you hurry, you can get down there and—”

“I’m not going anywhere!” she interrupted him. “Look at you! You’re barely able to stay in the air. If I leave you here, you’ll die!”

“But our friends…”

She shook her head resolutely. “They may be my friends, but you are the one I love, Justin Flinchley. You protected me last night. Now let me protect you!”

Mari Lwyd screamed, launching herself at them, clawed hands extended, more than happy with the prospect of killing two reindeer at the same time.

Hovering between him and their enemy, Willow gently wrapped her arms around him, becoming a living shield.

“Willow…” Justin whispered.

“I love you, Justin!”

He hesitated for a moment, and then hugged her as well.

“I love you too.”

The moment those words left his mouth, something inside of Justin ignited. He gasped, his eyes widening as power roared through every square inch of his body. Blue light even brighter than the sun exploded out of his antlers.

This was it, he realized with shock. The thing he had been missing all this time. The thing that completed him. It had never been a thing at all. It had been a person.

It was Willow.

You’ve got to be kidding me, he thought. He felt like a grenade whose pin had been pulled, and the pressure was building up inside of him, leading to a catastrophic detonation. I’m about to kill Mari Lwyd with the power of love? Who’s writing this crap?

Then he unleashed his power, and a pillar of blue light that was too bright to look at erupted from his snout. The roar of displaced air filled his ears, and he clutched Willow against him even more tightly.

And then, just as quickly as it had come, the power vanished, and the night was plunged into darkness yet again.

“Justin!” Willow whispered. She released him and drifted back a couple of feet, staring at him with awe. “That was…That was incredible! Did you do—”

“H…H…” Justin struggled to say. Slowly at first, but growing faster with each second, he was beginning to fall out of the sky. “Help!”

Willow gasped, diving to catch him, and in her gentle embrace he made his way down to the Dawsons’ front yard safely.

A horse skull, broken in half and empty, lay abandoned in the grass.

“Is it over?” Lucas asked. It looked like he had managed to stop the bleeding in his shoulder, but he was still lying on his back, breathing heavily.

“It’s over,” Willow answered. As softly as she could, she laid Justin out on the grass. “Justin did it!”

“No,” Justin argued. “We did it. All of us.”

The patter of small feet reached his ears, and Justin glanced over to see Lena running to him. She dropped to her knees, the cuts on her belly already scabbing over.

“Are you hurt?” she demanded. “I- well, of course you’re hurt, but are you hurt even more now?”

“I’ll be fine,” Justin told her. “Take care of Vixen! She needs it more than I do.”

Lena hesitated, then nodded and sprinted to where the old reindeer was lying on the driveway.

“She’s alive!” she called a moment later, and Justin breathed a sigh of relief.

A door opened, and light spilled onto the yard.

“Are you all okay?” Joyce asked. She took one step into the yard, but her grandfather stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Joyce, wait!” he said, then looked warily out at all of them. “Is it safe?”

Tanraak squeezed past them through the door, with Moryta leaning against him, and together they hobbled out to investigate Mari Lwyd’s skull. Tanraak kicked one of the halves, flipping it over. A tiny puff of darkness rose from it, but quickly evaporated.

“Yeah,” he said over his shoulder. “I think it’s safe.”

Tentatively, Charlie and Joyce stepped out onto the lawn. Joyce’s hand immediately went to her mouth, her skin turning pale, when she saw Lucas.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Are you all—no, you’re clearly not okay! It- It’s okay, though! Grandpa Charlie and I can fix this!”

“No,” he grunted, forcing himself to sit up. “I’m fine for now. Go check on Vixen.”

He raised his hand like he wanted to rub at his wound, but thought better of it. Justin was halfway to passing out, his thoughts coming slower by the minute, but he could tell that Lucas was in tremendous pain. He was right, though. As long as he didn’t pick at the scabs, he would be all right the moment. Vixen, still lying unconscious on the driveway, was the one who clearly needed the most attention. Lena had said she was alive, but that didn’t mean her fall hadn’t given her a serious concussion.

To his surprise, though, Joyce didn’t leave Lucas’ side. Instead, Charlie hurried over to kneel next to the elder reindeer.

“That’s a nasty bump on her head,” he said, parting her fur to look at her injury as gently as he could. “Looks like she broke a few pieces off her antlers too. Joyce, can you bring me the disinfectant and a bag of ice?”

Joyce automatically began to rise, but then she looked back down at Lucas. “I…I want to…”

“Sweetie, I need your help,” he urged her. “Lucas will be fine!”

Lucas reached up and took her hand, giving her a weak smirk. “He’s right. It’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon.”

Justin raised an eyebrow as Joyce hesitated, then sprinted back into the house.

“What happened while they were at the mall?” he whispered.

Willow gave him a wry look. “If you’re only now noticing it, you must be blind.”

Justin turned toward her, and then raised a hand to stroke it tenderly across her cheek. Willow closed her eyes, leaning into his touch and sighing in bliss.

“You’re right,” he said. “I have been blind. I should have told you how I felt months ago. I’m sorry—”

“What you didn’t do before doesn’t matter,” she cut him off. “All that matters is that you finally did it, and now we can be…”

She paused, opening her eyes and looking into Justin’s.

“What can we be?” Justin asked, his heart beating faster.

Willow leaned in toward him, and Justin’s heart shot up into his throat. Slowly, their lips touched, and a feeling of complete and utter happiness spread through him as if he had absorbed all the Christmas spirit in the world.

Willow broke the kiss a few seconds later, smiling at him, and said, “Together!”

“I’d like that,” he responded.

“So would I,” she agreed, stroking her hand through his hair. “More than you would believe. But for now, you need to rest.”

His eyes flicked toward Vixen. “But what about—”

“Shh, it’s all right,” she whispered, laying him down so that his head was resting on the grass. “There’s still me, Charlie, Joyce, Moryta, Lena, and Tanraak. We can take care of things while you finish healing. Now go to sleep!”

Justin didn’t have it in him to argue with her. He was so…freaking…tired. Sleeping for the next month or two sounded absolutely wonderful. He could feel his eyelids growing heavier, and knew he wouldn’t be able to fight it for much longer.

“I’ve got them, Grandpa Charlie,” Joyce said, running back into the yard with the things Charlie had requested in her hands, plus a small spool of bandages. “But we’re almost out after last night. I don’t think it’ll be enough!”

“This will be plenty for now,” Charlie reassured her, taking the medical supplies and immediately popping the cap off of the disinfectant. “We’ll need to run into town for more, but I can at least get Vixen taken care of right now.”

“Ow! Yule Cat’s litter box!”

Joyce looked back at Lucas, who was wincing as he gingerly moved his injured arm in slow circles. Tanraak was standing nearby, periodically poking him to make sure all his muscles were working the way they should, and earning himself a sharp reprimand each time.

“I can…I can go get more now,” she said reluctantly.

“Don’t even think about it!” Charlie said without hesitation. “You’re not leaving my sight for the rest of the night, do you hear me?”

“But our friends—”

“It’s because of them that any of this happened!” Charlie paused, looking at them, and then his shoulders slumped. “I know it isn’t their fault. That…thing…needed to be stopped. But I can’t overlook the danger they put you in, Joyce. So you’re staying right here with me until the sun comes—”

Vixen’s eyes shot open, and her hand reached out to grab Charlie’s wrist.

“Not dead yet,” she whispered.

Charlie recoiled in surprise, and Joyce let out a little scream.

“She’s not dead yet!” Vixen shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Wait, what did she just say?” Lucas demanded, trying and failing to get to his hooves. “Did she say that—”

Before he could finish, a sharp, high pitched noise began to ring through the night air. Justin’s ears perked up to hear it better, but he needn’t have bothered because it only grew louder by the second…and louder…and louder, until the shrill screech was all he could hear.

Then a ball of pitch black darkness came roaring out the night. It was easy to make out, because it was even darker than the darkness that surrounded it. It streaked toward them like a comet that had collapsed into a black hole, and in its dark, almost oily surface, Justin thought he could make out a ghastly, inhuman face.

A horrible, icy chill ran down his spine. Vixen’s words were true, and they hadn’t come a moment too soon. They hadn’t killed Mari Lwyd, he realized. They had only shattered her skull, leaving her without a physical body.

But that didn’t look like she was going to let that stop her.

“KILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOUALLLL!” she screamed, her mouth stretched open unnaturally wide in anguish.

Justin tried to leap to his hooves, but his body had finally given in to his exhaustion, and all he could do was sluggishly raise his arm.

Lucas reacted much faster, stumbling upright with a pained grunt. He moved to block her way, but Mari Lwyd’s “body” gave off a pulse of dark light, and with a cry he went flying through the air, crashing through one of the second floor bedroom windows.

Willow was on her hooves next, but a second pulse of dark light sent her careening into the dark garage.

Lena was there an instant later, swinging her staff—only for it to pass straight through Mari Lwyd like a ghost. The wraith continued on, ignoring the elf, and…

No! Justin thought.

She was heading straight for Joyce, who stood paralyzed with fear at the edge of the driveway.

They lost her game, even if they didn’t know they were playing it, he realized, the scene playing out in slow motion before his eyes. They didn’t even let her make a single rhyme.

That means she’s allowed to…

Justin frantically tried to summon his light, but there was nothing more inside him he could give. He was used up, like a stocking that had disgorged all of its presents. All he could do was watch in horror as Mari Lwyd came to claim what she was owed. One heart, plucked from a living body, rife with sin to hasten Krampus’ return and—

A large, wrinkled hand shoved Joyce out of the way.

“Take me, monster!” Charlie yelled.

Mari Lwyd was only too happy to accept his offer. She struck Charlie right in the chest without hesitation, and the old man flew backwards. A split second later, the demon burst out of his back, leaving a gaping black hole behind. Charlie hit the ground, not moving, not breathing, his eyes staring up at the night sky and not seeing.

“With his sin shall I be restored!” Mari Lwyd cackled. She hovered over his corpse, her shadowy form pulsing and undulating as she hurried to absorb his life force into her own. “And you shall suffer forevermore!”

Then, abruptly, she froze. Her spectral eyes narrowed in confusion, then widened in fear as her body gave a sudden spasm.

“What…” she stammered. “What is happ…”

She spasmed again, a sickening moan bursting from her mouth. And then, from deep inside her, a light began to shine.

“No…NO!” she screamed. “It can not be so!”

Justin could only watch as the light began to shine brighter inside the dark orb. Tendrils of smoke began to rise from Mari Lwyd’s form, almost as if…

As if she were evaporating right in front of their eyes!

“A heart full of light, devoid of sin?” she wailed. “Impossible! I have been deceived! I have been…done…”

Then, in one more magnificent flash of light, Mari Lwyd was torn to inky, gaseous shreds. The light hovered where she had just been for a few seconds, brilliant and beautiful…

“Grandpa Charlie?” Joyce asked, tears streaming down her face. “Is that—”

…before slowly fading away.

“No!” No, Grandpa Charlie, don’t go!” Joyce scrambled to her feet and lunged for the dwindling light, but her hands passed right through it. “Please, don’t leave me! You’re the only family I have left! Grandpa Charlie!”

I have to help, Justin thought, though he had no idea what he was going to do. Using all of his remaining energy, he was able to force himself onto his knees. He reached toward Joyce, who was kneeling by her grandfather’s corpse, screaming for him to come back. He put one foot underneath him, and—

Collapsed back onto the ground. There was nothing he could do. He could only watch her suffer as darkness crept in around the edges of his vision, no longer able to fight the need to pass out and let himself heal.

The last thing he saw was another antlered figure landing beside Joyce. Lucas took her in his arms, and Joyce buried her face in his uninjured shoulder, sobbing like someone who had just lost everything that had meant anything to her.

Because that was exactly what had happened.