Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

“Tornado!” Lena exclaimed. “What do you think you're—”

Before Justin had time to react, Tornado snatched Lena off his back.

Then he hurled her away.

“LENAAAA!” Justin screamed as he watched his Rider plummet down toward Val Luminara. He tried to dive after her, but Tornado's grip tightened, keeping him suspended in midair thousands of feet above the ground. He looked at Tornado, horrified. “What are you doing? Let me—”

Tornado punched him so hard in the stomach that Justin could feel his insides convulsing. Eyes bulging, he coughed, a little blood flying from his mouth to spatter on Tornado's jacket.

“We're too high up for anyone to see us, lightless one,” Tornado said. “No matter what happens up here, nobody down there in Laetitia will know.”

“Santa—”

Tornado punched him again, and blackness crept into Justin's vision.

“Santa,” the larger reindeer growled, “will thank me for this!”

Another punch, all the force of being hit by a truck condensed into a few square inches.

“This is why Santa brought you here!”

Another punch. Justin whimpered, hanging limply from Tornado's fist.

“So I could stop you from destroying Christmas, and everyone would finally see my true potential!”

Another punch. Justin was sure his stomach must have been two dimensional by now.

“The new leader!” Tornado ranted, spit flying from his mouth into Justin's face. “The strongest and fastest of all Santa's reindeer! The only one in Val Luminara who deserves to stand at the front of the sleigh and lead Santa on his trip around the world!”

Feebly, Justin tried to pry Tornado's fingers from his throat, but he may as well have been trying to bend solid steel. He would never win in a contest of strength. If he wanted to survive, he would have to outthink Tornado.

“Vixen…said…” he managed to croak.

“You've corrupted her! You've poisoned her heart, and now her light is in danger of going out!”

Justin wracked his brain. The first thing he had to do was get free. As long as Tornado had his hands on him, he was helpless. But how was he supposed to break Tornado's grip? Not only was Tornado so much stronger than him, but Justin's neck was so thin that Tornado was able to wrap his entire hand around it!

Unless…

“But I can still save her,” Tornado ranted. “If I kill you, your spell on my grandmother will—hey!”

Justin shifted. In an instant, his entire body changed shape—and his neck thickened until Tornado couldn’t keep his grip anymore. As soon as he was free, Justin reared back, slamming his front hooves into Tornado’s face. Tornado yelped in pain, throwing up an arm to protect himself, and while he was distracted Justin spun dove straight downwards. How long had it been? Did he still have time to catch up to Lena? He had to—

He only managed to fly a few feet before a hand grabbed one of his back legs.

“You worm!” Tornado screamed, a trickle of blood leaking from his mouth. “I’ll kill—”

Justin thrust his other leg out, once, twice, three times, kicking him in the face. The fourth time, Tornado finally let go, somersaulting backwards in the air. Again, Justin tried to dive after his Rider, but with a howl of rage Tornado came rocketing toward him. Justin did a desperate barrel roll to get out of his way, but the bigger deer still clipped him as he shot past. Pain lanced through Justin as he went spinning out of control. Tornado’s punches had done some serious damage, and even in his four-legged form Justin was having serious trouble moving. He gasped for breath, watching as Tornado did a sharp turn to come at him again.

He’s not going to let me run away, Justin realized with a sickening lurch. Every time I turn my back on him, I’ll just be opening myself to another attack.

There was only one thing to do, and it made him sick to his stomach just to think about.

He had to fight him.

Justin lurched to the side, letting Tornado streak past him again, and then lowered his head and charged! Justin was the faster flier in his two-legged form, and his four-legged form was even faster. Tornado didn’t even have time to stop before Justin crashed into him from behind. He was careful not to gore him with his antlers—even now, Justin didn’t want to kill him—but he still let his hard, bone-like growths on his head tell the bully exactly how he felt about this.

Tornado grunted in pain, and Justin kept going, pushing on him as hard as he could. Together, they went flying across the night sky. With a growl, Tornado managed to turn around and grab one of Justin’s antlers in each hand. His left eye was swollen shut from the pummeling Justin had just given him, and blood leaked from four different cuts. With an animalistic growl, he began to push back, and they quickly slowed down—and then began flying back the way they’d come.

You can’t overpower him! Justin reminded himself frantically. Stop playing his game!

Play the only game he’ll never be able to win.

Thinking fast, he shifted back into his two-legged form. Tornado’s mouth fell open in surprise, his hands still holding Justin’s antlers. Justin was still relatively new to being a reindeer. A day didn’t go by that he didn’t find something new to surprise him about his new body. But magic or mortal, human or reindeer, there was one trait he was fairly certain every two-legged creature on earth shared.

A weakness.

So he kicked Tornado in the junk.

Tornado bellowed in pain and rage, letting go of Justin’s antlers and coming to a dead stop in the portal-lit sky. Justin knew that had been a dirty move, but Tornado had been the one to start this fight—and now Justin was going to end it.

Performing a backflip, Justin arched downwards, away from Tornado. But this time, instead of chasing after Lena, he looped around and shot back upwards, both fists raised above his head. He struck Tornado on the chin, using his body’s weight to pour every bit of power he could muster into the attack. But it wasn’t enough. He flipped backwards again, came back up, and rammed his fists into Tornado’s chin a second time.

Tornado let out a cry of pain, the force of the attack sending him shooting upwards.

Justin backflipped and struck him again.

Tornado flew higher, his expression one of pure shock. Had anyone ever dared to do something like this to him before? Justin doubted it. Tornado had ridden the coattails of his great-great-great-great grandmother his whole life. He had strength, speed, and natural talent, it was true. But an ego like Tornado’s wasn’t born from natural talent. It came from a life of being constantly reassured that you were better than those around you. That you were, for reasons neither you nor they had any control over, simply superior.

Justin hit him again, forcing Tornado up even higher.

Well, Justin had had enough of it. He had made mistakes, but he had learned from them, done his best to fix them. He had done nothing to warrant Tornado’s hatred. Nothing to deserve the constant torment and abuse that the bigger reindeer had inflicted on him.

Justin hit him again.

Tornado expected Justin to lie down and take whatever he decided to throw at him, for no other reason than because he thought that was how things were supposed to be. Tornado didn’t like Justine, ergo Justin deserved to be punished. The fact that Justin was no longer sitting still like a good little punching bag, and was in fact the one punishing Tornado, was too much for the high and mighty grandson of Vixen to comprehend. Justin could see it in his eyes. Tornado’s entire world was falling apart with every hit that Justin managed to land on him.

So Justin landed another.

And another.

And another!

“JUST LEAVE! ME! ALONE!” he roared.

He rocketed upwards, driving his fists into Tornado’s chin one more time—and then Tornado froze.

Literally.

In the space of a moment, a layer of frost formed to cover Tornado’s entire body. His eyes widened in horror, but then locked in place as the fluids in them froze. He opened his mouth to scream, but all that came out was one last puff of steam.

Justin stared up at him, his brain struggling to think through the cloud of adrenaline. What was happening? What had he…

The portal!

Justin looked around, and saw that he and Tornado were no longer beneath the portal—they were in it! The halo of swirling colors was a barrier between Val Luminara and the human world, and Justin had forced Tornado up so high that he had crossed that barrier. Justin, himself, must have been scant inches away himself. Behind Tornado, Justin could see the barren icy wasteland of the North Pole above them, as if the sky had become the ground.

Slowly, gradually picking up speed, Tornado began to fall towards the ground above them.

“What have I done?” Justin whispered, watching his rival fall to his death. Assuming that he wasn’t already dead. “Oh God…Oh God…what have I done?”

“There he is!”

With a gasp, Justin looked down to see eight antlered figures in billowing red robes flying straight toward him. The Council of Eight! The full realization of his situation came crashing down on him. They must have seen everything. Tornado had started the fight. Justin had only been acting in self-defense! But would they ever believe that? He was the lightless one, after all.

More importantly, they had seen him kill Vixen’s grandson.

“It’s over,” he whispered, the numbness of defeat washing over him. There was no coming back from this. Would they execute him for this? No. He doubted that even a crime as heinous as murder would carry such a sentence in Santa’s village. But they would lock him up for the rest of his life, he was sure of that. How long did Santa’s reindeer live? If the councilmembers themselves were any indication, they were practically immortal. How long would Justin last, locked in a dark, cold prison, never again allowed to feel the joy and freedom of flight, before he went mad?

Or worse.

“If we were to be the ones to drive you lightless,” Lena’s voice said in his head, “it would open up something that could never be closed again.”

There was no doubt about it. If he was never allowed to fly again, his light would go out for sure. He would become Krampus’ gateway to Val Luminara. Laetitia would be destroyed. Santa would never again be able to spread joy and hope to the children of the world. The world would be swallowed by darkness, and it was…

All…

Justin’s…

Fault.

Justin looked upwards at the portal, and the freezing wasteland he had condemned Tornado to die in. There was only one thing left he could do. One option that wouldn’t result in the end of the world.

Justin looked down, taking one last glimpse of Val Luminara. To think, all he had wanted was to go home. And then, just when this place had begun to feel like the home he so desperately wanted…

“Lena, Lucas,” he whispered, closing his eyes, a tear rolling down his cheek, “Santa, I…”

He floated upwards.

The change was just as shocking as Lena had warned him. The sudden drop in temperature, the change in the atmosphere itself, struck Justin harder than a hundred of Tornado’s punches. Ice crystalized in his fur. He managed to gasp, but then his breath froze inside of his lungs.

Earth’s gravity took hold of him, pulling him in its strange upwards-downwards direction, away from Val Luminara.

Justin couldn’t move. He could barely think. It hurt so much. His only comfort was knowing that soon it would all be over.

I’m sorry, he thought.

Then he blacked out.