How to Make a Miracle

Chapter 1

Snuggled under a large, soft blanket with King, the fireplace crackling merrily in the background, Luz stared intently at the crystal ball sitting on their coffee table. The magic ball displayed a tiny image of a news reporter, huddled under a large coat as snow pummeled down on them.

"... once again, the Emperor's Coven would like to remind the citizens of Bonesborough to remain calm and stay sheltered indoors. It is still unclear when the blizzard will break, but please stay tuned to Medusa Media News for regular updates as the storm continues to develop–"

There was garbled static for a few moments as a gust of wind beat down on the poor news reporter and practically buried them under a few feet of snow. The reporter struggled against the wind and their voice grew louder, shouting over the storm:

"The Emperor's Coven is, at this very moment, working on the second batch of care packages for the residents of Bonesborough. Depending on how quickly they can process them, those packages are due to be sent out either tomorrow or the following day. The Coven is working around the clock for the safety and wellbeing of Bonesborough, and they would like to reassure everyone that the situation is under control ..."

Luz groaned, switching the crystal ball off with the remote control.

"This is gonna be the worst Christmas Eve ever!"

Perched on the other side of the couch, knitting something that was striped red and green, Eda commented blandly,

"Considering none of us know what that even is, I'd say it doesn't matter much."

Luz had her face buried sadly in her hands. She complained forlornly,

"That was the whole point of what I had planned for tomorrow! I was so excited to share one of my weird human traditions with all my demon realm friends, but this dumb blizzard had to go and ruin everything!"

She looked around the living room, at all the hard work she had put into decorating it for Christmas. She did her best to make it look as festive as possible with what she had available. The living room already had large, beautiful red curtains, so Luz had strung green banners along the curtains to make them more Christmas-y. She had patiently cut out tons of white paper snowflakes and attached them to the walls, and had somehow managed to convince Eda to let her cut down a small tree from the woods and drag it indoors to display. They didn't exactly have any Christmas ornaments, but Luz attached string to any small baubles or odds and inns she could find and then hung them on the tree. The red boughs of the tree cheerfully displayed things such as toys, utensils, paperclips, eyeballs, glass vials, and other oddities. Luz had fashioned a wreath for the door with her plant magic, and decorated the fireplace mantel with more plant magic; she'd even hung some old socks as stockings above the fireplace and tried to make a little snowman out of cotton balls.

The finishing touch was going to be lots of lights with her glyph magic, but there wasn't any reason to bother with that anymore. None of her friends would be able to make it to the party she had planned. Luz heaved a sigh.

"I swear, it's like the Titan is out to get me or something. This is like the opposite of a Christmas miracle."

Eda asked dryly,

"Didn't you say you wanted it to be a 'white Christmas'?"

Luz turned and gestured dramatically as she replied,

"Yeah, but not like this! Regular snow is pretty and peaceful, but a deadly blizzard that buries the entire town under like 30 feet of snow?! That's not peaceful!"

Eda chuckled.

"Sorry, kid. The Demon Realm doesn't really get much of what you call 'weather.' We're more about the plagues."