[2021 WATTYS Shortlist] When the heir to Christmas falls for a girl who hates the holiday, he risks losing his birthright to a trickster cousin unless he can melt her bah-humbug heart.
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With his pet reindeer, grumpy gn...
Noelle Nixon hadn't sung a carol in a decade, but she woke up on the morning of December twenty-fourth humming "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." Rolling out of bed, she tugged open the curtains and stretched. Outside, snow was coming down in great, white puffs, but the narrow streets were teeming with activity. People in warm layers greeted each other as they carried last minute shopping home, while children constructed whole snow-families decorated with real hats and scarves.
"Morning, sleeping beauty," she said to Avery who'd grumpily buried her face in her pillow. Moving over to the Christmas tree in the corner, she touched a violin-shaped glass ornament. "Where did you get the tree?"
"What?" Avery mumbled before finally sitting up. "Oh, it was here when I got back last night."
"That's right! Speaking of last night ...," Noelle began, but when she looked at her colleague, she trailed off. Walking over to Avery's bed, Noelle sat on the edge and touched a lock of hair on the girl's head. "What's this? Did you stop at a salon yesterday or something?"
Avery scrunched her face. "What are you talking about?"
"Your hair," Noelle said. "There's a chunk that's been dyed completely black."
Jumping out of bed, Avery rushed into the bathroom and flipped on the light.
"Oh my gosh! What the heck is this?" she exclaimed with clear shock.
"You didn't know?" Noelle yelled after her.
Avery returned to the room looking agitated. "No," she said shaking her head before touching her temple. "And I don't feel too good either. My head is pounding, and I slept really awful."
"I'm not surprised. You seemed to be having some bad nightmares," Noelle said, recalling having to wake Avery up to calm her.
"I did? I don't remember."
A pang of guilt shot through Noelle. She'd left Avery with Piet even though she found him to be sketchy so she could go skating with Nick and then promptly forgot about her for the rest of the night. If he caused her any harm, she was partly responsible. "What did you guys do after the canal races last night?" she asked, patting the bed for Avery to sit down. Under her mussed, two-tone hair, her skin was sickly pale, and Noelle was afraid she'd pass out any minute.
"I . . . I don't really remember that, either," Avery admitted, sounding rightly worried. "I obviously made it back here at some point, but the rest is a blur."
Noelle gave her a hug. If that bastard drugged Avery or worse, she was going to kill him. "I'm so, so sorry. I am not letting you out of my sight today, okay? We'll get dressed, grab some breakfast, then—"
A scratching at the door cut her off. After exchanging surprised looks with Avery, Noelle went to see who was there. The old door didn't have a peephole, but when she opened it a crack, there was no one standing here. She was about to shut it again when another scratch brought her attention downward.
"Otso! What are you doing here?" she greeted Nick's husky, who'd been patiently sitting at her door. In his mouth, he had the handles of a paper bag that Noelle gently removed. "Is this for me?"
As soon as she took the bag, the dog jumped to his feet and ran down the hallway toward the staircase. Noelle looked after him and then in the other direction, but there was no one else around so she returned to Avery's side.
"Nick's dog just gave me this," she said before chuckling at how weird that sounded.
Avery leaned forward and tried to peek in the bag. "What is it?"
Noelle reached inside before pulling out a red Santa Claus hat and a folded note.
"Read iiiiiiittt," Avery prodded anxiously, almost jumping up and down in her seat on the bed, having forgotten her own woes.
"Okay, okay," Noelle said with another giggle as her memories of Nick last night flooded back. She couldn't wait to see him again, and she hoped the note would be some type of indication of their next meting.
Unfolding the elegant stationary, she was a bit confounded at what appeared to be a hand-drawn map.
"What is it?" Avery asked, peeking over her shoulder.
Noelle turned the paper until she got the orientation correct. "It looks to be the Keskitalvi market square," she said as she deciphered the intricate, pictogram labels. There was a stall with a pretzel on its sign, while another showed a pipe. Some more looked to sell steaming mugs of drinks, while others appeared to be advertising toys.
"What do those numbers mean?" Avery pointed to the map, which definitely contained several stalls labeled with numerals, too.
Noelle scanned the page before finding a brief note at the bottom: Dear Noelle, Merry Christmas! I'm afraid there are a few things I must take care of this morning, but I can't wait to see you soon. Until then, I have a few suggestions to keep you occupied. The map will show you the way, but make sure you follow the exact order. I'll see you at the end* —NK
"It's a treasure hunt without all the clues, I guess?" Noelle said to Avery, already looking for the last stop on the map. It was number seven, located in the adjacent square that contained the grand Christmas tree where they'd chatted two nights earlier. Bingo. She could just skip numbers one through six and head straight to Nick at the tree.
"Is that an asterisk?" Avery asked, making Noelle wonder if she was always this annoying or if it was just due to a lack of sleep. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, she re-read the note and confirmed that indeed, there was an asterisk after the last sentence. Flipping the map over, she found a tiny disclaimer on the back: *do not skip ahead or you'll end up on the Naughty List.
Noelle sighed. How did he know? Did that part of the Santa mythos also exist where he knew when you were bad or good? If so, did Nick—as the son of Mr. Claus, er Klaas—have access to that information? Oh, boy. This was going to be interesting. But something told her that after finding out that gnomes were real, everything else was going to be uneventful.
"Let's get to it," Noelle said, enthusiastically standing. "Put on your fanciest snowflake sweater, pull on your furry boots, and let's hit ye olde Midwinter Christmas market!"
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This is my #NaNoWriMo2019 project and while I absolutely love all of my silent readers, I would LOVE to get your encouragement while writing this story. So please, please, please add it to your libraries, vote on the chapters (updates daily!) and leave me comments. <3
