Christmas with Nick Klaas

Part 22: Snow Place Like Home

Noelle felt sick to her stomach. "So you're the reason I'm here? You magicked an invitation for me to come here under false pretenses just to mislead Nick?" she asked the fairy, as the scene around her melted away. Like dissipating fog, the illusion slowly disappeared until they were back standing on Nick's front porch again.

"Yes," Halla said matter-of-factly.

Noelle scoffed at her nonchalance. "How exactly do I fit into this? What's my role in Piet's plan?" she asked. The sooner she got to the bottom of it, the sooner she could make things right. Because there was no way she was putting him—or Christmas—in jeopardy.

Halla furrowed her brows. "Didn't you hear what I said? You're here so he'd choose you over his birthright."

"That's absurd. We only met three days ago," Noelle said with a nervous giggle. "What on Earth would compel him to give up his chance to inherit Christmas for me? And don't you dare say love because—again—he's known me for less time than I've had a half eaten box of Chinese takeout in my fridge."

Halla shrugged. "The heart of a man is a curious thing. No telling what drives its decisions," she said.

She still wasn't convinced, but Noelle held up her index finger. "Okay. So let's say by some inexplicable reason Nick would choose to give up his claim on Christmas . . . for me," she said, hesitating to even say it out loud. "Anyway. I still don't believe you, but let's pretend he'd do something so dumb. Why would it matter? His father is still the one riding the sleigh each Christmas Eve. He could just go on doing that for another thousand years and no one would be wiser."

"True," Halla said, nodding and Noelle felt a weight lifted off her shoulders, until she added, "But . . .."

Oh, no. The infamous but. "But what?"

"But Piet Mustapukki wouldn't have come so far in this endeavor if he didn't already have a plan to get rid of Sinter Klaas," Halla said. "He did, after all, lay claim on his own legacy of the Black Buck from the original brother I cursed so many moons ago before his father was ready to relinquish the inheritance."

Noelle once again thought back to the play and the bad aura that even the gnome actor gave off while portraying the goat man who haunted children's dreams and ruined their Christmas with coal and twigs. If Piet had managed to wrestle control of this role from his father—the original Yuletide boogeyman—then he was definitely not to be trifled with.

That did it. Noelle was now properly worried. But there was something she still didn't understand. "If you willingly helped Piet, then why are you telling me all of this now?"

"As I've already told the Black Buck, he is not a worthy heir to Sinter Klaas' legacy. I only agreed to play along for a little entertainment. I never meant to follow through," Halla said, looking at her frozen claws as if she were getting bored.

"So you can undo everything? Or stop Nick from even accidentally choosing incorrectly?" Noelle asked, wrapping her arms around herself. With the illusion broken, the magic of being impervious to the cold had also vanished, and she was missing her coat.

Halla shook her head. "Oh, no. I've already done more than I should have. Everything has to now play out as you all will it."

A rush of anger flowed through Noelle. How typical! Someone in power sets things into motion and then claims immunity from responsibility, leaving everyone else to clean up the mess. Which in this case was her.

"Fine," she said with a huff. Rubbing her forehead with her frigid fingers, she tried to think of everything she knew about magic blessings or curses, or whatever Piet was trying to break. In theory, they all shared common parameters. That is, if fairy tales were even a bit accurate. "Is there a deadline for Nick making his choice regarding his birthright?" she asked. If she had a timeframe, she'd know how to approach the solution.