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6
Joy
Elyon blinks,surprised. “Is something wrong in Christmas Village? Did the demons actually—”
“No,” I quickly lie. Why? Because the last time demons took over a holiday realm, they corrupted Saint Patrick’s Day and turned it into a drunken mess on Earth, not to mention the war that went on between the angels and demons for centuries afterwards. My dad lost his Center during that war, as well as the rest of his flock.
I can’t let anything like that start up again.
I fish around for possible explanations. I notice Blitzen’s about to fall asleep in the corner, his horns precariously close to the star-shaped windows on the walls of Elyon’s little hut. “Um. Blitzen did it. He’s got narcolepsy or something. Yeah, he’s always half asleep, and he fell over. Smash.” I give a desperate chuckle as I gesture at the reindeer, and Elyon eyes him suspiciously.
Blitzen just lets out a snore as he falls asleep standing up.
“You know, I get a weird feeling from these reindeer,” the old cherub says, rubbing absently at his chest.
“I know! They’re the sweetest, aren’t they?”
He quirks a brow at me, like he can’t believe I just said that.
Well, fine. Maybe it’s not normal for most angels to be best friends with reindeer, but I’m not most angels. I’m half-human. There are plenty of humans whose best friend is an animal. So there. I mentally stick my tongue out at him.
Aloud, I say, “I’ve kind of adopted them. But that’s beside the point. The Christmas cane. I need to know what to do about it. Before…err…before my dad discovers what happens. Because he’ll be mad, you know? Can you help? Pretty please, with a Christmas tree star on top?”
Elyon takes a sip of his tea, eyeing me closely. I try to sit patiently and not squirm like I just lied my ass off. Dad always used to be able to tell when I lied as a little girl. Apparently, I had atell.A shifty eye, my dad would say. I would always look at his forehead whenever I lied. But my techniques have improved since then, because the overweight cherub sighs and nods. He was Santa’s second-hand man before he retired here two decades ago, and he knows everything Christmas. I always considered him the strict older uncle, one I only saw on occasion but still felt I could trust. “Hold on. Let me go find the book.”
I wait until he’s out of the room to clap my hands and then hug the reindeer who’s nearest. It happens to be Dasher. “Yes! Oh, thank goodness!”
Dasher’s tongue sneaks out and licks the shell of my ear, and I bat him away playfully. “Ew. Gross. Save that for the stable. I’m sure Prancer or Vixen would like it.”
Dasher immediately makes a moan of protest. Or maybe it’s agreement. I can’t really tell as I wipe down my ear with my sleeve and turn back to pay attention to Elyon, who re-enters the room carrying a heavy, leather tome.
I lean forward as he sits down beside me, the tips of his wings brushing against my sides when he opens the book. He licks a finger and flicks through several pages until he finds what he’s looking for. He taps a hand-drawn image of a Christmas staff, and I lean in, fascinated.
He clears his throat before saying, “Here we are. Now, let’s see what it says… Oh, there! The staff must be fashioned from a branch from the tree of knowledge. Oh, that’ll be in that abandoned garden of Eden. Should be easy enough to get, though a bit overgrown. God hasn’t really gone in there since theincident. For magic, you’ll need innocence… Oh, those will be sweet little moments. The River of Innocence is just a short flight north. We dip all the souls in there before they’re born on the various planets. Just scoop up a bit of that water, and you should be set.”
“Easy enough.” I stand, anxious to get to it, but Elyon’s arm shoots out, stopping me short.
“Wait. Please.” He turns the page. “That’s not all you need.”
“It’s not?” I ask, my stomach sinking as I sit back down. I feel time ticking away like there’s a bomb in Christmas Village. Technically, weareon a countdown. If I don’t get rid of these demons soon, we might not be able to fix Christmas. Suddenly, I’m irrationally annoyed at Dad for not keeping a spare cane around. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly, trying to let that emotion leak away. It’s not his fault. “What else do I need?”
“It says here that Christmas is also a time of joy, so you’ll need to grab some joy.”
I nod. “Okay. Is there a river or somewhere I can stop at to get that?”
“Oh, no.” Elyon shakes his head. “You’ll have to be more clever to collect joy. It’s a trickier thing.”
Well, that was non-specific and utterly unhelpful, I think as I fake a smile. “Okay, but still. You know how to get it, right?”
“The most guaranteed way to collect it is to be present for a first kiss between two individuals. If you say the words, ‘Venit Gaudium’ just before they kiss one another for the first time, then you should be able to collect it. But first kisses are terribly hard to witness. Most are done in private.”
I scrub a hand over my eyes. “Well, I don’t really have a choice. Okay, fine. Got it. Three things.”
“Four.”
“Four things? Four?! What’s thefourththing?” I am exasperated. In about two seconds, I’m gonna grab that book from Elyon and rip out the pages I need. I don’t care if he’s practically an uncle twice removed.
“Well…the glass dome on top of the cane must be made from the glass of a storm in Hell. I… Oooh, yikes!” His white eyebrows spring up.
