Chapter 12
“Woo! It’s really starting to get chilly out there!” Kristy exclaimed as she unwound her scarf and hung it on the rack by the front door. “It’s just enough to make me think about moving to a warmer climate.”
“You’re moving?” Arden exclaimed. He’d changed out of his reindeer costume, but he was still wearing the antlers.
“No way! Then I wouldn’t be around to see you star in your next play!” She laughed as he went trotting off into the living room, and then she turned to Amanda. “Besides, I can’t actually imagine living somewhere else. Hey, are you okay?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah. Perfectly fine. I’m just a little tired.” Amanda pasted a smile on her face. “Long day.”
As the rest of the other witches filed into the covenstead, all exclaiming over the play and discussing further holiday plans, Kristy looked around.
“Where did Lars go? When he said he was going to walk you to your car, I thought we might not see either one of you tonight.” She waggled her eyebrows.
Amanda’s heart tripped, but she’d prepared herself for this in the car on the way back.
“He wanted to get back to check on the Alexanders. He’s been doing a lot to take care of them, and he felt a little bad about leaving them to come to the play.
” At least it was the truth, even if it wasn’t all of it.
“That’s too bad. I wouldn’t have minded hearing some more of his Christmas stories, especially on a night like tonight.” Kristy nodded toward the main part of the living room.
Two fresh evergreens had already been put up in their stands, one on either side of the picture window at the front of the house. Maeve and Lucille were carrying boxes out from one of the storage rooms.
“Is it time to decorate?” Sage asked eagerly.
“It sure is!” Maeve set one of the boxes down on the coffee table. “And we’ve got two whole trees, so we’ll really need your help.”
Sage whipped around to investigate, her curly hair flying. “Two trees? Do you have that many ornaments?”
“Sort of,” Tina explained. “One is a traditional Christmas tree, just like what most people put up. The other one is a Yule tree. Do you remember when we talked about that a couple of days ago?”
“Oh, yeah! Okay! That sounds like fun.” She eagerly peered into the first box.
“We’ve got to get the lights on first,” her father told her. Dex set down yet another box and produced a rolled-up string of lights. “It’s too hard to get the ornaments on afterwards. Come help me.”
“Me, too!” Arden volunteered, never far from Sage’s side.
Dex started at the top of one tree, passing the roll of lights to the children and unwinding them as he tucked them into the branches.
“You know what? Once we get them decorated, we should get everyone in front of the trees for a picture,” Erin suggested.
Jace laughed as he kissed her cheek. “I never thought you’d be one to get so into photography.”
“Me, neither, until I became a mom.”
“I’ll get the rest of the boxes, but then I really need to go check on Kendrick,” Maeve said, some of the holiday cheer dropping from her voice. “I thought he might be up by the time we got home.”
“You go ahead,” Jamie offered. “I’ll dig the rest of the decorations out.”
“Thank you, dear.” Maeve headed up the stairs.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Lucille called after her.
Amanda didn’t feel like decorating. She didn’t want to think about the togetherness of family, and she sure as hell didn’t want to listen to any Christmas music. She forced herself to grab one of the other strings of lights and help get it onto one of the trees.
Kristy stepped up to the other side of the tree to help her. “You sure you’re good?”
“Yeah. Why?” Amanda handed her the lights and adjusted the string among the branches, tucking it deep against the trunk. The fragrant smell of pine wrapped around her.
“You look a little pale,” Kristy whispered around the back of the tree. “None of us has been affected the same way the dragons have so far, but you’re making me wonder.”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” Amanda quickly assured her. “Like I said, I’m just tired.”
They wound the lights around the bottom of the tree and plugged them in. They lit up, flickered, and then burned steadily.
“Okay, good. I thought we were going to have to do that all over again,” Kristy joked.
“Time for ornaments!” Lucille announced. “Here, kids. I’ll take them out of the packing paper and hand them to you. We’ll start with the Yule tree.”
Sage looked at her and then at the trees. “Which one is the Yule tree? They look the same to me.”
“We have to pick one,” Lucille explained. “Will you do that for us?”
“Um, that one!” Sage pointed to the tree closest to the door.
Maeve and Kendrick came back down the stairs just then. They were nearly to the bottom when all the lights in the house went out, enveloping everyone in temporary darkness. Sage and Arden shrieked, but it only lasted about a second before everything came back on.
“A lot of people must be putting up their lights,” Sage theorized.
“That, or I need to look at the electrical panel,” Kendrick remarked.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Maeve reprimanded. “You need your rest, and a little brownout isn’t the end of the world.”
Kendrick looked a bit pale, but he smiled as he walked through the room and paused to give Arden a fist bump. “I’m sorry I missed your play, but I’ll watch the video with you later.”
“That’s okay. Do you want to help us decorate?” Arden held up a star made of twigs that was destined for the Yule tree. Fruit and fresh herbs would add the final touches to it later.
“I need to get some food first, but maybe after that,” he promised.
“Let me fix you something,” Maeve offered.
But the dragon waved his hand gently. “You’ve already spent so much time taking care of me, and you deserve a little fun. I can scrape some food together. I’m not that bad off.”
She nodded, but watched him with worried eyes as he went to the kitchen.
“Aren’t they adorable?” Jamie asked as she joined Amanda near a flat box full of wreaths. “I never really thought about Aunt Maeve finding a new mate this late in life, but it’s so cute.”
“Very.” That was another stab in Amanda’s heart. She and Lars could be like that, caring for each other, but fate had been cruel enough to put them so far apart.
“Whoa!” Sage remarked as both strings of Christmas lights flickered for a moment.
“It’s all right,” Tina assured her.
Taking a wreath from a box, Amanda went to the front door and opened it. She placed the hanger over the top of the door and adjusted the wreath so that it was centered. Briefly, she glanced out onto the road as a car went by. It slowed, but it didn’t pull in.
“Looking for someone?”
“Shit!” Amanda jumped and then turned to glare at her mother. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“I’m sorry.” Lucille laughed a little as she pulled her daughter into the house and shut the door. “Is everything okay out there?”
“Sure. Of course.” Amanda headed back to the center of the room, which was now a mess of boxes and packing materials.
“And is everything okay in there?” Lucille extended one long nail, painted a pale mauve, toward Amanda’s chest.
“It’s fine, Mom.” Amanda dug in the box, her hands pawing through the old packing material, pretending to look for decorations but actually looking for so much more in her life.
“Fine as in there aren’t any problems, or fine as in you don’t want to talk about them?” Lucille asked quietly.
She looked up, ready to brush off those concerns once again, but it was suddenly much harder. It was one thing to pretend in front of her cousin or her sister, but this was her mom. “I’m not really fine at all.” Amanda plopped onto the couch and covered her face.
“What happened?” Jamie was at her side in an instant.
“I told Lars that we couldn’t see each other anymore.
” She’d been fighting so hard to hold it all in, but now that she’d opened the floodgates, it all came rushing out.
The whole damn coven would know, but she was too exhausted to care.
“I’ve already been burned once by the long-distance thing, and I don’t want to see that happen with someone like him. ”
Kristy had come around behind the couch, and she reached over the back and rubbed Amanda’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, sweetie. That’s a lot to handle.”
“It’s supposed to be all sunshine and roses when you find your mate.” Erin was holding her hand. “Sometimes, though, it’s a lot harder than we think it will be.”
“We’re all here for you,” Tina offered. “I know we can’t fix the situation itself, but whatever you need, you’ve got it.”
Sage hoisted herself up on Amanda’s other side on the couch. She gently reached up and wiped Amanda’s tears with her little fingers. “Don’t cry. It’s Christmas. It’s a time to be happy!”
“You’re such a cutie.” Amanda hugged the little girl, and then she accepted a tissue from Dex. “I’m sorry, everyone. I was really trying not to be emotional about this. It’s just been hard.”
“You’ve got absolutely nothing to apologize for,” Maeve told her.
“That’s right,” her mother agreed. “We all just want you to be as happy as possible, whatever that takes. The start of that is usually getting it all off your chest.”
Amanda smiled at her mom. She’d always encouraged her girls to talk about whatever was bothering them, and Amanda had lost track of that lesson somewhere along the way.
“You’re right. Listen, let’s not sit here and watch me cry.
We’ve got things to do. Someone needs to wrap some garland around the banister, at least.”
The lights dimmed, pulsing for a moment or two before returning to normal.
“Maybe we should call the electrical company,” Jace speculated.
The kitchen door popped open, and Kendrick staggered out. He was white as a sheet, and he braced himself against the doorway. His knees buckled beneath him.
Maeve rushed to him, catching him just before he fell. “Kendrick!”