Chapter 4
“You put her name on the Naughty List this morning. Why are you so confused about why I’m here?” Pete asked. “What’s this really about?”
“I’m trying to redeem her,” Nick told him. “The Yearweave Lumen will get a huge boost if I can get her back on the Nice List.”
“I’m all for boosting Lumen, but why now?
Her knot is black for a reason. I’ve had a Thornwatch elf at her side her for years.
The way she shines a spotlight on an ‘it toy’ generates envy instead of joy.
She fabricates scarcity as a strategy to raise prices.
Black Lumen is spiking all around the Winter Wonderland, and your approach for the last five years has done nothing to change her,” Pete said, inhaling deeply, shadows growing around them as his cousin flexed his power.
“You’re too late, cuz. It’s time for me to take over and try it my way. ”
Crackling black frost scraped across the wall, leaving behind a jagged pattern of bare branches and Nick felt a physical sensation of dread weighing on his chest. He flicked his fingers, pushing intricately delicate and brightly glistening snowflake patterns into the creeping, dark frost fingers.
The dreadful sense of foreboding began to lift, bringing back hope and joy to fend off Pete’s grim pressure.
“I sense good in her,” Nick bit out, refusing to acknowledge their frosty battle. “Her knot is tangled but not fully corrupted.”
“You added her name to the list. She’s mine now.” Nick didn’t want to admit that this was technically correct.
“You’ve always been jealous of me, but do you crave my job so badly that you actually want her to fail?
We both know if the dark knots take over the Yearweave, then you get to do things your way.
Punishing people, shaming them, frightening them into changing?
Redemption is part of your realm, too, Pete. ”
“Is that what you think I’m doing?” Pete asked with a casual shrug. “You’ve been gentle-parenting Naughty Listers for too long and look where it’s got us. The Yearweave is darker than ever and you’re running around trying to save one soul? You’ve never been able to see the bigger picture, Nick.”
“Every soul matters, Pete. There’s no such thing as a lost cause.
” Nick wasn’t giving up on getting Cora back on the Nice List. That flash of vulnerability told him Cora’s choices stemmed from a deep wound in her past, and that Pete’s methods would only drive her further from the Nice List. Nick decided to roll the dice and take a gamble.
“Let’s make a deal. Her soul isn’t entirely black yet.
Give me until Christmas Eve to get her to mend her ways, and after that she’s yours. I won’t stand in your way.”
Pete seemed to consider Nick’s offer.
“And until then? If she tips fully over, I won’t wait for the twenty-fourth.”
“If she stays the same or improves then I get her until the twenty-fourth,” Nick said.
Pete shrugged then nodded. “Deal.” They shook hands, dark shadows meeting bright starlight. “Midnight on the twenty-fourth. After that, she’s mine.”
Nick trailed Pete back to the table inside Frosty Jack’s where Cora waited. The two men sat across from her. Pete turned his chair backward to straddle it, resting his arms on the back. What a poser.
“I’ve ordered a round of drinks,” she said bluntly, indicating the glasses on the table. “So tell me, Pete, do you work at Bari Toys?”
“Not exactly. My family has their own branch of the business,” he said.
“And that would be…?” she raised an enquiring eyebrow.
Nick jumped in before Pete could answer. “Toys are the cornerstone of everything we do but we also sponsor seasonal events, have charitable arms, and corporate partnerships.”
“That’s where I come in,” Pete said. “Loss prevention, security, and enforcement.”
“Oh. That’s interesting. We have some issues at Winter Wonderland. The security team I use is all right but I’m always looking to level up. They can always be replaced, like that,” she said, snapping her fingers.
That sounded an awful lot like punishment to Nick. He didn’t have to look at Pete to see his triumph; it was coming off him in waves of uncomfortable Black Lumen.
Nick needed to get Cora thinking differently. Find the root of the loss and gently guide her toward generosity and understanding. “What issues are you having at Winter Wonderland?”
“Usually it’s kids stealing toys—or sometimes even adults. Not sure what their deal is,” Cora remarked carelessly.
“They probably can’t afford it but still want to give their child the ‘it toy’,” Nick said. “That’s the problem with your pricing. Some children will never be able to attain that toy.”
Cora bristled. “We do host a charitable giveaway which every family is welcome to enter. We brought Christmas to twenty families last year,” she said. “They got the full experience—food, treats, and presents under the tree. Including our featured toy.”
“Twenty families isn’t enough if you still have theft. Why not find a charitable way to help those who are caught instead of prosecuting them?” Nick said.
“That’s not something we’ve considered. You might have a point,” she said. Lumen flickered around her, but it felt unstable.
“Every action has a consequence,” Pete countered. “Rewarding thieves isn’t the answer. Some people might be stealing to sell it on and make a profit, Nick. Not everyone is nice,” Pete said, with emphasis.
“Not everyone is naughty,” Nick shot back.
“Wow. Naughty and Nice. You two take that very seriously. Binary morality is lazy. People aren’t ledgers. Everyone has a little bit of good and bad in them. Even you two,” she said.
Nick glanced at Pete, who stared back at him in surprise. Neither of them had predicted that. It was a bit like her knot in the Yearweave. A mix of light and dark, belief and cynicism mixed together. There was more to Cora than he’d first thought.
“There is truth to that,” Nick said when he’d pulled himself together. “Where do you think you fall on the scale?” Nick asked carefully. Both men looked intently at her. Cora looked between them, a frown forming between her brows.
“I try to do more good than bad,” she said, “but who can really say? I guess I’m somewhere in the middle. Some days naughtier, others nicer. What about you two?”
Pete shook his head. “We both operate within the parameters set by our families.”
Nick could tell she was about to ask what he meant by that, but Pete abruptly drained his glass and stood up.
“I’ve got to go. Remember, naughty crushes nice,” Pete said, meeting Cora’s gaze. He turned to Nick. “I’ll see you later.”
Cora watched Pete leave before she looked back over at Nick. “That was … interesting.”
It certainly was.
Frosty Jack’s was toasty warm. There was an odd dynamic between the two “cousins” that she didn’t really understand.
Pete was undeniably hot, but it was Nick she struggled to keep her eyes off.
Glancing around, she noted that the place was more crowded than before and a band had taken to a stage that she hadn’t realized was there.
They were playing a version of Dylan’s “Must Be Santa.” Patrons were singing along with the music and the servers, who were all dressed in ice-blue tuxedo pants and slim-fitting white dress shirts with a small bow tie, bustled from table to table.
“Shall we order some food?” Nick suggested. “If you’re looking for a recommendation, the stew is excellent.”
Stew was okay but it was too homey for her.
She’d never tell Nick, but it was the one dish her mom used to make that they’d all eat as a family.
It was hard to see it and not long for something that had never really been.
But on stew nights… Cora had imagined a different life, a fantasy life, a perfect family.
She decided on the clam chowder. She had no painful memories associated with that dish.
Once they’d ordered, she said, “Stew’s not my thing.”
“What? It’s literally my favorite dish,” he said.
“Figures. You need to eat something substantial to keep all those muscles. You look like you could chop a cord of wood in an hour.”
“What?”
“Like a lumberjack. That is what you were going for with that look, right?” she said, waving her hand at his plaid shirt.
“More lumbersexual,” he said with a self-deprecating grin.
She laughed out loud, then clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.
“Is that … is that how you see yourself?”
He looked chagrinned at her reaction. “It’s something my assistant mentioned. Women dig it, apparently.” It wasn’t phrased as a question, but the way he was looking at her…
Lumberjacks definitely weren’t her thing, but she couldn’t deny that the look was really working for him. “Are you fishing for a compliment?”
“Just testing the waters,” he replied cheekily, regarding her speculatively.
She wished the atmosphere was still as frosty as it had been this morning. Silence built between them and that snow globe in her tummy was tipped upside down and shaken all around.
Say something… Anything.
But she was stymied. Something about Nick made her feel seen.
She wasn’t sure she wanted that from him.
It felt like he was looking at who she was underneath her clothes— No, not naked.
More than that. Like he was looking under her skin, and into her very heart and soul.
It was … unsettling, challenging, and yet also …
strangely comforting. When was the last time anyone had cared enough about her to look inside?
“What’s your favorite part of the job?” he asked, saving her from having to search for a reply.
It had been a day of unexpected things—first, losing her “it toy” so close to this year’s Winter Wonderland, and now she was lusting over a lumberjack toymaker she fired years ago.
No, not lusting. Window-shopping was free.
Admiring the goods was free. It didn’t mean she was going to buy anything.