Page 60 of Never Kiss a Krampus

The darkness in his voice made me shiver, but I wasn’t convinced. “I can’t for the life of me imagine Grinchly trying a spell, no matter how much he drank.”

“Not all magic requires a conscious act. As I said, evil attracts evil.”

“But how is he doing it?”

He turned and started pacing across the shop, his tail flicking behind him.

“The most likely explanation is an object of some kind. Something that is absorbing the Christmas spirit.”

“Absorbing it?”

“Think of it like a parasite,” he said, gesturing towards the Christmas tree. “This town, this shop, the very essence of the season is an organism. An object like that would attach itself to it and feed. It would be easy to hide. A music box, a snow globe, a toy. He could have hidden it in plain sight.”

“He hid it on purpose?”

“Probably not. He wouldn’t have realized where the impulse came from.”

“So how do we find it?”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted, surprising me. “Right now it’s like a slow leak. If it were larger…”

“It would be easier to find.” I echoed his sigh. “Great. Does that mean there isn’t anything we can do?”

“No. It means we continue rescuing the shop. Everyone who walks out of here with a smile helps to restore the Christmas magic, and the stronger the magic, the easier it will be to find the opposing force.”

“That doesn’t seem like much of a plan,” I muttered, and he smiled, one finger lightly tracing my cheek. My knees immediately threatened to go weak.

“It means we are not adding anything to your list,” he said firmly. “Shall we start by replacing all the stock you sold today?”

My mouth dropped open. What happened to horns and temptation and showing me what it really meant to touch them? From the way his eyes gleamed, I was positive he knew what Iwas thinking, but he simply disappeared into the stockroom and returned with several boxes of ornaments.

“Fine,” I huffed, unable to keep the petulant note out of my voice as I started unpacking them.

“Question,” he said suddenly after working next to me for a few minutes.

“Answer.”

“What do you know about winter solstice traditions?”

I blinked at him. “Random topic shift, but okay. Um… it’s the shortest day of the year? People celebrate with… fires and stuff?”

“Fires and stuff.” His expression suggested he was barely restraining an eye roll. “Truly, your knowledge is vast and detailed.”

“I run a Christmas shop, not a pagan ritual supply store. My winter knowledge is mostly limited to ‘Jingle Bells’ and hot chocolate recipes.”

“Clearly.” He set down the ornament he’d been holding. “This is unacceptable.”

“What is?”

“Your ignorance of the traditions that underpin your favorite season. How can you properly celebrate Christmas without understanding its origins?”

“By drinking eggnog and singing carols like a normal person?”

“Insufficient.” He crossed his arms, a determined look on his face. “I am going to educate you.”

“Right now? We have like seventy more ornaments to unpack.”

“Multitasking, remember? I will quiz you while we work.”