Page 105 of Jingle Spells

“What the⁠—”

He gazed up at the casino and saw it sort of wobble, as if he was viewing it through rippling water. The edges of the building became indistinct, blurring into the night sky. Then all the lights flickered once, twice, three times . . . then stabilized in a way that seemed fundamentally wrong, as if they existed in a slightly different reality than everything around. The terrified shouts of hundreds of people echoed across the parking lot. And then, between one heartbeat and the next, the casino was gone.

Jasper stood frozen, staring at the empty space where, seconds before, a fifty-story building had towered over the treetops. Nothing remained. As if the casino had never existed at all.

“Right,” Jasper said to empty air, his voice unreasonably steady given the circumstances. “Okay. Fair enough. I am losing my mind.”

Behind him, his little car waited in a parking lot that now served nothing at all. Above him, stars twinkled in a clear winter sky. And inside him, a strange grief blossomed. Not for the building, which was appallingly ugly and absolutely deserved to go wherever the hell it had gone. No, the grief was for something else. Something he couldn’t name but knew, with absolute certainty, that he had lost.

Chapter 30

Christmas (Baby Please Go Home)

Once the incantation began, the air grew thick and foul, the consistency of milk left to expire in the sun. Delilah felt a surge of untamed magic writhe across her skin, far more powerful than anything she’d felt before. More savage, even alien. Ancient words poured from Jerusha’s mouth like they’d been waiting centuries for this precise moment, each syllable carrying the weight of Oak Haven’s very foundation.

Luna had planted herself facing east, her eyes glowing with borrowed magic as she channeled Eps’s power through her own formidable abilities. Scarlett faced south, her voice steady despite the trembling of her hands. Jerusha commanded the west with a sort of timeworn resolve. And Delilah was turned toward north, feeling strangely calm as she completed the diamond of their spell-casting. In the center stood Eps. He was only barely visible now, a ghostly smear of color and fabric.

“Walls between shall crumble,” Jerusha thundered, her voice carrying despite her age.

“Earth shall yield its grip,” Luna responded.

“Structure shall be unmoored,” Scarlett added.

“And what was here shall be elsewhere,” Delilah completed.

The casino began to shimmer, its edges blurring like air rising from a summer pavement. Gaudy neon signs flickered, their lurid colors bleeding into the night air. The top hats stopped rotating, frozen in time.

It’s working, Delilah thought with a mixture of exhilaration and disbelief. It’s actually working!

“The next verse is . . .” Jerusha’s voice faltered, her eyes going wide with panic. “The next verse is . . .”

Delilah’s heart seized. The spell can’t be interrupted. Not now.

“Mountains bow, waters part,” Luna whispered urgently.

The old witch’s face cleared. “Mountains bow, waters part,” she continued, her voice gaining strength again.

Okay, back on track. Delilah felt sweat trickle down her back. If Jerusha can just get through this incantation, everything should be fine. Except, wait . . . no!

Somehow, she saw the next catastrophe coming without forming a coherent thought about it. Instead, an old nursery rhyme popped, unbidden, into Delilah’s head:

This is the church, this is the steeple . . . but in this casino, too many damn people.

Some of them would be swept away with the building; perhaps most of them would. But without sufficient magic, some would be left behind. Maybe on the twenty-ninth floor, or the thirty-seventh floor, or the forty-second . . . There would suddenly be no floor underneath them at all.

Luna understood the situation, too, but her hands were occupied with casting. “Delilah!” she shouted. “You’ll have to catch them! Remember the Walpiri!”

“The Walpiri taught me to move a rock,” Delilah hollered back. “One rock, singular.”

Naturally her other sister had to weigh in. “You caught Nate, though! Remember? By the Christmas tree?”

“Again,” Del shouted, “singular.”

“Principle’s the same,” Luna argued. “Use the wand, maybe that’ll help!”

As she took the wand out of her coat, Delilah groaned at the thought of Mama learning she’d needed it in order to do her job as a witch. Alas, I do, in fact, need my wand in order to do this job. And then a worse thought: Oh shit, I also need magic. “Luna! How do you expect me to do this? I don’t have any magic, remember?”

“Look down!”