Page 13 of Jingle Spells

In time, her family somehow forgave Christmas. Not immediately, that’s for sure. But over the next few years, the joy of the holiday gradually crept back inside the Stargazer Inn. The decorations returned, and the Yuletide feasting . . . and the carols.

Ugh, the carols.

As if summoned by her thoughts, music drifted through the winter air. Delilah’s eyes landed on the source: a line of enchanted snowmen positioned at intervals along the stone wall. Each had the traditional coal eyes and carrot nose, each wore a jaunty scarf, and each was lip-syncing Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas” with surprising soul. The snowmen were created by a collaborative spell of all the witches along the road. As you walked past one snowman, the next would pick up the song, creating an endless, inescapable chain of melody.

Delilah just shook her head and started down the path toward town. She heard the inn’s front door thrown open and slammed shut behind her. “Del, wait!”

She spun around on one heel to see Scarlett, chasing after her as usual.

“Sorry about the wand thing,” Scarlett said as she caught up. “Personally I think it’s groovy. Some sexy warlock, offering you his sharp stick? Love it. But you know how Mama is.”

Rather than evaluate the sexiness level of Irish warlocks—which was surprisingly high, but she didn’t feel like getting into it at the moment—Delilah changed the subject entirely. “I hate these fucking snowmen, Scar.”

“Oh stop, they’re adorable.”

“They’re an imposition, is what they are. Someone else picked the music, which means someone else is controlling my environment. Trying to control my mood. And I can’t escape it.” Just like I can’t escape the memories, she thought. The way Papa used to jokingly conduct the snowmen as they walked past, using a candy cane as his baton . . .

“Ah, I see!” Scarlett’s voice broke through her brooding. “As it happens, the decorating committee agrees with you; they put a new spin on it this year. Watch.” She pressed her fingertips to her forehead, squinting in concentration, then snapped her fingers. Instantly, the snowmen switched to “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses.

“You’re kidding.” Delilah sighed. “The snowmen take requests now?”

“Hey, it’s fun when it’s fun! Although, things did get a little weird for a while, when all the neighbors were arguing about which songs to play. Mrs. Chatterjee kept overriding everyone else’s selections with the Mariah Carey one until finally Mama had to step in.”

“Whatever,” Delilah cut in. “Can we talk about the magicians now?”

“Oh yeah. So let’s see, you and Luna left right after last Thanksgiving, right? It was quiet around here for most of the year. Then about a month ago, a massive convoy of trucks arrived in Oak Haven. Nobody I talked to had ever seen anything like it. Just eighteen-wheeler after eighteen-wheeler rolling through the streets. I lost count of how many. Naturally, the witches were all kinds of freaked out. There was a whole town meeting where everybody argued about the ‘juggernaut jamboree.’ But the weird thing was, the trucks didn’t stop in town. They just drove on through. So . . . it was weird but, on the other hand, no big deal? Or so we thought? About a week later we woke up to, um . . .”

“To what?”

Scarlett put her hands on each side of Delilah’s head and turned it toward the center of town. Then she tilted her sister’s head up. And up. And up some more.

Holy shit.

For over two hundred years, the tallest structures in Oak Haven had involved the occasional Victorian turret. But now, over the tree line, loomed a behemoth. Fifty stories of glass and steel thrust up from the earth like some dark version of Jack’s beanstalk. Its sides spread out in a series of swooping curves that suggested both tacky Vegas fever dream and Brutalist concrete nightmare. Its massive footprint dwarfed the entire Oak Haven downtown, like Godzilla looming over a smattering of dollhouses. One good stomp from this monster, and they’d all be so many broken candy canes in the rubble.

Giant neon signs promised SLOTS! SHOWS! CELEBRITIES! Searchlights swept the sky in lazy circles, as if the building was casually marking its territory: Mine now, mine. All of this is mine.

“You’re telling me they built that overnight.”

“More or less, yep.”

“And you let them?”

Scarlett made a face. “We didn’t know! How were we supposed to know?”

“My gods!” Delilah shouted. “The noise? The clamoring and hammering and all the heavy equipment?”

“That’s what I’m saying, Del. There was none of that. They seem to have trucked in some supplies and then assembled everything, instantly, with no sound, no workers, and no effort that we could perceive.”

“But how? How is that possible? How do a bunch of dum dums who yank rabbits from hats at children’s parties accomplish a feat like this? What, you’re telling me they pulled infinite scarves out their sleeves and turned them into a hotel?”

“And casino, don’t forget the casino.”

“A casino? Did they put a McDonald’s in while they were at it?”

“Wimpys.”

“Wimpys? What the hell, Scar? I didn’t even know that was a thing anymore. A Wimpys in Oak Haven—good grief!”