Page 39 of Jingle Spells

But then she glanced his way. Her eyelashes fluttered shyly, and she smiled a reluctant smile that made his chest ache, and his logic crumbled like old parchment.

The web of light grew brighter, climbing the massive oak like luminous ivy. Where it touched the bark, frost began to form—not the dull white of normal ice, but something that sparkled with captured magic. The effect spread from branch to branch until the entire tree glowed like a crystal sculpture touched by starlight. The other trees followed, one by one, their branches encasing themselves in magical ice until the whole grove blazed with captured power.

Zahir was standing beside him, and all of a sudden Jasper heard his breath catch.

“You okay?” Jasper whispered.

“Oh yeah.” Zahir wiped his eyes quickly. “Just nice to remember that some things are worth staying for.”

The web of light began to fade, leaving only the crystalline trees behind. For a moment, nobody moved. Nobody spoke. The only sound was the winter wind through ice-covered branches, like distant windchimes.

Then someone (probably Scarlett) let out a whoop that shattered the silence. Grins and hugs and laughter were everywhere. Someone started singing; it was something old, some tune Jasper didn’t recognize. The crowd began moving back down the hill toward town as one, toward feasting and dancing and whatever chaos the first night of Saturnalia might bring.

But Jasper lingered there, gazing up at the frozen trees. The magic trapped in their branches cast strange shadows, making the oaks look both familiar and alien. Like his own world, but shifted just enough to make him question everything he thought he knew.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

He turned to find Delilah beside him. She wasn’t looking at the trees.

Dangerous, his mind whispered again. But in the moment, he couldn’t remember why.

They walked down the hill together, trailing behind the celebrating crowd.

“So,” Delilah said finally. “Saturnalia. What does your historian brain make of all this?”

“Well, technically speaking, the ancient Romans would have included a lot more gambling and public nudity.” He caught her raised eyebrow. “But, ah, your version is . . . lovely?”

“Lovely?” She snorted. “Wow. Don’t strain yourself with the enthusiasm there, Hopkins.”

“No no, I just mean . . .” He gestured helplessly at the grove behind them. “It’s hard to put words to. And it’s very striking, seeing magic just . . . stop like that. Usually in historical accounts, the loss of magic is violent. Witch trials, persecution . . .” He winced. “Sorry, probably not the best example.”

“No, it’s okay.” Her voice was quiet. “That’s kind of the point, actually. We choose to give up our power. To remember what it feels like to be powerless. So we don’t . . . I don’t know. So we never become the ones doing the persecuting, I guess.”

“Delilah. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Everything.” She kicked at a frozen clump of grass. “My sister’s about to do something spectacularly stupid, and instead of stopping her, I’m going along with it. Meanwhile my other sister is off who-knows-where, presumably studying more of the same old pointless nonsense she always does. My mother’s trying to hold the town together with tinsel and fruitcake, and I’m . . .” She threw up her hands. “I’m flirting with a county clerk who’s just going to forget me anyway!”

From the look on her face, Jasper could tell that last statement was more earnest than she’d intended. Very sweet, though, and his stomach did a disconcerting little flippy-floppy thing. “I have to say, your version of flirting has an odd note of hostility around the edges.”

“Yeah.” She blushed a little. “Sorry. It’s a Melrose trait, unfortunately.”

Jasper stopped walking and faced her directly “I’m not going to forget you.”

They both knew it was a lie. But it was a pretty sort of lie.

“You can’t promise me that. Which is my whole point. Because this?” She gestured at the space between them. “You and me? This is temporary. Like Saturnalia. Like everything else in this town.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” The words surprised him as much as her.

She turned to face him fully, and something in her expression made his heart stumble. “What are you saying?”

“I don’t know.” But he did know. He just wasn’t ready to say it out loud. “I just . . . maybe some things are worth remembering.”

Behind them, the frozen grove glittered like a thousand captured stars. Ahead, the sounds of celebration drifted up from town: music and laughter and the promise of feasting. Of belonging.

Delilah took a step closer. “Jasper⁠—”

“There you are!” Scarlett’s voice shattered the moment like an icicle dropping from a tall roof. “Come on, you two! Casino’s waiting.”