Page 13 of Santa Daddy, I'm Not the One

Pausing before a shop window displaying an array of intricate snowflakes, I took a moment to gather myself. The carols lulled me into a sense of calm. The town was peaceful. It was almost easy to forget about the absurdity of it all.

I continued my aimless exploration and stumbled upon a small crowd gathering in the town square. They huddled around a figure singing a happy carol in a language I’d never heard before. I moved closer. A human woman with garland in her hair sat on a bench. Next to her, a toddler with chubby cheeks and curly blond hair clapped her hands and babbled. She had antlers—real antlers protruding from her head.

What the…I stumbled back, intending to run away from the madness of this place, but the twinkling lights of the tree seemed to beckon me. As if my feet were not my own, I stepped closer and closer until the sweet pine and the incredible radiant warmth emanating from the massive tree enveloped me. I had to crane my neck to see the top.

The Eternal Tree, indeed. It made the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower seem inferior in comparison.

Drawn to its beauty, I brushed my fingers against the soft needles. How was all this possible? The lights were embedded in the pines like artificial trees, but I’d touched it. It was real. Wasn’t it?

To test the theory, I reached out again and tried to pull off some of the pine needles. They didn’t budge. Instead, a small spark of light danced at my fingertips. I gasped and retracted my hand, but an electric current still ran through me. It didn’t hurt. It felt more like a gentle buzz under my skin.

“The tree!” someone wailed, startling me. “The tree’s drying up! The lights are dimming!”

I jerked away, but it was too late. The music had stopped, and footsteps echoed ominously against the cobblestone streets. A crowd had gathered around me and the tree.

“He touched the tree!” An elf pointed an accusatory finger at me.

Panic surged through me as the crowd closed in. Elves and humans—I could spot three now in the crowd—advanced toward me. I had nowhere to run, trapped in the heart of Twinkle Glen, with the accusing eyes of its inhabitants on me.

“What’s happening?” I stammered. “It’s just a tree.”

A collective gasp erupted, followed by a horrified silence settling in like a heavy blanket of snow.

“He doesn’t believe,” someone said. The words traveled through the crowd as they whispered them to each other. “He doesn’t believe.”

“Believe what?” I asked. “You can’t believe the tree is dying because I touched it.”

“You’ve cursed it!” an elf said, his eyes glowing like the radiant tree itself—or at least, how it used to be. A circlet of holly and ivy crowned his frost-white hair, and his robe shimmered in the fading glow, cascading around him like a waterfall. “The Eternal Tree is the heart of Twinkle Glen, and now it’s withering. Do you know what will happen to us?”

“But I didn’t mean to…” My words were lost in the growing clamor, and fear took hold of me. Faces that had been smiling just a minute ago were now twisted in anger.

How was I going to get out of this?

5

NILS

In the heart of my workshop, the diligent sounds of elves working, the rhythmic clinking and clanking of toy-making, faded into a dull echo. My mind was elsewhere, consumed by thoughts of Landon and what his presence meant for Twinkle Glen. We’d never had this problem of bringing a nonbeliever among us, and I still hadn’t worked out a solution. Confining him in the guest room until the next Crossing occurred during the peak of the Ursids seemed to be the best course of action, but I couldn’t help feeling guilty about it.

He couldn’t be a true nonbeliever. Somewhere deep down inside him, a sliver of hope had to be hiding. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made it in, no matter that the elves had kidnapped him.

That’s it. I’ll release him from the guest room tonight and show him the wonders and magic of Twinkle Glen.

Was that the right thing to do, or was I being impulsive because I was curious about him? Over the centuries, we’d brought people of different genders here to the North Pole, and none had ever piqued my interest the way this one did.

Maybe it was simply the way he’d entered our world. Maybe it had nothing to do with the fire I’d seen in his eyes, the defiance in his pointy little chin, and the lithe, graceful body. His skin so—

“Santa!”

I jerked out of my reverie, annoyed at the disturbance from my private thoughts. Dix hurried toward me, looking happier than I’d expected. The last time he’d reported to me, he’d been grumpy and begging to be let off from watching our guest. According to him, Landon was rude and had no good qualities about him at all.

“What is it, Dix?” I asked.

“I have an update on Landon.”

“What trouble is he giving now?”

Dix shifted slightly. “Actually, none at all. He ate all the food you had sent to him and enjoyed it.”

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