Book Six: Chapter 202

“You can yell at me later. For now, you’ve given us a second chance to get things right.” Mike thought about how Holly had briefly appealed to the eldritch being. This wasn’t like Freya and Jack, two pieces of a separate whole. It was a colossal fuck up on his part, but if he could put Santa back, Holly’s appeals might make it through.

“Caretaker!” The Krampus head butted Tick Tock so hard that the mimic went still. “I will not let you put that man’s soul inside of me again!”

Mike concentrated, sending magical streamers across the room and focused on the void around the Krampus. What he had mistaken for nothing was in fact something he simply couldn’t see. Though he couldn’t identify what made the Krampus, he could see the gaps in reality left behind by its presence.

“No!” The Krampus shot across the room so fast that Mike didn’t have a chance to blink. In a single moment, he found himself staring at bladed fingers reaching for his face, but frozen less than an inc