Prologue

9 Years Earlier

88 years. He had been searching for 88 years and Santa's accursed magic was keeping him from reaching her. Jack pulled the picture of them together when they were organizing the Snowlace Ball from his pocket. Melody was wearing the familiar carefree smile. She was holding a roll of baby blue cloth trimmed in white, that was nearly as tall as herself, with one arm wrapped around it. The other was sweeping her long dark blonde hair out of her face. To her right, he saw himself as he used to be: happy, smiling, and content with his position. He felt the old grin tugging at the corners of his mouth as the memories of her gasps of amazement at the elves' latest creation of a color picture taker. The smallest of discernible grins was creeping up on his face as he pulled the small, elegant, light blue, snowflake shaped ring from the coat pocket closest to his chest. The memory of the grin quickly disappeared as flashes of his last meeting came without permission into view. The ice pond, the bench, his offer…her refusal. Tears quickly turned to small icicles halfway down his face as he finally pulled out what he was scared to open, yet needed to desperately. He needed to know.

The letter in question was ordinary looking enough to the ignorant passerby. White as the snow falling around Jack, the stamp was what caught his eye. He let out a gasp the first time he saw it, surprised at who had written it and that she still had the stamps he had bought her so many years ago. Midnight blue background with a single, complicated snowflake. With trembling hands he opened it, and couldn't help but give a small gasping laugh at all the memories of Melody's graceful fingers brutally murdering any envelope she needed to open. His hands couldn't hold the letter he pulled out steady. He laid it on the ground and held it down with one trembling finger, and read:

Dear New Santa,

I'm really sorry this letter is so belated. I usually get it in much sooner! But I've been really busy with homeschooling my daughter, Katie (it's really 'Catherine', but we call her that for short), that I honestly couldn't get to this any sooner.

By now, you probably have heard about me. I was one of the first ones, if you get my drift. But there are many details about me that I, Marcus (my husband), or the Council of Legendary Figures need to explain to you. If you don't get to it soon, nothing is going to explode. It's really more for purely emergency situations that we tell you. I can't put my address on here for reasons that I (or the others mentioned above) need to explain, but not here. It would tear my family apart if it got out. And something will explode if that is not addressed with the utmost security.

Before you try, don't ask any of the elves, even the Head-Elf, about me. None of them know I'm even alive. Really. Many of the older ones even attended my funeral! But all will be explained.

I suggest that the quickest way is to ask the C.L.F. For the most detailed of why come to me. Nothing's stopping you from using both, however. Hear from you soon!

~Melody Michieles

P.S. Also inside is a picture of me and my husband and daughter. That's it!

~M.M.

Jack pulled the unnoticed picture from the crushed envelope in his hand. The crumpled picture showed a glowing Melody and "Marcus! That thieving son of a bitch. And his bastard child. Look at it," and he himself looked at it really for the first time. Catherine looked much like her mother, with her dirty blonde hair, spring green eyes, gold and silver cheek sparkles… he closed his eyes and knelt down completely in the snow.

The tears that spilled out now were so hot, they fell all the way down his face. They never did that before. The only one that ever could do that was Melody.

Unwelcome thoughts flashed through his mind as he knelt in the forest, so close to her home he could count the miles with his hands. Her home, which she built with Marcus instead of him. Had a daughter with Marcus. Never spared a thought for him in the exact reverse of his thoughts for her.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!" he screamed to the trees around him, his fists hitting the ground in front on him hard. As soon as his hands made contact with the July Texas soil, the small mini storm that he put around him grew. It grew and grew, to the point that he, the center was so minuscule, he didn't count anymore against the huge raging storm that covered the whole state and some besides.

And on the beach, hundreds of miles away from the spot Jack thought they were, the Michieles family hid in the car, wearing only the T-shirts, bathing suits, shorts, and flip-flops that they thought they needed for a summer trip to the coast. Melody shivered harder than any of them as the threesome waited the storm out.

Had Jack stayed, he would have seen them return home, Melody still shivering and coughing hard. Had he stayed even longer, he would have seen the ambulance drive quickly in and out. But he didn't. Leaving his monster storm, Jack slowly and deliberately stomped off, wearing the satisfied sneer that he would make infamous along with him.