Cal did his best by Aliesha, but Cupid had clearly struck her with his magic. It was hard keeping an eye on her, especially during Tooth Collection. Cal couldn't keep coming up with excuses to keep her away from London - their parents were growing suspicious.

"Is everything ok?" Jack quizzed one night, eyeing his two children carefully.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be?"

"You two are acting weird." He paused. "Well, weirder. What's going on?"

"Nothing, Dad. We're fine." Aliesha mumbled, not looking her father in the eye. Jack knew better and froze them both in place, confiscating his son's staff. A bit of his daughter's fire returned then, "Dad!"

"Oh no, you're going to be late for helping your mam. If only you could tell me whatever you're clearly not telling me... I may be able to let you go in time." Cal felt the burn of his sister's glare searing holes in the side of his head. He had asked her before if she wanted to tell Tooth and Jack about the Cupid situation, but she had shot him down on numerous occasions. "Have you two had a fight?"

"No." Cal answered. "It's just-"

"A bet." Aliesha finished. "We made a bet that if he could keep me out of all capitol cities for a month, I'll do his chores for a week."

"Which I said was unfair." Cal added, cottoning on. "It's just that I'm winning and she's not happy with that." Jack looked from one to the other, silently debating with himself if he should trust the pair and let them on their way or have their mother deal with them. If they were lying, they wouldn't dare lie to Tooth.

"Alright, fine." He cracked the ice with the crooked end of his staff, returned Cal's and shooed them away. Despite their story, he still had a nagging doubt that they were hiding something.

"You can't keep lying to them."

"Why? You do all the time."

"Not about serious stuff like this!"

"Shut up and fly, Cal. We've teeth to collect." Cal made to argue, but the fire in her eyes silenced him. When she had calmed down, they were going to talk about this, maybe come up with some sort of game plan.

They worked well into the early hours, barely saying a word to the other. They had to be home by sunset otherwise their mother would worry and then ground them when they turned up. It was usually for every ten minutes they were late, a week's worth of boredom. Cal had his staff confiscated and had to do the meager chores, like laundry and dishes and sweeping. Aliesha normally worked in the kitchens or was sent to the North Pole to keep the yetis' living quarters clean. She often complained of how much fur they shed.

Aliesha wondered what her mother would say if she turned up three hours late without her brother.

It had all happened so fast.

They were on the return flight, teeth safely stored in her belt. There hadn't been so many tonight and Cal had thought the teeth would be safer with her. This gave him plenty of reason to dive and create snow days over every settlement they passed.

"Cal!" She scolded. "I've just got the yeti smell out of my feathers, I am not going through that again!"

"Alright, alright. Killjoy." He behaved after that, other than the odd swoop or roll to entertain his short attention span. Aliesha made sure he stayed on track- he had been known to get lost relatively easy when he was bored.

Aliesha kept an eye on him, but her mind wondered. She had stayed away, under Cal's directions, but all she could think about was that boy. She had learnt that his name was Mitchell. His friends called him Mitch or Titch- apparently, he used to be really short; he was one of the tallest now, but the nickname had stuck. One time he had been called Titchy Mitchy. Aliesha thought it was cute.

But she couldn't not think of anything that she could do to make him believe. Jack Frost was more commonly known than her, not so commonly believed in, but his two children? No. Jamie and Tiana knew them, but that was it. Besides, they didn't really count, they were practically family.

Sighing inwardly, Aliesha did her best to banish Mitchell from her mind- not that it worked; she just did her best to focus on something else. That didn't really work either. Not until she noticed Cal grinning up at her and telling one of his horrid jokes: "Why did the cow cross the road?"

"Why?" She sighed.

"To get to the udder side." He smiled, expecting her to laugh. Aliesha forced a smile and a small laugh and he accepted it. But it only encouraged him to spew more ridiculous jokes. Aliesha smiled and laughed thinly when required, but she had been hearing these so-called jokes since birth, according to Bunny. Not that she remembered at such a young age, but they were familiar.

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Boo."

"Boo w- Cal, look out!" He frowned at her, thinking she was trying to be funny. Something must have registered though as he turned. Aliesha dived to grab him and haul him away, but she didn't react fast enough.

The darkness engulfed him in a second, burying him in the ravenous folds. Jets of nightmares hurtled towards her, searing across her arms and shoulders, one slicing across her cheek. The pain struck her like lightning; Cal was in danger, he needed her help.

Pitch melted out of nowhere, right in her path. In his left hand, he held Cal's staff.

"Boo." He smiled, a smile that sent rivers of paralysing dread flooding icily down her spine, numbing her all over.

"Pitch." She gasped. His power churning below them spiralled away into nothingness. "Where's my brother?!"

"Now," He chuckled, "that would be telling."