As the kids giggled and or "ewwed" at the kissing and the adults looked on fondly the near colorless eyes that had spied on the family and activities secretly narrowed. If things stayed like this their owner might just turn away, no matter how necessary it was for them to find just the right moment to enact his revenge. Manny couldn't see him, he had made sure of that this time, and he wasn't going to be bragging to the moon preemptively like before.
His time in the sealed realm under the bed had introduced him to a few new ways of gaining power. Where the last time had taken him centuries to slowly learn to turn dreams into Nightmares and gather his army, he had not only recharged but had tapped into something far more primal than even his long reign as the scourge of the constellations, and in only 3 years!
"You are the linchpin of the Guardians, but soon I will remove you from their side." Pitch mumbled quietly to himself.
All he had to do was keep watching. The way he was going to get his revenge needed 4 pieces to be in place. A power source, a circle of patterns to hold in the spell, a rhythmic incantation that holds strong meaning and heart for the singer/speaker, and a token of sentimental value to be used as a conduit for the desired result.
Learning that Jack Frost's family gathered every year for Thanksgiving to share stories and that they not only could see Jack but included him in their traditions was the setting he had needed to cast his spell. All those innocents gathered together with the magic of a Guardian in close proximity would be the power source. The alignment of the lay lines that balanced the earth's magic crossing in Burgess would be the 'circle'. And the songs they put their hearts into would be the 'incantation'. Now all he needed was to grab the correct token and he would be all set to activate the spell.