Kol wasn’t in a rush to get back, thoughts made sharper by the blustery air. It was bad enough he was rushing to gather the last of his numbers, but The Elven Perennial Assembly would have his ears if they found out he was abetting the abduction of an alcyon spruce. He supposed he’d exposed magic to a human too, but that was a different bureaucratic division, and frankly, the EPA worried him more. Run by some of the most ancient and uptight elucidai elves in existence, his stomach twisted up into knots at just the thought of standing in front of the council and explaining.
Well, she was sad about her dead mom, so I had to…
He doubted that would sway his grandfather. Having a half-elf for a grandson was bad enough when he was the head of the EPA’s council, but at least Kol’s predilection had always been toward elves. He made an effort to fit in with the beings who raised him, and sympathy for humans would be…disappointingeven if Kol was known for having feelings that were a bit too big.
By the time he returned, the house was in a frenzy once again. Green and red storage tubs had been spread out through the living room and den, crumpled newspaper was tossed about, and the musty smell of basement storage permeated the once-pancakey air.
MacLeans were digging out decor and shouting over one another about where pieces should go. The house probably looked best half an hour ago, but there was no sign anyone was about to take a step back and announce the walls and tables were covered in enough plastic garland and glittery, white cotton balls as if the actual snow outside wouldn’t last through Christmas. He lingered by the stairs, searching for but not finding Piper, until a weathered voice called, “Yoohoo, handsome, over here.”
Piper’s grandmother sat in a big recliner in the room’s corner. She was every bit of a cliche, dressed in a bright holiday sweater, glasses fallen to the tip of her nose, and a set of knitting needles in hand with a trail of yarn ending in a basket at her feet. She curled a bony finger at him, and he had no choice but to comply.
“What’s your name, honey?”
“Kol,” he told her, though he’d introduced himself the night before, but someone her age was likely to forget. Maybe she didn’t even remember meeting him at all.
The old woman shook her head with a weathered laugh from the back of her throat. “No, hon,” she said, light eyes finding his, “yourrealname.”
“Kolariel Ven’floria va Tralen,” came out as if he’d been compelled, then his eyes went wide, and he whipped his head around to make sure no one else heard.
Piper’s grandmother just nodded, rocking in the recliner as her knitting needles clacked together, getting back to work.
“I mean, it’s Kolson Stewart,” he sputtered, throat thick and funny, wondering why in the nether the name he used when he was with his father hadn’t automatically come out.
“Oh, sure, sure, I got it,” she said and tapped her temple. “That’s all I needed, you go put yourself to work now.”
Kol checked the living room full of MacLeans again, but they were all absorbed with their own tasks except for Piper who had appeared at the room’s far end, arms crossed, glaring right at him. Fuck, what had he done now?
When she curled her own finger at him, there was none of the warmth of her grandmother’s beckoning. Hair damp and tied into a long braid, she looked more awake but much less pleased than she’d been in the kitchen. Another baggy sweater was covering up most of her again, but this one fell away to expose one of her shoulders. When he got close, he could smell the vanillay sweetness of her soap, but there was no sweetness to her words. “What were you saying to Grams?”
Wouldn’thelike to know? “Nothing. She started it.” Which was true, sort of.
Piper made a disbelieving sound in the back of her throat. “You better be nice to her,” she warned.
“Or what?”
“Just consider yourself threatened, okay?” She jabbed him in the chest with a finger then pulled it back just as quickly.
Kol felt his jaw tighten, and then he snorted. “I’m sorry, I can’t. Who’s ever been threatened by someone two feet tall?”
Piper opened her mouth, but one of her relatives descended asking after ornament hooks, and her rage was immediately covered up by a placid grin as she left him to help the others.
The morning dragged on into afternoon, and one of the den’s walls was now covered in Christmas stockings, one for each MacLean in attendance and a few extras, including one for aMichellethat he had to assume was Piper’s mother’s from its age. They were all matching, hand knitted with red and green stripes and each with a unique holiday symbol in its center. Michelle’s had a pair of bright red cardinals, which made Kol chuckle since humans so often overlooked that it was only the males that were red, and Piper’s donned a puppy in a Santa hat, suited more for a young child, but then that was probably when it was knitted.
Kol’s height was put to work hanging lights and baubles on high. That allowed him to be close to the tree, which was nice, but not to be close to Piper, which was also nice since she couldn’t stop scowling at him, especially when he levied caution at the others to go easy on the spruce’s needles.
As he reminded one of her aunts for the third time that the tree wasn’t indestructible, there was a tug at his back, and Piper was there, but this time she was smiling. “Can I borrow you?” she asked, and if she’d added,pretty please, with sugar on top, he wouldn’t have been surprised. She hooked her arm in his and led him out of the room to the ascending staircase, but when she pulled him around to face her, that glower was plastered back on like it belonged nowhere else. “What are you doing?”
“This?” He held up the candy cane that hadn’t made it onto the tree before she took him away from it.
“No, you’re beingweird,” she hissed, her back to the others and voice low.
Kol cringed as he watched one of the toddlers grab onto a hanging ornament and yank, bending a low bough.
“Are you listening to me?”
“I don’t know how I couldn’t, all you do is yell at me. How much more is there to do?”
Her scowl deepened. “We haven’t even gotten the Christmas village out yet.”
