“Huh. Wow. That’s nice,” Sky murmured to himself.
“What? What’s nice? What is it?” Nolan demanded from deeper in the foyer.
“It’s a witch’s Yule tree. No one has ever sent me one,” Sky replied.
“A what?”
“A witch’s Yule tree. Earth witches will sometimes bespell a tree, giving it some small level of sentience so that it can walk into a house on its own. They’re used to celebrate Yule and the winter solstice. I think they’re supposed to have about the same intelligence as a golden retriever.” He glanced over his shoulder at Nolan and flashed him an encouraging smile. “They’re seen as protectors of the hearth and home. It’s not going to hurt you.”
“Uh-huh,” Nolan said in a disbelieving tone as he inched a little higher up the nearby staircase. “And can we talk about how it makes noises? It’s a tree, Sky.”
Sky resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Poor human. Sometimes, his boyfriend was too adorable for words. “Magic. Obviously.”
Nolan narrowed his eyes at Sky, sending him a warning look. His very smart and patient boyfriend also knew when he was being placated. “Can you send it back?”
Sky’s warm expression fell away, and he stared down at the tree again. That didn’t seem like a good idea. The magic emanating from the tree didn’t have the same tingle as Redstone’s or Maddox’s magic. This wasn’t from an earth witch. And it went without saying that it couldn’t possibly have been sent by Moon. The former blood witch turned vampire with the occasional toe dipped into necromancy had a grumpy vampire boyfriend who didn’t want him casting spells at all.
If anything, the magic felt vaguely familiar, which meant the tree could have come from only one place—the Underworld.
“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure this is from Zalramon.”
“Sky! It’s creepy!”
“Nolan! The king of the underworld sent me a gift. I don’t want to piss him off by rejecting it.”
Nolan’s pale face twisted up as if he were in pain. “But it can stay outside, right?”
“I don’t think so. It seems like it really wants to come inside.” Sky made the mistake of looking over his shoulder at his boyfriend. The Yule tree darted forward, brushing past Sky to squeeze into the house. Nolan screeched, and Sky jumped aside in surprise.
“Fast little bugger,” he mumbled, watching it thump and scuttle through the house. It moved from room to room on the first floor as if it were searching for something. The thing was stunningly nimble, lurching here and there without knocking into anything or breaking a single knickknack.
“What’s it doing?” Nolan whispered. He’d edged closer to Sky to watch the tree from a distance.
“I think it’s searching for a place to settle.”
“And then what?”
Sky shrugged. “Nothing.”
“What? That’s it? The thing just lives in the house now?” Panic was creeping into his voice again.
“No, think of it as a live Christmas tree. We’ll put out a pan of water for it, decorate it with ornaments and tiny white lights, and on January first, it’ll scuttle off to where it lives.” Sky paused and cocked his head to the side. “However, I wouldn’t mind if it decided to live in my backyard.”
“Sky!” Nolan gasped.
“What? It would be damned convenient. It would scamper into the house on December first and scamper out to the yard on January first. Think of all the time and money we’d save on cutting down trees or putting up a fake one.”
“You’re insane.”
Sky laughed and gave his boyfriend a shove toward the kitchen. “Go fill the big blue roasting pan with distilled water from the fridge. I’m going to the basement to find a box of Christmas decorations.”
“I’m not going near it without you in the room!” Nolan shouted as he walked to the kitchen.
Sky snickered. “It’s a tree. They don’t have teeth.”
“Sky…don’t!”
Naturally, the necromancer completely ignored Nolan’s warning tone. “Come on! You know it’s all bark, no bite!”
