Free A Wizard for Christmas by Dorothy McFalls Page A

at him too.
    “You took everything from me! Not only did you steal Christmas. You robbed me of the man I love. You are the one who should be trembling, not me, because I no longer have anything to lose.”
    No matter what, she had to stop the beast. But how?
    You’ve not lost everything, Holly heard someone whisper in her mind. Who was that? The voice sounded warm and soothing.
    It was the voice of her mother. The mother she’d created in her imagination.
    She wasn’t alone. Not really. She still had her family. They weren’t real, but thinking of them always made her feel strong.
    Her family. When she closed her eyes she could see still the shadows of them. And Uncle Burl...he was singing. They sounded so happy. And so real.
    She turned and stared at the soul eater. His face had changed again. He no longer looked like Hadrian.
    “You are me,” she said. The beast now looked exactly like her.
    “You are me,” it echoed.
    The monster had attacked her soul twice now. She could feel pieces of her soul fluttering inside the soul eater. Because of that, her fantasy family no longer called out only to her. She wasn’t the only one now yearning to rush home. The soul eater now wanted that, too.
    This was its trap.
    Hadrian had said that wizards could tap into the powers of the universe, that they could move time and space with a trans-dimensional shift. She had no idea how, but she needed to get the soul eater to follow her into her fantasy family’s house.
    She stared at the empty space in front of her, picturing the cozy house. The lights in the windows. The fire burning in the hearth. Log by log the mountain house started to form in the center of the cathedral. Holly took a tentative step toward the house. The soul eater, hungry for her soul, followed.
    “What are you doing?” the soul eater growled.
    The ground shook as she opened the front door to the cozy cabin. “I’m sending you home.”
    Then, from deep in her distant memories, she heard it. A song. Her family. They were singing. She joined in grossly off-key. She never could carry a tune. But it didn’t matter. Tears ran down her cheeks. But that didn’t matter either.
    She could run through that door, slam the door closed behind her and escape the world she’d been born into, escape the soul eater. She’d be with her family (a family of her own imagination), but she’d be with them. She wouldn’t have to face the grief of losing Hadrian. She wouldn’t have to face the knowing that she’d ever loved him...because he wouldn’t exist in her new world. A perfect world she’d spent a lifetime creating.
    And this imperfect, painful world...?
    It would still have the soul eater to contend with.
    She looked at the soul eater. It gazed into the open door with the same look of longing as Holly felt.
    This was its trap.
    With a cry of frustration and grief Holly pushed the soul eater through the open door.
    “No...!” the soul eater shouted as it was sucked through the door. The house, her fantasy family, and the soul eater all exploded in a brilliant flash of white light. They were gone. Forever gone.
    Slowly, the colors inside the church returned. Holly held her breath. The stark silence frightened her. In the midst of so many good people, she was the only one left alive. It didn’t feel right. It wasn’t right.
    “Shit. Shit. Shit. Don’t let this be the ending. Don’t let me lose Hadrian.” Like she had when conjuring her fantasy family, she imagined the people in the church breathing and healthy again. But it was one thing to breathe life into a fantasy. The people in the church were real. Their souls were real. Even so, she had to try. “Give me the power to save Hadrian and everyone else here and let me find my home.”
    A tingling tickled the tips of her fingers and then spread up her arms. This was it. The magic. It was awake and alive inside her! Holly waved her hand, sending the power out through her fingers and into the church.
    A dim