After a final, monumental fight with their coldhearted, scheming father, Nick’s mother had been banished to another realm, forced to leave her young sons behind. Kringles aged differently than mortals, and those warm memories had mostly disappeared, trampled under decades of bitterness and resentment as the three brothers grew up in the drafty halls of Frost Castle. Claus’ sisters, and Nick remembered romping with the Kringle girls along with his brothers, Ethan and Jake. Nick had vague memories of childhood Christmases, when his flighty elven mother would take the three boys to visit their Kringle cousins. Not surprising, given that their father was Jack Frost. Growing up, Nick and his brothers had quickly learned to detest the holidays. He’d been taught from an early age that a cheery smile meant someone was hiding something, friends were likely to stab you in the back, and Christmas was a dark day on the calendar, to be endured instead of celebrated. The whole holiday baffled him, though Nick had to admit, as he looked down on the workers whirling tipsily around the makeshift dance floor and catching each other under the mistletoe, that he might be biased.

He hated wrapping paper and ribbons and pine trees and twinkly lights. He hated the cheer, he hated all the happy laughter and joyous reunions of family and friends.

The other part of the problem was that Nick Kringle hated Christmas. Part of the problem was that he knew what was riding on getting their orders, regular and magical, out the door on time.

If you’re under 18, read something else!ĪDDITIONAL SHORTS AVAILABLE AS SINGLE TITLESīAH HUMBUG, THOUGHT NICK Kringle as he leaned on the railing, looking down on the merry party underway on the factory floor.Ĭhristmas was still two weeks away, but the season was in full swing, and though Nick knew that throwing the candy factory workers the mother of all Christmas parties was not only expected, but also the nice thing to do, he resented it with every fiber of his being. WARNING: This work contains explicit depictions of couples engaged in consensual sex and sexual situations.

My Fair Hex by Lily Rede