I abruptly stood, my chair squeaking, as if I’d been caught doing something naughty. “Principle Huckle, can I help you?”
“I thought I heard you scream...” His face wrinkled with confusion and his eyes warily took in the burly, otherworldly beast that was still leaning on my desk, eyelevel with my tits now.
Why did I think of that?
I laughed, and even to my own ears it sounded too loud and too long, before I cleared my throat and straightened my soft sweater. “Nope. No screaming here.”
“Is this a... visitor?”
“Oh, this is... this is...” I gestured to the convict, whose name I should’ve probably learned, “my new Krampus!”
Fuck.
Why did I say that?
The alien threw me a pointed, surly glare that I was thankful George couldn’t see. At that very moment, I hoped he saw the urgency in my eyes.
Please go along with this, I silently begged.
Was it just me or did George seem disappointed? “Oh,” he said.
“Name’s Kye,” the alien offered, standing to his full height, which put him a head or two above both of us humans.
“Principle Huckle,” George replied, straightening, as if trying to be as tall as Kye.
Kye.
It pained me to admit I liked how it rolled through my mind.
“I offered to fill in for the Krampus role, but it seems Holly had other plans.” He tightly smiled.
Kye stroked his neck fur. “Seems the better Krampus won, eh?”
I choked on my own saliva and profusely coughed.
Kye pat me on the back, firm but gentle, surprising me. “You okay, Holly?”
“Fine—I’m fine. Thank you.” I cleared my throat for a final time.
George, his cheek ticking—which definitely meant he was irritated—checked his watch. “I better go. Kids will be arriving soon.” Just before he closed the door he said, “Oh, Holly? Try to do non-school related business during your personal time, would you?”
The door shut before I could reply.
“I don’t like that guy,” Kye bluntly stated.
“He’s not all bad.” Yeah right, why am I even defending him?
“You don’t like him.”
“I don’t?” Of course I didn’t.
“Your spine goes ramrod straight, you clench your jaw, and your tone drops a chilling degree when he’s around. It happened earlier, and it happened just now.”
“Maybe that’s how I act around everyone. You don’t know me.”
“Ah, no.” His intense stare followed me back to my seat, making me highly aware, as if it touched on every part of my body, and I fought the urge to squirm. “You don’t act that way around me.”
Now I did squirm. My chair was too uncomfortable, and my sweater was too warm. “You’ve known me for two seconds.”
He rolled a broad, furred shoulder. “That wasn’t a denial.”
I didn’t have to take this. “I think this meeting is over. Back to your prison. My students will be here any minute now.”
“I’ll be back, Holly.”
The static increased, and Kye disappeared.
When the first student burst into my classroom, my pulse still hadn’t normalized. I didn’t know if Kye’s words were a threat or a promise, but I didn’t care...
I just hoped he was telling the truth.
SEVEN
KYE
What am I doing?
This was my time for revenge. Stick it to the witches who put me in this prison and tortured me every year.
A strong wind blew, kicking up flakes of snow, but I hardly noticed. I acclimated to this freezing desert long ago.
Instead, I mostly focused on Holly’s voice as she went over lesson after lesson, instructing her students on the history of her planet.
She claimed she wasn’t a witch but Dor Nye was exactly where the last two berchtas, who’d been in possession of my prison, had lived.
What game was she playing? Did she think I’d fall for it?
Tough luck for her. I knew the trickery of her kind.
I had to stay vigilant. This witch was a little different, I could tell. The feigned ignorance aside, going through her storage room gave me some insight.
That human, Principle Huckle, had been important to Holly. She still had a couple holo-disks with short vids tucked into a small box. I know because I snooped while I was locked in there last eve.
It was different now. In the vids, she gazed at him like he hung the fucking moons. It was nauseating.
I brushed aside the shard of me that wondered what it would be like to have someone look at me that way.
Never going to happen.
That wasn’t my future. Just this. This pointless existence. Maybe I deserved it.
Anyway, I was surprised she hadn’t banished that guy to a pocket dimension like her kind was known to do if they were slighted.
Made me wonder what he’d done to earn Holly’s frosty glare.
“Kye?”
Holly’s voice pulled me out of my head and I looked to the sky. She peered into my prison as if searching for me.
“Yes?”
“You can... come out if you want,” she hedged. “School’s over.”
I held off for a moment, not wanting to seem as eager as I was. No idea what that was about, but I was damned ashamed to admit I was looking forward to physically being in the same room as Holly again.
****
HOLLY
The static in the air made my scalp tingle and stray fly-away hairs momentarily stand up before I smoothed them down.
That was an altogether strange feeling.
“Where are we?” Kye rumbled, sitting on the wide, cushy transport bench beside me. He was so big, his furry arm brushed against me and his bone-colored horns nearly kissed the ceiling. It was like the guy sucked up all the space in the vehicle.
Is it too warm in here or just me?
I reached forward, dragging my fingers against the operational screen to adjust the temperature.
“My transport. I’ve gotta get to the Evergreen Queen’s meeting. Speaking of,” I side-eyed him, “we need to talk.”
“Hmph,” he grunted. “Nothing good has ever happened when a female claims, ‘we need to talk’.”
That made me purse my lips to hide a smirk. “You have a lot of experience with women saying that, huh?”
He turned his eyes on me then. The pupil thinned horizontally, like a dash, so much different from a human. “I’ve enough. And what’s an Evergreen Queen?”
“It’s a yearly Tinsel pageant.” I shrugged, for some reason feeling embarrassed that I used to love it so much. “Women compete in various themed categories and, by the end, a winner is chosen. The Evergreen Queen.”
“What does that get you?”
“A pretty crown, a sash, an everlasting bouquet, the town’s adoration—”
He snorted, interrupting. “Sounds like an unfair deal.”
“We also get a lifetime of free hot cocoa from the Reindeer Bowl Café. Which, honestly? Worth it. Just for that.”
“We?” His chin dipped toward me and, in a fluid movement, he slid his arm along the back of the bench, taking up even more room. “You’re an Evergreen Queen?”