The Christmas Curse (The Christmas Curse #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

C hristmas had never been Griffith’s favorite period of the year, even when he’d had a family. Maybe it was because he could too easily remember how he’d spent his holidays before Caitlin had found him. There hadn’t been any happy times when he’d been with his birth family, not even at Christmas, and while that changed after Caitlin took him in, it had left lingering feelings that meant that he was happier ignoring Christmas than remembering what time of the year it was.

Thinking about Christmas always made him think about Calyx. He regularly texted him, so he knew that no one had returned to the house. Calyx still lived there, alone, as he had been for the past year. It made Griffith feel guilty, but it was better that way. He wasn’t the right person for Calyx, no matter how much he wanted to be. He’d failed him, and there was no coming back from that.

Yet, Calyx had been begging him to come home for Christmas. It had been almost a year since they’d last seen each other, and Griffith missed him as if it were still the first day, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t deal with the memories, and he couldn’t deal with knowing that he had hurt Calyx and had abandoned him.

He hadn’t meant to do it. He hadn’t meant to stay away from the house for so long. He’d needed time away after Caitlin died. He’d gotten a job out of town, then another one, and he was still here, having built himself a new life.

That new life might be about to crumble down.

He stared at his chest in the mirror. He’d just taken a shower, so the room was steamy but not enough that he couldn’t see his reflection.

Why was his chest turning green?

He poked at it, but there were no changes. It was just green, that particular green that reminded him of Christmas. It was the same shade that was on every decoration that had suddenly appeared after Thanksgiving, and he briefly wondered if he was going to turn white and red, too.

It was madness, but he couldn’t look away. The green covered one of his pectoral muscles almost completely, extending toward the other but not quite reaching it yet. Would it eventually, or would it stop? Even if it did, it was a problem. How was Griffith supposed to explain to anyone that his chest was green? He supposed he could pass it as a tattoo, but it didn’t look like anything he’d want permanently inked in his body.

Besides, that didn’t answer his most pressing question—why was his chest turning green?

It had to be magical. It was the only explanation he could think of. That meant that to find out what was happening, he’d have to contact a mage.

He knew the perfect person to call, the only mage he trusted. He still hesitated because he didn’t know what Calyx would say about the mess they were in. He’d always been too sweet for his own good, which meant he’d probably forgive Griffith for abandoning him and would welcome him back with open arms. He’d help him, and Griffith would have to abandon him again, and he’d break his heart a second time.

Maybe contacting Calyx of all people wasn’t a good idea. Griffith touched the green again, narrowing his eyes when he realized it had crept toward the other side of his chest just a bit. It was only a few millimeters, but it was enough to tell him that it wasn’t over.

Would the green take over his entire body? His face, legs, and worse—his cock ?

He was not dealing with a green cock.

Wearing only a towel, he left the bathroom so he could grab his phone. He pulled up the string of messages Calyx had sent him. He hadn’t answered the last one, but he wasn’t planning to. Instead, he tapped on Calyx’s name, then on his number. He put the phone to his ear and waited.

“Griffith?” Calyx answered, sounding breathless. “I can’t believe you’re calling me. Are you coming home for Christmas?”

“I’m turning green, Cal. Why am I turning green?”

The silence was loud. For a moment, Griffith just waited. Then, he realized what this had to mean.

“What did you do?”

“I’m really sorry,” Calyx rushed to say. “I didn’t mean to do that , but I didn’t get the spell right, and it turned into a curse, and there wasn’t much I could do because curses can’t be canceled, and it was Christmas, so I thought that the colors would be fine. Pretty, even.”

“You cursed me?”

“Just a bit.”

Griffith paced the length of his bedroom. “How do you curse someone just a bit? It doesn’t make sense. What’s happening to me? How do I stop it?”

“It’s nothing bad. You’ll just turn green, red, and white. It’s Christmas.”

“I’m not a Christmas tree that needs to be decorated, and I don’t want to look like I’m wearing a Christmas sweater when I’m naked.” Griffith closed his eyes and sucked in a breath. “How long until my face turns green?”

“The longer you wait until Christmas, the wider the area it’ll cover.”

It was the beginning of December, so it made sense that only part of Griffith’s chest was green. He could only imagine how bad it would get by December twenty-four. “What were you thinking?” he asked.

“I don’t think I was. I was in pain and freaking out, and I wanted my brothers to come home.”

Of course he had. He was Calyx, who was so attached to their family and their home that he would never think about leaving. He was still there, waiting for them, even though he hadn’t seen any of them in a year.

And he’d found a way to force them home.

Okay, so maybe Caitlin had been right. One year ago, after the fight between Calyx and his brothers, she’d tried to caution him. He’d been angry and sad and lonely, though, and he hadn’t listened. He’d cast the spell, even though he’d known he was too overwhelmed by his emotions to do a good job.

Which was why he’d gotten a few details wrong. Even the strongest mage could make mistakes, especially when they were dealing with high emotions. That was how Calyx had turned the beacon spell he’d intended to cast on his brothers so they would feel pulled toward their home into a curse—as in if they didn’t return home, they would die. He hadn’t realized it at the time, but he’d had enough time to go over everything that had happened that day repeatedly. He knew what had happened.

Knowing hadn’t changed anything.

Calyx never wanted to hurt anyone, especially not his family. He didn’t want any of his brothers to die because they weren’t ready to come home, and he’d been ab le to modify the spell. It had already been cast, and there had been no changing that, but he could change what would happen to his brothers if they resisted.

Since it had been Christmas, Calyx had done the only thing he could think of in his state. Instead of dying, his brothers would slowly turn the colors of Christmas—green, red, and white. The longer they waited to come home for Christmas, the bigger the area the colors would cover. Drawings would start appearing, too.

Calyx had given them a year to figure their shit out, yet none of them had returned home. Now, they would have to unless they wanted to go around with a green nose and tiny Christmas trees on their ass.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Griffith said.

He still sounded angry, and Calyx hated it when Griffith was angry at him. “You can’t?”

Griffith snorted. “Okay, maybe I can. But you can’t curse us just because you’re lonely.”

“I wasn’t lonely, I was hurt.” Calyx was lonely now , but Griffith didn’t need to know that. “Look, I’m sorry. I was overwhelmed, and I did something stupid. I tried to cancel the spell once I cast it, but it had already turned into a curse, and you know that the only way to get rid of those is to do what it wants.”

“And this curse wants us to come home.”

It was Calyx who wanted them to come home. He didn’t feel sorry about what he’d done, even though he knew he’d been an idiot. If it meant that his brothers came back and that Calyx had a chance to talk to them and try to find a way to make things work again, he’d do it. He’d do pretty much anything to get his family back.

“It does,” he confirmed. “You just need to come here for Christmas, and once the holidays are over, you’ll return to your normal color. Hell, you’ll go back to your normal color after Christmas either way, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I think there might be glitter involved.”

Griffith swore. “I can’t believe you did this.”

It was the second time he said that, but Calyx was pretty sure he was just ranting at this point. He was pretty angry, and part of Calyx cringed at the thought. Another part of him didn’t care as long as it meant that Griffith would be coming home.

“I hate you almost as much as I love you,” Griffith grumbled.

Calyx wanted to tell him he loved him, but he didn’t have the opportunity. Griffith hung up, leaving him blinking at the screen of his phone until the screen turned dark.

“That could have gone better,” Caitlin said from where she was standing by the window. “Of course, it also could have gone worse. I imagine Yancey won’t be as happy to find out about this.”

“As if Griffith was happy about it.”

“I don’t think any of them will be. You should have thought this through before you cast that spell.”

“Well, I didn’t, and it’s too late to do anything about it.” Calyx put his phone on the kitchen table and wrapped both hands around his steaming cup of tea.

Caitlin sighed and moved closer. The chair in front of Calyx’s was pushed away from the table because Caitlin wouldn’t be able to do so herself. She and Calyx liked to sit in the kitchen and talk for hours, so he always kept the chair away from the table.

It had been a lonely year for Calyx, and he was pretty sure that without Caitlin, he would have gone nuts. He wasn’t used to being on his own, but for the past year, he’d had to learn to live with it.

Thankfully, Caitlin had been there. She’d continued teaching him magic, and he’d learned a lot, but even though he’d built himself a life he was satisfied with, he wasn’t happy, and he knew he wouldn’t be until his family was back under one roof.

“They’re going to come home,” he murmured.

Caitlin reached for Calyx’s hands, but she didn’t touch him. They’d tried a few times initially, but feeling the cold of her touch as her hand passed through him gave Calyx the creeps. He hated that he couldn’t hug his mother, but at least he still had her.

“Oh, I have no doubts they will. I just don’t know if you’ll be in one piece when Yancey is done with you, and that’s not even considering what Shelby and Justin will do. Griffith was the easy part of this, Calyx.”

Maybe Calyx should start working on the protective spells he’d been meaning to cast on the house.

Griffith glared at the wall and tried to get his breathing under control. He felt like he’d run a marathon, even though he hadn’t left his apartment.

He was turning into a fucking Christmas tree.

He rubbed his eyes. He was angry at Calyx, but in a way, he could understand why Calyx had done this. Last year at Christmas, he’d expected the five of them to celebrate together. They’d just lost their mother, and Calyx had taken it hard. Family was everything to him, maybe because his own family had abandoned him. He’d been old enough to understand what was happening when they had, and he’d always felt like he wasn’t good enough to keep them with him. Even after Caitlin had taken him in, he’d always done everything he could to make the others in the house love him.

It had worked a little too well when it came to Griffith. He wasn’t sure when, but somewhere along the line, he’d fallen in love with Calyx. He’d never said anything because while they were close, it wasn’t like that , but his feelings were one of the reasons he’d left. He’d known that if he stayed in the house with Calyx, he’d do something stupid.

Instead, Calyx had.

Griffith glanced down at his chest. Yep, it was still green.

At least Calyx had had the presence of mind to modify the curse he’d cast. Griffith didn’t want to lose any of his brothers, and he already knew that Yancey would prove to be the most complicated of them all. He held a grudge like no one else, and he was stubborn, even when it was obvious he needed to admit defeat. He would refuse to come to the house. Griffith was pretty sure that Yancey would rather walk around for an entire month with his face white and green than apologize to Calyx and try to work things out.

But Griffith wasn’t going to do that. He’d be going home because he wanted to find out if the spell Calyx had cast would be permanent. Would he start turning green every December? Would he have to go home every Christmas and deal with Calyx and his puppy eyes?

God, he desperately wanted to. This curse was only an excuse, and he would use it. He wanted to see Calyx, to reassure himself that Calyx was all right. He’d been rattling around the big house alone for a year, and Griffith felt guilty about that.

Calyx had always been the one of them who had the softest heart. When Caitlin had brought him home, he’d instantly latched onto them. They were his family, and to him, that meant everything—dinners together every night, camping on the weekend, and Christmas celebrations. Griffith wanted to give him all of that. He wanted to give him everything he wished for and deserved.

How was he supposed to do that? He was just a shifter. There was nothing special about him, but he knew that if he told Calyx about his feelings, Calyx would give him what he wanted. It was what Calyx always did, with all of them, and Griffith hadn’t wanted to put that on his shoulders. He wanted Calyx, but there was no way Calyx wanted him. He saw him as a brother and nothing else, as it should be. Griffith was the weird one, the one who wanted his adopted brother to fall in love with him.

He groaned and glanced down at his chest again. Whatever he wanted, it didn’t matter. He needed to start packing so he could go home and find out if there was any way for Calyx to fix this fucking spell.

Before it reached Griffith’s groin.