Very soon, it was Christmas. The school grounds lay thick with snow, and the Palace was almost drowned in it. After Wren and Odyssey made up over their little fight, they'd gone out to the Palace gardens to have a snowball fight. Later on that day, Wren spent her afternoon wrapping Christmas presents for all her friends.
Ladislaya had gone home for the holidays. She'd gone home just a day before Christmas, and Jake and Wren watched as she departed on a harmless, flying dragon.
'Aren't you going home?' said Wren to Jake.
'No,' said Jake cheerfully. 'Told Mum I wanted to stay for Christmas! You know, it'll be fun, celebrating with Luxe and Ethan and everyone else. They haven't gone home.'
The two trudged back into the Academy and into the Great Hall, where they were greeted by a chorus of 'Merry Christmas!' from their fellow classmates. Luxe was dressed in a red and white outfit and apparently, she'd charmed a snowball to never melt so it would perch on top of her nose like a rabbit.
Estella was sitting on a green beanbag, her arms folded. Apparently, Luxe had dragged her into the celebration. It was just the lot of them, with Duncan, Jared Levisay, Tyler and Theodore. Surprisingly, Aurora was there, huddled up on the bench, laughing away on one of Tyler's jokes.
'Happy and healthy, don't you think?' Jake murmured in Wren's ear. Wren nodded.
'Hello, you lot,' said Jake cheerfully, helping himself to some pudding.
'Presents, everybody!' shouted Tyler, whooping. 'Here, Wren - here's yours, from me -'
'Thanks, Tyler, cheers!' said Wren enthusiastically. 'Here - here's yours -'
'Super, Wren!' cried Tyler, unboxing the present on the table to find a box of chocolates and two tins of sweets. 'Awesome - this is my cue to have a sugar rush.'
Wren had a wonderful Christmas. Jake gifted her a tin of chocolate fudge that changed taste every three seconds, Corinne gave her a pair of diamond-studded earrings (even though Wren hadn't had her ears pierced), Luxe's present was a doll that whenever you stroked it, it screamed 'MAGGOTS!' so loudly the entire Hall was deafened. Tyler had given her a joke-book and inside were the most useful tips on how you could skip class convincingly and how to get sick without actually getting sick (Jake was jealous of the book, of course). Matteo Sternflair's present to her was a model of a wand (she was delighted; 'I didn't know what you really liked but I overheard you saying you really wanted a wand but you know we're not allowed to have one.').To Wren's utter surprise, Aurora handed her a present that contained a tin of sugar cookies that apparently she had baked herself. The sugar cookies had Wren's name baked on it, and Wren, feeling rather touched and awkward, accepted it with much grace.
'Er - thanks, Aurora,' she said, feeling rather guilty to have not wrapped a present for her. 'I wasn't expecting you would turn up today - er - how's your wound?'
'It's better,' said Aurora, smiling a thin, forced smile. Wren returned it lamely and turned around to bang into Jake.
'She gave you a present?' said Jake in horror.
'I know, and I'm starting to feel guilty to not have wrapped on for her,' said Wren.
'She's evil!' whispered Jake.
'Shut up!' whispered back Wren. 'She's just - well, she's just looking for Shadow Angels, isn't she? She's not -'
'Hey, Wren, have a Christmas cracker!' shouted Luxe from the end of the Hall, hopping up and down excitedly. The topic of Aurora was dropped as Wren went over to Luxe and tugged to reveal a living rabbit out of the cracker. Luxe decided she would have it as her pet and named it 'Cinnamon'.
Surprisingly, Estella had gifted Wren a present too. Curious, Wren opened the black and white box to find its inside empty.
'I don't get it, Estella,' said Jake, peering into the box, 'what's your present to Carrots - Wren?'
'Whatever you find inside the box,' said Estella in her monotonous voice.
Luxe frowned. 'Are you feeling alright, dear Estella?'
'I'm perfectly well, thank you very much, Luxe Valqar,' she snapped irritably, and Luxe backed away at once.
'It's air inside the box, Estella,' said Corinne.
'No, it's not,' said Estella simply. 'It's the greetings of death. As you can very well see, the insides of the box are painted black which is a colour of death.'
Wren didn't know what to say. A part of her felt like laughing but there was another part of her that felt dread. She didn't need a reminder that Nicaea was on the run to kill her.
'It's Christmas, Estella, we don't talk about death at a merry occasion like this!' trilled Luxe.
'Maybe you should open your present, Luxe,' said Estella, and retired to her beanbag.
Apart from Estella's "greetings of death" present, Wren had had a wonderful time with everyone. They had pudding, pulled Christmas crackers and had a snowball fight in the school grounds. It was a merry occasion - even merrier, Wren thought as she rolled her sixty-fifth snowball, when Lucian Ailwood was not around.
The West Tower students looked rather sluky and disappointed for Lucian wasn't with them that day. The North, West, and East Tower students were happy and roared with laughter as Tyler stood up and magicked himself a megaphone to tell the whole Hall one of his laughable stories.
Wren helped herself to all the food placed before her - pudding, strawberry ice-cream, minced pie, apple pie, smoked salmon (something that they rarely had to eat), Yorkshire pudding, roasted beef, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and loads of Christmas cakes. Whenever the food ran out, it appeared on the table again. After their main course, they had dessert to top it all of - a chocolate fountain, gingerbread-men, cinnamon rolls (Wren's favourite), chocolate eclairs, pumpkin bars, brownies, trifles, peppermint meringues and Yule logs. Then they washed everything down with mugs of hot chocolate (if you preferred cold, you just had to tap on your mug thrice and shout, 'COLD!' and cold, iced chocolate would appear in a tall glass instead). There was a variety of drinks to choose from - raspberry and apricot punch, egg-nog, lemon cordial and cheery lemonades which were most delicious. After dinner, they all marched up to their common-room, satisfied and loaded with food.
Tyler had somehow managed to smuggle some of the leftovers from dinner to the common-room so everyone had a small party there, throwing confetti and pulling Christmas crackers again.
Everyone broke the rule of 'All students has to be in bed by 9 half-past 9'. Instead, they all stayed up till midnight and didn't really get any sleep. Wren had told Odyssey earlier on that day that she would be staying in the dormitories in the Academy to which Odyssey had approved. Only Corinne stayed up till eleven, saying that she had to have her beauty rest and that she would join them all tomorrow.
Celebrating Christmas at midnight was fun. They stayed in the common-room, trying to be as silent as possible but everyone was having terrible laughing-fits that every now and then, one of them would explode with laughter and everyone had to scurry upstairs and pretend to be asleep. Tyler actually suggested they sneak off to the school grounds but majority decided it wasn't worth getting into detention.
Jake swore he'd gained at least fifty pounds after they had a midnight feast in the common-room. The fire crackled to keep everyone warmed as they indulged in chocolates, cinnamon rolls, pastries and jam tarts. Morning came so fast none of them realised it was already five a.m that everyone had to hurry in cleaning up their leftovers and getting to class.
'Love it,' Jake said, as he, Wren, Tyler and Luxe made their way to breakfast that morning. 'I'm so stuffed with pastry that I think a bullfrog couldn't swallow me.'
'I had at least ten cinnamon rolls yesterday,' announced Luxe. 'Honestly, I don't think I can eat any breakfast.'
The four of them had a lot to eat yesterday. So did Duncan. He was looking rather green during breakfast and he threw up all over the table so that the professors had to hurry him to the hospital wing.
'Have fun with Lucian Ailwood!' Tyler roared after him. Duncan scowled.
Neither he, Wren, Jake or Luxe ate anything for breakfast. Wren hurriedly scooped up some mushroom soup and gulped down a few spoonfuls whenever one of the teachers looked suspicious. Jake, meanwhile, dove underneath the table to prevent himself from being seen.
'Just get up and shove some bread down your throat,' whispered Wren.
'I can't! I'm stuffed! I feel like all the blood's going to my brain!'
'Ridiculous,' muttered Wren. Beside her, Luxe was trying not to look sick.
'I need the washroom,' she said, getting up so suddenly she knocked over her spoon. 'I'll see you in class.'
Wren said she would go to the washroom with her for she herself wasn't feeling rather great. Together, the two dashed off to the girls' toilet and spent fifteen minutes throwing up. Once they were done, they stumbled to their Revealing Charms lesson, feeling slightly better but looking rather green.
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'Carrots?'
'Mm?' mumbled Wren, looking up from her reading. Jake glanced around them to make sure no one was listening.s They were in the middle of their Revealing Charms lesson, where Professor Dingup was teaching them on how to use non-verbal spells but apparently, the whole class had settled on reading Chapter Four: Numbolt's Theory on Non-Verbal Spells for some reason.
Jake lowered his voice so now only Wren could hear, 'We should see Lucian.'
'What? Where?' said Wren, looking up distractedly. Jake pulled her down so her head was level with the table. 'Shut up, you idiot! I was saying we should visit him in the hospital wing!'
Wren stared at him incredulously.
'You're kidding, right?' she said finally.
'What makes you think that?'
Wren stared at him again.
'Who are you, and what have you done with Jake Gagneus?'
'Oh, stop it,' said Jake, his ears turning red. 'Besides, I've got a pretty good reason why. The night you went to ask him questions. You were distracted by the fire ... well basically, the guy you wanted to talk to almost died but anyway - he's alive now.'
'And what,' said Wren, 'has that got to do with anything?'
'We go to the hospital wing, stress Lucian Ailwood out and ask him questions!'
Wren shook her head ruefully. 'Not possible. Matron'll have us out in seconds. She'd say he'd need more rest.'
'Never know if you never try,' shrugged Jake. 'C'mon, this is important. That night went as a failure? Lucian knows something, and we're going to know what he knows too.'
'You are ridiculous,' whispered Ladislaya who appeared to have been listening in closely to their conversation. Wren jumped.
'Oh great,' she moaned.
'Less chat, a little more reading please!' called Professor Haldes. 'Especially you three, Miss Wren and Mr Jake! Which page are you on?'
'Three-hundred ninety four!' called Jake quickly. Haldes scowled.
'We are on Page five-hundred seventy-six you silly boy. We'll stop reading at Page five-hundred eighty-two.'
'We're on page eighty-one!' called Jake loudly. 'On it, professor! We're doing it now!' then he turned back to Wren so fast Wren though she heard his neck crick. 'Listen, after class, ten a.m. Hospital wing.'
'I'm in,' said Wren. 'Now we should really start reading.'
And they began reading from page seventy six, paragraph two.