The Wrath of Oberon: The Twisted Christmas Trilogy, #3

By Daniel Parsons

A PROPHECY IN MOTION. MANKIND ON ITS KNEES. CAN ONE BOY CHANGE THEIR FATE?

 

Thirteen-year-old Toby Thornton never expected Father Christmas to break into his parents' townhouse in the dead of night, bruised, pale and on the run. After all, it was only hours ago that the old man and his elves helped him save the world from shapeshifters. But a lot can happen overnight.

 

Thanks to a nefarious plan, their enemies have unleased Nicko's most frightening nemesis onto the world, the Faerie King Oberon. Free after centuries in prison, Oberon wields unlimited magic, a vast army and a cunning plan to send humanity back to the Dark Ages. Cue an exhilarating manhunt through the frozen streets of Victorian London and a fight against the greatest threat civilisation has ever known.

 

Will Toby choose to battle seemingly unwinnable odds or will he turn his back on humanity to fight another day?

 

The Wrath of Oberon is the final novel in Daniel Parsons's spellbinding Twisted Christmas Trilogy. It's Percy Jackson meets Oliver Twist. If you like spectacular magic, mythical creatures and a race against the clock, you'll love this white-knuckle fantasy adventure.

 

Pick up The Wrath of Oberon to conclude this exciting series today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AmWriting Ltd
• Release date: Nov 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913564032

Book preview

Toby

Twelve-year-old orphan Toby Carter always wanted a family. So, when he escaped a brutal London workhouse at Christmas, and The Winter Freak Show adopted him, he believed he had finally found one. They loved him and taught him their magical ways.

Then London’s children started to disappear and Toby was forced to report Nicko to Scotland Yard, suspecting he was behind the crimes. Of course, he was wrong. Not only was Nicko innocent but he was Father Christmas, and his performers were elves.

Vowing to fix his mistake before the authorities executed Nicko, Toby exposed Nicko’s Head Elf, Melvin, as the real kidnapper. Melvin had gone mad, believing that naughty children drained Christmas spirit and deserved to be removed from reality.

Toby confronted him in magical combat and won. Then, with the help of the elves, he reunited the missing children with their families and freed Nicko. The elves wiped the memories of all human families and spectators, so no one remembered a thing, except Toby.

Afterwards, Toby escorted Charlie Thornton, one of the kidnapped children, to his home in Chelsea with Nicko and his new Head Elf, Stella. The Thorntons revealed that twelve years earlier they had left a child at a workhouse, too poor to feed him themselves. They’d promised to return but lost him forever… or so they thought.

A birthmark on Toby’s arm confirmed that he was their long-lost son. Nicko had found his real family. So, with everyone happy, Nicko left Toby with a snow globe and told him that the snow would fall as long as The Winter Freak Show was safe. And there they parted ways.

By the next winter, however, Toby missed adventure. When his father forbade him from re-visiting The Winter Freak Show and the snow in his globe stopped falling, he ran away to find them, taking his little sister, Violet.

When they arrived, they discovered that Nicko had been kidnapped. So, with the help of a ghost called Harry, who guarded the Time Globe, Toby and Stella worked out how Nicko was taken. He had been abducted while rehabilitating the imprisoned Melvin.

Suspecting who was responsible, Stella gave Toby an overview of the Faerie War and the elves’ history with Oberon. She believed Oberon’s followers turned Melvin and took Nicko, intending to resurrect the Prisoner-King.

Stella and Toby planned to save Nicko but were scuppered at every turn as the changelings captured their best elves and lured them into an ambush.

Finally, it was revealed that Oberon’s generals had returned. What’s more, their leader was Jack Frost, Stella’s brother, one of the victims Nicko abandoned during the Faerie War. Tortured and brainwashed, Jack joined Oberon alongside their friend Alice. Having returned, they planned to use an ancient ritual to summon King Oberon.

Thankfully, Toby escaped, with help from an elven friend, and returned wielding the Time Globe to save The Winter Freak Show.

Oberon’s forces lost but the damage was done. Disgusted by the truth of Nicko’s treachery, Stella departed to follow Alice into the shadows, leaving Nicko to fix his mess.

Having saved The Winter Freak Show and possibly humanity itself, Toby and Violet went back to their worried parents. However, later that night, Violet snuck out and convinced Harry, the ghost, that Nicko had sent her to ask him for the Time Globe.

Handed it, she ran deep into Hyde Park and revealed she was a changeling all along – Gryla, the giantess mother of the Yule Lads. She had fatally stabbed one of her sons just to stay undercover so she could later swipe the Time Globe, which was their actual target. Marvelling at their cunning plan, the changelings summoned King Oberon, knowing the world would soon fall at their feet.

The Wrath of Oberon

Chapter 1

Cold sweat was the first thing Toby registered when his nightmare woke him. With unfocused vision, he gazed at the bedroom ceiling, unable to fall back to sleep.

It was two days before Christmas and London was peaceful, thanks to his heroics. His bedroom, on the third floor of his parents’ Chelsea townhouse, was comfortable – luxurious, compared to the workhouse where he was raised. His home was all rich timbers and antique playthings, warm and secure. On the surface, his world looked ideal. He was loved. He was safe. He was part of a family. Yet, he couldn’t settle.

I should check the snow globe, he thought.

The magical gift from his friend Nicko always comforted him. It contained a tiny Big Top in a perpetual snowstorm. As long as the snow kept falling, his friends at The Winter Freak Show were safe. He had only left them a few hours ago, after their battle with a sect of shapeshifters called changelings. But he had to put his mind at ease.

He threw aside a nest of twisted blankets and rummaged in his bedside cabinet. Quills, a wooden puzzle game, his father’s silver pocket watch, but no globe.

Toby frowned. He must have left it downstairs in the drawing room. Unhooking his dressing gown from the door, he made his way downstairs, taking care not to creak the floorboards.

The lower floors were dark, dim gaslight from the streetlamps outside providing the only source of light. It didn’t bother him. Not when greater fears were knocking over an antique vase or forgetting to complete his homework. Monsters made no sense in such a setting. It was for that reason he didn’t notice the mountainous man inspecting his mother’s bone china until he was already several paces into the lounge.

Panic sparked and instinctively he dropped behind his father’s Winchester armchair. He knelt there, eyes wide, heart pounding. Suddenly, he wasn’t tired.

Did he see me?

Judging from the soft clink of a china cup being returned to its tray, he guessed yes. Already he was imagining the black-clad figure scrutinising the room. His outline had been large, with broad shoulders and a mess of bulky robes.

Could it be Hans Trapp?

The infamous European child-eater was big enough, but how could he have found his home? Only hours ago, he had been carted away by Toby’s allies after Toby blasted him with Nicko’s Time Globe. Nobody could recover from that and find him to enact their revenge so soon, surely?

Don’t get ahead of yourself, he thought. Probably just a burglar. I should call Father.

A thin smirk crept across his face. He flexed his hand, ready to tap into his magic. His fingers were completely still. Calm. Once upon a time they would have trembled. Not any more.

He already knew he wouldn’t call his father. After fighting a troop of shapeshifters, a human attacker seemed laughable. The magic he always felt whenever he spent time with the elves still coursed through his body. He could disable the man long before his father put on his slippers.

And, if the intruder was a mystery assassin, there wasn’t much John Thornton could do anyway. Toby was the only person even remotely qualified to deal with a supernatural threat. His family didn’t know magic existed, never mind how to cope with such an attack.

Decision made. Toby shifted his weight and breathed deeply to psych himself up for what he was about to do.

Three.

Two.

One.

Without warning the leather seat he was hiding behind upturned and he lost his balance. A flash of blue fire sent his vision into a kaleidoscope, and a large hand closed around his fist. It suppressed his magic. Pain exploded in his neck as his head hit the floorboards.

‘Get off me!’ He struggled, but the intruder was too heavy to overpower.

‘Toby? You’re alive, my boy! I was so worried.’ It was Nicko. All at once, the pressure eased off his chest and the ringmaster plopped himself down on the rug.

‘You nearly gave me a heart attack.’

‘I nearly gave you a heart attack?’

Toby’s eyes were still dazzled by the flash. Behind stars, Nicko smiled, his wavy beard, the colour of snowy owl feathers, arched beneath his crimson cheeks. His face, normally rosy, was pale.

‘What are you doing here?’ Toby whispered. Although, after the tumbling armchair failed to stir his family, he wondered why he bothered.

Nicko blanched. ‘It’s a long story, Toby. I’d need to take you away from this place to explain properly.’

‘I’ve only been gone a few hours! What could possibly have happened?’

‘Well…’ Nicko cleared his throat.

‘Keep your voice down! Father has an art exhibition in the morning.’

Nicko waved a dismissive hand. ‘My boy, I’ve shrouded the house in sleep. A hunting horn couldn’t wake him.’

‘Then why am I awake?’

‘Because… Err.’ Nicko’s grandfatherly expression faded. ‘Curious.’

Reaching inside the plumb-coloured waistcoat he wore under his coat, he pulled out a glinting trinket on a fob. Toby recognised the seidhrometer. Resembling a pocket watch, it measured Christmas spirit – the fuel that kept magic flowing and Nicko alive. The elves depended on it.

‘What is it?’ Toby asked.

‘A problem.’ Nicko banged the side of the seidhrometer. ‘Blasted thing keeps telling me Christmas spirit is low. I thought it was broken but it makes sense now. Something big must have shifted the balance.’ His face fell slack. ‘Oh. I’m already too late.’ He stood up. ‘We have less time than I thought.’

‘Time for what?

‘They’re coming.’

‘Who?’ Toby perched, his brain reeling. Still aching from the battle in the sewers, he knew now why he couldn’t sleep. The magic coursing through him allowed his muscles to sense the oncoming danger. ‘Who’s coming, Nicko?’

‘The elves.’

He wrinkled his nose. The elves of The Winter Freak Show were his friends. When Nicko scooped him out of the snow after he escaped the workhouse, they were the ones who rallied behind him. They helped him save Christmas.

‘They’re after me,’ Nicko explained.

Toby’s eyes had grown used to the dim light by now. He noticed a circle of bruising around Nicko’s right eye and unsightly burn marks on his clothes. He had been in a fight. The waxy skin made sense now. He was rattled. And if Nicko was rattled, Toby should be too.

‘I’ve got something to tell you, my boy,’ he said. ‘Please don’t be alarmed.’

‘OK.’

‘The elves have turned against me. I have a feeling they’re coming for you too.’

Toby couldn’t supress his shock. ‘But I thought you were making up for that lie you told. I didn’t even have anything to do with it.’

‘That’s not it. They haven’t rebelled. They’ve gone mad. I think it might have something to do with the changelings. I barely got out alive.’

‘The changelings? We beat them.’

‘No. They tricked us, Toby. My Time Globe’s gone.’ The arachnid feet of worry ran across Toby’s shoulders.

‘You think they’re going to try and free him?’ He saw Nicko’s expression solidify and realised the horrible truth. ‘No! They’ve already done it.’

Nicko nodded. ‘I fear they have.’

‘Then that means I’m public enemy number two!’

‘And that’s why I’m here. To warn you.’

Toby took a step back and glanced at the room’s bay window. ‘Warn me? What can I do? My family are upstairs, and you led the changelings here? How could you be so stupid? We have to tell them the truth now, about magic and everything. You’ll have to do it.’

Nicko sighed. ‘That’s just it, Toby. I don’t think I’ll need to. Your family’s already been breached. It appears the betrayal came from inside this house.’

‘I… I don’t understand.’ Toby fell silent. All at once it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. ‘That can’t be true.’

Nicko lowered his gaze. ‘It is.’

Chapter 2

His feet almost tore the stair carpet. Chest heaving, he scampered across the landing and blasted open the door to his sisters’ bedroom. Originally, they had slept alongside Charlie but were moved into another room soon after Toby arrived. They were getting older now and wanted their own space. Violet, in particular, insisted.

Toby skidded into the room, tears brimming in his eyes, and was greeted by two beds – a familiar sight. The room was decorated in pink and topped with frills, music boxes, and dolls that he had always thought were too girly for his sisters, despite the decoration being their choice. Now he saw it for the frosted disguise it was; a mask to hide a monster.

One of the beds was empty. The covers were drawn back messily unlike Belle’s, whose lump of bedsheets rose and fell gently in the low light.

‘Violet?’ Toby asked, hoping he was wrong. ‘Violet, are you here?’ A tear formed in the corner of his eye as he felt the bed. It was cold. She must have been missing for some time.

Still sedated by what was left of Nicko’s magic, Belle didn’t stir, not even when Nicko entered the room.

‘I’m sorry, my boy. I really am.’

‘You did this!’ Toby’s anguish was now a snarl. ‘She’s been taken. Probably killed. That’s how they got your Time Globe, isn’t it? You did this!’

Nicko wrapped his arms around him. Toby tried to swat the old man away but stopped fighting when his protests collapsed into sobs that left him breathing in the musty scent of the old man’s coat.

‘I should have been here!’ Toby cried. ‘I should have protected her!’

‘Toby,’ Nicko whispered, ‘there was no one to protect. I know what happened. It was her: Gryla. A servant of Oberon. She’s a changeling. Your sister Violet never existed. She’s been planted in your family for years.’

‘But…’

Toby’s head raced. The shock was too much. Too all-consuming to allow an explanation to form. The lie ran deep, stitched into the fabric of his family. He didn’t understand. He couldn’t.

Nicko stayed with Toby, waiting in silence while the young boy let out his grief. Only when Toby’s sobs slowed did he speak.

‘You do know your family is still in danger, don’t you?’

‘Uh hu.’

‘I don’t like doing this, but I have to lift the fog the elves put on their minds. I have to tell them the truth. Tonight. It’s the only way to keep them safe.’

Toby thought of the pain. The self-loathing in realising he loved someone who was just an outfit worn by a monster. And then he thought of those same emotions tearing through his family. It would hurt his parents tenfold.

‘But it’ll destroy them.’

‘It can’t wait.’

Toby snorted back a trail of snot.

‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘This has to be done now. They’ll never forgive me but they have to know.’

Nicko nodded. ‘I’ll wait while you rouse them.’ John and Mary came to with a mixture of bewilderment and concern. Nicko was right to wait downstairs. Opening their eyes to a large, bearded man at the foot of their bed would only cause panic.

Mary was up and dressed in seconds, having tied her hair into a bun and thrown on a simple moss-green dress. Her every movement prickled with anxiety as she demanded to know why the ringmaster was visiting at such an hour. John was still fastening his waistcoat – buttons fed through the wrong holes – as he entered the dining room. There, they waited.

When Mary realised one of her twin girls was missing, she turned frantic, so much so that Toby had to reassure her with lies. He hated himself for it. Regardless, she sat, drumming her nails on the dining table while John woke Belle and Charlie. The grandfather clock struck four as they sat together, yawning.

Nicko didn’t make them wait. If they didn’t already have suppressed memories of magic, the explanation might have taken hours. Fortunately, Nicko knew just how to break down their mental barriers to make them remember.

‘Last Christmas…’ he began.

Toby watched with sadness as Nicko told his story and the idea of the lost child arrived on his parents’ faces. The disbelief. The demands that, surely, this was a joke. The anger directed at Nicko. The confusion as they realised the old man wasn’t holding back a laugh.

Mary was the first to break, her eyes turning oily with tears. Of course, this only angered her husband.

‘There’s no such thing as magic!’ He slammed his hands on the table. ‘What have you done with my daughter?’

‘I assure you, sir,’ Nicko sighed. ‘Magic is real.’ Sitting back in his chair, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled sheet of brown paper. Placing it on the table, he folded it along memorised lines.

‘What the devil are you doing, man?’

‘Showing you proof.’

John looked at Toby, exasperated. Toby pleaded with his eyes: Just watch, Father.

Nicko continued to fold, tear and tuck, completely lost in his craft. When his creation looked semi-complete, pressed against the table, he spread his palms over it and his fingertips glowed, briefly causing dust in the air to twinkle gold. Then the origami moved, and strips of paper unfurled to form antlers. A tiny beast, no taller than a sparrow, shakily climbed onto four paper legs.

A reindeer.

Toby’s breath caught in his throat. His gaze slid to his parents whose faces skipped through a catalogue of emotions. It was almost possible to see their minds turning forgotten pages.

‘It can’t be,’ said Mary, mouth slack. The deer trotted across the tabletop. ‘It’s not possible.’

‘It is.’ Nicko clicked his fingers and the reindeer’s footsteps became lighter. Then it bounded into the air and circled overhead. ‘Is this bringing back any memories?’

‘Newgate Gaol.’ John pulled the words from his subconscious. His breathing was heavy. ‘You were saved… by children on flying reindeer.’

‘Not children,’ said Nicko. ‘Those were elves. Other than that, what you’re remembering is true.’

And so Nicko revealed the truth about their missing daughter. He explained the events of the past few days. His kidnapping. The changelings. Finally, the assumed release of Oberon.

When he was done, Mary spoke.

‘No! I still don’t believe you. Not Violet.’ Her sweet, tender face was white.

‘I’m afraid it’s the truth, madam.’

John shot up out of his chair so quickly it tumbled and clattered on the floor. Beside him, his children sat dumbfounded. Belle began to wail as her father jutted a finger at Nicko.

‘Lies! You think a bit of smoke and mirrors proves anything? What the hell have you done with her? Where’s Violet? Tell me!’

‘I assure you, Mr Thornton, shouting will do no good.’

Balling his fists, John puffed out his chest. ‘I’d watch your mouth, old man. Nobody gets between me and my daughter, especially not some… charlatan!’

Nicko sighed, his eyes downcast. ‘I wish it were a lie, but it’s not. Deep down, you know that too.’

John forced his tongue into his cheek, a tell-tale sign that his patience had worn thin. At first, it seemed he might spring for Nicko. Then he faltered and glanced at Toby for confirmation.

‘I’m sorry,’ Toby said. ‘I wish it wasn’t true.’ That’s when Mary broke. Whimpering, she caught John’s attention and he sat back down, allowing her to bury her face in his shoulder.

‘What’s vitally important is what we do next,’ said Nicko eventually.

‘I say we go to Scotland Yard,’ John thundered. ‘They’ll tear this league of criminals to shreds.’

‘I’m afraid that won’t do any good. Even if you could convince the authorities that these creatures