Christmas Day was the time when he would have his best chance of killing his brother and trading the mantle of Jack Frost for Santa, and finally being the guardian of the Well of Magic.
He made his way to his office and found Valeth in front of the fireplace.
“Did you find it?” Jack demanded.
Valeth turned around and licked his lips. “Can you replenish my magic, Frost? I’m weak after all the traveling.”
“I’ll do it after I rest,” he said.
One of the problems of not having access to the Well was that Frost had to replenish the magic of his evil followers with his own magic. It meant he had to basically double up on the number of victims to take their good magic, so he wasn’t left bereft.
“Now tell me,” he said. “Did you find it?”
Valeth opened his coat and removed an old wooden box. It was sealed with wax and covered with dust.
Taking it to the desk, Jack opened it and saw the object he’d been looking everywhere for the last few weeks: the blood dagger.
“Oh, it’s magnificent,” he said quietly.
It hummed with magic.
Dark magic.
And not justanydark magic, but the sort of dark magic that came from doing morally awful things in the name of power at any cost. The blood dagger was just the tool Jack needed to put an end to his brother once and for all.
He lifted it from the box, the old handle made from the bone of an elf a hundred years ago, the blade forged from obsidian and coated with poisoned blood.
He had the weapon. Now, he just needed someone to wield it.
Putting the blade back in the box, he closed it and set it inside his desk drawer, using a quick spell to lock and protect it.
“I’m going to the surface to cast a seeking spell,” he said. “I need to find my prey.”
“Can’t I use it for you?” Valeth asked.
“You can’t get to my brother,” Frost said as he headed to the door. “But someone who is filled with good magic can.”
He just had to find the right magical person, someone who wanted to make a deal, someone with a need he could leverage to get what he wanted.
His brother dead.
The Well in Frost’s control.
And the magic of the world? Dark as the darkest midnight.
