Finished at school, Sophie snagged her purse along with the two slices of cake she’d saved for her helper elves, Mom and Xanthe. She arrived home at the same time as a delivery person and signed for a package from her friend Aaron in California. He used to live in Michigan, but a big science technology company snapped him up right out of college—Aaron was a total genius—and he’d been there ever since, working for one of those I’ll-rule-the-world-someday-mwahahaha types who scared the shit out of Sophie. They never cared about actual people.

Aaron wasn’t like that, and she had no idea why he’d let himself get swept into an evil machine like Novalight Enterprises.

Sophie set everything on the hallway table and hung her bright-pink parka on the coatrack beside the door before making a quick detour to the kitchen to stick the cake in the fridge and put on the kettle. Curious as heck, she came straight back to the hallway and the package from Aaron, picking up the small, tightly taped-up box with her name on it.

She turned it over in her hands. Aaron and she had started out as pen pals through a middle school writing project and kept in touch over the years. He’d always liked hearing about her odd Greek stuff, like pretend spitting on people to ward off the evil eye and protect loved ones. Their contact had whittled down to holiday cards lately, and even that was pushing it. They definitely didn’t send each other Christmas presents. Or Hanukkah presents—Aaron was Jewish. Or any presents at all. They’d never even met in person.

Sophie split the tape with a letter opener. She dug through some wadded-up yellow notepad paper and found another box, this one about the size of a matchbox, plain but pretty, and made from olive wood. She picked it up and opened it.

Her eyes widened. Inside, a glacial-blue crystal glowed. Brightly. No, it pulsed. And it was cold. Its icy sting blasted over her like a winter wind. Goose bumps rose on her arms, and she shivered.

Confused and a little scared, Sophie set the wooden box on the table and backed away from it. The crystal seemed to shine from within. Was it poisonous? Radioactive? “What the heck, Aaron?” A weird vibration thrummed inside her, keeping her hair on end.

Grabbing the cardboard box the crystal arrived in, she looked through it for a card or note or something. Nothing.

No, wait. She frowned. Was that writing on the yellow notepad paper?