34 ‘A god…’ Stella said morosely, ‘or another king.’ Toby halted. It took him a second to realise what she had said. ‘Stella, you genius!’ ‘What?’ ‘Oberon controls the elves because he’s always been the strongest Faerie Prince – the Trinity said so. I’m a Faerie Prince! Does he look like the strongest now?’ The last they saw of Oberon he was slumped so low in his throne it resembled a stretcher. ‘No,’ Stella admitted. ‘That’s because he isn’t! With Nicko and Krampus gone, I am.’ ‘So, you can compete?’ She said it as a whisper as if it were heresy. That was when the full weight of his idea hit him. Nicko wasn’t there. Stella couldn’t save him. There weren’t as many humans there to fill him with Christmas spirit as they once did against Melvin. This time, it was all on him. He took

