Chapter 6 — Santa’s Message: Lucky Magic
584 Words
Arielle didn’t sleep.
The red envelope sat on her nightstand like a living thing, glowing faintly every time her eyes fluttered closed. At first she thought she imagined it, but by dawn she accepted the truth:
Magic—real magic—was sitting three inches from her pillow.
When morning light spilled through her curtains, she finally picked up the card again. The gold lettering shimmered softly, warm against her fingertips.
“Lucky magic,” she whispered, reading the line over and over. “What does that even mean?”
Her life had always been the opposite of lucky. She was the girl who tripped into fountains, who made microwaves explode, who once broke a printer simply by breathing near it. Luck avoided her with Olympic-level skill.
So why would Santa—Santa—give her magic?
She flipped the card, hoping more words would appear the way they had last night.
Nothing.
Just smooth red paper.
A disappointment tightened her chest… until a sudden soft glow began to bloom under the words.
Arielle froze.
The gold ink shifted… rearranged… forming a new sentence right before her eyes.
---
Luck answers the heart.
The heart answers love.
---
Her breath caught.
More letters unfurled:
---
Your magic awakens only when love does.
Protect it.
Nurture it.
Don’t fear it.
---
Arielle swallowed hard.
“Love?”
Her voice cracked.
“That can’t be right.”
Love was the one thing she’d never been lucky with. The universe made sure of that.
She continued reading as new words formed:
---
Your curse becomes your gift
when your heart chooses someone worthy.
---
She blinked.
“Curse?”
So Santa knew.
He knew what clung to her life like cold mist.
He knew about the accidents, the disasters, the strange string of holiday misfortunes.
But before she could process the shock, the ink shimmered again:
---
Your magic already stirred once.
You felt it.
---
Arielle’s heart thudded painfully.
She had felt something—something strange—yesterday.
Her mind flashed back to the moment she saw Noah Frost outside his bookstore. The lights above him had flickered, then steadied. For the first time in her life, holiday lights didn’t glitch near her.
No chaos.
No sparks.
No bad luck.
Just… calm.
Warmth.
A soft shift.
Her chest tightened in confusion. “Noah? It can’t be Noah. I don’t even know him.”
As if answering her disbelief, the final line of the message revealed itself:
---
Magic knows before the heart does.
---
The card faded back to its original message, the gold glow dissolving like morning frost under sunlight.
Arielle sat frozen on her bed, the silence of the room suddenly too loud.
Lucky magic.
Love-based magic.
Magic that responded to… Noah?
Her cheeks warmed—not with romance, but panic.
Because the last thing she needed was to involve someone else in this curse-turned-miracle. Especially not the man whose smile made her forget how broken her luck was.
A knock on her door jolted her from her spiraling thoughts.
“Arielle?” Mrs. Juniper Hale called from the hallway. “I made peppermint scones. And I think you’ll want to hear some… interesting news.”
Arielle clutched the red envelope to her chest, heart hammering.
Something told her Mrs. Hale’s “interesting news” had everything to do with the magic now humming beneath her skin.
And with Noah Frost—
the boy her magic had already chosen before she even knew it.
- Writer
