Beneath a Broken Sky

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

Mike let out a sigh of exasperation, then sat back in the old recliner he had pulled over to face Freya/Jack. They had leaned forward, sending waves of frost across their couch and through the air. A thick, magical aura pressed against him, making his danger sense flood his veins with ice.

“Look, there’s something about me you need to accept,” he replied. Off to the side, Holly had taken shelter behind the kitchen counter. Yuki, on the other hand, stood right behind him with a supportive hand on his shoulder. “My magic isn’t elemental in nature, despite the whole lightning thing I do. It was always based on sex and intimacy of some sort. It’s where I draw power from. Anytime I try to pull that strength from somewhere else, well…” He felt a tinge of pain in his right forearm, a reminder of the potential price he could pay. “It doesn’t end well.”

“You expect me…us to believe that you need to have your dick sucked the whole time you work your magic?” Freya sneered, then crossed her eye to look at Jack. “And what do you think?”

“It sounds suspicious, but…” Jack looked away from Mike, her cheek flushing. “I mean…if that’s how his magic works…”

“It is.” Yuki stepped around the chair and sat on the arm, one of her tails tickling Mike’s nose. “Look, I’ve been where you are. You’re all anger and impotent rage right now, and it doesn’t help that Jack has a weird…attraction to Mike.”

“Wait, what?” Mike asked, but Yuki shushed him.

“As I was saying, is it strange? It is. He did something similar to save me, and you are in far worse shape.” Yuki crossed her arms. “So what’s it going to be? We put a lot of work into saving your collective butt, and this is the solution we came up with. Mike has been busting his balls in dreamland learning how to fix you. If you turn us down now, then I’m of a mind to be done with you. We’ll leave you here and try to fix the North Pole without your help. You’ll spend the rest of your days fighting over whose turn it is to wipe your own ass.”

“Language!” Holly protested.

“My apologies.” Yuki looked at Holly, then back at Mike. “Now, in Jack and Freya’s defense, Mike, you probably could have spent time building up to your announcement that you would need to be fu…having sex with someone while you work your magic.”

“That’s not what I said,” Mike countered.

“You sat in the chair and told her ‘You’re not gonna like this,’” Holly said. “And then followed it up with ‘I need to be constantly aroused in whatever manner necessary while I work on you.’”

Mike winced. The elf wasn’t wrong. He had been going over the plan in his head and had truncated it quite a bit before speaking it aloud. “You’re right. I’m sorry everyone, it’s been a long day, week? However long it’s actually been. Jack, Freya, you know about how a small piece of the women I’ve been with live inside of my head. All that knowledge is there, but I have no direct way to access it while awake. However, I found a work around when I helped Yuki, because Naia can contact me directly in order to help me with sexual activity.”

“Go on.” Freya looked doubtful, but she at least wasn’t shouting at him.

“Anyway, your case is more complicated. Naia knows soul magic, but you’re not just a soul, you’re also a magic being. Now Ratu is a naga who specializes in transferring enchantments and manipulating magic. She also knows a thing or two about divinity. Problem is, she’s not here to see it. That’s where Lily comes in.” He pointed to his eyes. “If she spends enough time concentrating in the Dreamscape, she can see what I do and project a version of it on her skin that Ratu can see. Then Ratu can speak with Naia, who can pass it on to me, but only if I’m doing something sexual to keep her summoned. It will be like having a team of people doing the work and not just some guy who figured out he could do it a few days ago.”

“Which, if we’re being honest,” Yuki interjected, “wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Did you think he would just figure out soul magic after a couple of days in a burst of brilliance? He gets lucky sometimes, but not that lucky.”

Freya and Jack contemplated this for a bit, their soul shifting back and forth as the two sides again fought for dominance.

“It’s not like he’s asking you to be sexual with him.” Holly had come around the corner of the counter. “I’m happy to do it.”

“I might fight you for it,” Yuki said, narrowing her eyes at the elf. When Holly took a step back, the kitsune softened. “Easy, I’m only teasing.”

Holly laughed nervously, then turned her attention to Freya/Jack. “We can even blindfold you or something if you want.”

“Shouldn’t,” Mike replied. “I’ve been informed that having direct eye contact will greatly improve the process. That saying about eyes being the window into the soul has some truth to it, and will make things that much smoother. But we could use one of the blankets from the bed or something to cover up whatever is, well, happening.”

“I am not afraid of sex,” Freya declared.

“Neither am I,” added Jack.

“Please, you’re probably excited about it.” Freya rolled her eye. “I can sense your excitement even now.”

“Ladies.” Mike held up a hand for silence. “Please. If you’re okay with this, I want to get started as soon as possible. I’m about to try untangling and repairing a soul that is thousands of years old. This will take some time.” Ratu and Naia had theorized it could take more than one attempt, but they risked the possibility of doing more damage depending on when he stopped. It made the most sense to power through it in one attempt, and Mike had already chugged a couple cans of soup and had set some water bottles nearby in case he got thirsty.

Freya’s eye snapped toward Mike. “I distrust you. Understand that I go along with this plan only as a means to an end. Should you succeed, I will help you retake the North, but what happens next will be decided by how generous I’m feeling.”

“Stop, you’re embarrassing us.” Jack looked away, giving the goddess a wall-eyed look that almost squeezed a laugh from Mike.

“It’s fine,” he told them. “If my intentions are dishonorable, I’m sure you’ll make sure my world freezes or something.”

Yuki chortled, then pretended to cough, turning away to hide her smile. He was glad someone appreciated his humor.

“Then it is settled.” Freya relaxed in her seat and stared at him. “Fix me, Caretaker.”

“Fix us,” Jack corrected.

Mike opened his coat, revealing that he was naked underneath. Jack appraised his member with an arched brow, her eye snapping back up when Freya called her out on it.

Holly, ever the eager helper, knelt on the floor and, per his instructions, did her best to give him the absolute worst blowjob ever. She used teeth to nibble his foreskin, slapped his cock against his thigh, and even tried to blow into his cock.

What the hell is going on out there? Naia’s presence blossomed in his mind as Holly held his cock like a microphone and blew across the top of it like she was trying to play notes across an empty bottle.

Mike sighed in relief now that the nymph was with him. How is the connection? he asked.

It must be fine, because Lily won’t stop laughing. He heard the mirth in Naia’s voice. Tell her to move on, please.

“Commence Operation: Soul Edge.” Mike groaned when Holly made an honest attempt to take him into her mouth. The plan for now was to have her and Yuki swap out, keeping him aroused and in contact with Naia until he finished fixing Freya and Jack. He would take credit for the idea, but Amymone was the one who had come up with the name for it.

The soul of the goddess appeared before him, and he noticed it was more twisted than ever. Based on what he already knew, he suspected that Freya had officially become the dominant personality, but not enough to gain control of their body. The soul itself was stretched thin in places, under tension and ready to snap.

Shit. This is bad, Naia told him.

Looks that way, he replied. What’s the best way to proceed?

Give Ratu a moment, she’s discussing some ideas with Tink.

Tink wasn’t part of the plan, he said.

You’re right, she wasn’t. But she’s here now and talking about something called a hypercube and tensors. Apparently this soul has some foundation in upper level mathematics that she recognizes, and she wants to help.

Mike smiled at the thought of Tink essentially giving a college lecture. He assumed such an event would conclude in a graph that made a big dick.

You’re getting distracted, lover. Naia’s voice was barely audible, so he looked down at Holly. The elf had pulled up her shirt and was using her breasts to stroke his cock. It took a couple of minutes, but he felt Naia click back into place and then resumed his work.

Manipulating Freya/Jack’s soul began with a cursory inspection, which revealed packets of golden light tangled in the web-like structure. Ratu instructed him to lightly tug at a few places to see what was underneath. At some point, Holly switched places with Yuki, who rubbed his stomach with her hands, then used her claws to tease the sensitive flesh of his thighs.

It felt like nearly an hour had passed before he made his first adjustment, but it was probably only a few minutes. He used his magic like tweezers to pluck at a green and golden thread wrapped around the outside of Freya/Jack’s soul that was stretched like a rubber band, then shifted it around the other side of the construct. Almost immediately, some of the narrow edges of the soul rebounded as if they had been tied down.

The goddess cried out, frost forming around her hands and feet. The temperature in the room dropped, and Yuki pulled as much of Mike’s robe closed as possible.

Ripples cascaded through the soul before him, and it eventually settled. Ratu and Tink consulted for a few more minutes before Naia instructed him to grab a particularly thick thread and untangle the colors within. He broke out in a sweat during the task, his concentration staving off the orgasm that built up inside him as Holly joined Yuki in sucking on opposite sides of his shaft.

When the colors untangled, the soul snapped and flooded the room with residual magic in the form of floating lights that drifted to the floor and snuffed themselves out. Determined, Mike kept at it, making more adjustments. As he continued, he noticed that the density of the soul seemed to increase as gaps filled in with threads of light that had been smothered out of sight. Sometimes Jack or Freya would comment, and he couldn’t help but notice distinctive colors that formed in the soul as a result. The longer he worked, the more he realized that Jack and Freya didn’t comprise the majority of the soul. In fact, there was a tight ball now visible in the center like a dying star. Every thread he manipulated was connected to that glowing golden ball of energy.

That’s a good sign, Naia told him. Ratu says that we’re looking at something akin to what makes her a goddess, or used to, anyway. It should be a lot bigger, apparently.

What does Tink say?

She’s going on about white dwarfs and nuclear fusion. Zel is now talking about astrology. Naia paused. She’s now mad at me for saying astrology instead of astronomy. Give us a minute.

Mike sighed, then turned his attention to his lap. Yuki looked up at him with a grin, his cock firmly planted between her breasts.

“How long have we been doing this?” he asked.

“Are you complaining?” She lowered her chest, allowing the head of his cock to pop free of her boobs. Somehow, she managed to tease the tip of it with her tongue. “The hardest part has been dealing with your magic.”

“How so?”

“We’ve been using it to tell when you’re getting really excited. That usually means it starts jumping all over the place.” Yuki winked at him. “Holly is taking a break out in a snowdrift as a result.”

Mike snorted in amusement. The front door of the cabin opened up and Holly walked in, completely naked. The elf took a swig of hot cocoa, then slammed it down on the counter before swapping out with Yuki again.

“Here.” Yuki helped him drink some water as Holly gave him a handjob. His cock was slick with glittery precum, which the elf rubbed all over her chest.

“Do you think I have the world record for edging?”

“Nope. Time is stopped. Might have the record for most orgasms in a single second, but not edging.”

Mike half expected a snarky response from Jack or Freya, but the goddess was now staring blankly into space. He had no idea what the process felt like from their side, but they were still breathing and their soul was circulating light and magic.

Okay, so here’s what we have. Naia’s voice snapped him back to the task at hand. The consensus is that what we’re looking at is the part of Freya and Jack that used to be an actual goddess. It’s like a dead star, or something of that nature. Ratu has a theory that it could be reignited with enough magic. Once that happens, it’s likely that her soul will be able to fix itself.

So I’m going to jump-start her?

That’s the hope, Naia confessed. Lily agrees, as well. Apparently even the most damaged soul carries with it a memory of what it should look like. The others don’t have anything else to add.

So we need a power surge?

He felt her grin inside of his mind. I think you know what you need to do.

Mike watched Freya/Jack carefully as he explained the plan to the others. The goddess didn’t react, it was almost as if their mind was someplace else entirely. Holly, excited to help him with the process, pushed him back in the recliner and mounted him.

His magic, which had been little more than a background crackle, turned into a full blown sizzle. He didn’t pretend to understand if he had held off multiple orgasms, or maybe it was just the same one over and over, but his magic flooded the room first with sparks, then motes of light that hovered nearby. Holly let out cries of delight as the motes vanished into her skin, then came at least twice before the pressure building up inside Mike finally released.

In that moment, he targeted the core of Freya/Jack’s soul and sent all his energy outward.

The ensuing bolt of sexual lightning rattled the cabin, and the motes of light spun faster and faster around them. Holly was flooded with magic, letting out a final cry of delight before her eyes rolled up in her head and she passed out. The elf lay against him, happily leaking his cum as the core of Freya/Jack’s soul sucked up all the energy he had sent into it. Golden bands of light had formed and were circulating through the core like giant rings.

“Here, I’ve got her.” Yuki casually lifted the elf, who giggled in her sleep. The kitsune disappeared into the bedroom with Holly and returned with a grin on her face. “Poor thing couldn’t handle it is all, she’s fine.”

Mike sighed in relief, and turned his attention back to Freya/Jack’s soul. It occurred to him that the motes of light still hadn’t disappeared, which was strange. Didn’t they usually vanish once he was done?

Freya/Jack’s soul made a sound like a bell, then sent the energy it had absorbed back out into the room. The motes of light turned into balls of lightning that expanded outward, knocking over furniture and pulling cabinets open. It was like the cabin had suddenly come to life and was voicing its displeasure at them.

The goddess let out a cry, both of their voices overlapping with each other. Mike covered his ears, his attention drawn by movement in the kitchen. One of the lightning orbs caught the top of the tree and circled down to where the ornament hung, the mist within swirling as a pair of dark eyes appeared.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered as the tree fell off the counter. The ornament fell as if in slow motion, then shattered on the ground. Dark mist swirled about, eagerly soaking up the ambient magic before crawling inward towards where he and the goddess sat. In the corner of the room, he saw the Ghost of Christmas Past rise from the fog, its child-like face neutral as the mists circled Freya/Jack and moved up to her soul.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Mike had no idea what this spirit intended, and he sent his own magic out in an attempt to swat it away. The mists casually danced around his feeble attempts, eventually reaching the core of Freya/Jack’s soul. A ball of golden light appeared in Christmas Past’s hand, then streaked across the room like a comet where it buried itself into Freya/Jack’s core.

Her soul exploded outward, like a fractal unraveling. He wrapped his magic protectively around those delicate threads, determined to hold them together them, but it was like trying to hold an umbrella in a hurricane.

At first, he thought her soul was becoming larger, but then he realized that wasn’t the case. He was being pulled into it, his consciousness yanked towards the now fiery core in her center.

Alright, Santa. Let’s see what you have planned for me now. The outside world disappeared as he was sucked into that golden light.

---

Jack stood on the edge of a cliff, a shattered crown in her hand. Down below, the ocean churned, the corpses of humanoids and monstrous entities scattered among the waves and rocks. A particularly large beast with the head of a whale made passes at the chum, opening its cavernous maw wide to swallow the dead. The sides of its mouth were smooth, but the top of its head was heavily dimpled like a raspberry. Each of the pimply nodes dotting its flesh opened to reveal neon yellow eyes that narrowed in her direction.

She cried out, backing away from the ledge only to crash into somebody. They went down together in a heap, tumbling along a steep slope of grass stained with blood and a black ooze. The dark fluid reflected iridescent patterns that hurt her eyes, and random bits of creatures were strewn across the landscape.

When Jack came to a stop, she stood and turned to face the other person.

“Ow, fuck me.” Mike was on the ground, a busted spear sticking out of his thigh. He grabbed it by the shaft and yanked it free, a shimmering aura appearing around him as the wound closed up. His clothes were stained with blood, grass, and that black fluid.

“What have you done? Where are we?” Jack raised her hand, summoning ribbons of energy that coalesced into floating shards of ice.

“Chill out, Elsa, this isn’t what I had in mind.” He stood, surveying the landscape. “Something else happened in the meatspace and I’m trying to figure out where we are.”

“Mike.” She said his name like a warning, causing his attention to snap onto her.

“Do you sleep?” He did a couple of leg raises, then patted the thigh that had been stabbed. “Because if so, I think this is the Dreamscape. Well, yours, specifically. Mine isn’t so…disturbing.”

“No, I don’t sleep,” she snapped.

“Well, that was my best guess, and…” he tilted his head as if listening to something. “Interesting. I can almost hear Naia, and she sounds upset. This isn’t the Dreamscape, but something similar.”

“We’re…in my head?” Jack touched her forehead. Was Mike reading her thoughts?

“In your soul, apparently. Mind and soul are very different.” He looked down at himself and clapped his hands. The stains on his body vanished. “Last thing I remember was my magic overloading and it connected to that damned ornament.”

“Why would that matter?” she asked.

“Ghost of Christmas Past was inside. Last Christmas, technically. Had a small ball of divinity, not sure what that’s about.” He looked back up the hill. “Which, if my memory serves me, means that I’m supposed to be here. There’s something he wants me to see.”

“Who? Santa?” Jack scowled. “Seems like something that dick would do.”

“Right? Dude could have just sent out some emails, would have been way easier.” Mike looked up the hill and tilted his head. “Was he there, before?”

Near the top of the hill, a large man stood, his gaze fixed on the ocean. Thick white hair adorned broad shoulders, and the stranger was shirtless, his back covered in fresh wounds and old scars. The wind picked up, and the man’s white beard billowed away from him.

“Is that Santa?” Mike asked. “What’s he doing here?”

“No, Santa never looked so…” Jack didn’t know how to describe it. The figure on the hill was like a magnet, pulling her toward him. Those thick shoulders rippled with power, and the man’s hands looked as if they could squeeze a confession from iron itself.

“Appealing?” Mike finished. When Jack looked at him, he held up his hands in defense. “Hey, dude looks like a badass. Unless he’s a total butterface, I would easily rate him as an eight out of ten from the back alone.”

“I find nobody appealing,” she spat, and then strode up the hill. Of course, this was a lie. Ever since she had been in Mike’s care, she had found herself easily enamored by him. It hadn’t made any sense, at least not until she learned that he had soul swapped with a nymph. Regardless, there was a presence he carried, one that felt intimately familiar. Freya had chastised her openly for it, but Jack suspected that the goddess might feel the same way.

“I’m literally inside your soul right now,” he said from right behind her. “I can tell when you’re lying. It makes the air taste like mustard.”

“Mustard?” She turned and frowned. “What the hell?”

He shrugged. “Don’t look at me. It’s your soul.”

Shaking her head, she continued back up the hill, slowing to navigate the slippery parts. Above them, the figure stood stoic and motionless, a spear with glowing runes carved into the head clutched tightly in his hands. He was leaning forward on it, using it to support his weight. The remnants of a golden helmet lay at his feet. It had been designed to look like a bird, but one of the wings was missing and the bird’s head was bent backward, folded flat against the helmet’s brow.

“You live.” The figure turned to reveal a heavily scarred face. One eye was nothing more than scar tissue, and tears leaked heavily from the other. “Have you any word of your sister?”

“Sister?” Jack paused, causing Mike to bump into her. She felt a slight jolt of electricity at his touch, her heart briefly surging. “Freya has a sister?”

“No idea, but that’s definitely not Santa,” Mike remarked, moving next to her. “But he’s not part of you, either, in case you’re worried. This is a memory. They feel sticky.”

“Sticky?”

“Yeah, cause it can’t be changed.” He moved closer to the man. “He seems to be waiting for you to say something.”

“What does he want me to say?” She moved next to the stranger and stared out at the horizon. There had once been a fleet of boats there, but now there was naught but shattered timbers.

Wait, how did she know that?

“Any news of my dear Frigga, please, I beg of you. Even if it’s bad.” The man moved toward her and extended a hand to touch her shoulder. Jack flinched away, but was surprised when a golden figure emerged from her body and stepped into the touch. It was a different version of herself, with long hair and vibrant skin. The crown was clutched in her doppelganger’s hand.

“I fear she may have fallen.” The doppelganger bowed her head in reverence. “Both her army and my own now lie in ruin. The invaders could not be stopped and I barely escaped myself.”

“They have taken everything from us but our lives. I fear even those may not be enough to satisfy them.” The man spat at the ground in frustration.

“Odin,” Freya whispered, wiping the tear from his cheek. “We must flee. My sister, she may yet live. If you do not survive this day, you shall never know for sure.”

“My place is here,” he told her, his fingers tangling in her hair and lingering. “That you and the others may have a chance. For if we fall this day, there must be someone else to guide the humans.”

“There’s a chance the invaders will fail,” she replied. “Other plans have been put in action. The gods themselves, they might—”

There was a loud rumble, followed by a crack of thunder that knocked Jack and Mike to the ground. Rolling onto her back, Jack looked down the hill and gasped as the distant clouds parted to reveal the largest tree she had ever seen. Its thick branches were decorated with sparkling star fields, the leaves adorned in gaseous nebulae and star clusters. One branch had been snapped clean off by a being made of twisted shadows that leaned forward to reveal a hideous face that—

The whole world scrambled, and Jack clutched her head, looking away from the entity up above, a being whose body surpassed the stars. Behind her, Mike gagged repeatedly, and she turned to see that blood was leaking from his eyes and nose.

“Mike?” She reached for him, but he swatted her hand away.

“Don’t touch me!” he gasped, the air around him distorting. She could see it now, the magic of Mike Radley, whipping around him like a hungry storm. For a few seconds, she feared that he would burst apart as the air shimmered, but eventually settled.

“Are you…okay?” She was afraid to move any closer.

Mike sniffed, then spat blood onto the ground. She noticed he kept his gaze away from the giant tree in the distance. “Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just…for a moment, it felt like I was being pulled apart and my magic…sorry.”

Odin and Freya seemed troubled by the sight of the hideous face, but weren’t affected otherwise.

“That cursed thing would consume us all,” Odin said with a growl. “A being from outside time and space, capable of bending reality to its will.”

“How are we supposed to battle such a creature?” Freya asked. “Its army shattered our own, drove us out of Alfheim. And for what?”

“To treat the gods as a midnight snack.” Odin spat on the ground. “This is not Ragnarok, there is no glory here. To die at the hands of such a beast is to cease to have ever been, to be wiped from time itself.”

Freya put a hand to her mouth in horror. “Surely that can’t be true.”

“Aye.” Odin touched a spot below his missing eye. “I can feel their absence, yet know nothing of them. Should this beast succeed in its task, then this plane and all of its denizens shall cease to be. Even now, those we have defeated return all the stronger for it.”

The Norse god nodded down the hill, and Jack saw that the glittering black fluid was forming into a pool that thickened around the middle as something tried to come through the other side.

“I should have listened,” Odin whispered. “When the others came to me and warned me of this. For though I am all-seeing, I was still blind to the truth.”

Freya embraced him, holding him tight. “You were not alone in your blindness.”

“But you may yet have a chance.” Odin pushed her away. “Maybe you can catch up with the others?”

She shook her head. “It is too late for that. They are already with the Architect and are safely away.”

“Then you must flee.” Odin turned his gaze on Freya. “Hide yourself, and await our return.”

“And what will you do?” she asked him.

“Those of us who remain will have to be enough.” Odin curled his lip and raised his spear. “For in the beginning, we said let there be light, and it was good.”

The fluid formed into a being that made Jack’s heart race. She couldn’t focus on any part of it as the creature shifted beneath her gaze.

“Until we meet again!” Odin pressed his forehead to Freya’s, then let out a war cry before leaping through the air and bringing the weapon down onto the beast that had formed. All along the hillside, the red blood had turned black and crawled toward the apex, approaching Freya’s feet.

“I take my leave,” Freya spat, throwing her crown down the hillside where it was consumed by the darkness. With fire in her eyes, she turned her gaze to the ocean below the cliff. “But know that I shall return. Father! My fate is in your hands!”

The goddess turned to the cliff and leapt, the memory now crawling in slow motion. A tendril of light connected Freya to Jack, and she was ripped through the air and off the cliff with the goddess.

Mike snagged one of Jack’s outstretched hands, and the three of them fell together toward the crashing waves below. Golden light formed around Jack and Freya as the distance between the two of them shortened until they merged.

When they hit the water, it shattered like glass, each piece reflecting a different memory as she and Mike tumbled through darkness together. They were spiraling out of control now, but Mike kept a tight grip on her wrist.

“It’s your soul!” he shouted over the howling winds. “Nothing in here can hurt you!”

Of that, Jack wasn’t sure. She could feel Freya’s heart weep for her missing sister, for the loss of her brother Freyr. It had all started with a crack in the base of Yggdrasil from which monstrosities poured. The beings had been easy enough for her children to slay at first, but the incursions had steadily become more violent as the beasts multiplied.

The spirits of the dead in her care had been devoured before her eyes, filling her with a boundless wrath. It was the source of her anger, the rage that had been yanked to the surface by the Krampus. It was like the bastard had known exactly how to manipulate her.

A cold feeling flowed through her body, her magic swirling around her and changing their trajectory. They hit one of the glass shards, shattering it into prismatic crystals that danced around them as they crashed into the cold snow of the Arctic north.

They struck the ground hard enough that Mike bounced away from Jack and the breath was forced from her body. She slid through the snow for several seconds, weeping tears of red gold.

This was where Mike found her moments later, huddled up and grieving. He didn’t say anything, but knelt by her side to keep her company.

“Is this what you wanted, Caretaker?” She turned an angry gaze on him. “To make me whole, so that I may feel terrible things?”

He shook his head, a golden light shimmering around his body. “Sometimes it’s hard being whole. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. We often cling to pieces of ourselves in an effort to avoid the truth, but that’s no way to live. You end up walking the earth as a shadow of who you should be.” He noticed the gold light on his hand and tried to shake it off. “Shit, this stuff stings.”

“Of course it does. It’s not for you.” Jack slapped at Mike, trying to claw the divinity off his soul. Some of it stuck to her fingers, but the rest settled against Mike’s skin and was absorbed. She examined the substance in her hands and frowned. It felt familiar, yet foreign.

The soft crunch of footfalls on ice made her turn toward the source. A large man in a white robe carried a limp figure in his arms. It was a woman, her body so cold that she had turned blue. Long auburn tresses were falling out in clumps, leaving behind a shock of white on the top of her head.

Saltwater dripped from both Santa and the woman. He stopped by his sleigh and knelt in the snow to set what was left of Freya down on the ice. The goddess shivered, her body covered in open wounds. Several of them were bite marks, while others were clearly the work of a blade.

A shadowy figure appeared in front of Santa, kneeling down to examine Freya. It was Christmas Future, the spirit more like a shadow than a ghost. The spirit inspected the goddess and shook its head.

“Surely there must be something we can do to help her.” Santa had a thick accent along with a voice that rumbled like a distant train.

Freya held up a frostbitten hand, golden light gathering in her palm. Santa knelt down next to her, listening to words that Jack couldn’t hear.

“Are you sure?” Santa asked. Freya nodded, her eyes never opening. Santa turned his attention to Christmas Future, who had turned to stare at both Mike and Jack.

The spirit contemplated them for several moments, then turned to Santa and nodded.

“That guy’s a dick,” Mike said, gesturing to Christmas Future. “I just wanted to go on record about it, that’s all. And if he can hear me—good.”

With a heavy sigh, Santa took the golden light for himself, placing it in his beard. His thick whiskers trembled with hunger as they absorbed the light of the goddess. It hadn’t been until last century that the tiny tentacles had become indistinguishable from a beard, a fact that Jack was surprised to learn she had forgotten.

“If it’s for the good of the children, I will do it, for I am but a humble servant. I shall keep your identity, until the time comes.” He looked up to the sky and held his hands wide in supplication. “Spirits of the North, hear my call.”

“What is this?” Jack demanded, taking a step back from the scene before her. Freya’s body shriveled inward now that the golden light was gone, her hair becoming brittle and breaking off in the snow. The northern lights descended on Freya, swirling about like excited fireflies as they lifted her into the air and remade her body.

“Looks like your origin story.” Mike put a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “And I think I know what Santa did with that divinity he took from you. You really don’t remember any of this?”

“I really don’t.” Had she known Santa before this moment? He certainly didn’t seem too surprised by her appearance.

The scene became a smear as the northern lights gobbled up the darkness, and Jack closed her eyes to block out their brightness. She could see the vortex through her eyelids, which disoriented her. She stumbled forward, opening her eyes to see that Freya’s body was gone. There was a spectral figure standing where Freya should have been, a place where the northern lights were refracted as if through a prism.

“No, stop, I don’t want to—” She was cut off when Mike pushed her forward, causing her to collide and merge with the spectral body. More memories ripped through her, showering her with different images until she was back in the mirror chamber beneath Santa’s Workshop, contemplating Freya through the glass.

“Finally.” Freya tilted her head back to look down her nose at Jack. “I was wondering how long it would take you to get here.”

Jack didn’t respond. Her head felt as if it would burst, each memory a seed that had grown into a tree. She was living through each moment simultaneously, her consciousness pulled in every direction until it felt like she would burst.

“Can you feel all that we were now?” Freya’s lips curled up in disgust. “We weren’t just worshiped. We were loved. The outsiders, they took all of that away from us!”

“Stop, please.” Jack clutched at her head, now watching scenes of strange beings punching holes through reality to assault Asgard. It was a place she had never visited, but now remembered intimately. Long walks in the gardens, poetry by the river, festivals of laughter and light, all of it stripped away in a one-sided slaughter.

“You can’t handle this,” Freya told her, stepping through the mirror. The scene faded, leaving just Freya and Jack in a white void, surrounded by thousands of still images. “You are just a fragment, after all. Please.” She held out a hand. “I can make it all go away. All you have to do is let go, give it all back to me. Then you can sleep.”

Jack cried out in pain, then reached for Freya’s hand. It really would be so easy to just let it go, to have Freya take over. She seemed more confident than Jack, and so much stronger. The pain in her head was terrible, and all she wanted to do was close her eyes and rest.

Someone stepped between them. A warm hand took hers. When she looked up, she saw that it was Mike.

“You’re not the fragment,” he told her, pulling her into his arms. “You’re only seeing what Freya wants you to see. Sorry it took me a bit to get here, I think I may have blacked out for a second in the real world. Being here isn’t easy.”

Freya hissed and tried to push her way past Mike.

“Her soul is being torn apart, she isn’t ready!”

“That’s because she isn’t whole,” Mike replied. He lifted his head and grabbed Freya’s wrist. “And neither are you.”

“Wait, I—” Freya screamed as Mike pulled her into his embrace as well, holding the two women together. The years poured into Jack’s mind, everything Freya had ever seen or heard, and she screamed in agony as hundreds of large cracks formed in the void around them, her soul now stretching like taffy around each of them.

Mike went with her, his soul similarly stretched. Where hers was like taffy, his was molten silver, shifting and spreading with ease to encase her body. Sweat poured down his forehead as he held both Jack and Freya in his arms. The cracks in her mind roared, then burst apart, her consciousness now in hundreds of pieces.

And still, Mike was with her.

“What’s happening?” Jack whispered. Hundreds of iterations of her whispered the same thing, creating a roar of Jacks that drowned each other out.

“I…have…help!” Mike’s eyes opened to reveal that they were changing colors. Jack looked around and saw that even though there were dozens of Mikes holding her and Freya together, there were several instances of women doing the job instead. A beautiful woman in white robes with blue hair, a buxom cyclops with her hair in a loose braid, and even a goblin. There was a version of Yuki as well, all of them holding Jack and Freya together as golden light ripped through the void and danced along the edges of the cracks.

“I don’t want to go back!” Freya’s voice was tinged with desperation. “Don’t make me go back to sleep, I beg of you!”

“Nobody is…going to sleep…” Mike gritted his teeth and his eyes blazed with golden light. The scene repeated everywhere, and the torrent of memories became diluted. “In fact, it’s time for both of you to…”

Jack cried out in agony, pressure building in her chest as Freya’s body melted into her own. She could no longer fight, gasping for air as Freya’s face was pressed into hers.

“WAKE UP!” Mike’s voice boomed, filling the void before it exploded.

---

She was cold when she opened her eyes, staring up into a prismatic sky. The man leaning over her wore a white coat with a beard to match. His blue eyes sparkled, though she swore for a moment that she had seen stars in them.

“Ho, ho, ho!” he declared, helping her to sit. “And what’s your name, young lady?”

She didn’t know. In fact, she didn’t know anything about herself, or where she was. When she held up her hands, she saw that they were almost as white as the snow itself.

“I’m not sure,” she confessed. The falling snow swirled around her fingers playfully. She could sense each flake, like an extension of her body.

“I suspected as much.” The man helped her stand, then brushed some ice from his beard. For just a moment, those fine white curls had looked like something else as they twisted before her. “You had to sacrifice much to be here, but I’m sure glad you did.”

“Did…did I die?” The thought hardly bothered her. After all, she was just now aware that she was alive.

“You didn’t.” He patted her affectionately on the shoulder. “But you aren’t the person you used to be, either.”

“I’m not?”

“No. But isn’t that the truth of growing up? We’re never the same person all the time. You’re just less you than you used to be, but more you than ever.” He smiled. “I’m Santa, by the way.”

“Where is this place?” She looked up at the sky. “What are those?”

“This is the North Pole,” he proclaimed with a smile. “And those lights above us are the spirits of the north. Well, and something to do with the sun, apparently. I don’t understand it, no matter how often they explain it to me.”

“The sun?” She looked up. “It’s very pretty.”

“Most wondrous things are. Come.” He gestured to a large sleigh behind him. “If you’d like, I can show you many wondrous things.”

“It took me a bit to understand what had happened,” Mike whispered in her ear as the world went still around her. Despite not knowing who she was or where she had come from, she recognized that voice and could picture him in her mind. “You see, both of you are fragments, pieces of the original goddess. Freya was a goddess of many things, not just war and winter. All of these memories you’re seeing are remnants, echoes of the whole. The main difference between the two of you is that Freya remembers, but you do not.”

“Who is Freya?” she asked.

“She is who you thought you were,” he replied. “There’s a chain reaction going through your soul right now, like dominos or those weird little stick things that look like crosses that explode when you pull one out.”

“Stick things?” She was so confused.

“Yeah, forget about that, the short version is your mind is somewhere safe while your soul reboots from scratch. I don’t know if that metaphor even makes sense to you, but…” Santa’s features melted away, revealing Mike. “Wow, that feels so much better!”

She experienced a flood of emotions upon seeing him, both good and bad. He was surrounded by a golden light that created whorls of energy that reached out and melted away the nearby snow. A buzzing sensation shot through her body as she took a step toward him. Her heart beat in her chest so loudly, she could see its rhythm reflected in the light around his body. She stopped just a foot away, her veins now filled with ice water. Even though his eyes were gentle, the power surrounding him terrified her.

“Why?” she asked him. “Why am I so afraid of you?”

“Because it’s okay to be afraid of the unknown.” Mike lifted his hand and winced as golden light coalesced around his fingers. “This is all yours, by the way. When you got pulled apart, I found it all, hidden away inside you. It was tucked away inside every nook and cranny, and I have no idea what will happen once I give it back.”

“What if I don’t want it?” she whispered. In truth, she desired that power more than anything, but simply had to know how he would respond.

“Uh…” he contemplated his fingertips. “If I’m being honest, you really should take this back. For one, this is your power, not mine. I assume you earned it. I saw so many memories of the things you did for people. Your followers loved you, and that’s not something easily given. Even just holding it is almost like…well, a mother’s embrace, or something equally comforting.

“As for the other reason…I think it’s killing me.” He smiled weakly.

“I thought you said it felt like a mother’s embrace.”

“Well, it does,” he admitted. “But it’s not my mother, or she’s on fire, or whatever metaphor makes you happiest. Please, just…take it back.”

She entwined her fingers with his, the golden light circling around her wrist and twirling along her arm like ribbons on a maypole. Power thrummed through her whole body as the snowy landscape rippled before being swept away by a tide of golden light. Mike held tightly to her hand as the two of them floated into the air.

Her time as Jack came back first. Long years in the frozen arctic, dancing among the frost. Things had been simple at first, but the years were long and she had been lonely. Becoming Jack had not tempered her desire for friends, family, or even love. She had been grieving a life that had been hidden away from her, and the Krampus had used that knowledge to bring about Santa’s fall.

Then she was Freya, or at least the version that had been awakened. This Freya was indeed the goddess of war, her thoughts consumed by those final moments in Asgard when she had been forced to flee, leaving her husband behind. Her people lost to her, she had survived the cold waters of the north with the help of her father Njörd, the sea god. The outsiders had chased her even then, forcing her to hide atop ice floes until they lost sight of her. That desperation had led her to find a man known for miracles, to beg him to hide her away from the ancient ones until it was safe for her to return.

More memories came, and she discovered that there was more to her than fierce battles and frost. There had been love and laughter, villages full of happy children who flocked to her side. Óðr had been her husband, but he was far from her only love. Her body was a temple that she had shared with many, offering her blessings far and wide.

“I am love,” she proclaimed, tears in her eyes as the phantom lights above faded away, revealing the stars. This was no longer a memory, but the astral plane itself. If she chose, she could travel to any of those distant souls and greet them, to let them know that they weren’t alone.

“I am beauty.” She held up her fingers, watching as her skin glittered as if coated by diamond dust. A magnificent dress formed around her, dangling from her floating form. When she looked up at the man across from her, she finally understood the weird sway Mike had held over her during their first meeting.

“I am sex.” Her free hand stroked his cheek and her magic hummed in time with his own. This was a part of her she had forgotten, instantly awakened by the power surging inside of Mike’s veins. Her magic resonated with his, her golden light combining with the purple sparks that danced along his skin. His soul felt old, as if it had been around for thousands of years, but that had to be an illusion for he was mortal. Still, it had a familiarity that called to her.

She was fertility and fortune personified, a remainder of the old gods who had walked the earth and given their gifts freely to the humans. Lifetimes of joy now filled her heart, elevating the two of them higher and higher, and she grabbed both of Mike’s hands in her own as she pulled him into her arms. When she pressed her lips against his, she inhaled, pulling the breath from his body along with the golden light that permeated his being. When she broke the kiss, a bright light formed in the sky and they floated toward it together.

She was neither Freya or Jack, but a true amalgamation of both of them as well as the unknown spaces in-between. This whole time, she had been in a battle of wills with none other than herself. The Caretaker had not only put her back together, but discovered the pieces of her long forgotten.

“EK EM FREYJA!” she declared, the stars in the sky bursting into fireworks as her soul unfolded into its proper shape, allowing the two of them to burst free of its confines and return to the real world.

Freyja fell from a couple of feet in the air, landing on the couch with a soft thud. Across from her, Mike slumped forward in his chair, gasping for air. He was soaked in his own sweat, drops of it falling from his fingers and freezing to the wooden floor beneath.

The goddess surveyed the small cabin, seeing it properly for the first time. She could see the faint glitter of the magic that held it suspended in time, could smell the sexual fluids of the elf that had passed out earlier. Freyja looked at Mike, a smile forming on her face.

“Caretaker.” When she used his title, Mike looked up at her, his eyes still filled with golden light.

“Freyja.” He winced, then put a hand to his bare chest. “You didn’t quite get it all.”

Yuki stood from behind the kitchen counter, her eyes wide. “Holy shit, you two, that was insane. You both just kind of hovered in the air for a bit, and there was light everywhere. I would ask if it worked, but…” The kitsune hopped over the counter and moved closer to them. “It’s so weird, you have this presence now. Like there’s more of you in the room than before.”

Freyja nodded, then looked at Mike. “The divinity is killing him,” she declared, rising in her seat. “He needs to give it back to me before he burns up.”

“It’s not for lack of trying.” Mike chuckled, then coughed into his hand. “Was my first time reassembling a god. Not even Ikea has directions for that.”

“Baka, stupid jokes even while you’re dying.” Yuki shook her head, then looked at Freyja. “Help him, please.”

The goddess moved toward him, then knelt in front of him until their noses almost touched.

“Gladly,” she said, meaning it with every fiber of her being as she put her lips to his.

---

Mike’s whole world was pain, but when Freyja’s lips touched his, there was a moment of pure bliss as the divinity in his veins shifted, the pressure disappearing for just a moment. The goddess let out a soft moan as her lips parted, her tongue sliding along the tip of his own before exploring the curve of his lips.

His magic activated so hard that it ripped free of his body and formed into a thick beam of light that penetrated Freyja’s chest. He gasped in surprise as a pink light surrounded her before spiraling back along the beam that connected them. He was instantly hard, his consciousness fading as his dick officially became the brain in charge of operations.

And then Freyja’s magic kicked in. A bitter chill formed along his mouth and he let out a scream of pain just before Yuki ripped Freyja off of him. The goddess fell backward in surprise, the air around her turning to fog as she froze the water vapor in it on her way down.

“What the hell was that?” Yuki moved between the two of them. “Are you okay?”

This was directed at Mike. He licked his numb lips and smacked them together. In less than a moment, Freyja had almost frozen his face off.

“I think tho. Tho. Thit.”He couldn’t tell if his tongue was numb or swollen.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened, I…” Freyja looked up at them with shock. She still looked like Jack, but there was an awareness in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. It was confidence and power, though it had just been shaken.

“My best guess is the obvious: your head may be screwed on right, but it doesn’t mean you can control it.” Yuki knelt down next to Mike and inspected his face. “Your soul may be put back together, but your magic is a different story. His magic reacts to yours just as much as yours reacts to his, and I think you’re defaulting to what you’re the most used to, which is the frost.”

Freyja held up her hands and clenched them tight. When she opened them, butterflies of golden light appeared and did a quick lap around the room before vanishing. “I think you’re right. I’m in control now, but when we kissed, it was like jumping off a cliff.” A slight smile appeared on her face. “There’s a reason they call it falling in love, after all.”

Yuki frowned. “You’ve been right in the head for all of two minutes, there’s no way you feel like that about him.”

“You are correct, child of the forest, I do not. But that feeling you get when you meet someone special, when you share that first kiss, that’s all in here. It’s a part of me just as it is a part of anyone with the capacity to love.” Freyja placed a hand on her chest. “I can’t believe I had forgotten what a wonderful feeling it was.”

“Just a reminder…” Mike coughed so hard that sparks flew out of his mouth. “I am absolutely still dying over here.”

“Do you need physical contact to get your divinity back?” Yuki asked.

Freyja frowned. “Sort of. The divinity he gathered while mending my soul is now integrated in his own, albeit temporarily. He could give it back through touch or by using his magic.”

“Which requires touch.” Yuki shook her head and looked at Mike. “I don’t suppose you could just zap her with it, could you?”

Mike contemplated her question, then closed his eyes and looked at his magic. The golden glow of Freyja’s divinity was entwined with his own magic, the two of them braided together. He plucked at a few strands to see if he could strip it away on his own, and was unsurprised when the divinity shifted and stuck to another strand instead.

“No can do.” He looked at both of them. “Freyja’s right. It’s stuck to my magic. If I use it and cycle it out, I could probably put it somewhere else, but it’s definitely not something I can do by just examining her soul or whatever.” Unless the nearby hospital had a dialysis machine for nymph magic, there was only one option that made sense.

Unfortunately, he got the feeling that what had happened to his jaw was possible anywhere else. Frostbite on his fingers? No problem. Frostbite on his dick? Nope. An image of his frozen member snapping in half gave him plenty of reasons to be cautious.

“We need a way for my magic and his to interact, but we cannot touch.” Freyja bit her lip, then looked over at Mike. “I do fear I would freeze you to death if we did.”

A memory tickled the back of his mind, and he pursued it. There had been a moment on his porch, once upon a time, where he had fucked Cecilia and Lily at the same time due to Cecilia’s spectral nature. He remembered how his magic had spread across both of them, and a similar thing had happened earlier in the year with Dana and Quetzalli.

He quirked an eyebrow and looked over at Yuki. “So you’re saying we need someone to act as an intermediary, a kind of sexual fuse that can withstand cold temperatures.”

The goddess appraised Yuki and shrugged. “As long as this fuse thing can handle divinity, it should work. The process wouldn’t be as fast or efficient, but it would seem we have no choice.”

The kitsune looked from Mike to Freyja, then shook her head and laughed. “So let me get this straight. The two of you are going to try and solve your problem by making me into a fox sandwich?”

“Only if you’re up for it,” Mike told her, moving to the nearby couch so there’d be more room. “If not, we can find another way.”

“I can understand your hesitation,” Freyja added. “I assure you that making love to a goddess is very similar to making love to an ordinary woman.”

“Bitch, please.” Yuki was already shedding her coat. “I’ve eaten snow cones scarier than you.”

Freyja laughed, then sat back on the couch opposite of Mike. “Then by all means, fox, let’s see what you can do.”

“Baka kami,” Yuki muttered as she turned toward Mike. “You must have done something very good in a past life, because I sincerely doubt any man has gotten their dick sucked so much in one day.”

Mike ducked his head and placed his palms together as if bowing to her. “Think of it like a second date.”

“Most girls would appreciate at least a good meal on their dates.” Yuki looked over at Freyja, who had pulled up her dress to reveal a garter belt and stockings beneath her gown. When she turned back to face Mike, she wore a stupid grin. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Though it does look like I’ll be eating tacos.”

“Do you even like tacos?” he whispered back, suddenly curious. “Real ones, I mean.”

Yuki rolled her eyes as she grabbed the base of his dick. “Of course I like tacos,” she muttered, then ran her tongue along the thick part of his glans before toying with his urethra. “What’s there to hate? You take a bunch of delicious things and cram them into a crunchy shell.”

“I’m a soft guy, myself,” he admitted.

“There’s nothing soft about you right now,” she said before sucking him into her mouth. Mike gasped, his magic manifesting as a small storm of energy that swirled along his arms. He squinted, the golden sparks too bright to look at directly. Though the divinity hadn’t left his body, just the act of circulating it seemed to help his discomfort.

“Mmh.” Freyja had pulled her skirt even higher, and was now teasing a pussy devoid of hair. “It’s hot watching her go down on you, but the bond you share is even hotter.”

Mike wanted to reply with something meaningful, but all he managed was an affirmative grunt that sounded like Goofy trying not to giggle. Yuki’s ears brushed against the bare skin of his belly, and he massaged them with his hands. The kitsune made happy little sounds in response, then swallowed him as deep as she could take him.

His relationship was different with each of the women in the house, but there was something special about Yuki. With the others, there could be some element of romance, or maybe they were just really good friends. He didn’t pretend to analyze where he stood with Sofia. He would sometimes go days without hearing from her, and then he would be summoned to the Library for one of their “sessions.”

With Yuki, though, they had started as enemies before becoming close. They had shared experiences of abuse, misery, and a solid understanding of what it meant to be a survivor. If anything, he thought of her as one of his best friends in the world, a relationship that had only deepened upon being intimate.

“I’m a bit jealous,” Freyja said from her spot on the couch. “Her technique is pretty good. I wish I could join her and feel a cock in my mouth, too.”

Mike blinked a couple times and chuckled. “You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m still stuck on when you used to be Jack. That isn’t a very Jack thing to say.”

“That part of me wasn’t anti-intimacy, but she wasn’t particularly interested either. I nearly died when Santa drained me of my godhood, and the cold was all that remained.” Freyja slid a finger inside herself as her other hand played with one of her breasts through her dress. “But there’s something special about having a man’s cock in your mouth. It isn’t just about the strain in your jaw, or the throbbing warmth laying across your tongue. People often mistake it as a subservient position, but that’s far from the truth. When someone sucks your cock, they have absolute power over you, especially when they do it right.” Freyja shifted forward off the couch, then knelt behind Yuki. The kitsune paused long enough to see what the goddess was doing, then resumed her heavenly blowjob.

“Allow me to elaborate.” Freyja grabbed the top of Yuki’s head, her fingers vanishing in the kitsune’s hair. Yuki held still for a moment, then groaned when Freyja pushed down on her head, forcing Mike’s cock further into her throat. “From here, she looks the part of the servant. With a single push, I can overcome her resistance, make her desire the sensation of your glans sliding across the back of her tongue.”

“I, uh…” Mike didn’t know how to respond. His magic was crackling along his limbs and crossing over onto Yuki’s skin, carrying tiny pieces of golden light with it.

Freyja whispered something in Yuki’s ear, and the kitsune nodded her assent, a sensation which triggered a shockwave of pleasure all along Mike’s cock. Yuki started playing with Mike’s balls as Freyja moved behind Yuki and knelt down.

“She may be the one on her knees, but tell me who is really in charge here. Is it you, Caretaker? What would you give for her to keep going? If she decided to stop, how much would you beg for her to continue? She has complete power over you. To believe anything else is nothing more than a delusion. Know that when I take someone in my mouth, it is not only to please them. It is to take their power and make it my own. For that, my dear mortal, is what pleases me.”

With a gleam in her eyes, Freyja parted Yuki’s tails and then buried her face in the kitsune’s snatch.

Yuki gurgled in delight, causing spit to run down Mike’s shaft. He leaned forward and stroked the top of her head, paying particular attention to her ears. His magic intensified, sending a current of sexual energy through Yuki. He couldn’t see what all Freyja was doing to the kitsune’s crotch, but the kitsune’s eyes were rolling back in her head.

Yuki became so distracted that she stopped blowing him, her moans of delight turning into sharp yips of pleasure around his shaft.

“Hmm.” Freyja lifted her head, her chin slick with Yuki’s juices. “While there is plenty of merit to this approach, it does not currently serve our needs.”

Yuki lifted her head until the top of Mike’s cock popped free. “Perhaps if I turned around?” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“Hey, I’m just the dude poisoned with god juice. I’m up for whatever you two want to try.” He gave them a smile, trying not to let them see how bad he was hurting. In the time it took for Yuki to rise and pull her tails to the side, the divinity had sunk back into his body. It tingled at first, then burned, like Icy-Hot for his soul. The pain retreated for a moment while he watched Yuki’s curvaceous ass lower onto his lap, his cock sliding smoothly into her vagina.

“Oh, fuck, I love how that feels,” she declared, her tails shifting to drape over Mike’s chest. She leaned back and grabbed Mike’s wrists, directing his hands to her breasts. “I want to enjoy you squeezing them while you fuck me.”

Mike groaned in delight as he played with Yuki’s nipples, savoring the weight of her body on his groin. She shifted her weight back and forth, her tails tickling his nose. Running his hands along the tops of her thighs, he could sense her powerful leg muscles working hard as she rode him.

“That’s hot as hell, but I think you’re forgetting something.” Freyja pulled off her dress, revealing a dark bra that matched her garters. “That magic needs to make its way to me, and—”

Yuki reached out and grabbed Freyja by the front of her garter belt, pulling so hard that the fabric ripped. When their lips connected, Mike heard the soft sizzle and pop of his magic making contact with Freyja. The divinity inside him lurched forward reluctantly, dancing across Yuki’s skin.

A peculiar pressure formed against the base of his cock, Yuki’s vagina tightening up in a manner he was unfamiliar with. The sensation was phenomenal, and he grabbed Yuki by the hips to hold her in place as she swiveled her hips back and forth. Yuki broke the kiss, pushing down on the top of Freyja’s head. The goddess looked down and gasped, covering her mouth with a hand.

“You said you wanted something to suck,” Yuki growled. “So suck it.”

Curious, Mike leaned over Yuki’s shoulder to see that the kitsune’s clitoris had inflated, stretching and becoming engorged until it was at least six inches long. Shocked at this development, he watched as Freyja knelt down between Yuki’s legs and licked the tip of the kitsune’s faux cock.

“Is that…how…” He didn’t know entirely what to ask. He had so many questions, but couldn’t figure out what any of them were. Between the pressure on his dick and watching Freyja slobber all over Yuki’s cock, he didn’t have enough brain cells to spare.

“It’s a simple trick,” Yuki informed him, leaning back and directing his hands to her breasts once more. “It still has the same nerve endings as before, if that’s what you’re wondering. Now kiss my neck and I’ll show you another trick.”

Mike kissed the nape of her neck and jumped when he felt the pressure inside Yuki’s pussy shift. That thick mass pressing against him began moving up and down, and he immediately noticed it was in time with the bobbing of Freyja’s head.

“Yessss,” Yuki hissed, grabbing Freyja by the hair and holding her in place. “Suck that dick, you frosty bitch.”

Freyja snorted in amusement, and worked the base of Yuki’s shaft with her hands. Occasionally, her fingers would drop low enough to brush against the soft flesh of Mike’s testicles. Though the touch was brief, her skin was cold enough that it was like she had touched him with a piece of ice.

The kitsune groaned in delight, threads of golden light forming around her as Freyja and Mike pleasured her. “Gods, I haven’t been fucked like this in forever.” Yuki leaned her head back on Mike’s shoulder, then turned to kiss his cheek. “I can feel how hot you are inside me, and she’s so cold. My body doesn’t know what to do with it!”

Freyja groaned her agreement, then moved a hand to her crotch and fingered herself. The sparks were dancing all along them now, but most of them focused on Yuki. Mike felt the divinity shift away from him, but it definitely wasn’t making the whole trip. If he came now, it was possible that his magic might push it all into Yuki, but then what?

“You need to fuck her,” he whispered in Yuki’s ear. When he came, Yuki likely would, too, and maybe he could get the magic to cycle through an additional person. “Can you do that while I’m still inside you?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Yuki replied, then leaned forward. “Hey. I know you’re on a power trip down there, but how about a proper fuck?”

Freyja looked up at Yuki, then at Mike. She pulled her mouth off of Yuki’s cock and made direct eye contact with Mike as she licked Yuki one more time.

“If you think you can handle me,” she replied, then stood. When she turned to face away from them, she bent over and ran both hands over the bright white flesh of her ass, swaying from side to side. “It’s been over a century, so try not to break me.”

“No promises.” Yuki grabbed Freyja by the remains of the garter belt and pulled hard enough that it snapped off as the goddess sat, Yuki’s cock sliding into Freyja’s pussy. The sudden increase in weight caused Mike’s balls to throb as his orgasm built.

“Oh, fucking hell!” Freyja stuck her hands out to her sides, accidentally grabbing Mike by the thigh. Pain shot up his leg before Yuki could pull Freyja’s hand away, but Mike no longer cared. His magic shifted dramatically, and as Freyja rode Yuki, he could feel their movements along his own cock.

He moved his hands onto Yuki’s ribs to avoid accidental contact with Freyja, doing very little in the way of work as the kitsune enthusiastically thrust herself into the goddess. This did almost all of the work for Mike as well. Yuki growled while Freyja moaned, the two of them establishing a rhythm that had him gasping with pleasure.

His magic surged, wrapping itself around Yuki’s waist and then moving down her groin to where she connected with Freyja. As the three of them swayed, they found a solid rhythm that caused the magic to build around them. Freyja’s hair stood on end as streamers of light appeared on all of their bodies, jumping back and forth between the three of them.

Mike was unsurprised when Yuki came first. Her pussy tightened so hard that he was almost pushed out of her, and then she let out a howl and dug her nails into Freyja’s stockings. Though the goddess’ skin was unharmed, the flimsy garments were easily shredded, and fell to the floor.

“Holy…wow!” Freyja put a hand on her belly. “Did you…did you actually…?”

Yuki didn’t respond. Instead, she wrapped a hand around Freyja’s throat and pulled her back.

“Don’t you dare let a single drop spill,” she growled between her teeth. “You be a good girl and soak up that creampie.”

Mike wasn’t sure where this side of Yuki had been all this time, but it was hot as fuck. He felt a surge of heat rush through his abdomen, a sign of his own impending orgasm, and he wrapped his hands around Yuki’s belly.

“I’m about to come,” he warned her. “Don’t let her get away.”

Yuki nodded and wrapped her hands around Freyja’s waist, locking her fingers together.

“Do it,” she whispered. “I want to feel you blast that hot load inside me, please, give me that sweet—”

It didn’t take much dirty talk for the magic in the room to suddenly rebound and use Mike like a lightning rod. When he came, his vision dimmed as his magic sank hooks into the divinity in his system and ripped it all away. When he flooded Yuki’s womb with his seed, he could feel the molten heat of the divinity as it concentrated in his gut and passed into the kitsune.

Yuki cried out, then groaned, her arms suddenly going limp as her hips lurched forward. Freyja looked back just as the sparks made the leap from Yuki to her. Her eyes lit up from within as her magic surged around her like a storm, and her legs went limp beneath her.

“Shit!” Mike grabbed Freyja by her hips just long enough to tilt the three of them sideways onto the couch. They managed to manuever so that Freyja was now on her stomach, with Yuki and Mike above her. The goddess groaned as golden sparks appeared on her skin, but the magic was coming back to Mike now, carrying what remained of its golden passenger with it.

The magic swirled around Mike, driving him to pump himself deep into Yuki. She was crying out consistently now, her eyes rolled back in her head as the magic drove all of them to orgasm once again. This set off a chain reaction with Freyja, who grabbed onto the fabric of the couch, promptly freezing it and ripping a hole through the fabric.

He had no idea how long the three of them went at it. His magic continued to cycle through all three of them, bringing back less divinity each time. But it was his magic, and he commanded it to keep going, to push that golden light through his friend and back into the goddess. The couch was already a sticky, shredded mess, but he had no idea who had contributed the most to it by now. His balls ached with the sheer amount of cum he had produced, and Yuki was no longer making any sounds other than garbled whimpers of delight.

“More, Caretaker, more!” Freyja bit down on a pillow, tearing a hole in the fabric. Her skin had acquired a healthy golden glow that pulsed in time with his thrusts, the divinity settling in its true owner.

His stomach muscles ached by the time he stopped fucking Yuki, every muscle now bereft of energy. Mike went limp, his arms dangling over Yuki’s shoulders while keeping his hands wide to avoid Freyja’s frosty form. He didn’t know if Yuki was even conscious at this point, but Freyja was making happy sounds like a woman holding a litter of puppies.

He didn’t bother asking if it worked. His soul sight saw that Freyja had easily reabsorbed the divinity she had lost, and that only trace amounts stained Yuki’s soul. He took a moment to braid in what he found to help her acclimate, then rubbed the kitsune’s butt.

“You make a good sandwich,” he told her.

She didn’t reply, but reached back and pinched his thigh.

“Holly’s going to be pissed she slept through this,” Freyja muttered from the bottom. “Poor thing just missed the fucking of the century.”

“I like this new Freyja,” Yuki muttered. “Much friendlier than the old one.”

“Indeed.” Mike turned his head toward the kitchen counter and saw a gray figure appear. It was the Ghost of Christmas Past, or the Ghost of Last Christmas, whatever it wanted to be called. “There you are. I wondered where you got off to.”

The ghost bowed its head. “I did not wish to interfere,” it replied.

“Uh huh.” Somehow, Mike managed to pour a tremendous amount of sarcasm into his reply. “So is this where we find out this was all part of Santa’s plan? That we’ve been manipulated this whole time?”

The ghost opened its mouth to reply, but simply nodded. “It’s more complicated than that, Caretaker, but yes. I’m about to reveal many things to you.”

“It’s about fucking time.” He rubbed Yuki’s thigh, then saw that the meat of Freyja’s ass was just beneath it. Deciding to take a chance, he gave it a playful slap, his fingers going instantly numb.

Totally worth it, he thought.

“You ass.” Freyja turned her head so that she could see Mike out of the corner of her eye. “Come down here and fuck me like a man, you coward.”

“Yuki’s right. This version of you is a lot more fun.” He pulled himself out of Yuki, surprised that her vagina had such a tight hold on his cock even as he went flaccid. Standing naked above the women, he looked over at the ghost. “Let us get cleaned up, then you can tell us everything we need to hear.”

The Ghost of Last Christmas nodded, then moved over by the window as the three of them got cleaned up and dressed. Freyja went to retrieve Holly as Yuki and Mike made snacks. Once everyone was sitting with either a beverage or a snack in hand, the spirit hovered in front of them, its dark eyes flickering red and green.

“And now,” it said, whirling around in front of them like a firefly made of smoke. “It is time I shared with you what happened last Christmas.”