She wasn't allowed to watch cartoons, or to play with the normal toys she'd been used to. All she'd wanted for that first Christmas, only three months after her mother's death, was a Barbie doll, simply one doll. Her father was the most powerful man in his world and he couldn't manage to scrounge up one silly plastic fashion doll. That was the year she realized there was no Santa Claus.

Their father was cold, the polar opposite of the mother they'd lost. He made Tessa nervous. Her sisters all seemed to be Daddy's girls, but Tessa stood apart. She didn't see Victor as a hero, he was the villain. Maybe it was how broken his relationship with her was that saved her sisters from the constant training. Or, he might just have decided they didn't have lost time to make up for, but the other girls had an easier childhood. If she had to pick one thing about Victor Dark that redeemed him, it was that. Tessa would always be grateful that her sisters hadn't suffered as she'd suffered trying to fit into Other World. She remembered her humanity, whereas all her sisters but Talia embraced their demon sides. It didn't make the evil or bad, just more suited to their father's realm.

Every Christmas the girls made a trip to the human world to go skiing at a beautiful resort. Because it was tradition she never missed it; even if she spent the entire holiday reining in the mischievous imps. Tessa suspected she had been the main reason for the trips. When she was seventeen and desperate to leave Other World, her sisters had begged for the trip. Seeing how important it was to the girls, Victor had begrudgingly allowed it. For the others it was the first time they could remember experiencing their mother's world, for Tessa it felt like coming home. It was her best Christmas memory since she'd come to Other World. She'd visited the resort with them for the last three years, but her sisters complained about her not going to the castle for Christmas with Victor. This year she'd finally given in because Talia had personally come to her and begged her to join them. Talia was her favorite; Talia was the only one to have lived with her during her college years.