Page 28 of Frosted Torment

“I’ll get another one then,” I huffed, leaning back in my seat and staring out the window as we drove up the road.

“Go ahead and try,” Lex confirmed as he slapped his palm with my vape. “I’ll take that one too.”

I breathed out through my nose in frustration as I gave him a dirty look. Then I turned away and looked out of Ivy’s window into the darkness.

“I like you better when you don’t talk so much,” I grumbled back at him.

He leaned in close to my ear, making the hairs on my neck stand at attention. “Best intervention I’ve ever done. You’ll thank me later.”

I elbowed him in the stomach and smiled. As much as Iwanted to believe him, I still had more to learn about my family. Vaping helped keep me at peace and relaxed. And if I was carrying around insurmountable power that I didn’t know how to access or use, then I needed to remain calm.

“You’re not playing fair,” I protested.

Lex’s mouth curled into a wicked grin. “Never forget, Noa. As a fallen angel, nothing about us is fair.”

Fog crept over the ground as we turned onto the narrow driveway, and the driver came to a stop. The headlights illuminated a sturdy wooden gate, and when the driver put the car in park, I stepped out in awe at what stood before me. As the car drove off, Jossy walked up and leaned on my shoulder.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” His sparkling eyes grew wide at the carvings on each side of the gate.

CHAPTER 11

The temperature had dropped even lower, but as much as I liked the cold, I needed more than a hoodie outside. I rubbed my hands together and blew into them for warmth.

“Incredible,” I said, breathless.

Some moments in life surprise you in a way you never imagined. Outside of learning the truth about my friends, this was another one of those moments, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last. The headlights revealed an enormous wooden swing gate.

Its height was equal to the top of a streetlamp. On each side of the gate, two hand-carved wolves angled toward each other, both howling up to the moon. No matter where I looked, their eyes of midnight blue followed me. I felt inferior to the world as they pierced into my soul.

Around the neck of one wolf, a white collar, with stars of ebony speckled throughout it as deep violet caressed the edges.The other wolf’s collar was an inverted replica of the first. I glanced between the wolves and noticed the moonlight made their eyes sparkle.

They were real gemstones. I stepped back and inhaled a sharp breath when my left foot caught on a rock. Jossy held his hand out for me, and I took it, thankful that the night hid my embarrassment.

“Please be careful,” he said.

I walked back and forth in front of the gate as I inspected the wolves while a camera followed each step.

I whirled my body back around to Lex. “Real gemstones sit in their eyes. Aren’t you worried about thieves?”

“No one could even get near them, and if they did, they’d get the life shocked out of them if they tried.”

“Figures,” I said.

I bounced in place on my toes and chuckled with a shiver. “It makes sense with warding and angels having abilities I’m still clueless about.”

Wolves began to sing in the distance across the Montana night and grew louder as a sharp twinge shot through my lip. Not again. Chills tap-danced down my spine, and for a brief moment, it felt like a mistake to go to the ranch.

Jossy reassured me, “Even though we aren’t inside yet, we’re safe here, Noa.”

I nodded as I watched Ivy talk on a phone attached to a call box in front of the gate. Her back was turned toward us, so I couldn’t hear the conversation.

“Why don’t you use your cell phone?”

“Protocol. When Vincent isn’t told we’re coming before wearrive, there is a security clearance check we have to go through.”

Ivy hung up and walked over to us. “The car is waiting on the other side.”

As I glanced at my three friends, I tilted my head when it dawned on me that none of them seemed to feel the chill in the air. “You’re impervious to the cold, too?”

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