Page 5 of An Avalanche Hero Christmas

She decided to try the five-four-three-two-one technique. “Okay, Mallory. What are five things you can see?”

She glanced around. Snow. Trees. Rocks. The sky. Her own body.

Four things she could touch?Myself. This damn snow. Not much else.

Grounding techniques like this were one of the perks of dabbling in psychiatry. If she could help others who were experiencing mental breakdowns, she could help herself.

“Come on, Mallory,” she told herself, taking a step forward. “Three things you can hear?”

She listened. She could hear the wind. It was gentler now that she wasn’t tumbling through the air from thirty thousand feet. She heard the crunch of snow beneath her feet as she walked toward the trees. The sound of rushing water indicated there was a river in the distance.

She couldn’t possibly be the only one on this mountain. There had to be others, another survivor from the accident, maybe. Or someone who lived around these parts. With any luck, she’d find someone to help her get off this mountain. It seemed like a long shot, but Mallory wasn’t in any position to be choosy about her options.

“Two things I can smell.” In this cold, it was hard to pick up any scents, but a couple wafted into her nostrils. She smelled the trees…and something—or someone—else.

“One thing I can taste,” she breathed and ran her tongue over her cracking lips.

The sky was slowly turning orange. Another shudder swept through Mallory’s body. At this rate, she’d be a frozen Popsicle before nightfall.

She continued to trudge toward the woods. At the very least, she could try to seek some shelter among the trees. Anything was better than remaining out here in the open. It was hard to tell just how high up on the mountain she’d landed, but judging from the cold, it was pretty high. Getting down to the bottom would take some time.

She clutched the MediPack. There had to be something in there that could help her. But what good would bandages and some ibuprofen do against the cold? The only thing that would’ve been of any help was the thermometer she’d forgotten, and Mallory needed no device to tell her how cold it was.

“I should have never agreed to a sabbatical,” she muttered to herself as she neared the trees. “I’m not going to make it off this mountain. I’m just a fae nurse with a fanny pack. I can’t even—”

Just then, she sensed movement!

A dark shape appeared in the corner of her vision. Her heart leaped with a mixture of relief and trepidation as she turned toward it. The mountain stretched upward as far as her eyes could see, and beyond it was nothing but pure white snow and a lone figure standing on two legs.

Scratch that,she thought.Make that six things I can see.

A bear?

No, it was a person! A man, barely forty feet away, and heading downhill toward her. So she wasn’t alone on this mountain, after all.

Thank goodness. At least I’m not going to freeze to death now.

As the man drew closer, she got a clearer view of him. He was quite tall and dressed in a dark coat and fur boots. Green eyes stared down at her as he approached, a thick brown beard shielding most of his face from view. Looking at him, Mallory couldn’t help but think he looked like a character fromThe Lord of the Rings.

It made no difference anyway. Whether he was headed for Mordor or was some wizard in disguise, all she cared about was getting his help to get off this mountain.

“Hey!” she called. “Hello!”

The man did not respond. He simply continued walking toward her.

Maybe he couldn’t hear her. Feeling a surge of relief and desperation, she lifted an arm and waved at him. If he were human, she’d have to explain her wings to him. Mallory didn’t particularly look forward to that, but help was help. Hopefully, he was a shifter or even a fae like her.

Fingers crossed.

“Hey!” she yelled again. “I need your help! I need to get off this mountain!”

The man drew even nearer.

Then he reached into his coat and drew something out. At first, Mallory couldn’t make out what it was, but as it caught the rays of the sinking sun, she saw the gleam of metal, and it dawned on her what the object was, and she knew then that he was not there to help her.

Chapter Two

Hunter, Fisherman…Fae

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