Page 4 of Frostbite, Lovebite

Penelope, sitting on a nearby wicker bench, said, "I might be able to give us a general area, let me do some research."

"What research?" Traci asked.

Not looking up from her work, Penelope replied, "The snowstorm started abruptly, but it had to start somewhere, these creatures don't just have the storm start all at once everywhere, they're the starting point. I'm sifting through weather reports, tweets, TikToks and more for the area, combining all of that to see who started complaining first and…. Got it! The storm swept in from the southeast, sounds like it started outside of town and blew in fast."

"Southeast…" Benny said thoughtfully.

"The old factory," Match said as he cleaned up his casting. "The woods out that way would be good ground for festering." Because a jack frost was a vengeful spirit, born from a violent, unjust death that tied somehow to winter. Normally someone left outside to freeze to death, or pushed into a frozen lake. The list of creatures born from violent death were numerous, and each one had a very particular set of requirements. A jack frost wasn't even the most particular.

At least it wasn't a Wendigo. His parents had dealt with one of those once, and to this day they both struggled with nightmares and falling asleep anywhere but a heavily warded, brightly lit room.

"Traci, you go ahead and see if you can't sniff out a more precise location, then fall back and wait for us. Penny, go with her as backup. Ronan and I will go to the vault to get the super fancy special armor. Match, come with us, you can start your spellwork from downtown and work outward, unless you have a different plan."

"Nope, that works perfect." If they couldn't bring the jack frost down quickly, then their next best bet was to start activating the various wards he had around town for preciselythis kind of situation. It would keep people safe and force the jack frost into certain areas, effectively caging it. As it was already in the southeast of Harper Valley, then starting from downtown and working that way would keep it confined where it already was.

He'd need a lot more snowdrops than he had to hand, but downtown also had his favorite shop for such things when he could get it himself.

"Be careful, everyone," Benny said, then kissed Traci briefly before they all divided up and headed out.

They took Benny's SUV, far more equipped for the snow than their bikes or Ronan's car, and despite the snow made it downtown with relative ease. Townhall always made him tense because nothing pleasant ever happened here, just rejection after rejection after rejection of all his attempts to increase his pay. Lately, with Benny's fight, it had been even worse.

He was used to people treating him warily because he was not just a witch, but a really fuckinggoodwitch, but Mayor Wright and all his lackies seemed to dislike him with a particular vehemence he'd never been able to figure out.

"You two be careful," he said at the bottom of the steps. "I'm going to hit up Maddie's for more snowdrops, then I'll start activating the wards." He kissed Ronan. "Don't do anything stupid, either of you."

Benny saluted. "Do our best."

"I doubt it." Match left them to it, heading across the street and down the block a bit to where Maddy's shop,Peaceful Grove, was located between a Chinese restaurant and a stationery shop.

The familiar bell chimed as he slipped inside. "Maddy! There's a Guard emergency and I need—"

"We're closed," Maddy said, as he rounded a high shelf and she and the counter she was behind came into view. "You need to leave, please. Right now."

"What? Are you hurt? Has the jack frost or something else come this way? I can—"

"You need to leave," she said, voice growing slightly chillier, her eyes fastened firmly on the counter, mouth turned down sharply. "Please, Match, just go."

"I really need that snowdrop though."

She didn't say anything, just continued to stare at the counter, mouth cutting deep frown lines into her face.

Anxiety and hurt curdled his stomach, and he left without a further word.

Out on the street, he took stock of what snowdrop he did have. Seven, each one carefully preserved with petals, stem, and leaves intact. They were crucial in activating the vital parts of the wards.

As it was impossible to create an individual ward for each and every big bad that might threaten Harper Valley, and there wouldn't be time to create the necessary ward every time of those big bads showed up, Match had gone for the complicated solution: A big, highly elaborate and complex ward that braided together all the necessary castings, like French braiding spells together, and when a particular one was needed he used an activating agent to trigger the particular ward he needed.

In this case, the winter wards, and the activating agent was snowdrops. He needed twenty of them in total, which shouldn't have been a problem. Except his planning at the time hadn't included him being at a boyfriend's house and nowhere close to his apartment—but his contingency had always been Maddy's, which was close to the townhall where so much of their specialized and heirloom equipment was kept in a special vault.

None of his plans had accounted for Maddy, whom he'd known since they were ten, throwing him out. Why? He hadn't even been to the shop in almost a month because he always needed less in winter.

When he'd returned to townhall, the SUV was gone, which meant he couldn't get a quick ride to his apartment. There was no one he could call to give him a ride to his apartment either, not in this steadily worsening weather. He could barely see in front of him anymore.

Fine, work with what you've got. Townhall and the surrounding area was the largest ward he'd created, a space that most of the town could retreat to if necessary, all of it if they really stacked on top of each other, but that was a worst of the worst situations.

So the first step was activating the townhall wards. Which meant going back across the street because the ward circle actually started there, to encompass townhall, its auxiliary buildings, and all the nearby public land.

Taking out one of the snowdrops, he knelt and brushed snow away from the area he needed, craning over it to keep it clean. Laying the snowdrop down, he took out his matches, set the snowdrop aflame, and stuck the burnt end of the match in his mouth.

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