Page 9 of A Secret Crush Valentine's

Her movements faltered. She’d already figured that part out, but it was still chilling to hear. “What are you talking about?”

Damon adjusted the strap of the bag he was carrying. “Frost Mountain isn’t just a dimension. It’s more like a cage than anything else, only there aren’t any bars you can see. That’s the trick. All there is to this dimension is the mountain itself. The mountain goes on infinitely—at least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

She considered the implication of what he’d just said. “Wait… there’s no end to this mountain? There’s nothing at the bottom?”

“There is no bottom, Red,” he corrected. “If you continued traveling downhill, you’d have done so for the rest of your life. This mountain is a cage with infinite space. We’re all on a hamster wheel, trying to stay alive and keep our minds intact.”

He spoke as casually if he were a high school senior giving a tour to a freshman, but it was his tone that troubled her. His words either made no sense at all or were too horrifying to believe. She bit her lip unconsciously. How long would she have to spend here before she got used to this place?

Sixteen years should do the trick, she told herself.

“Any idea why a place like this even exists?” she asked.

“I was getting to that.” His shoulders sagged a little, his eyes narrowing. “This place is magic. Who do you think is responsible for it?”

The answer was so obvious that Julia couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it earlier. “Witches.”

“Ding, ding, ding.”

“Bloody hell.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you could pass for a female movie lead with that accent? You know, the sexy kind.”

In spite of the weather, Julia felt heat rush to her cheeks and wondered if he could see her blushing. Clearing her throat, she asked, “Why would they do something like this?”

“Boredom?” He chuckled. “People say there was a war on earth a long time ago.”

“How long ago are we talking?”

“A few hundred years, give or take.”

“That’s a long time.”

“That’s what I said.” He swept his gaze about as they walked past the trees, snow crunching beneath their shoes. “It was a war between shifters and witches. And you can guess who played dirty and who bit the dust—er, snow.”

“Blimey.”

“Uh-huh. The witches created this dimension to imprison the shifters who survived. This place is crawling with descendants of those shifters. But they’re not the only ones here.”

“Yeah, you mean you and me.”

He cocked his head and flashed her a tiny grin that twisted her insides in a knot. “Yeah, Red. Along with millions, if not billions, of other people from the earth.”

“Wait,what?” She froze in her tracks.

He motioned to her to keep walking. “I told you that this place is designed to keep people from leaving. The thing is, it doesn’t keep anyone from getting in. There are portals all over earth. I’m willing to bet that half the people who go missing wind up here. Same with cars, ships…”

“Or planes.” Her pulse throbbed in her ears as the memory of Flight 18 falling from the sky flashed through her mind.

Damon gave a grave nod, and Julia had a feeling he already suspected how she’d arrived here. The plane crash had been because of some portal in the sky. And Damon… the same must have happened to him when they fell into that lake all those years ago.

His expression seemed to brighten a little. “Look, Red, there’s nothing we can do about this place. It’s out of anyone’s control. You and I are stuck here now. Sure, it’s designed to imprison and sometimes kill you, but there are perks.”

She lifted a snowy brow. “Such as?”

“Well, first, the people coming in from our world aren’t just adding to the population. They bring their culture and ideas along with them. You know, for a while after I got here, I used to explain football to…” His smile wavered. “Well, to my friends.”

He cleared his throat. “Items end up in this dimension, too. Food supplies, clothing, scrap metal… it’s a magical junkyard. Between that and the people showing up, there are parts of Frost Mountain more civilized than others. It’s like having multiple time periods in the same space. Why do you think you’ve got a Nike jacket on instead of animal skin?”

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