Page 26 of A Snowed in Valentine's

“She was from Earth,” he said. “A human, to be precise. I found her one evening, many years ago, after one of your vehicles—a car, she called it—crashed onto the mountain. I brought her back to my cabin and allowed her to live with me for weeks and months. By the end of the first year, we’d fallen in love.

“She became my wife the year after,” he went on, his eyes narrowing at the memory. “What we had would have lasted much longer than it did had I not…hesitated.”

Daphne leaned forward. “Hesitated? What do you mean?”

“I had a vision.”

“Oh.”

“It was Valentine’s Day. A witch had just arrived on Frost Mountain. It was up to me to stop her before she caused any trouble. So I went out in search of her. Alaina insisted on coming along.” He swallowed. “She promised that she would take cover when the time came. She was merely a healer; she had no business joining my battle with the witch.

“When we did find the witch, Alaina went back on her promise. The witch seemed to be in distress. She was bleedingheavily from a gash in her side, barely moments away from death. The crash had severely wounded her. Alaina rushed to help her. And that was when…it happened.”

Daphne blinked, apparently eager to hear the rest of his story.

“The witch attacked her. Drained the very life out of Alina to heal herself. By the time I reached them, the witch was gone, and Alaina was…Alaina was no more than a corpse. I hunted the witch down and took off her head, but a heavy price had already been paid. And all because I hesitated. When I saw the witch, I could have struck her down immediately. But she looked like she was hurt. My hesitation caused Alaina’s death.”

August was aware of the next few seconds ticking by slowly in silence. Finally, she said, “I’m really sorry about Alaina.”

He might have been imagining the look of guilt in her eyes or not. He sighed. “It’s why I didn’t hesitate to try and kill you when I first laid eyes on you. I couldn’t afford to make the same mistake.”

“Yeah, I think aiming for my neck made that pretty clear,” she replied. A shrewd look flickered in her eyes. “But I’m still alive. What changed?”

Her question struck him like a lightning bolt. Whathadchanged?

“You must be hungry,” he said, rising to his feet. “I’ll prepare some food.”

Chapter Ten

“You’re Not Crazy, Are You?”

She stared at her hands handcuffed to the metal table without really seeing much. She had been back in the interrogation room for about five minutes now, but the agents hadn’t returned.

Good.They could take their time. She had enough concerns on her plate without having to bother about those two.

Her conversation with August was still fresh in her mind. Odd as it sounded, she understood him a bit more now, understood his motivations. He wasn’t just a bloodthirsty witch hunter. He was a man who’d lost everything before and didn’t want to make that mistake again.

Are you just saying that because you like him?

Daphne’s eyes widened, and her hands started to fly to her mouth as the thought hit her.

Likehim? That was absolutely ridiculous. And yet…

Almost desperately, she brushed the thought aside. She still had other things to worry about.

The door swung open then, admitting agents Carter and O’Hara. Carter still had the grimoire in her hands. She set it down on the table, staring wordlessly into Daphne’s eyes.

“We’re giving you another chance, Emerson,” O’Hara said, standing hunched over the table and glowering at her. His eyes were red. “Tell us what’s in the damn book. Make this easier for us.”

Daphne replied, “I’ve already told you everything I can. So far, you two have refused to believe me.”

O’Hara scoffed. “What, you expect us to believe that you’re a witch? Or that the missing plane went through a magical dimension and crashed onto a snowy mountain that’s in another dimension, some other world apart from ours?”

“Exactly.”

The agent’s face turned nearly as red as his eyes. He threw up his hands in exasperation. “I should’ve come in here with a straitjacket.” He focused his glare on her again. “But you’re not crazy, are you? You’re just refusing to cooperate with us.”

Daphne sighed. They weren’t getting anywhere, and it didn’t look like that would be changing anytime soon. She couldn’t stay here much longer. If these two didn’t question her to death, then something worse was coming. Carter had mentioned the CIA and Homeland Security. Daphne hadn’t imagined mere words could strike so much fear into her heart, but here she was.

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