Page 5 of A Snowed in Valentine's

Barely minutes ago, he’d seen her. He’d been resting inside his cabin when the vision jerked him back to alertness. It had been little more than a sudden flash, really—a small container, a mess of blonde hair, flailing arms, and wisps of dark smoke—but it had been enough to lure him outside. The visions were never a good sign. They meant something terrible was coming.

A witch, to be precise.

He gazed around some more. She wouldn’t be the first witch he’d killed or the last, but the thought of taking her down in the snow made his heart race in anticipation. Hatred burned in the pit of his belly. Their kind deserved to die. It was only fair after everything they had done to his ancestors, to his mother, his wife…

He shuffled his feet. That was odd. He usually didn’t feel this restless. After the first few kills, hunting witches had become less of a thrill and more of a duty. Something wasn’t quite right.

It’s been a while since you hunted a witch, he reminded himself, brushing the concern aside.Don’t worry about—

A deep boom made him look up.

In the distance, east of him, a circle of light had appeared in the sky, shimmering just long enough to let a vessel through. It was a plane, August realized, one of those machines from Earth. He remained where he stood, watching as the inevitable began to unfold.

The wings of the plane were being sheared off and bursting into flames as they fell to the ground. The plane itself began to plummet, breaking apart in midair. But it was a section of the plane that caught his eye. As the plane came apart, a small container dropped from it like a rock, then picked up speed.

Even before it hit the ground, August knew what was inside it. Or rather,who?

His blood rushing in his ears, the witch hunter headed eastward, marching across the side of the mountain to where the container had fallen, his blade and brander at the ready.

The witch had arrived.

Time to hunt.

***

Falling from a plane sounded like an adrenaline junkie’s fantasy.

For Daphne, it was more of a nightmare.

Luckily, she’d banged her head against the ceiling of the cubicle and passed out within seconds, so she didn’t have to witness the entire thing.

She dreamed she was lying in bed, back in Vegas. And then her eyes flickered open. She was still in the cubicle.

“Ow,” she groaned.

The back of her skull throbbed. She started to sit up, then realized the cubicle now lay on the ground, and she had barely enough room to move. The lavatory had been damaged in the crash. The mirror now lay at her feet, reduced to shrapnel, and the cubicle itself had been dented.

The details came rushing back to her: the plane, the spell… the crash. She’d crash-landed. The impact should have killed her instantly, but other than her aching skull, she seemed mostly unhurt. Her last-minute protection spell must have worked.

How long had she been out? An hour? Days?

That didn’t matter right now. She needed to get out of there. She tried to unlock the door, but it was jammed shut.

She groaned again. There was only one way to get out of this. The spell had drained her of most of her energy, but she still had enough to blast herself out of there.

She drew a deep breath. “Tsepmet!”Bring the storm.

There was a deafening boom as the cubicle burst apart, shrapnel flying in multiple directions. A powerful gust of wind swept up the snow as she got up, growing stronger by the second and…

Wait a minute,she thought.Snow?

She gazed around. Flecks of snow spun about her, making it hard to see. She stood ankle-deep in the snow, her breath condensing into steam with every breath. The snow stretched as far as the eye could see, a blanket of pure white covering rock formations and tree clusters.

“I’m on Frost Mountain,” she muttered, unable to believe the words even as they tumbled from her lips. “I did it.”

The wind howled in her ears. The storm she’d created was more powerful than she’d realized. She was going to have to reverse it once she regained some of her energy, but that was the last thing on her mind right now. Her spell had worked!

“I did it!” she repeated, a lot louder this time.

---