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Chapter Nine

Escalation

Eli

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THE WORLD WAS A FIRESTORMof hail and ice. Each flake of white torment raged past me at speed as it trailed its private course to the growing bed of its peers at my feet. Even though I’d vowed not to let her out of my sight, I’d headed out into the freezing conditions after compelling a sandwich into Erin. Promising to return soon, I’d ensured the door was closed when I left, but I hadn’t expected the exacerbated situation. The wind had picked up since we’d found refuge and made each new step forward a bracing challenge.

“Shit.”

Turning my back to the gale that seemed determined to knock me from my feet, I responded to the call of nature and plowed on sideways, surveying the exterior of the cabin for any signs of additional wood stocks. The bad news was that, so far, there was nothing except growing drifts of the same snow that had landed Erin and me in the ranger’s hut in the first place. One glance at the sky confirmed there was no shortage of it to come.

I pushed away the trepidation threatening to balloon in my chest. If there was no more wood, we’d have to make do with what we had. Erin already had the benefit of the fire inside the cabin, and when that waned, she could huddle in her blankets.

I’m doing everything I can to look after her.

It was true, but my stiffening jaw also accepted that my altruism was mainly because I was so utterly responsible for the fate of the rest of her party. Three of them were missing and two presumed dead. Even in a career as long as mine, it was a pitiful tally, and if I’d only done a better job with James and Miles, we might not have been stuck in our current predicament.

“Saving James wouldn’t have changed the weather,” I reminded myself as I fought past another gust of wind. “All five of us might have ended up here.”

That would have been a nightmare.

The grim realization of that scenario did little to lift my spirits as I accepted what had become obvious. There were no other wood stocks to bail us out. We’d have to make the meager supply she’d discovered inside last the course.

However long that was.

An image of Erin burst into my head as I struggled against the force of the tempest. Despite having met in such stressful circumstances, she was still the most beautiful woman I’d laid eyes on in many years.

“And I could have been holding her against me tonight.” I’d given her the bloody bed without so much as a fight, cursing myself as I gave in when all I wanted to do was tumble into it with her. “But that’s not what she wants.”

Pressing my back against the lodge, I considered my conclusion. Erin had thrown me a few breadcrumbs since we’d met. The way her stare had lingered in my direction and how her face had reddened when we’d spoken, but it wasn’t much to go on.

“It’s nothing to go on.” I stamped my boot into the snow, acknowledging how deep the whiteout had become in the short time we’d been inside. If the blizzard continued at the current rate, the cabin would be virtually buried in a few hours, and without extra wood, it was a grim reality.

‘It’s no more than you deserve!’

The impish voice rattled along the breeze, my brow furrowing as I turned to acknowledge who it belonged to.

There, able to withstand the strength of the wind with no effort, was the latest ghoul sent to plague me. Tall, dark, and with no discernable features, the creature shifted toward me, floating along the snow as though it were flying.

“Just go away!” I hollered, irritated at the way its presence had derailed me. It was bad enough having lost three of the party and accepting that Erin didn’t want me. I didn’t need another haunting. “Leave me be.”

‘You didn’t leave me be.’Its voice was a sneer. ‘You didn’t leavemeuntil I was dead!’

Anxiety gripped my stomach at its accusation. “If you’re dead, then disappear!”

Turning, I focused on trudging on and getting back to Erin. The nonsensical ramblings of my latest visitation would have to wait, but its words resounded in my head, even as I fought my way around the side of the hut, its recriminations stinging more than they should have in a man who was paid to put bodies in the ground.

Flinging open the door, I tumbled inside in a dramatic heap of cascading snowflakes before I shoved the door closed with my boot.

“Are you okay?” She edged closer, apprehension flashing in her alluring eyes.

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