Page 148 of Let It Snow
Snow explains to me that he almost never gives his brothers hints about the future. He keeps his distance because he knows how differently people react to that kind of thing. Not everyone welcomes meddling in their lives and choices.
Besides, Snow firmly believes in nonintervention except in the most dramatic situations, and now, he says, one of those situations is about to happen.
The next few days are heavy.
Lake is practically twisting himself up with fear. I see him pacing the house, restless, and Aiden trails after him, trying to calm him down.
I step in from time to time, trying to comfort him, but he only shakes his head. There’s no convincing him to relax.
Snow is struggling too.
I can see something haunting him, and when I ask, he says the image of what’s about to happen to Winter is breaking through a blind spot in his view of the future. He can hardly tell what exactly might occur.
Three days later, I step outside with Snow onto the patio, where his dad is sitting—a bundle of raw nerves.
Pale, trembling, lost in thought.
Lake’s love and concern for his children are truly without limits. It’s something I envy in him; his bond with them feels almost magical. I can’t help but suspect Snow’s abilities didn’t just appear out of nowhere in their bloodline, that Lake’s natural, intuitive magic, enhanced through his Bond with his TM, Aiden, has resulted in the extraordinary talent their son now has.
On that particular day, Winter boards a plane bound for Japan.
The problem is, the flight was originally supposed to include the infamous Blue Lowen, the same guy Anzo Ferro tried to assassinate two days before I escaped the fortress! Yes, the same person. Only this time, at the last moment, Blue backed out of the flight.
That fact is the source of Lake’s particular dread. He knows that Blue Lowen is someone whose life is under constant threat, with assassination attempts coming one after another.
One of their own relatives, Snow’s second cousin, Gabriel Nolan, who works as Blue’s bodyguard, got a warning text from Snow two days ago, and Blue was the only one who took it seriously, deciding not to board.
Still, Winter ignored Snow’s plea.
Today he got on the plane.
Lake hunches on his rattan couch, hands trembling with nerves. Aiden squeezes his fingers, his silver eyes filled with love and worry for his husband.
Snow tries playing his harmonica to calm him down, but it isn’t working. The source of Lake’s fear runs deeper. And, unfortunately, it’s real.
At one point, Lake drifts off for a moment on the couch, then wakes up with a piercing scream that makes everyone jump, including me.
"WINTER!"
Aiden and Snow rush to his side, grabbing his hands.
"A bomb!" Lake shouts. "A bomb just went off on the plane! They’re high above the ocean! It’s over—it’s over—oh God, oh my God! My child! My child is dying!"
A cold wave of fear runs through me. I can see, can feel, the pain tearing through Lake’s body. It hits me that he must have some kind of energetic bond with his children, like an invisible umbilical cord that was never severed.
Suddenly Lake, with eyes wild and blown wide, turns sharply to Snow and grabs him by the shoulders, shaking him almost violently.
"Save them! I’m begging you, Snow!"
Snow’s face goes pale, filled with pain that mirrors Lake’s own. I know Snow can’t save them.
But maybe I can.
It’s a mad thought, completely baseless. Winter’s plane is thousands of miles away, plunging from the sky as we speak.
Could I focus my energy across that distance if… if Lake’s bond with him could pull me there like a thread?
I spring to my feet, locking my gaze on Lake’s tear-filled eyes.
