Page 30 of Snowbound with the Alpha Wolf
Darcy blew out a breath in the cold mountain air and focused on the task before them. Love and respectdrove Adrian to undertake this mission. Love for Peggy and respect for her lastwishes.
After seeing Peggy and knowing the crystal could save her, Darcy could face a legion of demons. She knew Adrian felt the sameway.
She liked the elder and felt a pang of sorrow at losing her. Not only her life force but the plethora of memories Peggy carried, the wisdom she’d gained through thedecades.
The void she’d leave in the lives of herdescendants.
Maybe her own parents didn’t give a damn about her and she had no family who cared, but she could save Peggy and brighten the lives of her family. Darcy wanted tohelp.
Call it the white knight inside her, forever battling the darkness swirling there, the darkness that always threatened to push to theforefront.
Adrian powered up the snowmobile, and she climbed on the back. He cut through the white powder with ease. He navigated around tight turns, Darcy leaning into the turns, clinging to his waist. Biting wind whipped at them as they climbed higher, using the old mining road carved into the mountain yearsago.
He stopped the snowmobile after they reached a plateau. The bridge over a steepcanyon looked long abandoned. Pine trees ringed the mountain, but no one livedhere.
No one had been here for a long time. The area felt lost and eerie, a true ghosttown.
Adrian slung the duffel over one shoulder. “Let’sgo.”
The horizontal mineshaft was set on the slope of a mountain. It was a steep walk downward to reach the entrance, using a path of snow-covered graveland dirt. A nearby waterfall splashed over granite rocks, feeding into a creek beyond the mine. Large clumps of tailings, the leavings of mine residue, peppered the hillside with their ugly remains. The grayish mounds peeked through the snow like the hands of corpses, ruining the sparkling, whitelandscape.
Even in her sturdy boots, Darcy found the hike slippery and treacherous. Once sheslipped. He righted her, his gaze steady. “Youokay?”
She nodded. It would make sense for her to shift into a bird and fly down, but she didn’t dare expend her energy until it wasnecessary.
They reached the bottom. An equipment shack was locked with a sturdy padlock, but Adrian fished a key out of his jeans. He set down his duffel bag, went inside the shack and returned with a crowbarand twohardhats.
The mine’s entrance was boarded up, an empty ore cart blocking it. Strong energy shimmered in the air. Adrian’s magick warding, she realized. It was powerful enough to make hernauseated.
“Bend over and take in deep breaths of air,” he told her, his hand steady on herback.
A lovely, lyrical chanting filled the air. Adrian was casting some kind of counter-spellto remove the warding. Closing her eyes, she listened to the deep tenor of his voice, and the urge to retchfaded.
When she straightened, she saw he’d removed the ore cart. Adrian went to a small shack near the entrance. A few minutes later, she heard a generator start. He emerged from the shack, dusting off his hands, a faint odor of diesel clinging tohim.
Lights gleamed withinthe cavernous interior of the mine, peeking through the boards nailed across theentrance.
He began using a crowbar to pull off theboards.
She helped him pull off the rest. He took the crow bars and tossed them onto theground.
He peered into the gloom, barely pierced by the light bulbs strung along the tunnel’sceiling.
Darcy shuddered. “Is itsafe?”
“Invisiblegases can build up in old mines. Let’s testit.”
“Got a canary handy?” She referenced the old-fashioned method miners used to ensure the air was safe. If the bird died, the minersfled.
The eye roll he gave amused her. “Something better.” Adrian removed a small instrument from his backpack. It beeped and glowed green. “Safe sofar.”
“And what about the warding?” sheasked.
“I eased the spell so I can enter, but I will not risk removing it. It’s toodangerous.”
“So how am I supposed to goinside?”
“The magick will allow anyone I claim as mine to enter.” He bent his head, breathing in her neck as he nuzzled herneck.
