Page 12 of Winter Reckoning
Outside, the door to the shed opened, bathing the snow in a soft yellow light. Charlene trudged through the waist-high snow. The light faded as the door shut behind her. A minute later she barged in the backdoor, banging books against the doorframe to shake snow. She stripped down, hung her jacket on the hook and came into the living room.
“No power?”
“Your doing?”
She shook her head. “Not this time.”
Her eyes narrowed as if I had something on my face. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of checking. As if she didn’t believe me, she flicked a light switch. The first time I understood, but the tenth time, I thought she might be dense.
“Where’s Nick?”
“Study.”
She waved her hand in front of my face. “What’s something going on here? You’re not acting your normal self.”
“We just met.”
Even in the dim light, I watched her eyes roll back in her head. Shaking her head, she all but laughed in my face. “Danny. Danny. Danny. Oh, I know you. I’ve been working for your twin. You two are just alike.”
My face remained slack.
“Where is our jolly friend?”
Jolly? Not the word I’d use to describe him.
“His study.”
“Great. This is going to turn into a shouting match.”
“What’s that?”
Her eyes narrowed as her head tipped to the side. We held our positions for almost a full minute as she stopped and started half a dozen times.
“You don’t know. Do you?”
Three short quick raps against the front door. Our heads turned in unison. The knot between my shoulders turned as the hair on my arms stood on end. Bad news awaited us on the other side of the door.
"You expecting anyone?" I kept my voice low.
Charlene shook her head. "I'm gonna go ahead and not open that."
Nick emerged from the hallway fully clothed. While Charlene and I were tense enough to snap, his saunter to our side suggested he knew who waited for us. It appeared as if our tryst had been temporary, and he returned to being a man ready to accept his fate.
I signaled for them to stay back and moved toward the door. My boots were silent against the floorboards. I pressed my back against the wall beside the frame and reached for the handle.With every inch, a chill spread along my skin, preparing for our guest.
Opening it a crack, cold air rushed in. Nobody rushed in, weapons blazing. There was no villainous laughing. Snow blew inside as I leaned closer to the crack. My brain was already running through scenarios, preparing countermeasures.
A figure stood just beyond the porch, partially obscured by falling snow and darkness. Over seven feet tall, I looked up. He was draped in ragged robes that moved wrong in the wind. A black, cracked antler crown sat crooked on his head. He held a cane in one hand, twisted wood with something metal at the top that caught the light from inside.
He looked up, a smile stretching from ear-to-ear. His teeth shone white against the dark shadows. “I smell faltering belief. Nicholas, I’ve come to collect.” His voice had a smooth certainty, as if they had already made the transaction.
Frost gathered at my fingertips.
He moved first.
The blast hit before I could react. Ice and wooden splinters exploded across the porch. The doorframe cracked. I threw myself sideways as debris shot past my head.
My hands transformed into living ice as I thrust them forward and summoned a wall of frost. Rising from the floorboards, it spread across the doorway in jagged sheets. Even in my old age, the danger detector never lied. I made fists, gathering the cold like a weapon. The temperature dropped twenty degrees in seconds. Breaths came out in white clouds.
