I look down at my key card, following the signs until I’ve made it to my room. Dropping my bags next to the bed, I go straight for the balcony, unlatching the door and heading out onto it. I stare out at the view, hands gripping the ice-coated railing. The Frosts have turned this into a wintry haven, and I can’t help but wonder how much of this is Jax’s work.
If he hadn’t intervened after my accident…would I be out there with him right now, painting the world white with a wave of my arm?
“Where are you, Jax?” I whisper to the wind. The scent of juniper and pine kisses my nose, and I breathe in deeply. I follow it to the right, and my heart begins to pound so fiercely I can feel my pulse through my fingertips pressed against the icy balustrade.
He’s there in the distance, zipping along treetops with a hauntingly powerful grace that no human could ever capture. His body sweeps with the wind. He’s the breeze itself, swirling around trees, decorating their branches. More movement catches my eyes, and I grip the railing tighter.
Not only can I see Jax, I can see more of them.
Frosts.
His fellow immortals flit on the breeze, between the trees, along every structure both natural and manmade, creating a wintry masterpiece right before my eyes. I lift a finger, pointing to each one as I count. They work so quickly, it takes me a minute to decide if there are four or five of them.
Four.
It’s not far off from watching a ballet. From where I stand, witnessing them all move in and out of each other, they make up their very own ensemble. A small chilling corps. If any of them notice me staring, they don’t seem to care.
Each one tends to a different spot, decorating with their own delicate flair.
One Frost glides closer, platinum hair whipping behind her as she pulls long icicles from the rooftop of the lodge. When her periwinkle eyes meet mine, she freezes in place.
“Hello,” I say, wondering if there’s an etiquette to approaching a should-be-invisible immortal when you’re mortal.
“It’s you,” she says, focus floating back toward the other harbingers. “Jax’s mate.”
“Yes.” I can’t stop staring at the twinkle in her eyes. They are so different from Jax’s but otherworldly in their own way. I wonder if every Frost looks so unique. Obviously, the transformation is stark. What did she look like in her mortal life? What would I look like if I had an immortal one?
“I’m Aneira.” She gives me a gentle smile, tucking a lilac-streaked strand of hair behind her ear. “But you can call me Ani. Your mate does.”
The way she speaks of mates both excites me and makes my nerves ratchet. Jax and I are mates. To Aneira, and potentially the rest of the Frosts, we are a forgone conclusion. A permanent partnership. There’s no question of what I am to him in her glittering eyes.
I wish I felt that certainty when it came to a future for us.
“Do you want me to call him over?” Her attention darts to where the mate mark is hidden beneath my layers. “Do you want to?”
“That’s okay. I have to be somewhere. But if you can give him a message for me, that would be amazing.”
Knock, knock, knock.
“I better go,” I whisper.
“Quick! What’s the message?”
“Tell him I’m here.” I smirk.
“Of course. That is, if he hasn’t already figured it out.” Aneira grins back and pulls down a few more icicles over my head at differing lengths. The closer she gets to me, the chillier the air is. “It was wonderful to meet you, Jolie.”
“Likewise, Ani.”
She waves goodbye, flitting away before she drops down into her chestnut-brown wolf form and sprints between the trees toward the larger silver-and-white one in the distance.
Jax’s eyes sparkle, and the wind whispers in his comforting lilt.“Looks like you were the one to find me this time, Tempest.”
36
JOLIE
After dinner, my body still tingles from three hours at the spa and having every knotted muscle rubbed before being pampered with facials and pedicures. I feel incredible, relaxed, refreshed.
