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“Does it hurt when they do it?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

He doesn’t answer that one. We sit there until the gap in the canopy changes from black to violet. As the sun creeps across the clearing, everyone stands and assembles in a circle again.

The sun inches up Anna’s body and hits the lapis. She grunts, her mouth drawing into a tight line. Hazel presses her hand over Anna’s, holding it down and whispering words I can’t hear. Faint tendrils of smoke drift up into the sky, escaping through the ceiling in the trees. The scent of burning skin hangs in the air.

The woman who told Nick to keep me on a short leash digs her nails into her thigh hard enough to draw blood. Nick’s hand finds mine, and I don’t know which one of us reached for the other first.

When it’s over, the wound closes up into a raised white line. One she’ll have for the rest of her life, however long that may be. I write it all down on the walk back to Nick’s truck, badly, with numb hands. Nine entries, now ten.

Chapter 47

Nick

“Holy hell, it’s cold,” Willow grumbles as she locks arms with Ellery. They skip ahead like schoolgirls, and I’m grateful she’s here to give Ellery a little slice of her old life for the holidays. The whole town is down at the park for the solstice celebration, and Luca and I trail behind, at a distance safe enough that we can deny we know them.

“She’s a firecracker.” He watches Willow twirl Ellery under her arm, and he’s delighted.

“And off-limits to you.”

“You can’t ban me from every new girl that comes into town.”

“Fine. You’re banned from every woman Ellery has ever met,” I say, satisfied with the boundary I’ve drawn.

He laughs and slaps me on the back. “I’m glad you’ve found someone who makes you happy.”

“Me too.”

He takes off after them.

The sun has set, and the bonfire burns brightly. Unlike some parts of Alaska, we don’t get days of complete darkness. Instead, our shortest day of the year is a handful of hours of sunlight.

By the time I catch up, Ellery, Willow, and Luca are lacing up skates to head out onto the frozen creek. Somebody’s strung lanterns along the gazebo rail, and there are fire barrels the whole way down the shore to the stones by the bridge.

I get Ellery up on hers, and she stays there, more or less.

“Come skate with us?”

Any argument I’d prepared goes out the window.

“Fine.” I grab some skates from the kid handing them out.

Luca disappears with Willow down the length of the creek. We cut circles around the frozen surface until I take both of Ellery’s hands and send us into a spin. She yelps, and it turns into a laugh.

“I’ve got you.” I was a pretty average skater before I became a vampire, but I’m lightning on the ice now.

“I know you do.” She isn’t watching her feet. She’s watching me.

“Is Nick a freaking figure-skating champ or something?” Willow asks Luca.

“Nah, naturally athletic. It runs in the family.” I can practically hear him wink at her.

When they’re exhausted and starving, we head to the long table for food. Mom’s talking with Lloyd over bowls of Pete’s chili. Tess is beside them, with Isaac wrapped in a blanket in her lap. Hazel’s birch-syrup toffee is all over his face and hands.

“Time to light the tree,” Roslyn announces as she moves through the crowd to the base of the giant white spruce covered in lights and a hundred years of the town’s ornaments—carved figurines, felt reindeer, wicker stars.