The Winter People

by Rebekah L. Purdy

  “No. You go on. I’ll be fine.” Mom looked like a wreck and I knew there wasn’t anything I could say or do that would make her feel better.

  “Are you sure you want to be home alone?” Mom said later that night as she put in her diamond earrings. Her wedding band had disappeared, probably down the toilet.

  “Seriously, Mom, everything is fine. I’ll probably just read a book. I’ve got like a million of them in my to-be-read pile.”

  Her sad smile told me she was reconsidering this whole idea. But the thing was, I knew she needed people to talk to. Someone who knew the right things to say, and I wasn’t sure I was that person. At least not tonight. “Promise you’ll call me if you need me. I’ll have Nancy bring me right back home.” Her voice softened.

  “Go. Have fun.”

  A horn honked from the driveway and Mom gave me a peck on the cheek. “I’ll try not to be too late.”

  When she left, the house was quiet. But it was a sad kind of quiet. The kind that reminded me of how alone I was. I considered calling Kadie, but she wasn’t the kind of comforting I wanted tonight.

  Colton was out of the picture. And, well, I didn’t really have any other friends. I grabbed my cell from my room. On second thought, I could get a hold of Gareth. He’d programmed his number into my phone. Right. I was sure he’d want to drop everything and come over and hang out with me. However, he could always help me with some research.

  Before I could talk myself out of it, I pulled up his contact info. With trembling fingers, I dialed his number.

  “Please pick up.” But it went to voicemail. So I left a lame, stammering message asking if he could come over.

  When I hung up, I triggered the security latch for the gate to unlock, just in case he actually got my voicemail and decided to drop in.

  Twenty minutes later the doorbell rang. Oh God, had he actually come? Taking a deep breath, I hurried to the door. Gareth stood there like a blazing knight in shining armor, holding a box of chocolates.

  “You sounded upset on the phone, so I thought I’d bring you something to cheer you up.” He grinned, holding out the candy to me.

  “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I know. But I wanted to.” He shrugged. “So what’s going on?”

  I ushered him inside, nervousness tickling my belly. For a moment, I just stood there, staring at him.

  “Salome?”

  “Everything is so screwed up,” I said, staring at the boxes of my dad’s stuff in the living room.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Gareth took off his coat, shut the door, and put my box of chocolate on the counter.

  I nodded my head, then led him into the living room. We sat on the couch, my leg pressed against his. At last, I glanced at him and gave him the grim details of my dad’s odd behavior and ended on the high point of my parents pending divorce. I spared him the details of my fight with Nevin, thinking he wouldn’t want to hear that, since he had no idea who he was.

  “I just want to forget it all,” I said.

  He wiped away my tears with his thumb, his callused hand caressing my cheek. “Things will get better.” Gareth’s warm breath fanned across my neck as he leaned closer, pulling me into his arms for a hug.

  My blood thrummed in my ears when he rubbed my back in soothing circles. My fingers trembled and I slid my good arm around his shoulders, resting the side of my face against him. Even through the fabric of his sweater, I could feel his muscles. And his cologne smelled so good. It was strange being so close to him. Not that he hadn’t held me before, it’s just those times had been when he’d rescued me. But I guess, in a sense, that’s what he was doing again.

  “Did you want to go to your grandma’s still?” His voice sounded deeper.

  I swallowed hard. “Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to go all damsel on you.” I started to pull back and he stopped me.

  He cupped my chin, tilting my head so I stared into his eyes. “Does it look like I mind?”

  My palms slid down his chest and I heard a deep exhale. “I—I don’t know.” I shifted my gaze to his tattoos. Without thinking about it, I traced a finger over the gothic designs.

  “Do you know what you’re doing?” Gareth said, his eyes darkening. Not with anger, but something else.

  My face sizzled with heat and I dropped my hand. “Sorry. I mean, I wasn’t trying to seduce you or anything.”

  “Well, that’s too bad.” He chuckled.

  My eyes widened and I glanced at him. “What?”

  “Teasing.”

  “Right.” I probably wasn’t his type, which, for some reason, made me feel kind of disappointed. “So, I wondered if you might be willing to help me do some more research.”

  “I think the library’s closed.” He smiled. “Wait, did you lure me over here under false pretenses? Did you actually miss me?”

  I laughed. “For your information, there are some things at my grandparents’ house I wanted to show you. Maybe some of it will make more sense to you. And yes, I admit, I kind of missed you. But only kind of. Don’t let it go to your head.”

  He chuckled and it warmed me from my head to toes. “I think you and I are going to be hanging out a lot more.”

  A knock sounded on the door to the deck. My brow furrowed. Who the heck could that be?

  “I’ll be right back,” I said.

  When I opened the door, I was surprised to find Colton there.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, my fingers clenched tight to the handle.

  “I came by to see you. And to apologize. You’re right. I’ve been a dick. I’m sorry.” He leaned against the side of the house, his dark hair sweeping his forehead. “But do we have to not be friends now?”

  “I think it’s best if you stayed away.” I went to shut the door and he caught it with his hand, stopping it.

  “So that’s it?”

  “Colton, please.”

  Behind him, Nevin climbed the deck stairs, his eyes the color of ice and just as cold, gazing right through me.

  “W—what are you doing here?” I stared beyond Colton to Nevin.

  “I need to talk to you,” he said. His face hardened as he glanced at Colton

  “What brings you here, cousin?” Colton spun to face him, voice filled with amusement. “We’re kind of busy.”

  Whoa? Cousin? No way. No fucking way.

  If Nevin was put off or upset, he didn’t show it. Instead he grinned with his infamous arrogance.

  “Didn’t think she was your type, cousin,” Nevin answered. “I thought you would’ve moved on by now. In fact, last I heard, you were told to stay the hell away from her.”

  Colton glowered. “Yeah, well, I don’t answer to you here. In fact, things were going great until you sent your friend my way.”

  I stepped onto the deck, away from both of them.

  “You guys are cousins?” My throat tightened. Did that mean Colton was over two hundred years old too? Was he in on all the crap with Kassandra? Shit. What was wrong with these two? And why were they both so interested in me?

  Nevin nodded. “Yes.”

  “And you both knew about each other?”

  “I knew as soon as you mentioned his name,” Nevin said. “But I guess I didn’t think he’d be any competition or that he’d try to take things this far.”

  I scowled at him. “Wait, what?”

  “Because you prefer my company over his. You chose me, Salome,” Nevin whispered, ignoring his cousin. “You chose to spend time with me, to share all your secrets with me. Did you ever once tell him about the voices or the creature that stalks you in the woods? Did he know about all the grisly details of your fall into the pond and the people who saved you?”

  I swallowed hard. No, I hadn’t told him any of those things. The question was why? Because I wanted one person to think I was normal.

  “You guessed wrong.” Colton sneered. “I am competition or at least I was until you pulled a fast one on me.”

 
“She needed to be kept safe.” Nevin’s gaze never left mine.

  Suddenly I wasn’t feeling so good. Damn, they pissed me off. Here they’d lied to me this whole time and I was just supposed to be okay with it all? Nausea churned in my belly. They were both a couple hundred years old. Older than my parents and grandparents. Maybe older than the town. And they didn’t give a crap about me. “Just stop, okay? Is this some kind of messed up game you two play with women? I don’t know what’s going on, but I think one or both of you owe me some answers.”

  “Why don’t I come inside, then we can talk,” Colton said.

  When I moved toward the door, Nevin caught my arm. “No, I need to speak to her. And she’s already told you that you’re not welcome here.”

  “You’ve had your chance, cousin, and it sounds like you blew it. Or so a little birdie told me.” Colton seemed almost bigger, his eyes darker, his body tenser.

  Nevin sighed. “She might be the one.”

  The one what? My heart thundered in my ears like stampeding cattle.

  “Is everything, okay?” Gareth came to the door and peered outside. His wide shoulders seemed to fill the small space.

  Colton backed away with a glare and headed toward the driveway. Over his shoulder he gave Nevin a look I didn’t understand, but they both nodded like some silent agreement had been made.

  Nevin waited for Colton’s truck to pull away before turning to Gareth.

  “We’re fine,” Nevin answered.

  “If you need me, I’ll be right here.”

  I wasn’t sure if Gareth was saying that to Nevin or me, but I watched him go back into the house. Why had he just left me here with someone he didn’t know? Or did he?

  “Why are you here, Nevin?” I whispered, my energy tapped. I didn’t want any more bullshit stories.

  “Because you left before I explained myself to you.” He closed the distance between us, his arms encircling me.

  I attempted to jerk free, but he held me tight. “Just leave me alone. You made it perfectly clear how you feel. That our friendship was a fluke.”

  “No, I didn’t,” he whispered in my ear. “She could hear us earlier today. If she found out how much I care about you, she would’ve killed you on the spot.”

  My eyes widened as I stared at the tree line behind him. I lowered my voice. “How do I know you’re not just saying that? You could be playing me like you did that other girl.” Already, I inched closer to the house. I didn’t want to be outside.

  “Trust me.”

  “I don’t know if I can trust you. You’re not the person I thought you were.”

  Nevin brushed my hair from my face, forcing me to look at him. “I messed up in the past, but I promise you, I’m not that man anymore. You mean everything to me. How can I prove that to you?”

  Cold air assaulted us, the winds battering the side of the house. My teeth chattered.

  “I can’t do this tonight,” I said. “Give me a few days.” After what he’d put me through earlier, I wanted him to suffer a little. To understand the pain I’d felt when he’d rejected me—telling me he didn’t care. Friendship was something that I didn’t offer very often, for this very reason.

  Was it worth the risk to let Nevin stay in my life? Especially now that I knew whoever wanted me dead, might be connected to him as well? It would be so much easier to turn around and never look back.

  He released me and stepped back. “Find me when you’re ready.”

  What was I doing? Weren’t the letters convincing enough? He’d brought Kassandra to her knees. He’d probably showered her with fancy gifts and words of love and to what end?

  I rushed back into the house and slammed the door. Damn him! He couldn’t just show up when he wanted. I was tired of being hurt and of being scared. I needed to stand up for myself. To be strong for once.

  “Are you all right?” Gareth watched as I stalked across the kitchen and leaned against the counter.

  “I hardly know anymore.”

  “I heard Colton out there, but it sounded like you handled him and I didn’t want to interfere. Was he giving you trouble?”

  “Kind of, but don’t worry about it. I don’t think he’s going to be coming around much anymore.” I wondered why he didn’t mention Nevin, and it hit me. I shuddered and caught his eye. “You’re like them aren’t you?”

  He shrugged. “Are you sure you want the answer to that?”

  He was right. I decided that was the last thing I wanted to talk about right this second. Instead I said, “You ready to go to my grandma’s now?”

  “Are you still up for it?” He grabbed his coat from the back of the chair.

  “Yeah. Definitely. I—I need to concentrate on something else.”

  “Do you want me to drive?”

  “No, it’s not far.”

  Gareth walked beside me as we trudged through the snow and down the path. He kept his pace even with mine, reaching out to steady me when I lost my footing and nearly face planted in a snow bank.

  “Geesh, you’d think I forgot how to walk.”

  “I thought you might’ve done it on purpose so I’d catch you.” He chuckled.

  “You seriously enjoy the fact that I’ve been a damsel in distress lately.”

  “Well, it hasn’t been all bad.”

  I shifted my gaze to the snow. He was right. It’d been nice being able to talk to him. And if he hadn’t been there, then I’d be dead. Several times over. I shivered at the thought.

  “You cold? If you want, you can have my jacket, too.”

  “I’m good.” Finally, we stepped into my grandparents’ driveway and I led him into the house. I flipped on the switch and light flooded the kitchen. With a sigh, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the key to the hidden room.

  When I opened the door, I heard Gareth let out slow breath. For a moment, I thought he said the word “magic.”

  “What’s wrong?” I peered back at him.

  “Nothing.” He grinned. “Man, your grandparents have a lot of antiques in here.”

  We both stepped the rest of the way in. “And a ton of a dust and cobwebs.” I waved a web away from my face.

  I grabbed some of the ledgers and maps to show him, hoping something would stick out to him.

  He ran his hand along a stone tablet type thing on one of the shelves. “Do you know where your grandma got this?”

  “No. This is only the second time I’ve been in here. Why, do you recognize it?”

  “It looks like a faerie artifact I saw in some fantasy book a while back.”

  I moved next to him and studied the carvings of suns, flowers, leaves, and snowflakes. Why would Grandma have an item like that? Not to mention, how did I even know that it was real? Maybe she just liked to collect fairytale stuff.

  “So what do you make of these?” I handed the ledger over so he could see the deaths of the women in my family.

  “Well, I think you need to focus on the fact that they all passed away during the winter.”

  I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Everything always leads back to winter.”

  He stood straight, his hand touching my shoulder. “And that’s your starting point.”

  We searched through more documents and books, but nothing more stuck out at us. After a couple of hours, Gareth walked me back home and headed out.

  Alone, I stared out the window. Winter. That was my only clue. Frustrated, I let the curtains fall back in place. When did life get so screwed up?

  After I fell through the ice.

  I stormed into the living room.

  Picking up the TV remote, I whipped it across the room. Confused was the understatement of the century. Who could I trust? Both Nevin and Colton had lied to me, not just about their age, but about everything. Which also begged the question, were they human? If not, what the hell were they and what did they want with me? Did they have anything to do with the disappearances I’d read about, the ones that happened in the nineteenth century
? And what about the tiny footprints I’d seen around the trees on Grandma’s property, and the frickin’ crazy creature lady who’d tried to kill me? I wasn’t losing my mind. I knew what I’d seen. But what did it all mean? My head throbbed, confusion taking over.

  I went to my playroom, where the glow-in-the-dark star stickers welcomed me. I collapsed on my old beanbag chair and flipped on my reading lamp. I had to figure it out. I needed normality again—to be that six-year-old girl who used to love winter, who had two parents who loved me and each other.

  Against my better judgment, I grabbed a stack of fairytale books from the shelf. Hmmm…how to break a curse. Like I should help Nevin.

  But I knew I would, if only to win back my life.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I stifled a yawn, questioning why in the hell I was going to so much trouble for Nevin. Okay, so he’d apologized and admitted to caring about me. And this meant the witch would have all the more reason to want to kill me, or so he said. But since when did an apology and caring constitute putting my life on the line?

  And what was up with Colton and him? When I remembered seeing the two of them—the conceit and challenge in both their eyes, each daring the other to make a move—I shivered. There had been some major testosterone in the air. Although, Colton seemed to have backed down.

  My pen fell from my ink-splotched hand and I rubbed my temples.

  I couldn’t trust either of them. I needed to just suck it up and walk away. But it wouldn’t be that easy. I mean, I’d still see Colton at school, and Nevin would probably still show up in Grandma’s backyard.

  Recalling them side-by-side triggered a thought: “Something wicked this way comes.”

  “Yeah, one too many fairytales.” I flipped open another book.

  Several jotted notes later, I realized fairytale writers were full of shit. Or so it seemed. Let’s see, pretty girl eating poisoned apple. Cured by a kiss. Girl pricks finger, falls into deep sleep. Cured by hot guy kissing her. Sexy guy acts like an ass, turned into a beast. And you guessed it. Cured by true love, then a kiss.

  So why wouldn’t Nevin let me kiss him the day of our picnic? Did he know something I didn’t? Or maybe he was afraid of what would happen once the spell broke. With a sigh, I continued on.