Read on for an excerpt of CLOUDBURST ICE MAGIC, and continue Lily and Zach’s story…
Lily Sinclair dug as fast as her arms would allow, shoveling great drifts of snow behind her. The hikers she and her partner Randy had come to rescue stayed out of the way. Everyone wore exhaustion and fear wrapped around them like moth-eaten blankets.
“Have you radioed in?” Her breath plumed in the snowy air before her.
“Yeah, but I lose signal about half-way through.” Randy shoved the radio into his pack and bent to help her dig the snow fort. “They know we’re not coming in tonight, but they can’t send out the helicopter in this storm.”
“Did you give them our position?”
He shook his head with a grimace. “That’s when the signal cut out each time.” He glanced over his shoulder at the huddled hikers. “How long do you think this storm will last?”
Ever since her boyfriend Zach had rescued her from a similar storm over a year ago, Lily had developed an uncanny storm sense. Too bad it worked too late today. She scanned the flake-filled landscape and took a deep breath through her nose. Scents of Ice Demons, dank ice and fresh snow, having some sort of spring fling filled her awareness. She bit her lip. More than likely they were only just getting revved up.
“This one’s going to be bad. Three days at least.” She dug harder. “And we’re going to have a ton of snow dumped on us.”
Randy swore under his breath. “Then we better get this tent up and the stove running. Do we have enough fuel for three days?”
“Let’s hope so.” She prayed they did. If not, they’re going to find five frozen bodies in the tent. Not the way she envisioned her first season as Search and Rescue. I wish Zach was here.
Lily pushed the complaints aside and focused on making a snow fort large enough for all of them. It would be a tight squeeze, but being close meant more warmth. Too bad we don’t have Zach’s beautiful ice cave. The lovely bubble he’d built and furnished on Mt. Charleston had been comfortable and welcoming. Focus, Sinclair!
Between her and Randy, they managed to make a large enough space under the snow to get the hikers out of the weather. Randy brought their charges in while Lily expanded the cave and set up the stove. Gotta get this place warmer than a shop full of Chinese New Year fireworks. They’d celebrated the Year of the Horse this year. What we could really use right now is the Year of the Dragon. Fire would be a good thing.
Randy set up the six-person tent against the wall closest to the open door and raised his eyebrows at Lily. “Damn, did you make it big enough, Sinclair?”
“Hey, we needed room to stretch out and store the gear. No one likes sitting in someone’s lap to eat.” She pulled her gloves off and lit the stove. A blossom of heat warmed her nose and cheeks as the little machine roared to life.
He shook his head, but some of the tension eased from his expression. “Stove running?”
“Yeah, just got it started.” Lily grabbed one of their pots and scraped some of the wall into it before setting it on the burner. “Hot water in five minutes.”
“We’re gonna die.” The panicked whimper echoed across the space and Randy crawled back to the hikers.
“Shh. Tammy, it’s gonna be okay.” The guy with his girlfriend and her friend had only meant to go for a short day hike. The weather warnings had gone unheeded until it was too late.
Too bad the weather is worse than they predicted.
“Mr. Thomas is right, Ms. Whitaker. Lily is getting the stove set up so we’ll have hot water and heat.” Randy’s voice filled with deep calm and reassurance. Randy Montesque was the lead for a reason and he impressed her with his ability to use his voice to settle everyone. “To keep warm, why don’t you all help me get the gear unpacked? We need to set out the air mats and sleeping bags.”
“We’re gonna sleep here?” The other woman scanned the little cave space with worried blue eyes. “But it’s getting colder and it’ll be night soon. What about other rescuers?”
“They can’t get to us in the middle of the storm at night anyway, Ms. Benedict.” Randy handed the redheaded woman a sleeping bag. “We’ll try to radio them in later tonight if the storm blows out. Worst case it will be tomorrow morning.”
I hope. Lily didn’t say the words aloud, but given the scents in the air and fierceness of the storm, she suspected the Ice Demons would be at it awhile. While she’d seen Zach go wild a few times in his true form, she’d never experienced a full-blown party. For all they looked like humans with white skin and ice crystals for hair, Ice Demons became elemental when the weather shifted, flashing long canines and thick talons. Sounds like they’ve hit elemental tonight.
She unpacked the cooking gear and heat packs, calculating how to ration everything to stretch for three days. Ever since she’d met Zach, she’d known how long storms would last. Good thing about dating an Ice Demon. She stopped those thoughts before they developed into melancholy.
You made your choice, Sinclair. He didn’t ask you to leave.
No, Zach had wanted her to stay on Mt. Charleston with him, but she’d wanted to be a Search & Rescue professional just like him, and there’d been no openings in Nevada. But Cloudburst Resort in Cloudburst, Colorado, had an immediate opening and she couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Zach had reluctantly agreed and said he’d come visit when the season let up in Nevada.
It should be done by now, right?
Most likely, but she hadn’t heard from him since that morning and he’d said nothing in his email. Knock this shit off, Sinclair. You don’t have time to waste on anything but surviving. True enough. She could worry and whine about Zach when she reached home.
“Water’s ready for tea. I’m starting soup next.” Lily handed out the metal camping mugs filled with steaming chamomile tea.
“Thanks.” Tammy rubbed her red nose with a mitten-covered hand and cradled the hot mug in both palms. “We really didn’t mean to be out this long.”
“I know, but at least we have shelter, heat, and soon we’ll have food.” Lily tried to be as encouraging as Randy. “Here’s a heat pack. Tuck that in your jacket pocket. It’ll keep you warm for a couple hours.”
“What about when it fades?”
“We’ll worry about that when it’s time. But right now, take the heat pack and I’ll have soup ready soon.” Lily gave her most reassuring smile. “Warm food and the tea will help. And we’ll be able to radio out in the morning.”
“Why can’t we radio out now?”
“Weather is cutting us off. We’ll try to move to a better location to make contact in the morning.”
“Are we going to be okay?” Tammy’s eyes filled with bleak dread.
“Yes. We’ll be fine. There’s no use worrying. Right now we’re safe and warm. Focus on the good things.”
Tammy bit her lip, but nodded before she returned to sit beside her boyfriend while Randy handed out the gear for them to arrange. Lily kept focused on the soup, trying to calculate the likelihood of their supplies keeping them going for the length of the storm. She prayed to whoever listened that she hadn’t lied to Tammy.
“You think we’ll be able to radio out in the morning?” Randy’s voice snaked past her ear as he handed her one of the soup packets when the water rolled into a boil.
She sniffed, taking in the scents from the storm, and grimaced. “All we can do is hope. Radioing out might not be our biggest problem.”
“Oh? What is, then?”
She met his gaze with stark solemnity. “With the way this storm is going, we’ll be lucky to see sky in three days. It’s not us getting the word out, Randy. It’s them getting a chopper in.”