Chapter 3

Skadi

The wind whistledoutside the window and it was enough to send a shiver down my spine. Considering the fact being around snow made me feel more powerful, it meant the storm outside was really bad. And that I"d judged the entire thing wrong.

I picked up my phone and typed out a quick message to Lofn to make sure she and her guests would be all right, thinking of adding instructions for how to get to the emergency generator if she needed it. There was a small part of me that was tempted to go back up there and check on them myself, but I knew that wasn"t really necessary. And no doubt part of why I wanted to do that was so that I could talk to Erik again.

I shouldn"t have left the lodge as abruptly as I did, but the idea of actually getting caught up in a conversation I was enjoying had scared me a little bit. I was used to being alone and didn"t feel the need to change that.

And yet I"d been regretting it since the moment I left. I wasn"t sure what it had been about Erik that had resonated with me, but it was definitely something.

My phone dinged, and I was relieved to find a response from the other goddess assuring me that everything was in hand. So long as the snowstorm didn"t get worse, it would all be fine.

I turned into the kitchen and started making myself a snack. It had been a long day of making sure everything was running smoothly and I was famished. I should have eaten at the party, but I hadn"t wanted to take food away from Lofn"s paying guests, even if there had likely been plenty.

The lights flickered as I bit into my sandwich, but I ignored them. It was probably the wind messing with one of the connections or something like that. It was certainly nothing to worry about. At least, not yet it wasn"t.

As if they could hear me, the lights flickered again, this time going off completely before coming back on.

"Seriously? You"re going to make me think you"re haunted," I muttered to the fixtures. Not that they could understand me, but sometimes voicing my thoughts was better than going slowly crazy from living alone.

Maybe Lofn was onto something and I was lonely.

I sighed and pushed the thought away. I"d been fine on my own for thousands of years save for the occasional brief fling with someone escaping their own life. I didn"t need anything more than that.

The lights went out again, clouding me in darkness. I counted to ten while waiting for them to come back on, but this time, nothing happened. It seemed the storm had finally gotten the better of my electricity.

I picked up my phone, groaning when I realised I didn"t have any signal. A tree must have fallen over some of the lines. I guessed that meant Lofn and the others were on their own. At least I"d thought to send her the instructions for the generator ahead of time. I"d have to go up there otherwise, and that wasn"t wise with the weather getting worse, even for a goddess of my aptitude.

At least my coat and boots were still by the door. For once, it served me to have been lazy when I came back in, rather than putting everything back in its proper place.

I bundled myself up in my outdoor clothes and strapped on my snowshoes before pulling open the door, the whistle of the wind making me immediately frustrated that I had to head outside in this weather. But if I didn"t, I was going to have a miserable evening.

Magic thrummed through me as it connected with the snow outside the door. It was falling so fast that it was as if large lines of white were pelting through the air.

I"d definitely gotten the forecast wrong when I"d talked to Lofn earlier. Which was unusual but not impossible. I might be well connected to the weather around me, but there were times when it was elusive to me, and there was no way for me to control it. Not that anyone really believed me when I told them as much. I blamed the gods who were able to control some aspect of the weather and liked to show off their talents.

I trudged through the snow, grateful for the larger surface area of my shoes to stop me from sinking through the thick layer of snow covering the ground. It had already been fairly deep when I"d left Lofn"s party, and even more seemed to have fallen between then and now.

I should really look at getting a backup generator that wasn"t in another building. But it served more than just my house, so this was where it was meant to be. Luckily, Lofn"s cabin was the only one occupied tonight, which made that part of my job simpler. One of the perks of it being off-season.

It only took me ten minutes to get the generator back up and running, and it was just in time if the constant snowfall was anything to go by. It clearly wasn"t going to stop any time soon, and if the electric and mobile networks were out across the entire mountain, then we wouldn"t be able to get anything fixed until morning.

I sighed and started the slow walk back to my cabin, only stopping when a pair of dim lights caught my attention.

Someone had clearly decided that driving down the mountain was a good idea. Though they were probably reevaluating that opinion considering they were clearly already stuck. I changed directions, heading over to the person. Given how few people were currently at the resort, it was probably someone from Lofn"s party, and I didn"t want her getting a bad review over a snowstorm. I"d had a few of those myself over the years and it never stopped being frustrating.

"Hello!" I called out. My voice faded immediately, stolen by the wind and snow, meaning that there was no way the person in the car heard me.

I"d have to get closer for that, and increase the likelihood that I spooked them. But it was either that, or leave them on the mountain to potentially freeze. It would be a lot less messy if I managed to talk to them.

The car was decked out in everything it would need in order to make good time through the snow, but I knew that wouldn"t be likely to help it tonight.

I rapped my gloved hand against the window, surprised when it resulted in the door swinging open and narrowly avoiding hitting me.

"I"m sorry, I didn"t realise I was on someone"s property," a vaguely familiar voice said as a man got out of the car.

"You"re fine," I responded. "Happens all the time. I was more concerned about you staying in the car while the snow gets worse."

"Adi?"

The recognition slips into place. "Erik, right?"

"Yes. I was on the way back from Lofn"s party, I wanted to check on my grandfather, especially now the snow is worse."

"You"re not going to get down the mountain tonight," I said.

He looked at his car. "But..."

"Look, I know a thing or two about this kind of weather. Even if you manage to get yourself unstuck from here, you won"t make it down the rest of the mountain, and that"s if you don"t crash into a hidden rock." Which was definitely also a very real risk.

"I should go back." He waved in the direction of Lofn"s party.

"You won"t manage that either," I half-shouted over the din of the wind. "But my cabin is just there and I"ve got a spare room you can crash in. Hopefully, this won"t last the whole night and you"ll be able to get down the mountain in the morning." There was a part of me that doubted that too, but in the middle of a snowstorm didn"t seem like the right time to go into it.

"Are you sure that"s okay?" Erik asked.

I shrugged, which probably wasn"t very discernable considering the darkness and all the layers of clothing I was wearing. "What other choice have you got?"

He looked at his car, and I could almost hear the debate inside his head. He knew I was right, but I didn"t blame him for being wary, he"d said himself about the foolishness of annoying the gods, and considering that"s what I was, being snowed in with me wasn"t exactly ideal.

"All right," he said. "Just let me shut off the engine. Is it going to be okay here?"

"It"s going to have to be." My voice was already feeling a little hoarse from all the shouting, but I knew there was nothing I could do about that.

Erik shut off his engine and waded around to the back of the car. It wasn"t until he opened his boot and pulled out his own set of snow shoes that I understood what he was doing. I suppose he had said he was local. It made sense that he was at least a little prepared to deal with the snow. Ignoring the fact he"d gotten stuck in the snow to begin with.

But I shouldn"t judge him for that. Snow was one of the things I was the goddess of, and even I"d managed to get stuck in it before. The weather was a force unto itself, and one with even more power than the most formidable of gods.

I shouldn"t judge a mere mortal for managing to be outsmarted by it.