She breathed in deeply as she walked, heading farther into the trees, toward the trail she liked best. Immediately, she felt her heart rate begin to slow—and realized she had been running on nerves and adrenaline for days, something she wasn’t used to. She kept walking and felt the beginnings of a release. Faye was right: everything was going to be okay. Christmas, her favorite time of year, was magic. She had had mixed feelings about coming home—but a break from the pace of the city was doing her good already.

She had counted on the fact that the storm would start slowly, as was so often the case in Starlight Peak, with a slow, steady buildup that eventually blanketed the town in white. But now she looked up at the snowflakes starting to swirl above her head. The downfall was thick and coming on fast.

A few more minutes and her visibility was down to almost nothing.

“Shoot,” Cass muttered, turning around. But already, it was impossible to see more than a few feet in front of her.

She took a step forward, but there was a small pit in the path ahead she hadn’t been able to see in the snow. She stumbled and pitched forward. Before she could put out her hands to break her fall, she felt her head thunk against a tree stump hidden by the falling snow. She cried out as pain flooded through her and blurred her vision.

No, Cass, you can’t. You have to get up. You have to get up now. But she couldn’t. It was too much. The white snow falling in thick sheets blurred before her eyes. But she forced herself to focus on reaching into her pocket for her cell phone. With rapidly freezing fingers she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She willed herself not to lose consciousness before she could speak—but knew in her heart that even if she didn’t manage to ask for help, Charlie would know. Charlie would come for her. She had to.

22

Charlie

Thursday: 2 Days Until Christmas . . .

Starlight Peak

Charlie had awoken early in her old bedroom at her parents’ house. It was strange, being back in her childhood home and all alone at Christmastime. Normally the house would be full of Christmas cheer. But between her fight with Cass the night before and the uncertainty around her parents’ snowed-in flight delays, she was feeling lonelier than ever.

The initial shock of knowing Austin had scooped the job out from under her had faded—though she still wasn’t sure how it had happened—but in its place was a sense of failure that Charlie was unaccustomed to, and she didn’t like it. It was the first time in years that she had no plan, no handle on her career trajectory, and it was alarming. Her sleep had been fitful, and she knew the only solution for now was a strong cup of coffee. Charlie scavenged around the kitchen until she found an old tin of grounds in the freezer—her parents were tea drinkers—and brewed a pot.