He went restlessly to the window. It had stopped snowing; the lawn was a sheet of blinding white, blemished only by his own footprints. Then movement caught his eye: dark shapes against the snow.

He gasped, then ran downstairs to the living room, where he could see out the big picture window.

“Oberon,” he said aloud, to the air. “Are you listening? You should come out here.”

A moment later, Oberon came out of his office. “What is it? Is everything all right?”

“Look.”

Oberon came and stood beside him at the window. After a moment, he asked, “Are they deer?”

“Elk,” said Ángel. “They’re elk. I’ve never seen one before.”

A single file of the animals, pale fawn with chestnut necks, trailed across the snow-covered lawn. “Mira, they’re so big. So much bigger than deer. Maybe the snow’s too deep for them higher up in the mountains so they came down here.”

“They are so beautiful,” said Oberon. “Look, that one has antlers.”

“I think that’s the boy,” said Ángel. “The male. The others must be his ladies. I’ve seen videos of the males fighting. The one who wins—the strongest one—gets to mate with all the females.”

“How interesting,” said Oberon. “I admit I haven’t studied the fauna of your world at all. I believe the next envoy—if the Otherworld decides to send one—will be a biologist. Are they rare?”

“Elk? I don’t think so.” Ángel laughed at his own ignorance. “I’m pretty sure they don’t live in Florida, but maybe there are lots of them here. People hunt them for food.”

“Are they good to eat?”

“I have no idea,” said Ángel, smiling at him.

“They’re delicious.” Lily came up behind him and threaded an arm through Ángel’s. “Elk stew, with red wine and potatoes.”

“No!” he teased. “They’re too pretty to be stew.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you had a bowl of stew in front of you,” said Lily.

“Well, true,” he admitted. “I’m weak.”

Chapter 19

A week later, Ángel sat in the swan-shaped chair in the instrument room, fiddling with the music system.

It was about nine thirty, too dark to see outside. He could occasionally hear snow blowing against the window. It had been snowing, on and off, for a week, and the drifts outside were nearly four feet deep. Lily had been serving a lot of rice, noodles, and frozen or tinned vegetables, since she hadn’t been able to go into town.

The house was empty except for him and Oberon. And a hundred-thousand-dollar security system that no one was watching. Maybe.

He and Oberon had fallen back into their usual routine. They saw each other every day, ate lunch and dinner together, chatted about music and planned podcast topics. Several more podcast episodes were done, and they were doling them out every week.