Falke’s Peak

hard.

Buried alive. A snow tomb. Won’t be found until spring thaw. Her breaths grew shallow and her vision blurred a bit.

Axel spun around and grabbed her shoulder with one hand, bending his knees to look her in the face.

“Hey. Deep breaths, honey. We’re okay.”

She pulled away from him and went back inside.

Pacing to the kitchen and back, she tried to calm herself. She looked up at the ceiling again, though she could barely see it through the dark.

“Dakota.” Axel didn’t quite shout, but it was close.

He stepped inside the cabin again.

She stopped pacing and met his eyes in the light of the kerosene lamp. “What?”

“This house was built to withstand avalanches.

We’re okay. Our great-grandfather knew what he was doing. The building’s stood strong for almost a century.”

The bathroom door opened, and Gunnar came out.

God, that was even creepier. Two brothers. Two cat-men. Buried alive with two freaking cats!

Hold it together, Dakota, she told herself.

“What now?” she asked, needing a plan. Always best to have a plan, right? She wasn’t a spur of the moment type woman. The one time she was adventurous—coming up to this cabin—and look at what happened. She licked her lips.

“We still have a fire,” Gunnar said. “And a broken window.”

She made a face as she looked across the room to a blackened picture window near the ladder to the loft and noticed a pile of snow on the floor below the broken pane. “Which means what, exactly?”

Axel set the lamp on the desk and went to Gunnar, who knelt next to the fireplace. “You’re right. The smoke is escaping, so the snow didn’t cover the chimney.” He looked up. “Less than twenty feet, then.”

“Too bad Great-granddad didn’t put an escape hatch in the loft.” Gunnar sighed. “I think there’s a roll of plastic sheeting in the storage. Let’s get the window covered before we lose too much heat.”

“How long?” she asked, getting the strong feeling they were ignoring her.

“Three days, tops,” Axel said as he picked up the lamp and headed for the door, still open, in the floor.

“Most likely a lot sooner.”

Gunnar stood up and came toward her. The only light now that Axel was in the storage room came from the very low fire. She stepped back and bumped into the countertop. He stopped walking and put his hands in his jeans pockets. Damn, those jeans fit him well, even though they were Axel’s. They looked so damn much alike it was eerie. Sure, she’d seen identical twins before, but ones that looked so much alike as adults weren’t that common.

“They’re expecting us at the rendezvous point at five tonight,” he said, his voice low and calm. “We’ve got a personal locator beacon.” Gunnar turned away and went to the packs near the door and began digging.

“We’ll put it out. It’ll go for twenty-four hours.” He pulled a cell phone-sized, electronic thingy out of the pack and held it up. “See, no problem. Here it is.

Chances are they’ll come after us as soon as they get the call from search and rescue that the beacon has been set off.” He punched a button several times…and nothing happened. “Oh fucking son of a bitch.” He turned it over, flipped open the back, and stared for a long moment in silence. Then he dove back into the pack and started a frantic search.

Axel came up the ladder, lantern in one hand and a big roll of plastic in the other. He took one look at Gunnar dumping out the contents of the pack and asked, “What the hell is going on?”

Gunnar climbed to his feet. “There’s no fucking battery in the damn PLB.”

“Okay, chill out. Calm down.” Axel set the roll of plastic against the wall and took the little yellow device from Gunnar’s hand. “I’m going to kill Reidar.

He was supposed to replace all the batteries last week.

Damn it!”

Dakota bit her bottom lip and tried to calm her racing heart. “So…we’re trapped here? Stuck? No one’s going to know we’re buried under a pile of snow? We don’t have enough wood to last three days.”

“We have plenty,” Axel said, his voice low and steady. “Snow is actually a great insulator, and the cabin will stay warmer with less fire.”

“The food’s outside in the cache.” She glanced at the frozen sausage Axel had set on the table a few moments earlier. Pointing to it, she added, “That’s not enough to feed us for very long.”

“We have two weeks’ worth of dry food in storage, and lots of snow to make water with,” Gunnar said.

“We’ll be fine. Just might get tired of oatmeal and mac and cheese.” He smiled a little, and it did help calm her nerves.

“We’re okay then. Really?”

Gunnar nodded, stepped forward and reached out his hand to touch her cheek, but she stepped to the side and away from him. With a sigh, he said, “Yes, sweetheart. Really.” He turned to Axel and said, “Let’s get that hole covered before we lose any more heat.”

For the next while, the men put up the plastic, using a staple gun Gunnar retrieved from storage. She started to wonder just how much stuff they kept down there.

“So, who’s up for some breakfast?” Gunnar asked, heading for the storage room again.

The knot had loosened in Dakota’s gut, and she was hungry. “I am,” she said softly, heading over to the fireplace where there was a bit more light.

“Yeah. Me too,” Axel said. “I’ll put the water on.”

He got the old metal coffee pot from the kitchen counter and a big pot from a cabinet, and went out the door to fill them with snow. Waiting for snow to boil into hot water would take forever. She wouldn’t be eating anytime soon.

Gunnar came up the steps and closed the hatch to the storage, went to the counter and set down his armload of stuff, then came toward her. “Catch.” She grabbed the granola bar that zinged her way.

She found her first smile since the avalanche.

“Thanks,” she said as she ripped into the chewy chocolate chip bar.

Chapter Six

Gunnar put the last bowl into the dish drainer and lowered the wick on the kerosene lamp until it flickered and went out, casting the kitchen area into darkness. His heart heavy, he went to the couch and sat down on the opposite end from Axel, slouching into the corner and crossing his arms over his chest.

He stared at Dakota’s back. She had fetched a blanket and pillow from the loft, and one of his mother’s favored Agatha Christie novels from the bookshelf. She lay facing the fire, her back to them, and hadn’t said a word for the last two hours. She also hadn’t turned a page in a good five minutes, which told him she was deep in thought, not deep into the mystery.

We lost her, he said telepathically to his brother.

Maybe. Maybe not. She needs some time and space to adjust. Axel glanced around the darkened cabin.

Maybe it’s a good thing we’re trapped in here so she can’t run away.

I’m hoping that’s part of her problem. The avalanche spooked her. Then we revealed ourselves.

That’s a lot to take in at once. But the way she flinched when I tried to touch her…

Axel sighed. It definitely wasn’t the most idealistic way to go about letting her know what we are, that’s for sure. A discussion over a nice dinner. His laugh was only in Gunnar’s head, and it held no humor.