Olive opened her mouth to ask another question?—
Darkness suddenly swallowed the room.
For half a second, everyone froze.
Then the wind howled outside again, louder this time—like the mountain itself was warning them that the night had only just begun.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
For a heartbeat,the darkness felt alive—thick and waiting.
Then the team sprang to life.
Trick stood first, his chair legs scraping against the wood floor. “I’ll check the power.”
He grabbed the flashlight clipped to his belt, and the beam cut through the shadows in a narrow cone. Before he could take another step, his body convulsed into a coughing fit.
Olive mentally reminded herself to take more vitamin C tonight before bed.
Warren rose halfway from his chair, looking uneasy. “The generator should kick on automatically. It’s about twenty yards from the inn. Maybe there’s a delay.”
Rex’s voice came from the dark, low and steady. “Olive, Jason—you go instead.”
Olive turned toward the sound. “You don’t want Trick to?—?”
“I saidyou two. I want to limit the number of people outside the inn. You’ve been outside enough to notice any changes better than Trick.” There was no room for argument in his tone. “Besides, Trick, whether you want to admit it or not, you’re sick. I don’t want you to get pneumonia.”
Trick frowned but lowered himself back into his chair with a furrowed brow. “Guess I’ll sit this one out. But it’s just allergies.”
No one argued with him, though they all thought this was way more than allergies.
The air in the room seemed to shift.
Something about the exchange snagged in Olive’s thoughts. Rex trusted Trick as much as anyone. So why the change?
Unless . . . he didn’t. Unless Rex was wondering the same thing she was.
Trick had shown up with Rex, both claiming they’d arrived at the same time. But what if that wasn’t true? What if Trick had arrived early and parked nearby until he could time his entrance?
It was a terrible thought, one Olive hated herself for having. These people weren’t just teammates—they were friends. Family, in their own broken way.
But JJ—though new—had been one of theirs too.
“Yes, sir,” Olive murmured before looking at Jason. “Let’s go.”
As she stepped into the living room, she spotted Mitzi rushing back toward the dining room. She’d stepped out just before the lights had gone out—something about a phone call from home.
“Power’s out, huh?” Mitzi said.
“Rex wants everyone in the dining room while Jason and I check things out.”
“Got it.”
But when Olive watched Mitzi hurry past, she saw something glimmering in her colleague’s hair—tiny white specks.
Specks that looked an awful lot like . . . snow.
