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Snow starts falling, drifting across my shoulders, and I stand at my post on the porch. The cabin stays quiet. Somewhere after four, she stops pretending.

Around eight, I hear Ellery moving inside, but I don’t go in. The door creaks open ten minutes later. I remember to dust the ice from my hair, but not the thick rime coating my jacket. She tilts her head slightly and turns toward the dull blue landscape.

I heave in a breath just to feel my chest move.

A quick sweep through the cabin. The bed is made and the kitchen things are away. She did it all while I was outside. I lock up, and we go.

“We’ll walk over to Damon’s, and he’ll give us a ride to the airstrip.”

She nods and follows me a half second after I step off the porch.

I message him on the way. The truck’s idling in his driveway when we get there.

“Morning.” Damon takes one look at the distance between us and shakes his head.

We squeeze into the cab, Ellery in the middle, sandwiched between two vampires. She fidgets, inching closer to Damon every time we hit a bump in the road.

Damon helps me scrape the ice from the plane with a broom while Ellery waits, the wind pulling at her coat.

“Don’t leave it so long, eh?” Damon walks me around to the wing, where Ellery can’t hear. “Unfuck whatever it is you did to make her look at you like she’d happily warm her hands on your burning corpse, okay?”

“I’ll try.”

On the plane, she takes the headset and buckles in. Takeoff is bumpy. Her heart speeds up and stays there. I offer her my hand but she white-knuckles the seat instead, and doesn’t take her eyes off the wall of gray ahead of us.

What if she quits because of this? That’s not what I want. Not anymore.

I’ll put Luca on the tours for the rest of the season and she won’t have to see me if that’s what she wants. I catch myself rearranging her week around me, which is the whole problem.

There’s a real chance the intruder is following her or me, and I’ve pushed her away right when I need to keep her near. How am I supposed to watch over her when she can’t stand to be in the same room?

After we land, I drive us back to town and park in front of the cafe. Ellery is out of the truck before I’ve come to a complete stop, disappearing inside. I open the car door, think twice about it, close it, open it again.

I’m bounding up the curb and into The Roost before I can change my mind. Ellery’s tucked onto a stool at the far end of the counter, head down, looking at her phone. Mom pours her a cup of coffee without asking, and writes down her order. I look back and forth between them, and around at the crowded cafe, wondering what the hell I’m going to say with half the town listening. I should’ve thought this through.

Mom catches me standing there like a confused deer. I wince and take the seat next to Ellery to stop loitering in the doorway.

“How’d it go up in Hollings?” Mom asks. “Have a good trip? Besides being stranded.”

I asked Damon to message her after it became obvious we weren’t getting out of there last night.

“Fine,” I say at the same time Ellery says, “It was nice.”

“While I’ve got you, Ellery.” Mom keeps wiping the same patch of counter. “Would you like to come over for Thanksgiving? We don’t do anything extravagant, just lunch, and they’ll drag you out to the yard for whatever nonsense they’ve decided is a tradition now.”

“Oh, thank you, that’s sweet, but I couldn’t⁠—”

Mom doesn’t let her finish. “You’re part of the family, honey. I can’t bear to think of you alone on Thanksgiving.”

Ellery nods deliberately, and I watch her weigh up disappointing my mom or suffering through Thanksgiving with me.

“Mom, maybe Ellery would rather⁠—”

“Ellery can speak for herself,” Mom says pleasantly.

“I’d love to come.” Voice flat, still not looking at me.

“Good. And don’t worry. I’ve got you sorted, Nicky.” She gives me a little nod, thinking my concern is how to eat with Ellery there. Which is a concern, just not my biggest one right now. “You can pick her up on your way.”