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He laughed. “You can do anything.”
I bit my lip but brought down the axe. It split perfectly in half.
“I did it!” I said, throwing my hands in the air.
“Can you do it again?”
His subtle challenge made me bring the axe up again. As it came down, I thought of all the things that had pissed me off. Reed. My confusion about Alden. This damn snowstorm. All were hacked away with the bits of wood.
“You weren’t kidding,” he said. “You had stuff to work out.”
“Been a rough few days.” I handed the axe back to him. “Now I see how you survive out here. Chopping wood warms you up.”
“A little. It’s also nice to be outside.”
“And hey, if you love it too much and freeze, now I can survive without yo—whoa!” I fell on my ass in the snow as I walked over to him. There was a moment of mortifying silence before he burst into laughter.
“Oh, Stella. Never change.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“Hey, you laughed your ass off when I went sledding. We’re just even now.”
I raised my hand to flip him off. The cold was infecting me again. “I hate this.”
“Need some help getting up?”
“Just fucking carry me back,” I groaned. I was mostly kidding, but when he hauled me onto his back, I squeaked. “You don’t have to?—”
“It’s fine.”
“What if you fall too?”
“I won’t. I have something important to protect this time.”
I was shocked into silence.
Hemight not fall, but I sure as fuck was going to. But it was in a much more dangerous way.
FOURTEEN
“So you stoke it like this.”I showed Stella how to poke the fire and roar it back to life. It was hours later, and we’d been busy doing other puzzles as the fire died.
She was the one to notice it was going out, and she darted to grab the metal poker before I’d even gotten up. She looked so excited to learn that I knew I wouldn’t say no.
“Okay, so chopping wood, stoking fires. Is there anything else about survival I need to know?”
“Why, are you trying to kick me out into the cold?”
“No.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s just nice to learn new things again. My life had become a slog of one thing after another, and everything was set into place. I’m happy it’s different, even if we’re stuck here for who knows how long. What day is it anyway?”
“It’s Christmas Eve.”
“Really?” Her eyes trailed to the window whereeverything was still icy. It was dark now, but we could still see it reflect against the dim light of the moon. “Damn. I guess there really isn’t a chance of getting out of here by tomorrow.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Stella blew out a breath. “It doesn’t even feel like the holiday without the lights. Santa is out right now, and I feel like it’s any other day.”