The Chateau (Chateau 1)

He had brown eyes, warm like the hot cocoa I’d had in my cabin, and he had fair skin with a hint of an olive tone, like he was French but also Italian. His broad shoulders stretched the fabric of his uniform, and while he was tall like the other men, he wasn’t bulky. He was still for another moment before he laid his cards on the table.

“Motherfucker.” The bald guy threw his cards down and took a drink from his beer.

The rest of the guys growled in protest and threw down their cards too.

The corner of his mouth rose in a slight smile, and then he pulled all the chips toward him, smug but also humble, because he didn’t say a single word about his victory. He grabbed his beer, and when he lifted it to take a drink, his eyes moved to mine.

“Shit…” I ducked down instantly. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I started to shiver in fear, because there was no doubt that he saw me. He paused his movements because he saw something in the frosty glass.

I was so scared that I couldn’t move.

But I didn’t hear any movement inside the cabin, footsteps heading to the door, loud conversations that led to shouts.

I didn’t stick around to find out what happened.

I crawled under the windows and moved around the patio, careful over the floorboards, and maneuvered toward the back of the building, which was close to the forest. I could hide out there until they stopped searching for me. They probably didn’t get a good enough look at my face to identify me. I just had to get to my cabin before they did.

I rounded the corner and made my way to the stairs in the rear. With my hand on the rail, I slowly crept to the bottom, my feet hitting the little mounds of snow that hadn’t melted yet.

A hand grabbed me.

I was yanked up against the rise of the platform, my back hitting the wooden material that obscured me from view of the patio. It was dark so I couldn’t see his face in the commotion, but now the light from the cabin above struck him perfectly, highlighting his face enough to make out his features.

It was the guard who’d spotted me.

He got out here fast—without making a sound.

I breathed hard in his face, paralyzed by my capture, so terrified that I couldn’t move. But I found my strength and yanked my arm back to punch him in the face, to break free so I could run into the woods.

He overpowered me easily, like I was a child. His hands locked my arms in place, keeping me pressed down so tightly the only movement I could make was the steady rise and fall of my chest through my breathing. “What the fuck are you doing?” His deep voice was hushed in a whisper, but his anger was so potent that it felt like he was yelling, screaming at the top of his lungs. “Do you know what they’ll do to you if they find you out here? You’ll be the next victim of the Red Snow. Do you understand me?” He squeezed my arms hard, gripping me so tightly there would be two bruises there tomorrow. He pulled me then pushed me back into the wood, trying to strike some sense into me.

The threat instantly passed at the revelation. “Magnus?”

His nostrils made a steady line of vapor because he was breathing hard, full of rage. “You think you’d be alive if I were anyone else?” His brown hair was short but full, a little messy because it was the end of a long day in the cold. His jawline was sharp like glass, sharper than I noticed in the quick glances into his hood. The shadow across the bottom part of his mouth was gone, like he had shaved sometime after he delivered my dinner. The look in his eyes wasn’t calm and knowing like it had been when he played poker with the guys. Now his eyes were wide—and on fire.

“I’m just trying to—”

“I don’t give a fuck what you were trying to do. You need to get back to your cabin before they discover you. If they find you, I won’t be able to help you.” He finally released his grip on my arms and stepped back, like he needed to withdraw himself so he wouldn’t really hurt me in his anger. “Go. Now.” His eyes lifted up slightly, as if to check if one of the other guards had departed the cabin.

I was still paralyzed, unable to move.

His eyes dropped down and looked into mine again, just as fierce as before, that rage growing.

“Why are you helping me?”

His brown eyes shifted back and forth slightly, burning into mine as his chest rose and fell with furious breaths, the vapor trailing from his nostrils into the darkness and disappearing. This was the look he’d been giving me from the privacy of his hood for the past few weeks. He looked livid, but maybe he always looked this way. “Keep pissing me off, and I’ll stop.” He came back to me and lowered his voice. “I’ll be gone for a few weeks. You’ll be on your own. So, I suggest you be on your best behavior.”