17. Violet
Chapter seventeen
Violet
T he biting cold hits my face as I step through the portal, abruptly replacing the warmth of Jack’s castle. Main Street Salida looks like something out of The Day After Tomorrow —cars buried under feet of snow, buildings encased in ice, and not a soul in sight.
I push through deep snow to get to the hospital entrance, its emergency lights casting an eerie red glow across the white landscape.
Please let Alana be okay.
The hospital’s automatic doors are frozen shut. I yank the manual release and slip inside. The emergency generator hums, but the halls are dim, lit only by backup lights .
“Hello?” My voice echoes through the empty corridor. “Anyone here?”
A crash sounds from the ICU wing, followed by cursing I’d recognize anywhere. I sprint down the hall, my shoes squeaking against the linoleum.
Alana stands in the supply room, surrounded by scattered supplies. Her scrubs are wrinkled, dark circles under her eyes suggesting she hasn’t slept in days. She’s trying to organize supplies with trembling hands.
“Alana!”
She whirls around, eyes wide. “Violet? Oh, my god!” She stumbles forward, wrapping me in a tight hug. “Where have you been? We thought—“ Her voice breaks. “After you disappeared in the storm...”
“It’s complicated.” I pull back, noting how pale she looks. “What’s happening here?”
“Everything’s frozen. Roads are impassable. We’re running low on supplies, and patients keep coming in with hypothermia and frostbite.” She sways slightly.
I grab her arm, steadying her. “When’s the last time you slept?”
“I don’t—maybe two days ago? We’re so short-staffed...”
“Sit down before you fall down.” I guide her to a chair, checking her pulse. It races beneath my fingers, weak and uneven. “You’re exhausted and probably dehydrated.”
“I can’t rest. There’s too much—”
“You’re no good to anyone if you collapse.” I grab an IV kit and a bag of fluids from the scattered supplies. “Let me help you, then we’ll help everyone else together. ”
My hands move automatically through the familiar motions—tourniquet, vein check, needle insertion. Alana doesn’t even flinch.
“I missed you,” she whispers, tears forming. “Everything went crazy not long after you disappeared. The weather, the accidents... it’s like nature itself turned against us.”
If she only knew how right she is. I squeeze her hand. “I’m here now. We’ll figure this out.”
I hook up the fluids and tuck a blanket around her shoulders. Already, some color returns to her cheeks as the hydration kicks in.
“Promise you won’t disappear again?” Her voice is small, vulnerable in a way I’ve rarely heard from my usually confident friend.
The weight of two worlds settles on my shoulders. “I promise I’ll always come back when you need me.”
Alana’s eyelids droop as the IV fluids continue to flow. Her breathing evens out, and I adjust the blanket around her shoulders.
“When did all this start?”
“About a week after your disappeared in the blizzard.” Alana shifts in her chair. “We had a few days of calm and a chance to dig out, and then this storm came out of nowhere. First just snow, then ice coating everything. Roads froze solid. Power lines snapped.”
My stomach twists. This is because of Jack pushing me away. The prophecy wasn’t about me destroying his realm—it must about what happens when he rejects our connection.
“How many patients?”
“Lost count after forty. Mostly hypothermia, some carbon monoxide from people trying to heat their homes with grills.” She rubs her temples. “We lost two yesterday.”
The guilt hits me like a physical blow. People are dying because of what’s happening between me and Jack.
“You need proper sleep, not just a power nap in a chair.” I check her IV. “Where’s Dr. Martinez?”
“Trapped at his house across town. Most of the staff who made it in haven’t left in days.”
Through the window, I watch more snow falling. The storm shows no signs of stopping, and I know it won’t—not until I fix things with Jack’s realm. But Alana needs me here.
I can’t abandon her again.
“I’ll take your shift.” I grab a spare set of scrubs from the scattered supplies. “Let’s find you an empty room so you can get some actual rest.”
“Vi, you just got back from god knows where-”
“And I’m the most rested person in this building.” I help her stand, steadying her when she sways. “I’ve got this. Trust me.”
Alana’s too exhausted to argue. I guide her to an empty room, making sure she’s settled before heading to the nurse’s station.
Time to see exactly what Jack’s winter has done to my town.
The numbers on the emergency board knock the breath from my lungs.. Thirty-seven active patients. Six in critical condition. Three deaths in the past week. And that’s just here.
All because of what Jack’s fucking father put in motion. And Jack wouldn’t listen.
I flip through the charts, my hands shaking. Most cases are hypothermia or injuries from ice-related accidents. The generator’s keeping the most critical equipment running, but we’re dangerously low on supplies.
The sound of wheels on linoleum makes me look up. Two EMTs rush past with a gurney.
“What do we have?” I fall into step beside them, scanning the patient. Elderly man, unresponsive.
“Found him in his house. No heat for three days. Core temp’s way down.”
I grab the warming blankets from the supply cart. “Get him to bay three. I’ll start the warm saline.”
My training kicks in as I work. Check vitals. Start IV. Warm fluids. Monitor cardiac rhythm. The routine is familiar, grounding.
“Violet?” One of the EMTs—Mike—stares at me. “When did you get back?”
“Just now.” I adjust the flow rate on the IV. “Heard you guys needed help.”
“Where were you? Search and rescue looked everywhere after—”
“It’s complicated.” I cut him off, focusing on the patient. “His temp’s coming up. Let’s get blood work started.”
Mike takes the hint and backs off, but I feel his curious eyes on me as he leaves.
More patients arrive. More charts to review. More worried faces looking to me for answers I can’t give.
I pause at the window between cases, watching the endless snow fall. The flakes seem to mock me, reminding me of Jack’s cold eyes when he dismissed everything I’d discovered.
If he’d just listened... if he wasn’t so stubborn...
My reflection shows dark circles forming under my eyes. I’ve been here six hours, but it feels like days. The adrenaline’s wearing off, leaving bone-deep exhaustion.
A soft whimper draws my attention. In the hallway, a little girl clutches her mother’s hand, both wrapped in emergency blankets.
“Their house lost power,” the intake nurse explains. “Been walking for hours, trying to reach us.”
I grab hot chocolate packets from my locker—my emergency comfort stash—and go get some hot water. The girl’s eyes light up when I hand her a steaming cup.
“Thank you,” her mother whispers, hands trembling around her own cup.
I squeeze her shoulder and move on to my next patient, but the image stays with me. Regular people suffering because of magical power plays they don’t even know exist.
Jack needs to see this. The thought hits me suddenly. Not through a viewing portal. In person. Maybe then he’d understand what his rejection is really causing.
But would he even come? After everything he said...
A code blue alarm blares, interrupting my thoughts. I run toward the sound, pushing aside everything but the immediate need to help.
I can figure out how to fix the bigger problem later. Right now, my town needs its nurse more than she needs her destined mate.
The antiseptic hospital smell hits my nose as I push open the break room door. Alana sits at the small round table, her blonde curls pulled back in a messy bun, both hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee. Her scrubs are even more wrinkled from her power nap in the patient room.
“You look less like death warmed over.” I plop down in the chair across from her.
“Thanks, bitch.” She takes a long sip. “What the hell is going on? You disappeared during the worst blizzard in Salida history.” She chuckles darkly. “Or at least it was until this one. Seriously, where have you been?”
I fidget with a loose thread on my sleeve. “Around.”
“Around? That’s what you’re going with?” Her eyebrows shoot up. “You vanish for days, then magically reappear right when everything completely goes to shit?”
“Would you believe I was on a spiritual retreat?”
“In the middle of winter? Try again.” She slides a second coffee cup toward me. “Here. Caffeine might help you come up with better bullshit.”
“Thanks.” I wrap my hands around the warmth, remembering the chill of Jack’s touch. “I just needed some time away to clear my head.”
“During a hundred year blizzard?”
“I have impeccable timing.”
“You’re impossible.” She leans back, studying me. “Something’s different about you. ”
Shit . “Sleep deprivation does wonders for the complexion.”
“No, it’s more than that. You seem... I don’t know. Like you’ve seen some crazy shit.”
“Working emergency during a natural disaster will do that.”
“Vi, come on. We’ve been friends since we were kids. I know when you’re hiding something.”
I take a long drink of coffee to avoid her piercing stare. The familiar taste grounds me in reality after the two weeks in Jack’s magical realm.
“Fine, keep your secrets.” She kicks my foot under the table. “But you owe me for covering your shifts.”
“I’ll buy you dinner for a month.”
“Make it two. And I want the fancy sushi place, not that cheap conveyor belt stuff.”
“Deal.” Relief floods through me. “How bad has it been here?”
“Fucking awful. Half the staff couldn’t make it in. Roads have been completely blocked. We had people sleeping in the waiting room because they couldn’t get home.”
“Jesus.”
God, how do I even begin to explain this? I take another sip of coffee, stalling.
Alana taps her fingers on the table. “Just spit it out. Whatever it is, can’t be that bad.”
“Promise not to have me committed?”
She snorts. “After the week we’ve had? I’d believe anything.”
I lean forward, lowering my voice. “Remember all those stories about Jack Frost? ”
“The winter spirit thing? Like from Rise of the Guardians?”
“He’s real. And I’ve been in his realm.”
Alana blinks at me. Her coffee cup freezes halfway to her mouth.
“You’re right, I sound completely insane.” I rub my temples. “But I swear I’m not making this up. He’s tall, has white hair, blue skin, and can literally control ice and snow. His castle has these incredible ice gardens with flowers made of frost, and there are these magical fountains that—“
“Whoa, slow down.” She sets her cup down. “Are you saying you got kidnapped by some supernatural winter king?”
“Not exactly kidnapped. More like... accidentally transported?”
“During the blizzard?”
I nod. “Remember when I said I was walking home that night?”
“The night I told you that was a stupid idea?” She crosses her arms.
“Yeah, that one. Well, turns out you were right.”
Alana studies my face. “Vi, honey, are you sure you didn’t hit your head? Maybe got hypothermia and hallucinated?”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Okay.” She takes a deep breath. “Let’s say I believe you. You spent the last few weeks hanging out with Jack Frost in some magical ice kingdom?”
“Pretty much. Though ‘hanging out’ isn’t exactly how I’d describe it.”
Her eyes narrow. “What does that mean? ”
How do I explain the whole fated mates thing without sounding even crazier? “It’s complicated.”
“Girl.” She kicks me under the table again. “You vanish during a freak blizzard, come back with weird marks, and tell me you’ve been in a magical realm with some winter spirit. And you’re being sketchy as hell.” She reaches across the table to squeeze my hand. “But I’m just glad you’re back safe. I was worried sick about you.”
Guilt twists in my stomach. “I’m sorry. I should have found a way to let you know I was okay.”
“Damn right you should have.” She grins. “But I’ll forgive you if you tell me there was at least a hot guy involved in your mysterious disappearance.”
An image of Jack in his true form flashes through my mind—tall, otherworldly, beautiful, and absolutely terrifying.
“You could say that.”