A little before noon, Greg’s coworker Carla weaves through the crowd that loiters around the registration area. In her early thirties, she’s a few years older than Greg and pretty in an ephemeral sort of way. Her hair wisps back from her face in pale blonde feathers, and a smattering of barely-there freckles dot her cheeks and nose. Her skin looks almost translucent, and her eyes are the light blue shade of clear ice. She looks impossibly frail, as if the first strong wind could knock her off her feet.
But since he’s been working with her, Greg has learned not to misjudge Carla. She’s feisty, quick, and damn strong, to boot. One evening after work, as the two shared a few drinks at the lodge’s bar, she told him she’d been studying tae kwon do since high school. Greg laughed, picturing thi
