It’s just a little over a week until The Shattered Heart comes out! For those who are waiting, here’s part two of the deleted scenes that lead us up to the big day. If you missed part one, you can find it here. Now grab a cup of tea or cocoa. Things are about to get cold.

Dominic slid his shovel under the snow and lifted it up, tossing the frozen mess to the side in one motion. He had forgotten how long his grandparents’ driveway was. He forgot every year, until the first snowfall came along to remind him, but it had been longer this time. The first snowfall had come weeks ago, and Dom hadn’t been there to clear it away.

“I already said thank-you, but I should say it again,” he said to Logan, who wielded his own snow shovel a few feet away. “Not just for today. All the other times, too.”

“It’s nothing,” Logan said, still working.

Dom stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He gestured at the half-cleared driveway. “This is not nothing.”

Logan grinned. “True. But it feels like nothing when she gives you those cookies at the end.”

Dom picked up his shovel again. Cookies sounded good. Not that he hadn’t been stuffed full of all of his favorite foods since he came home three days ago, but Abuela’s cinnamon sugar cookies were perfection.

There was no more talking for a long time. The only sound was the scrape of the shovels on the pavement and the soft plop of the wet snow on the banks as the two boys moved slowly farther away from the house.

If Logan hadn’t stopped mid-motion and straightened up, Dom might not have even noticed the tiny figure at the end of the drive. It was the size of a little girl and dressed all in white with a blue hood covering its head. If not for that hood, it would have been impossible to see against the snow.

Dom knew instantly that it wasn’t a little girl.

“What the…?” Logan said.

“Watch out!” Dom yelled.

It was too late. The tiny figure had raised its arms and streams of liquid shot toward them.

Dom ducked his head, but that wasn’t where the stranger was aiming. Before he knew what had happened, Dom’s feet and legs were soaked with water which instantly froze into ice.

Dom tried to yank his foot away from the ground, but it was already frozen in place and the streams of liquid from his attacker were still coming, thickening the ice with every second.

Dom reached down with his hands, only to have one of them take the brunt of the attack. Immediately his fingers were numb.

He straightened and used his other hand to hurl the shovel toward the source of the water. It was too far, and the shovel dropped into the snow without a sound, but it seemed to scare his enemy, at least. The streams of water stopped. The little figure darted away, its blue hood disappearing behind a snow bank.

“You okay?” Logan grunted.

“It got my hand,” Dom said. “You?”

“Can’t feel my feet,” said Logan.

“Me either.”

They were both encased in a four-inch layer of ice from the knee down.

“We have to get out of this,” Logan said. “We’ll get frostbite.”

“Use your shovel,” said Dom.

Logan began to beat at his own feet with the plastic tool. Luckily, it was a quality snow shovel, with a metal tip along the edge for clean snow removal. It chipped away at the ice until Logan was able to pull one leg out. Dom watched him, beating his frozen hand against his chest until the ice cracked and he could take off his glove. Then he pulled his arm up inside his coat, warming his hand against his own skin.

As soon as Logan had both feet free he stumbled to his knees. “I still can’t feel them at all,” he said as he started to work on Dom’s legs.

“As soon as I’m loose, we’ll get in the house. Abuela has a fire going.”

“I don’t think I can walk,” Logan said.

“Then we’ll crawl. There’s no way to get warm out here.”

“Wait. There is something,”Logan said. Dom’s right foot was free now. “In my pocket. Leaves from the wine tree.”

“You have some here?”

“I always bring them when I shovel. Hand warmers.”

“Get them out then. Give me the shovel. I can finish this.”

“You only have one hand. And I’m almost…there!” Logan fell back, panting and dropped the shovel.

Dom tried to take a step and tumbled sideways into the snow bank. “I think you were right about the walking.”

“Here.” Logan shoved a handful of red leaves into Dom’s good hand.

Both boys stripped off their boots and socks and crumpled the leaves, pressing them against their bare skin.

“Socks back on now?” Logan asked.

“Yes,” Dom sighed. Though the crumpled leaves had felt hot in his hand, his feet still felt nothing. He tried not to panic.

“What was that thing?” said Logan in the tone of someone who was trying to distract himself.

“No idea, but it wasn’t a friend.”

They sat in silence for a minute before Logan said. “I think I can feel my toes a little.”

Dom concentrated on his feet. He tried to wiggle them. They moved just the tiniest bit.

“It’s working,” he said.

“You ready to try walking again?”

Dom nodded.

“Who’s going to help who?” Said Logan.

Dom slid his feet over to brace against Logan’s and held out his hand. “We’re going to have to pull each other up at the same time.”

Logan gripped Dom’s hand tightly. “Easy peasy, right?”

“We’ve done harder things,” Dom answered.

“On three then. One…two…

“Three!”

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