nna

rost-covered flagstones as I w

of my heavy cloak, snapping

yes. None of them dared to look directly at me; their hunched postures reeked

limbing down to open the carriage door for me. He simply sat on the wooden b

for their pet

oden frame, I hoisted myself up

e bench were torn and threadbare, leaving the straw stuffing exposed. Shadow For

ooden paneling and closed my eye

untain ruts, shaking the carriage cabin with ev

he disgraced war god whose legs had been destroyed by silver poison. A crippled, bloodthirsty Lycan who had al

ruly was that broken, a three-month survival pact would

bed higher into the mountain pass, the temperature dropped sharply, and the fain

ulled the corner of th

s constructed entirely from jagged black stone. It looked like

he fortress entrance. The two black horses up front stamped th

a shouted from the box, his voice t

he creakin

face immediately, carrying needles

frozen mud. Looking around the desolate clearing, there was no herald, no welco

stood thirty feet high, sealed shut. The massive iron wolf heads

farewell; he turned the horses around in a panicked frenzy and drove the carria

the barren stone square, the

stone parapets. They looked down at me through the slits of their iron h

ocking stares with cold, unwaveri

my boots cracking the thin glaze of ice over the g

voice echoed down from the ramparts. "Halt! Shadow Fortress

rp, and cut through the howling wind like a blade. "I am the Seve

sulting laughter erupt

one. "His Royal Highness gave strict orders! Shadow Fortress does not accept

of my cloak, my knuckles turning white with tensi

e doors with dignity, I wo

logs lay stacked against the cliff wall, left behind from recent siege repairs. E

o the largest l

guards who thought I had lost my mind, I

sed White Wolf strength coiled tightly inside my core,

zen bark. With a low, guttural exhale, I straightened my leg

the battlement

g silence fell over