Vael's feet pounded against frozen earth, each step cracking ice beneath him.
His breath came in ragged bursts, white clouds torn away by wind that cut like knives.
Behind him, Violet ran—slower, stumbling, but following. Her chest burned. The cold bit through her cloak.
They crested the ridge.
The battlefield spread below like a painting done in red and white.
Bodies—too many bodies. Steam rose from blood melting snow. The wind carried the smell of iron and burnt flesh.
And there, in the center of it all—
"Da!"
Vael's voice cracked. He lunged forward, sliding down the slope.
Violet's eyes locked onto the scene, and everything inside her went still.
Kael knelt in the snow, half his body encased in ice that gleamed blue-white under the pale sun. His left arm hung useless, frozen solid from shoulder to fingertip. Blood seeped from a dozen wounds, staining the snow beneath him in slowly spreading circles.
His breath came shallow, visible even from a distance.
Before him stood Princess Eleonora.
She swayed slightly, one hand pressed to her side where red soaked through white and gold. Her rapier trembled in her grip—but it was still raised, still deadly.
Her face was pale as the snow around her, hair matted with sweat and frost, but her eyes burned with the fever-bright intensity of someone who refused to fall.
"No..."
The word left Violet's lips as barely more than breath.
She started forward, but her legs wouldn't obey. Fear and exhaustion weighted her limbs like chains.
Eleonora took another step toward Kael. Her boots crunched on ice.
She pressed the rapier's tip against his throat—gentle, almost tender. The blade dimpled skin without breaking it.
"Thanks to you," she said, voice hoarse but steady, "the others ran away."
Kael lifted his head. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but his grey eyes were sharp.
Eleonora's lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "But your sacrifice will go in vain. We'll catch them soon enough."
Kael's chest rose and fell. Then he laughed.
It was a broken sound—raw, defiant, edged with something like pity.
"That's all you can do," he rasped. "Kill and destroy."
Eleonora's expression tightened.
"But one day," Kael continued, each word deliberate, "your empire will be destroyed too. You're a coward hiding behind power you didn't earn."
The Princess's hand twitched. Her jaw clenched.
"Your ice—" Kael's eyes glinted. "It's lukewarm compared to hers."
Eleonora froze.
"I've met a girl," he said slowly, savoring each syllable, "with ice colder than yours will ever be."
The blade moved.
Fast.
Brutal.
It pierced his knee with a wet crunch. Bone splintered. Blood sprayed.
Kael's scream tore through the air—primal, animal, echoing across the valley.
"Tell me who she is!" Eleonora leaned down, face inches from his. Her breath came quick and sharp. "I know you met someone from my family! Who is she?"
She twisted the blade. Kael choked on his own breath.
"My younger sisters are too weak to match my strength yet!" Her voice rose, cracking at the edges. "But I can't take any chance! Tell me and I'll spare your life!"
Kael's head dropped forward. For a moment, only his ragged breathing filled the silence.
Then he lifted his gaze—steady, unbroken.
"A wolf," he whispered, blood on his teeth, "never abandons his pack."
Eleonora's face twisted.
Rage and frustration warred in her expression. She jerked the rapier free and raised it high.
"Then die with your pride—"
White smoke exploded across the battlefield.
Dense. Blinding. Smelling of sulfur and burnt feathers.
Eleonora stumbled back, coughing, rapier slashing at empty air. "What—"
When the smoke cleared seconds later, Kael was gone.
Only white feathers remained, drifting slowly to blood-stained snow.
"NO!"
Eleonora spun, eyes wild. "Find him! FIND HIM NOW!"
Soldiers scrambled, shouting orders, spreading out in every direction.
From the edge of the battlefield, Commander Gaius approached—calm, unhurried, his sword still sheathed.
"Your Highness," he said smoothly. "We should return to camp. At least we can claim this land—"
"Shut up!" Eleonora whirled on him. "I want that wolf! I want every survivor hunted down and—"
"Ah." Gaius sighed. "With so many eyes... I really don't like bloodshed."
Eleonora blinked. "What?"
"Lady Calla will be furious," Gaius continued conversationally, "if she learns the Beastkin escaped. And if you return alive..." He tilted his head. "I don't want to deal with her anger."
Eleonora's expression shifted from confusion to horror.
"Calla?" Her voice came thin. "My mother's maid? What the fuck are you talking about—"
Gaius's sword slammed into the ground.
"(LAND OF THORNS.)"
The earth screamed.
Massive thorns erupted—black, twisted, dripping with poison. They burst from snow and stone, growing faster than thought, impaling everything in their path.
Soldiers died without time to scream. Bodies lifted into the air like grotesque puppets, skewered through chest and throat and spine.
Eleonora's eyes went wide.
A thorn pierced her shoulder. Then her thigh. Then her side.
She hung suspended, blood pouring from her mouth, rapier falling from nerveless fingers.
Gaius stepped closer, expression mild. "I would've lost a limb or two in a proper fight. I can heal later, but I really don't like pain."
He looked up at her almost apologetically.
"I thought you and the Beastkin would annihilate each other. Would've saved me work." He shrugged. "But here we are."
Eleonora tried to speak. Blood bubbled on her lips.
"Wh..." she choked. "Why...?"
Gaius smiled—pleasant, empty.
"Why?" He tilted his head. "Why should I serve this small kingdom when I could rule the whole continent?"
Eleonora's eyes widened in final understanding.
"You—"
Another thorn burst through her throat.
Silence.
Her body went limp, suspended among black thorns like a broken doll.
Gaius sighed and turned away. "Now... where's that wolf and his people?"
He scanned the horizon, eyes narrowed. "Can't sense any mana. Clever."
He started walking back toward the encampment, whistling softly. "I'll deal with the Hornets later. Main mission accomplished."
***
Far from the battlefield, hidden in a cave carved into the mountainside, Violet knelt beside Kael's broken body.
Vael pressed both hands against his father's wounds, trying desperately to stem the bleeding. His fingers were red. His face was wet.
"Da! No, no, no—"
Kael lay on his back, half his body still encased in melting ice. His breathing came shallow and rattling.
Around them, the survivors huddled—mothers clutching children, warriors too wounded to stand. Kari and Bara had led them here, to this hidden sanctuary.
"Boy..." Kael's hand lifted, trembling, and touched Vael's cheek. "Listen to me carefully."
"Don't!" Vael's voice broke. "Don't say that! You're strong! Nothing can hurt you! You'll be fine, we just need to—"
"Don't." Kael's grip tightened. "Listen."
Vael went still, tears streaming.
Kael's grey eyes—already dulling—held his son's gaze. "As long as I lived... I believed putting up a strong face was strength. That battles were the only proof."
His breath hitched. Blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth.
"But look at me now. I've lost so many of our kin. And I..." His voice cracked. "I don't have strength left for false hope."
"Da, please—"
"Vael." Kael's voice steadied, each word deliberate. "Your strength isn't your mana. It isn't your aura or your claws." He squeezed Vael's hand. "Your strength is your people. Never forget that."
His eyes shifted to Violet, kneeling nearby.
"Thank you," he whispered. "For keeping them safe. Forgive me... if I had listened to you..." He coughed, red spattering his lips. "Maybe we could've avoided so much bloodshed."
Violet's hands clenched into fists. Tears blurred her vision but she forced them back, forced herself to meet his dying gaze.
She nodded once, throat too tight for words.
Kael turned back to his son. "Don't put them in danger for your ego. Don't let pride blind you to what matters."
With trembling fingers, he reached for his neck. The necklace there—two fangs, one his, one his mate's—had survived everything.
He broke his remaining fang free from his jaw. The sound was wet and terrible. Blood poured.
But his hand was steady as he placed both fangs in Vael's palm.
"This is my will to you," he breathed. "Your mother's fang and mine. Become a warrior stronger than me. Stronger than your mother..." A faint smile touched his lips. "Whom even I never defeated."
"Da, no—Da, please—"
Kael's hand fell.
His chest rose once more.
Then stopped.
Vael's scream shattered the cave.
Kari moved forward, gently pulling him away from the body. He fought her, but his strength was gone.
"Da! DA!"
Violet pressed both hands to her mouth, tears finally breaking free.
Around them, the survivors bowed their heads.
One by one, they began to howl—low, mournful, the sound of a people mourning their fallen leader.
The sound echoed through the mountains, carrying grief into the uncaring sky.
And in that moment, Violet understood something she hadn't before.
The threads of fate were already fraying.
The timeline she remembered was breaking apart and yet still managed to mend together...
And she had no idea what would come next.