NORA POV
The whisper haunted me all night.
It wasn’t just a sound—it was a presence. Something old. Cold. Alive.
By morning, I hadn’t slept, but I had made a decision.
We were going into the ice.
Caelia met me at the cave’s mouth, wrapped in her wolf-hide cloak, teeth bared in what might’ve been a grin.
“You ready to meet the thing that scares the prophecy?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “But we’re going anyway.”
She laughed. “Good answer.”
The entrance to the cave wasn’t natural. The stones had markings—ancient glyphs etched in blood and magic. They pulsed when I passed them.
And the air?
It hissed my name.
KALEN POV
I hated magic I couldn’t punch.
The deeper we walked into the cave, the heavier everything got. The air felt like glass. My heartbeat slowed. My vision warped.
An
