The ice stopped falling.
Reign dragged herself from the rubble, ribs screaming with every breath. Around her, the battlefield had transformed into a jagged maze of broken ice and bodies. Some were moving. Most weren't.
She'd lost track of her rogues in the collapse. Lost track of the direwolf. Just her and the storm and the groaning ice beneath her boots.
Then she saw him.
Kieran stood fifty yards away across a relatively stable section of ice. His armor was cracked, one shoulder hanging at a wrong angle. Blood ran from a cut above his eye. But he was upright and his gaze locked onto her with laser focus.
The wind died. The snow stopped falling. Everything went silent except for their breathing.
"Reign Winterhart." He spat her name like it burned his tongue. "Still alive. Still refus
