He did not stop. He did not slow down.
For nearly two hundred miles, Valerius pushed his physical form entirely past the limits of biological sanity. The dark violet fire of his Alpha aura burned so violently around him that the heavy northern snow completely vaporized before his boots even struck the ground, leaving a perfectly straight, scorched trail of melted ice and cracked rock in his wake.
His massive lungs burned, his muscles tore and instantly healed under the sheer pressure of his immortal bloodline, but his mind was completely focused on the faint, desperately fragile silver hum of the tether connecting him to Aaliyah.
When the towering, fortified black iron gates of the Winter Citadel finally appeared through the heavy blizzard, Valerius did not announce his arrival.
He
