Kael’s POV
The fire in the distance flickered like a dying heartbeat between the trees.
Jarek and I moved first, leaving the men to guard the camp. The forest floor was slick with snow and shadow, the only sound the soft crunch beneath our boots. The smell of smoke grew thicker with every step — sharp, acrid, tinged with the faint sweetness of pitch.
“Careful,” Jarek murmured. “Could be bait.”
“It is,” I said quietly. “But not for us.”
The glow brightened as we reached the clearing. What we found there wasn’t a camp — it was the remains of one.
Three tents half-collapsed under the snow, the embers of a fire still burning low. The ground was churned with footprints — some fresh, some nearly filled again by the storm. Whoever had been here had left in a hurry.
Jarek crouched beside a
