Emerging from the forest felt like walking out of a dream and into a photograph.
The world was too bright, too sharp. The rising sun glinted off the snow with a blinding intensity. Adrien still carried me, his stride long and purposeful, his chest a furnace against my cheek. He refused to put me down, and frankly, I didn't have the strength to argue.
To our left, Lucian walked with his gun resting casually on his shoulder, whistling a tune that sounded suspiciously like a funeral dirge, though for whom, I wasn't sure.
To our right, Maelle glided over the snow, her face pale but her eyes burning with a terrified pride.
And straight ahead, the Council waited.
They hadn't moved. They stood in their semi-circle of white robes like statues carved from ice. As we broke the treeline, a rippl
