The border burned before the sun rose.
Blackthorne’s eastern ridge—once a quiet line of patrol stones and prayer flags—erupted into fire and frost as Frostclaw legions surged across it in disciplined waves. Ice artillery cracked the dawn apart. War horns screamed. Wolves fell in the snow before they ever saw what killed them.
Kael felt the first explosion in his bones.
Not through the bond.
Through absence.
He stood in the shattered antechamber where the shrine betrayal had ended in silence and blood. Frostclaw sigils still crawled along the stone. Frozen guards lay breathless but alive in ice-chains that would melt only on Frostclaw command.
And Faye was gone.
The bond was a hollow roar of nothing.
“She’s across the border,” Rowan said grimly, fresh blood on his blade. “Scouts tra
