nna
rost-covered flagstones as I w
of my heavy cloak, snapping
yes. None of them dared to look directly at me; their hunched postures reeked
limbing down to open the carriage door for me. He simply sat on the wooden b
for their pet
oden frame, I hoisted myself up
e bench were torn and threadbare, leaving the straw stuffing exposed. Shadow For
ooden paneling and closed my eye
untain ruts, shaking the carriage cabin with ev
he disgraced war god whose legs had been destroyed by silver poison. A crippled, bloodthirsty Lycan who had al
ruly was that broken, a three-month survival pact would
bed higher into the mountain pass, the temperature dropped sharply, and the fain
ulled the corner of th
s constructed entirely from jagged black stone. It looked like
he fortress entrance. The two black horses up front stamped th
a shouted from the box, his voice t
he creakin
face immediately, carrying needles
frozen mud. Looking around the desolate clearing, there was no herald, no welco
stood thirty feet high, sealed shut. The massive iron wolf headsfarewell; he turned the horses around in a panicked frenzy and drove the carria
the barren stone square, the
stone parapets. They looked down at me through the slits of their iron h
ocking stares with cold, unwaveri
my boots cracking the thin glaze of ice over the g
voice echoed down from the ramparts. "Halt! Shadow Fortress
rp, and cut through the howling wind like a blade. "I am the Seve
sulting laughter erupt
one. "His Royal Highness gave strict orders! Shadow Fortress does not accept
of my cloak, my knuckles turning white with tensi
e doors with dignity, I wo
logs lay stacked against the cliff wall, left behind from recent siege repairs. E
o the largest l
guards who thought I had lost my mind, I
sed White Wolf strength coiled tightly inside my core,
zen bark. With a low, guttural exhale, I straightened my leg
the battlement
g silence fell over
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