Chapter 5 When the Ice Breaks

The storm hadn't stopped for two days.

Snow flurried sideways against the stone walls of the outpost, screaming like a chorus of angry ghosts. It made the timbers groan and the lanterns flicker as if even fire had grown uncertain.

I'd given up pretending I wasn't freezing. The thin ceremonial robes they'd wrapped me in during the bond ritual were long gone, but nothing I wore felt warm enough not when you carried the kind of chill that started from the inside.

I paced the corner of the room Kade had dumped me in. Called a room, but it was more like a glorified prison cell stone floors, no windows, and a thick iron door that didn't budge. A mat of fur had been tossed in one corner. A cracked basin with half-frozen water in the other.

No one spoke to me. Not since we'd arrived at the Blackthorn outpost. The only exception had been Commander Thorne, who threw me a scowl deep enough to crack stone and muttered, "Stay alive, girl. That's all you have to do."

Kade hadn't come back.

My mate. My fate. My curse.

I kept thinking about the way his eyes had burned into me after the bond flared. Not warm, not angry even. Just... blank. Like he was erasing me before I could make a mark.

My hand still bore the silvery crescent from the Moon Flame. It pulsed when I was alone, dimmed when others came near. I didn't know what it meant. Every time I tried to ask, someone either ignored me or acted like I was a ticking bomb.

They weren't wrong.

Because something inside me was shifting.

I could hear things now. Whispers beneath the wind. A heartbeat that didn't belong to me.

Voices that called my name in languages I didn't speak.

The first time it happened, I thought I was going mad. The second, I answered back.

"Where is he?" I asked aloud, breath clouding the air.

No one answered.

Then the door creaked open.

Kade.

Dark cloak dusted in snow, armor strapped to his chest, eyes colder than the storm behind him. He stepped in, dragging wet footprints behind him like ghosts.

"Get up," he said.

I did. No protest. No questions. Just muscle memory now. Kade said move, I moved. Not because I feared him. Because I had no idea what else to do.

"Why?" I managed.

He didn't look at me as he replied, "You're training today."

My throat tightened. "Training to do what?"

"To survive."

The training yard was a frozen circle at the center of the outpost, surrounded by thick stone battlements and the ever-present crackle of flames. Wolves stood watching from the shadows, warriors in black, their eyes never blinking.

Kade threw a wooden staff at my feet. "Pick it up."

I hesitated.

"Pick it up, Ayla."

He never used my name unless he was furious.

I grabbed the staff, hands shaking.

And then he attacked.

Not a warm-up. Not a slow approach.

One second he was standing, the next he was lunging, and I barely ducked in time to avoid the blunt end of his own weapon.

"You said training," I gasped, stumbling back.

"This is training."

"You're trying to kill me!"

He circled. "No. I'm trying to show you the world won't wait for you to be ready. Your enemies won't care if you cry. They won't pause while you find your courage."

I lifted the staff with both hands. It felt heavier than I expected. Or maybe I was just tired. Tired of being hunted, hated, ignored.

"I'm not a fighter," I whispered.

Kade lunged again.

I was blocked.

Barely.

He twisted, swept my legs out, and I hit the ground hard enough to see stars.

"You don't get to not be a fighter, Ayla. You were chosen. The Moon Flame picked you. That means death follows you now."

I rolled to my side, wheezing.

"You think I want this?" I spat blood in my mouth. "You think I asked for a bond I can't break? A twin who wants me dead?"

His shadow loomed over me.

"I think you're still acting like a girl in a story where everyone else is already bleeding."

I hated him at that moment. Not because he was cruel. Because he was right.

I stood.

Raised the staff again.

"Again."

He blinked. "What?"

"Again," I said louder. "If you're going to make me fight, then teach me. Stop trying to break me and start showing me how to burn."

Kade stared for a moment. Then for the first time he nodded.

The week that followed blurred into bruises and lessons. Thorne taught me how to brace against wind. Elara showed me how to move silently in snow. Kade drilled me in defense until I collapsed.

Still, no one trusted me. I was an outsider. The weak link.

Then came the scream.

It tore through the camp one night like a lightning strike. Short, sharp, and close.

I was out of my bed and halfway across the hall before I realized what I was doing.

"Stay back!" Thorne barked when I reached the mess hall.

But I didn't. I pushed through.

Inside, a body lay crumpled by the fire. One of the younger soldiers. Dead.

His chest was torn open claw marks, deep and glowing faintly red.

Elara cursed. "Blood spawn."

Kade's voice was low. "No. Something worse. Blood spawn don't mark like this."

I knelt beside the body. My hand hovered.

Then the whisper came again.

Not from the wind.

From him.

The corpse.

"...she's here..."

I reeled back, breath ragged.

"Ayla?" Kade grabbed my arm. "What did you hear?"

"Nothing," I lied.

He didn't believe me.

But he didn't press.

That night, I couldn't sleep. My hand burned again the mark alive with silver fire.

Something was coming.

Or worse... someone.

By morning, the outpost was buzzing. Word had arrived Lira had taken a stronghold to the east. She wasn't hiding anymore.

"She's building an army," Elara said. "Faster than we expected."

"Because people want to follow her," I muttered. "Not me."

Kade glanced at me. "Then make them want to."

Easier said than done.

Especially when that night, the dreams returned.

But this time, they weren't just dreams.

They were memories.

Not mine.

I stood in a circle of flames. A child's voice echoed my voice?and someone older replied in a language I didn't know.

Then I saw her. Lira.

Not as she was now. As a girl. Kneeling beside a pool of water. Whispering, "I'll never let them take it from me."

She looked up.

And saw me.

She smiled. A broken, furious smile.

And said, "Then I'll take it from you first."

I woke up with blood on my palm.

Not mine.

Kade stood at the door. "We ride in two hours. East ridge. Lira's forces are moving."

I nodded.

And as I dressed, one thought haunted me:

This isn't ending.

It's just beginning.

We rode into a blizzard.

Wolves flanked us, sleek and silent. I rode behind Elara, teeth chattering despite the furs.

The eastern ridge loomed jagged cliffs and ruins of a fortress once held by rogue packs.

Kade called a halt.

"Scouts said Lira was here," he said. "But no sign of her."

The wind howled.

Then, from the ridge above, a figure appeared.

Lira.

Clad in black. Crowned in bone. Eyes like ice.

She raised a hand.

Dozens more emerged.

Then she shouted:

"Sister! Did you really think I'd let you live?"

She flung something down.

A body.

One of ours.

Thorne swore. Kade drew his blade.

And I?

I stepped forward.

But before I could speak, the ground beneath us exploded.

A trap.

The snow gave way, the world tilted, and I fell into darkness.

Alone.

Again.

Alone in the dark, Ayla hears footsteps echo toward her. Not one pair. Two. One soft and familiar. The other... wrong. Twisted. And whispering her name.