Kael and Lyria walked through the snow-covered city, hands still bound as the Ice Elves dragged them along.
The air grew heavier the deeper they went in. More Ice Elves stopped and stared. Their cold eyes burned with anger.
Kael didn't miss it,the killing intent was real as dozens of sharp glares fell on him and Lyria like falling daggers.
The castle loomed over them like a frozen mountain, each spire carved from glacier glass and rimmed with icicles as long as spears.
Light refracted off the ice, casting faint blue rainbows across the snow-packed courtyard. The main gates, tall enough to swallow a fortress, groaned open with a sound like cracking glaciers.
Kael and Lyria were marched through, still bound, the Ice Elf guards flanking them with stiff postures and glacial stares. The wind that swept through the gate was colder than death, cutting through their clothes and straight to bone.
