Dawn showed up pale and skinny, more like the ghost of sunlight than the real thing. Snow was still coming down, soft as sifted flour, when June stepped out into the courtyard.
Two direwolves waited for them, both bred under moonlight or some such magic. Fur thick enough to laugh in winter's face, shoulders way higher than her chest. June's was this misty grey, eyes the color of old glass bottles. Kael's, on the other hand, looked like it'd been carved out of midnight: black fur, gold eyes that caught every scrap of light like coins in a fountain.
Kael was already fussing with the harness on his beast. He had on some half-cloak thing: leather and wolf fur, not from around here, marked up with that southern clan symbol. Some crescent with slashes through it. First time she'd seen it up close, and honestly, it looked sharp.
"Are you planning to glare at me the whole way to Shadow Vale," he said, not bothering to look up, "or are we actually gonna talk like people who don't want to die on the same road?"
June just got on her wolf, didn't say a word. Her mount shifted, clearly itching to get moving.
Kael swung up onto his wolf with a kind of practiced laziness, like he'd been riding since he was still in diapers. "Fine by me, Princess. Silence is the only honest thing most folks have left."
The city faded behind them as soon as they hit the gates, sunrise barely scraping the edge of the world. All the city noise vanished, swallowed up by the crunch of paws in snow and the wind whispering through frozen pines.
They didn't talk much for the first hour. Kael led, his wolf plowing a neat trail through snowdrifts up to its knees. June kept just behind, watching him. He moved like someone who'd had to fight for every inch of peace he got: loose but always ready.
Eventually, she opened up. "Why'd you agree to this, anyway?"
He glanced over his shoulder. "To what?"
"Babysitting the daughter of the kingdom your people left high and dry."
His smile was quick, no warmth. "Maybe I like betting on lost causes."
"You mean hopeless ones."
"They're the same if you wait long enough."
She almost pushed him for more, but something in the trees made her pause. A crow sat up high, too still and too interested to be just a bird.
Kael caught it too. "Scouts," he muttered.
"Whose?" she asked.
He just nudged his wolf faster. No answer.
By midday, snow was coming down thick and steady. The road was turning into a rumor, just a thin trail winding between frostbitten trees. They stopped at a stream that looked more like ice than water to let the wolves drink.
June knelt, cracking the surface with her knife. Kael squatted beside her. "We'll need to camp before the ridge," he said. "Winds up there'll peel your skin off."
"My people patrol past the ridge in worse," she shot back.
Kael just shrugged. "Yeah, they patrol in packs. We're two, and there's things in those trees that don't care about your patrols."
She met his eyes, stubborn. "If you think I'm just going to fall in line-"
"I think," he cut in, "you want to live long enough to find your wolves. That means trusting the guy who actually knows these woods."
She almost laughed. "These are my lands."
Kael stood, brushing off his gloves. "Try telling that to whatever's out there. Borders don't mean squat to them."
They kept moving, pushing up toward the ridge. Trees fell away, wind got mean. June's wolf started to grumble low in its throat. Kael raised a hand signalling to stop.
Up ahead, three shapes darted between rocks: fast, low, all wrong. Not wolves. Not people.
"Frost wraiths," Kael said, voice hushed. "They'll follow us till sundown. Then they close in."
June's hand went to her sword. "So we don't stop. Not till they can't keep up."
Kael gave her this long, measuring look, then swung back up. "Let's see if you can outrun the dark, then."
They rode like hell, but the shadows kept tagging along. By the time the sun bled out red into the snow, they'd made it to a hollow ringed with boulders. Kael got down, tethered his wolf.
"This is it," he said.
June slid off, eyeing the woods. "They're still out there."
"They'll come soon." He tossed her a bundle. "Light that. Burns hotter than regular wood, but keep it small. Too much light and they'll just wait until we freeze."
She worked, feeling him watch her, judging every move. The air felt tight, like a bowstring ready to snap.
Finally, Kael sat across the fire, orange light flickering over his face. "Wolves don't follow anyone who doubts themselves," he said.
"Then they'd never follow you," she snapped.
He grinned, slow, dangerous. "Oh, I doubt plenty, Princess. Just never myself."
The wind picked up, dragging the first whispers of the frost wraiths right to their camp.