First, there was that creepy little whispering. Not words, not even close… Just this dry, scratchy hiss, like something slithering across the snow but never bothering to sink in. Goosebumps territory, honestly.
Kael's eyes snapped to the black past the reach of the fire. "They're poking at the edge," he muttered.
June was already up, sword in hand, fire at her back. Out in the dark, something moved: bent, twitchy, limbs way too long, like someone took a shadow and hit the "stretch" button until it split right off its owner.
Frost wraiths. Not even real faces, just a hint, shifting and drifting like smoke getting bullied around by the wind.
"They'll come fast," Kael said, suddenly next to her, knives out: those things caught the firelight and glared. "Go for the chest. If you hit the air, keep swinging."
June didn't waste words. First wraith zipped at her: no sound, just this slap of cold air that made her skin sting. She swung, blade slicing through something brittle as glass. It jerked back, leaking steam where her sword bit it.
Number two lunged at her left. Kael's knife flashed: bam, pinned the thing to the ground. It flailed, then poof: just frost sparkling on the snow.
"Don't let 'em circle!" Kael barked.
She spun, tried to block another, but it slipped past, claw-brushing her arm through the armor. The cold sank in deep, turning her shoulder to dead weight.
Suddenly, Kael shoved her back, one hand, while the other knife rammed into the wraith's chest.
"I had it," she snapped.
"Yeah, you were about to have icicles in your veins," he shot back.
After that, it all blurred together… Her sword flashing silver, Kael's knives working, the wraiths hissing like pissed-off steam kettles. The fire shrank, the circle of light getting scrawnier with every chunk of wood that burned.
Finally, when the last wraith fizzled out, there was this silence that slammed down, way louder than the fighting. Both of them stood there, sucking air like they'd just run a marathon.
Kael wiped his blades off on the snow, real casual. "You're quick," he said. "But you waste a hell of a lot of motion."
She slammed her sword back into its sheath. "And you talk too much for someone who almost got left behind."
He grinned, but this time it was almost... not annoying. "Maybe we'll both live long enough to argue about it properly."
They rebuilt the fire, smaller this time, tossing in wood like it might bite. The wolves curled close, letting their warmth drift out into the cold.
Kael sat across from her, elbows on his knees, eyes flickering in the firelight. "Why do you want 'em?" he finally asked.
She didn't need him to clarify. "The spirit wolves? Because if I don't, the demon keeps killing. And the Council just keeps twiddling their thumbs."
"That's not everything, though."
She met his gaze, shadows dancing between them. "No. It's not."
He waited, but she just stretched out, watching the pinprick stars. The wind had chilled, but the cold here, under the sky, was different. Sharper. Somewhere out there, a wolf howled, long and lonely.
Kael listened, head tilted. "Back home, that's a warning."
"In mine," she murmured, eyes never leaving the sky, "it means hope."
Morning crawled in, pale and brittle. They packed up fast. The only sign of the wraiths: just a shimmer on the snow, like the ghosts had never been real.
They rode out, trees thinning, wind slicing across open slopes. Up ahead, a skinny pass cut through the rock: a black scar on white.
"That's the way to the Vale," Kael said, nodding at it.
"And the first wolf," June whispered.
"The Wolf of Shadows," he said, almost like a prayer. "If she doesn't eat you for breakfast, she'll test you. No do-overs."
June's jaw clenched. "Guess I'd better ace it, then."
Kael's grin was soft, almost proud. "We'll see."