Snow whipped across the courtyard like shards of glass.
Soren barely felt it.
Armor buckled across his chest. Gauntlets tightened. Cloak snapped behind him in the wind. Every movement was precise — war-honed and silent — but beneath that practiced calm, something far older and far more dangerous prowled.
Elena was gone.
Kael stood nearby, blood dried on his gauntlets, jaw tight. Soren had seen Kael wounded, frostbitten, nearly dead — but never like this. Never shaken.
Kael didn't fear death.
But he feared what Soren would become.
"You said no trail," Soren said, voice low.
Kael nodded once. "They took the tunnels beneath the infirmary. An exit none of us knew remained functional."
A muscle in Soren's jaw flexed.
The tunnels were ancient. Forbidden. And almost certainly Kharathi-made.
"They planned it," Soren said. Not a question. A verdict.
Kael met his eyes — and unlike every man in the citadel, he did not look away. Only Kael ever held Soren's full gaze without trembling.
"They planned for you," Kael answered. "To take her from your walls."
Soren inhaled, slow and lethal. "Gather the Sentinels."
"All eight are ready," Kael said. "And Soren—"
He stopped. Rare. Too rare.
Soren turned fully toward him. "Say it."
Kael's brows tightened. "We will get her back."
Not protocol. Not posturing.
A promise between two men who had bled through war together.
Soren nodded once. The closest he ever came to saying, Thank you.
Varyn — Soren's massive black warhorse — pawed the ground as if tasting the fury rolling off his master.
The eight Sentinels formed a line behind Kael, dark armor gleaming with frost.
"Mount," Soren commanded.
They mounted in a single synchronized motion.
Soren swung into his saddle, feeling the burn of cold air in his lungs, the weight of every moment Elena had been gone.
He raised his voice:
"Ride."
The gates opened.
Not fully — not fast enough.
Soren didn't wait.
Varyn surged forward, slipping through the widening gap with inches to spare. The Sentinels thundered after him, eight shadows streaking into the frozen wilds.
The citadel vanished behind them.
The hunt began.