The cold bit into his skin like tiny daggers.
Kael lay in silence, buried beneath a thick slope of snow, eyes fixed on the group of monstrous snowmen just a few meters away.
Not the jolly, carrot-nose kind. These ones had jagged blade-arms, mouths lined with razor teeth, and eyes that glowed with unnatural frostlight.
Beside him, Seraphina didn't move a muscle.
They'd been there for fifteen minutes. Watching. Waiting.
A normal person would've frozen solid. But thanks to his uniform, which always kept his body at a regular temperature—and the fact that he was now kind of addicted to combat, Kael was just... twitchy.
'Come on… someone split off already...'
And then, finally, it happened.
One of the snow beasts wandered away from the pack, trailing off toward the edge of the frozen glade, its spiky arms twitching as it scanned the wind for prey.
Kael didn't wait for anyone to tell him.
He rose slowly, brushing snow off his coat, his breath clouding in front of him.
