***Cadiz***
The mountains around Ravenshollow got colder every day. Autumn faded fast, the gold and red leaves stripped away until only grey frost remained. The air bit through wool and fur. Even the stone walls seemed to hold the cold inside them.
Servants hurried through the courtyards with firewood, their breath turning white. Stable hands wrapped the horses in thick blankets and rubbed their sides to keep them warm. Windows were sealed. Doors got new bolts against the storms coming soon.
Winter in the north wasn't gentle. Not like the south, where snow melted by noon and children played in it. Here, winter tested you.
I watched the preparations from the gallery one morning, hands wrapped around hot broth. Below me, the fortress buzzed with activity. Orders were given and answered quickly. Everyone knew what was coming.
But I didn't feel part of it.
Raizel got very busy. He spent hours with his captains, their voices echoing from the chamber. At meals though, he asked if the food was good, if the servants helped me, if my room was fine. But he never asked how I slept, or what I thought, or how I felt.
I kept thinking about how he looked at me in the library, the sharpness in his voice when he kept his family from pushing too hard. It felt like something I'd imagined. Like I'd dreamed it on one of those nights when the silence got too heavy and I desperately needed proof I wasn't completely alone here.
Then the attack came.
The morning started quietly. Snow had fallen overnight, covering everything in white. From the northern wall, the world looked untouched, endless slopes disappearing into mist. I walked there to clear my head, Henrik a few steps behind me. The air stung my throat, but the stillness was almost peaceful.
Then it broke.
A low cry came from the forest below. At first I thought it was an animal. But then another followed, higher, shriller. My skin prickled. Shapes moved between the trees. Shadows at first, then bodies. Too many to count.
The guards shouted. Horns blared, urgent and harsh. Boots thundered. Blades rang from their sheaths. Before I understood what was happening, the creatures came out of the shadows.
They were wrong. Their bodies were lean and twisted in ways that hurt to look at. Frost covered them like armor. Their breath steamed in huge clouds, their eyes glowing with unnatural light. When they hit the gates, the stone groaned.
"Inside, my lord!" Henrik grabbed my arm hard. His voice was steady, but his grip was iron.
My legs wouldn't move.
The creatures surged up the walls, claws scraping stone, their cries filling the air like a storm. A guard was dragged from the battlements, his scream cutting off as he disappeared below. Another stumbled back, blood staining the snow. Arrows and spears rained down, but the creatures kept climbing.
Panic swelled around me. My pulse hammered. I couldn't breathe. Something inside me snapped.
I lifted my hands without thinking. My chest tightened, my skin burned, and then energy rushed out of me.
The world went white.
For a moment, I thought I'd died. But when my vision cleared, a barrier shimmered in front of the gates, pale and see-through like glass. The creatures struck it again and again, their claws sparking against it, but nothing got through. The fortress went silent except for their screaming.
The guards stared, weapons slack. Henrik held me up, his grip trembling now, not with fear, but something else.
The creatures howled one last time. Then they turned and fled back into the forest, vanishing between the trees as fast as they'd come.
No one moved.
Then my strength drained away all at once. The barrier flickered and disappeared. My knees buckled. I collapsed.
The last thing I saw was Raizel striding through the chaos, sword drawn, his eyes locked on me with a fierceness that stole my breath more than the cold ever could.
I woke up in my chamber. The fire blazed high, blankets piled heavy over me. I could barely move, my limbs were heavy. Everything ached like I'd been wrung dry. My head throbbed.
Raizel stood near my bed, talking quietly with Henrik. When I stirred, he turned immediately.
"You are awake," he said. His voice was flat, but his eyes searched my face.
"What happened?" My voice was weak, my throat raw.
"You collapsed," Raizel said. "The barrier you summoned drained you."
I stared at him. "Barrier?"
His face showed concern, but then it changed again, in seconds. "Whether you meant it or not, you shielded half the keep. Without it, more would have died."
I looked at him, searching for answers, but his face gave nothing away. "I don't understand. I've never…"
He cut me off. "Don't speak of it. Not to the servants, not to anyone."
"Why?"
"Because," he said, his voice hard as stone, "the less they know, the safer you are."
For a moment, something flickered in his eyes, something raw I'd only glimpsed once before. Then it was gone, hidden behind his usual coldness.
"But I don't know anything myself! What's wrong with me?" I asked with frustration.
He turned back to the fire, flames painting shadows on his face. "Rest. That's all that matters."
I lay there in silence, my thoughts spinning. I remembered the moment before I collapsed, how the power had burned through me, fierce and unstoppable.
Omegas weren't supposed to have magic. That was as solid as stone, drilled into every lesson I'd ever learned.
So how had I summoned that barrier?
Was it because I was a failed omega? Some twisted mistake? But if that were true, why had nothing like this happened before?
Whispers stirred in my mind. The servants' sidelong glances. The Ashforde elders' interest. The strange things that had been happening for weeks, lamps flaring too bright when I passed, doors shuddering open when I hadn't touched them. It all tangled together into a knot of fear.
Something inside me was changing. Something I didn't understand. And Raizel knew more than he was saying.
Outside my chamber, voices carried faintly. The guards spoke in hushed tones through the crack beneath the door.
"Frostwraiths," one whispered. "By the gods, I thought they were only tales."
"They're not tales," another answered grimly. "They hunt in weak winters. They test the walls. And now they know what's here."
Their words sent a shiver through me. Frostwraiths. A name that sounded like old fear, like something pulled from the heart of these mountains.
I turned my face into the pillow, heart pounding, mind racing.
And though Raizel's words had been short, though he'd tried to hide behind stone and steel, I couldn't forget the way he'd looked at me in the snow. Sword in hand. Eyes burning wit
h something that broke through his silence.
Like nothing in the world mattered more than keeping me safe.