LOGIN“The one place I swore I would never return.”Simon’s words hung heavy in the freezing night air. Bella looked at him, startled by the sudden, raw weight in his voice. She opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but before she could speak, Simon grabbed her arm gently, his eyes scanning the ridgeline.“We can’t stay on this ridge,” he said, his voice returning to its sharp, practical tone. “We’re exposed here. If anyone climbs the eastern pass, we’ll be silhouettes against the snow.”Without another word, he led her off the cliff edge, picking a steep, hidden goat trail that sloped down toward the structure below.As they drew closer, the structure lost its imposing grandeur. It wasn’t a palace or fortress it was an old, abandoned refuge built into the mountain itself. Time and harsh winters had reduced much of it to ruins.The outer perimeter wall was half-collapsed, its stone blocks scattered beneath deep snow drifts. Roofs had caved in under years of heavy ice, leaving open rafters
The burning cabin threw a harsh, flickering orange light across the snow, sending dark shadows dancing against the rock wall.Simon still had Bella’s wrist in his firm grip. He didn't pull her, and he didn't run. His eyes remained fixed on the jagged eastern mountain range rising into the black night sky, his posture dead still.Shouts continued to echo faintly from the western slope behind them.Bella watched him carefully. Simon wasn't panicking; he was listening. He dropped to one knee, pressing two fingers firmly into the frozen earth beneath the ivy overhang. He held his breath, studying the shift of the freezing wind, evaluating the muffled echoes bouncing off the gorge walls.Quietly, almost under his breath, he said, “Good they’re searching the wrong side.”The shouts grew distant, moving further west down the mountain. Bella realized then that Simon hadn't just escaped the cabin he had used the terrain and the smoke to draw their eyes away, erasing their tracks into the mount
The third impact finally gave way not with a cinematic explosion, but with the brutal, screeching crunch of failing timber. The heavy door buckled inward, splintering down the center as a log ram smashed through the iron latch.Simon didn’t wait for the hinges to burst.The instant a crack opened in the frame, his bowstring snapped forward. The black-fletched arrow streaked through the narrow gap, striking the lead attacker squarely in the shoulder. A harsh cry echoed from the porch as the man stumbled back, forcing the rest of his group to scatter behind the stone chimney for cover.It was a cold display of lethal skill. These weren't erratic rogues; they were disciplined hunters who had expected an easy breach and were now forced to reassess their target.Bella didn't freeze.Everything Simon had drilled into her over the past chapters locked into place. Moving with silent, instinctive speed, she immediately threw a damp wool wrap over the remaining embers in the hearth, plunging th
CHAPTER 39Bella dropped even lower into the shadowed corner behind the heavy oak table, the cold floorboards biting into her knees. Beside her, Simon’s hand remained clamped on her shoulder, an anchor of immovable weight in the dark.Then, he let go.Outside, the howls stopped.The silence that followed was instant, absolute, and far more terrifying than the echo of wolves. The wind seemed to die down, leaving the mountain glade frozen in a breathless, suffocating quiet.Simon didn't reach for his heavy blade. Instead, moving with invisible, fluid precision, his fingers found the smooth riser of his bow. He slipped a single, black-fletched arrow from his quiver, nocking it against the string without making a sound.Bella watched him through the pitch darkness. He wasn't preparing to rush out into the night or pick a fight out of anger. He didn't know how many were out there, and he wasn't going to waste energy on bravado. He was preparing to survive.Seconds dragged like hours.Then
Bella’s breath caught in her throat, freezing into a faint white mist before vanishing into the icy night air.Beside her, Simon stood entirely motionless. His posture was locked, his weight balanced, his gaze fixed on the doorway of the cabin.The heavy oak door hung wide open, swinging an inch back and forth in the bitter mountain wind with a slow, rhythmic creak. Inside, the hearth was dark, the air cold, and the interior swallowed by shadow.Neither of them spoke.A heavy, suffocating silence settled over the clearing. The stillness itself felt sharp, charged with an unspoken warning that made the skin on the back of Bella’s neck prickle.Something is very wrong.Her hand instinctively hovered near the small hunting knife at her belt. She waited for Simon to draw his blade, to move forward, to surge into the cabin and clear the structure.Instead, he stayed completely still.Bella glanced at him sideways. He wasn't staring into the dark cabin at all. His dark, sharp eyes were glue
Bella woke before the grey light of morning even reached the window, her pulse still slightly quick from the memory of the night before.She kept her eyes half-closed, listening carefully. Across the room, Simon was already at the hearth, strapping his gear together with the same quiet, methodical efficiency he showed every morning. He hadn't brought up her midnight excursion. He hadn't accused her of slipping out into the freezing darkness to spy on his meeting, nor had he demanded to know how much she had heard.His silence unsettled her far more than an accusation would have. A direct confrontation meant he was reacting; this level of cold, unchanged routine meant he was calculating.When she finally pulled back her wool blanket and sat up, Simon tossed a small leather pouch onto her cot.'Pack it,' he said, his voice level and dry. Today you stop watching. Today you start deciding.Bella paused, her fingers wrapping around the weathered leather. Every day prior, he had issued clea







