The mountain still trembled from the direwolf's supernatural howl, aftershocks running through ice and stone like the heartbeat of some slumbering titan. The chasm where Commander Thane and his elite hunters had vanished yawned before her, its depths lost in absolute darkness.
Reign knelt at the edge of the abyss, her body shaking with more than exhaustion. Silver burns traced painful lines across her arms where blessed weapons had found their mark, each wound a reminder of how close she had come to joining the mercenaries in their frozen grave.
Her claws still dripped with crystallized frost that refused to melt, even in the warmth of her own blood. The power coursing through her veins felt alien and intoxicating, growing stronger with each battle she survived. But strength without purp
