Chapter 69: The Thaw
Time, which had been suspended, snapped back into motion with a sound like a thousand sheets of ice shattering at once.
One moment, Kael was frozen mid-stride, his face a mask of feral rage, his boot planted firmly on the icy floor of the geothermal chamber as he led the charge towards the strange, sealed door. The next, he was lurching forward, the momentum of his interrupted step carrying him awkwardly. All around him, his elite warriors—a dozen of Silverfang's best, handpicked by Valen—stumbled and grunted in confusion.
Across the chamber, the Northern hunters experienced the same disorienting thaw. Their weapons, which had been aimed at the now-vanished door, were still raised. Their mechanical hound, frozen in a snarl, now completed its lunge towards empty air, its metal claws scraping against the stone.
