CHAPTER FOUR
The First Thaw
Days went by, and winter still gripped the valley tight, stubborn as ever. At first, nobody noticed anything different. The inn's windows kept frosting over at night. The wind kept prowling, hissing around the eaves like some restless animal. But then, in the mornings, something new started to happen. When the first pale sunlight crept over the ridge, a thin line of meltwater trickled down the glass. Little droplets clung to the rooftops, trembling, hanging on and then finally let go, vanishing into the snow below.
"Looks like spring's fighting back," Eamon said one morning. He stood in the doorway, rubbing his hands together, breath misting in the cold. Even his breath seemed lighter now, not so heavy.
Kael didn't buy it. He stood a few steps away, glaring at the tree line. "No," he muttered. "This isn't spring breaking through. The frost is just shifting, getting ready to take back what it lost".
Eamon rolled his eyes. "You're always so dramatic. Maybe the frost just needs a nap".
Kael didn't answer. He just kept staring at the woods, like he was listening for something nobody else could hear.
Around noon, while the others were busy with lunch, Aria slipped outside. The sky had gone a pale, washed-out blue, clouds drifting by like scraps of silk. She walked past the inn and crouched by a tiny patch of earth peeking out from under the snow. It was nothing much, just a damp, dark oval, but after weeks of nothing but white, it felt like stumbling onto a secret.
She lifted her camera and took a picture. The shutter clicked, sharp and clear in the hush.
"You make the world look alive again," Kael said behind her.
She jumped. She hadn't even heard him come up, he always moved quietly, like he'd lived too long in places where silence could save you. When she turned, he stood a few feet away, shoulders relaxed, but his eyes alert. There was something softer in his face than usual, a bit of the mask dropped.
"It never stopped being alive," she told him, brushing her thumb over the camera. "You just forgot how to see it."
He looked at her for a long moment, like her words tugged on something inside him. Then he smiled, a small, almost invisible smile, but it was real. "Maybe you're right".
Aria didn't know what unsettled her more that he smiled at all, or that a little warmth flickered inside her in response. Warmth had been scarce lately. It always felt just out of reach, like a wild thing that didn't trust her. But now, standing here in the cold with a man who seemed carved out of winter, she felt it again. It scared her a bit. Still, she didn't step away.
The day drifted on, quiet and bright. Eamon patched up a window frame. Mara, the innkeeper, hummed as she sorted herbs by the stove. Kael moved in and out, checking the sky, the woods, the frost, like a tracker reading signs only he understood.
Aria caught herself thinking about him at odd moments. The way he seemed to talk to the trees. The music he played, soft, haunting, heartbreakingly beautiful, like it just spilled out of him without effort. She'd known a lot of people in her life, but Kael was different. Not less human, more, somehow. All that silence and sorrow had shaped him into something rare.
That night, the sky opened up.
The aurora spilled green and violet across the darkness, flickering like live fire above the inn. It lit the snow in strange colors, made even the shadows glow. Aria wrapped herself in a coat and stepped outside, camera slung around her neck. She wasn't alone. Kael stood at the edge of the clearing, staring up like the lights were speaking just to him.
He raised his wooden flute and began to play.
The first notes floated through the air, slow and gentle. This wasn't like his usual, mournful songs. There was hope in this one, thin, a little fragile, but there. The melody wound through the trees, spreading a quiet warmth that seemed to melt something invisible all around them.
Aria barely breathed. For the first time, she realized Kael wasn't playing for the frost, or for whatever held him to this endless winter. He was playing for her.
The music grew, then softened again, like a heartbeat calming after a scare. The aurora brightened, she could swear it did, dancing with his tune. Snowflakes drifted down, slow and gentle, like tiny falling stars.
She took a picture: Kael outlined by the shimmering sky, flute at his lips, coat stirring in the breeze. When he opened his eyes, he looked straight at her.
Something passed between them right then, something warm, steady, real. They didn't say anything about it, but they both felt it. No need to put it into words.
When the last note faded out, the night settled back in. The quiet wasn't empty now. It sat there, full of something, almost like it was waiting to see what they'd do next.
Kael lowered his flute. "Something's moving tonight," he said. He sounded sure, not scared.
Aria swallowed. "Is that good or bad?"
He shrugged. "Both. The frost knows things are shifting. It won't stay quiet much longer".
Right then, a faint shiver ran through the earth, so gentle Aria almost thought she imagined it. But Kael noticed. She could see it in the way he stiffened. Somewhere out in the woods, hidden as anything, something woke up. Maybe it was watching. Maybe it was answering. Maybe it wanted to stop whatever had started here.
Aria stepped closer without thinking. The night felt bigger, like someone had pulled back a curtain and let in more of the world. The air buzzed, ready for the next part of the story.
Kael stayed where he was.
And under the pale colors of the aurora, with the frost shifting and something ancient turning in the dark, Aria felt sure of something for the first time in a long while.
Happy reading.
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