Many voices were echoing throughout the depths of Alex’s mind. They were uttering the same thing over and over; a name. They were speaking a name, and Alex could feel himself shuddering as he recognized it very distinctly.“Winter’s Bane.”Alex did not know the meaning of these mysterious visions, and why they continued to haunt his subconscious. He lied still in his current, dream-like state as the voices around him began to fade away until only one was left; a young woman’s voice he had heard before. He remembered it from his last unnerving vision when he saw the woman in the shattered remains of the Citadel, standing before what appeared to be a strange, white tomb.“Winter’s Bane,” he he

Rowan knew the clay mines were always prepared for situations such as this. She and her Domineer prisoner walked through the mine for almost an hour. The darkness of the tunnels did not bother Rowan in the least, but with her captive’s arm around her shoulders again, she could feel him breathing and trembling in fear, and frankly, it did nothing but annoy her.Eventually, Rowan stopped and set the Domineer down onto the cold floor of the mine. Listening intently, she could hear that the winds of the terrible storm had already begun engulfing the mountains once more. In no time at all these mines could become nothing short of a frozen tomb. Rowan felt around the walls until her hand came across an object suspended there. At this point, she finally felt relieved as she stripped herself of the Outsider’s filthy clothes she had thrown over her own

Rowan’s eyes were glazing over as she struggled to remain awake by the fireside. Her Domineer captive had been unconscious for hours. In a way, she almost regretted having knocked him out earlier; not because it made her feel guilty, but rather she felt as though she needed the closure of finishing what her best friend had begun, and that meant finding out what the Outsider knew. The mines were quiet, and it certainly helped to soothe Rowan’s dismal spirit. The storm winds had been dying down until they sounded like hardly more than soft gusts whipping through the trees. This told Rowan that the storm was almost over and it must have been nearing dawn. She felt her consciousness daze once more with exhaustion, but she suddenly jolted awake. Whether or not it was merely her disoriented vigilance playing tricks on her, she was not sure, but she could have sworn she heard something coming fr

Back at Rowan’s fire, Ian had finally regained consciousness. The first thing he had noticed was that his captor was gone, and no doubt it had crossed his mind that it may have been his only opportunity to escape while he could, but something told him it was against his better judgment. The Ravennite girl who captured him may have been young, but she had proven to him a force to be reckoned with. After she knocked him out, making her angry further was the last thing he wanted to do, so he simply stayed where he was; lying by the weakening fireside in the same position as when he had awoken.Only moments later, he could see his captor returning from out of the darkness of the tunnels. Rowan did not seem to take notice of her Domineer prisoner lying right where she had left him. Her eyes were drowning in raw anger. She suddenly stopped and threw her fists against the dirt surface of the mine wall, lett

The very first step he took into the valley felt strange enough. Alex did not know how deep the snow would be, but he was somewhat shocked when his foot barely pressed down into it, almost as if the snow was solid. That, however, was not the only peculiar thing that dug its way into his mind. He thought the air felt still and empty before, but it was different now. Alex knew he simply had to be losing his mind; the atmosphere had never felt so strange to him before. He waved his arm through the air, but he felt little to no resistance. It was almost as though the air was not even there.Alex could not tell how long they had been walking. His natural sense of time had all but diminished. He was becoming increasingly light headed the longer he was exposed to these low temperatures, so much so that he could hardly feel the pain of the cold anymore. All he could feel was the overbearing sense of emptiness surr