The ground beneath their feet didn’t just shake—it groaned.
It was a deep, terrible sound that started deep inside the throat of the mountain, echoing off the icy walls of Frost-Pike Pass.
High above the narrow ledge where Soren and Kaelen stood, a rough crack split through the hanging ice shelf.
“Kaelen…” Soren gasped, his voice instantly swallowed by a sudden, deafening roar.
“Run!” Kaelen shouted.
He didn’t waste a single second trying to argue and then reached out, his gloved hand clamping onto the collar of Soren’s cloak, dragging him forward in a powerful sprint.
Because of the three-foot chain binding their wrists, they couldn’t scatter or run at different speeds so they had to move as a single body and every long, massive stride Kaelen took threatened to yank Soren off his feet, forcing Soren to run faster than his tired legs wanted to carry him.
His boots skidded across the ice, his lungs burning with freezing mountain air.
Above them, the sky turned dark as thousands of tons of snow, ice, and shattered heavy snow boulders detached from the peak, pouring down the mountain face like a wall of white death.
“It’s coming too fast!” Soren yelled over the thunderous noise, looking back over his shoulder sighting as the wave of snow was rolling down the slope like a wave, crushing trees and stone shelves in its path.
“We won’t clear the turn!”
Kaelen skidded to a halt on the edge of a rocky ice, his golden wolf eyes scanning the narrow path ahead and saw the trail was completely blocked.
A massive block of ice slammed down thirty feet in front of them, smashing the ledge to pieces and leaving nothing but a sheer drop into the foggy canyon below.
They were trapped.
Behind them was an unstoppable avalanche; ahead of them was empty air of the cliff valley
“Soren, look at me!” Kaelen barked, turning around and grabbing Soren by both shoulders.
His broad body blocked the spray of ice already beginning to rain down on them.
“Can you blast a hole in the cliff face?
We need a shelter, right now!”
“My magic is almost drained!” Soren shouted back, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
“If I over-exert my core, the backfire could shatter my veins!”
“Do it, or we die here!” Kaelen growled, his golden eyes glowing with a fierce, absolute trust that cut straight through Soren’s panic.
“I’ll hold the weight!”
Soren bit his lower lip so hard he tasted blood.
He didn’t have time to doubt himself.
Reaching into his leather belt pouch with trembling fingers, Soren pulled out his last remaining glass flask of concentrated spell-dust.
He didn’t bother using a mixing bowl or measuring the powder.
He crushed the glass bottle directly in his bare palm, letting the sharp shards cut his skin so his own blood would feed the spell.
Immediately after the mix a blinding, violet light erupted from Soren’s hand.
“Fracta Mura!” Soren screamed, slamming his bleeding palm directly into the solid rock wall to their left.
The magic hit the stone with the force of a thunderbolt.
The rock cracked open with a violent, deafening screech, carving a shallow, cave-like pocket into the mountain wall that is just deep enough for two men to press inside.
“In!” Kaelen roared.
He shoved Soren into the dark recess first.
But because of the three-foot chain, Kaelen couldn’t stay outside to watch.
Kaelen spun around instantly, planting his broad boots into the stone floor, unstrapping his heavy iron shield from his back, and slamming it over the narrow entrance of the cave.
He braced his wide shoulders against the cold iron, using his massive Alpha strength to hold the barrier in place.
An instant later, the avalanche hit them.
The world went pitch black.
The impact was terrifying.
Thousands of pounds of snow and crushing ice slammed into the outer side of Kaelen’s shield with the force of a battering ram.
The rock walls around them groaned under the pressure, dust and fine ice particles blowing through the tiny gaps into their tiny hiding spot.
Kaelen let out a raw, guttural roar of pure physical agony as the weight of the mountain pressed down on his broad back.
The muscles in his legs trembled violently, his iron boots sliding backward an inch on the stone floor.
“Kaelen!” Soren cried out.
Inside the tight space, they were pressed flushed together from chest to knees.
Soren could feel every single muscle in Kaelen’s body straining to the absolute limit.
The heat radiating off the Alpha’s skin was scorching, fighting off the icy air inside the hole.
Instinctively, Soren reached up.
He didn’t hold Kaelen’s hands—he knew better than to interfere with Kaelen’s grip on the shield—but he pressed his palms flat against Kaelen’s back, pushing with all his might to help support the massive warrior against the wall of snow.
Through the rose-colored chain on their wrists, a strange, electric current began to flow.
Soren’s magic, though weak and volatile, responded to Kaelen’s physical distress.
A faint, golden-violet light wrapped around the chain, transferring a surge of steady energy straight from Soren’s soul into Kaelen’s aching body.
Kaelen’s breath hitched in his throat.
He felt the sudden wave of strength rushing through his limbs, fueled directly by the spell-cutter pressed tightly against his chest.
With a fierce growl, Kaelen locked his knees, driving his boots back into the stone, holding the shield steady as the worst of the avalanche roared past the mountain ledge outside.
For two agonizing minutes, neither of them moved or spoke.
The only sound inside the pitch-black pocket was the sound of their heavy, ragged breathing, their white hot clouds of breath mingling together in the tiny space.
Then, slowly, the deafening roar of the falling snow began to fade, replaced by the howling wind once again.
The pressure on the outside of the shield eased.
Kaelen groaned, slowly relaxing his strained muscles.
He pushed the shield forward, shoving aside the heavy layer of loose snow that had buried the entrance.
Bright, blinding sunlight spilled into the small cave, reflecting off the fresh white snow.
Kaelen collapsed forward onto his knees, letting his shield drop to the ground with a heavy metallic clatter.
He rested his forehead against the cold stone floor, his chest heaving as he gasped for air.
Soren stumbled out of the small alcove right behind him, brought down by the three-foot chain.
His right palm was still bleeding from the crushed glass, the dark red blood dripping onto the pure white snow beneath them.
“Are you…
alright?” Soren asked, his voice weak and raspy, his throat burning from the magical strain.
Kaelen slowly raised his head.
His face was pale, sweat dripping down his sharp jawline despite the freezing air, but his golden eyes immediately swept over Soren’s face and body, searching for injuries.
“I’m fine,” Kaelen rasped out, his voice rough.
His eyes dropped down to Soren’s bleeding hand, and his brows furrowed in immediate concern.
“Your hand—”
“It’s just a scratch,” Soren interrupted quickly, pulling his hand back and wrapping his sleeve tightly around the wound to hide it.
He forced his voice to sound cold and distant, re-erecting the emotional wall he had almost lost in the heat of the fight.
“We need to see where we are.”
Kaelen stared at him for a long, quiet second, a look of quiet pain flickering in his eyes at Soren’s sudden distance.
But he didn’t press the issue and he just simply nodded, stood up, and offered his gloved hand to help Soren up.
Soren ignored the hand, pushing himself up on his own shaky legs.
They turned to look around them, and both of them froze.
The narrow path of Frost-Pike Pass was completely gone, buried under thirty feet of ice and rubble.
But the avalanche hadn’t just blocked their way backward—it had swept away the side of the cliff, opening up a wide, slope of loose snow that led straight down the mountain.
Below them lay a vast, unfamiliar landscape.
They were no longer on the barren cliffs of the High Citadel’s territory.
Beyond the foot of the mountain stretched a massive, shadowy region covered in dark, twisted pine forests and rough stone ruins.
A thick, eerie purple mist hung low over the treetops, blocking out the sky.
The air felt different here.
It wasn’t just cold—it was heavy with an ancient, unpredictable wild magic that made the hairs on the back of Soren’s neck stand up.
“Where…
where are we?” Soren whispered, his blue eyes widening as he stared down at the dark forest.
“We crossed the border,” Kaelen said softly, his voice dropping into a serious, guarded tone.
He stepped up beside Soren, his broad shoulder brushing against Soren’s arm as he looked out over the foggy valley.
“The avalanche dragged us past the High Citadel’s reach.
That down there…
that is the Unclaimed Grey Reaches.”
THE MOUNTAIN COLLAPSED?!(*0*) The avalanche brought down the whole peak, but Kaelen using his own body as a shield to protect Soren?!
The absolute TRUST between these two!
They survived the pass, but now they’re trapped in the lawless Shadow-Ash Territory How are they going to fight their way through this one .
Dropp your thoughts guys also don’t forget to add to library and vote
See you in the next chapter guys !