They left Valecar behind as dawn broke, the cold already reaching them long before the mountains came into view. The Frostmar Wastes—unmapped, untamed, and unforgiving—rose on the horizon like a wall of white fire. Winds howled through glacial peaks, and snow stung like knives.
Sophia tightened her cloak around her, the warmth of her inner flame barely keeping the chill at bay. The boy—Kaelen, as they'd learned—remained unconscious but stable, carried gently by a floating cradle of light conjured by Lirael. His magic still pulsed with volatile energy, as though it didn't yet recognize peace.
"How much further?" Sophia asked, her voice muffled by frost.
Maeron examined the map, now glowing faintly with the second glyph. "If this is accurate, we're a day's travel from the ruins of Virewyn. That's where the next bearer might be."
"Or what's left of them," Kael muttered. He rode at the back of the group, gaze always sweeping the skies. "We still don't know who that shadow-witch was. She could've reached Virewyn first."
"She didn't," Noah said with quiet certainty. "I would've felt it. The cold is undisturbed. Whatever's ahead... it's been waiting."
⸻
The path narrowed through towering glaciers. Strange echoes haunted the canyons—soft cries, fleeting laughter, names whispered on the wind. They passed frozen statues of long-dead guardians, their armor cracked, swords still half-drawn.
"This place remembers everything," Lirael whispered. "The Wastes never forget."
As they approached the remains of Virewyn—a once-proud citadel now entombed in ice—they found the walls covered in sigils of warding. Not Elarion's, but something older. Ancient.
Sophia pressed her hand to the gate, and the ice melted beneath her palm. It creaked open.
Inside, the citadel was silent.
Too silent.
Then Kaelen stirred.
He gasped and jolted upright in the cradle, eyes glowing white for a moment before focusing. "She's here," he rasped. "The girl of ice and grief. She's calling."
Sophia knelt beside him. "Where is she?"
Kaelen pointed toward the tower in the center of the city. "Below. Buried. But not dead. She... sings."
They moved quickly through the citadel, descending into its frozen depths. With each level, the temperature dropped. Even Noah, fire-born and fury-trained, clenched his fists tighter against the cold.
Sophia felt it too—not just in her bones, but in her heart.
The chill wasn't natural.
It was memory.
⸻
At the bottom of the citadel was a chamber encased in blue crystal. In its center lay a girl in white, her hair spread like frost across the floor, her skin translucent. A circle of sigils spun around her body—some protective, others binding.
"Another bearer," Maeron murmured.
Sophia stepped forward. "No. The Ice Bearer."
As she drew near, the girl's eyes snapped open—bright blue and filled with sorrow.
"I've waited," she whispered. "But it wasn't you I wanted."
The chamber trembled.
Sophia barely had time to raise a shield before shards of ice erupted from the floor. The girl rose to her feet, glowing with power.
YOU ARE READING
The Last Guardian
خيالSome destinies are written in the stars. Hers was carved into the elements. Sophia Lancaster thought her life ended the night her parents died. Grief-stricken and alone, she stood at the edge of a cliff, ready to fall-until the sky shattered, and a...
