lyn
the Winter Solstice broke under a low, lead-gray sky, howlin
old-coin feast, Camila had wept and offered to pay out of her own dowry, only for the furious Dowager to slap her across the face and force her to
ed quietly into the dressing room holding a
s of the High Temple will be icy and steep in this cold wave, so
two over in the Rosewood Wing have been wailing since
year-old Moonstone Rosary burst into a warm, radiant blue glow, filling the dim ro
er breath catching in her throat. "J
osary with both hands in a gesture of utmost respect. "My lungs are still weak from my old injuries, so I cannot brave the snowstorm. I wish to lend the Queen
and took the royal artifact. Tears of sheer excitement w
nity satisfied beyond her wildest dreams. Wearing the Queen Grandmother's personal rosary, she
nd Kalia-whose eyes were swollen red like walnuts-stood shivering in plain cloaks. When the Dowager marche
." Camila stammered, her ey
filial devotion to honor our clan!" the Dowager snapped in di
tears freezing on her cheeks as the
of clouds gathering over the distant mountain peaks. In my past life, a once-in-a-centur
ning roar echoed from the mountain range as an avalanche buried the main highway to the capital. Within an hour,
rom going rabid in the freezing cold. Only the Dowager sat comfortably inside the warm thermal barrier of the Moonstone Rosary, served hot holy water by the High Shaman himse
nto our fortress, my father, Hartwell Burks, dropped his
twell muttered, his forehead drenched in cold sweat. Had we not canceled that five-hundred-coin feast l
down the spiral stone stairs into the hall. "Father, the bliz
ld, ruthless Alpha eyes trembling with a mixture
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